INVADERS #1

"THE RING OF THE NEBULAS!"
A weltanschauung of Wagnerian wonderment by:
Writer/Editor: Roy Thomas | Artist: Frank Robbins | Inker: Vince Colletta
Colorist: Petra Goldberg | Letterer: John Costanza

The Plot: Aboared an Atlantean aircraft, the Invaders arrive in London to find the city under assault by Nazi bombers. While Namor, the Human Torch, and Toro join the Royal Air Force to repel the attack, Captain America and Bucky land. Bucky spots a beautiful blonde girl wandering through a nearby fire, and Cap races out to rescue her.

Namor and the Torches return to the ground to meet the amnesiac girl, Hilda. When the Invaders take her along with their local British liaison, she tells them that she remembers coming from somewhere deep inside Nazi territory. Leaving Bucky behind to represent them in Britain, the Invaders board Namor's flagship and follow Hilda's directions, but come under attack after crossing the Siegfried Line -- the border between Germany and occupied Europe. The group abandons the flagship to find their attackers are a trio of gods identifying themselves as Froh, Donar, and Loga.

Continuity Notes: Roy Thomas seems to have moved the Battle of Britain here. We're explicitly told in narration that the Invaders have stumbled into its closing act, but in real life the entire thing happened in the summer/fall of 1940 -- while this issue's opening narration states that it's currently December of 1941!

The Invaders are in England in search of a Nazi agent named "Brain Drain", who Master Man mentioned in GIANT-SIZE #1 as being partially responsible for his creation.

Captain America observes that Hilda has a vaguely Germanic accent, but that it seems to be "layered" on top of another accent.

This issue and the next were originally intended to run as a single story in GIANT-SIZE INVADERS #2, but in 1975, Marvel canceled their line of quartely Giant-Size books, turning them into monthly or bi-monthly series instead. (This is what happened to GIANT-SIZE X-MEN #2 as well, which was split in half to become X-MEN issues 94 and 95).

My Thoughts: I mean... I dunno. It's the first half of a story that was intended to run in a single issue, so the pacing feels a little weird, but it's not too bad. You have an aerial battle at the start, followed by learning a bit about Hilda, and then a sequence at the end where the Invaders are shot down. (Weirdly, X-MEN #94 also featured the heroes being shot down and bailing out of their airplane.)

While Namor and the Torches are able to fly to safety, Cap and Hilda jump with parachutes -- and Hilda's malfunctions, leading to a pretty nifty Cap Moment, as he must accelerate his fall to catch and grab her, then deploy his own chute. But by that point they're very close to the ground and while Cap knows he will survive the landing, he's not certain whether Hilda will. (But she does, thanks to a handy updraft created by the Human Torch.)

I bring this all up because I'm trying to figure out who was the first writer to present Captain America using his shield alone when jumping or falling from a tremendous height. I know the first time I remember seeing it was in a Mark Gruenwald issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA circa the late eighties, though that was when he was in his persona as "The Captain", using a pure Vibranium shield supplied by Black Panther, rather than the traditional vibranium/steel alloy shield. (Which brings up another question: is the shield still considered an alloy these days? The Marvel movies -- which borrowed that trick of Cap using it to break a very long fall -- have depicted it as pure vibranium, I believe.)

Anyway, that about covers it for this week!

Huh? I didn't actually talk about the story? Well, let's save that for next week so I can examine it all at once, as it was originally intended to be presented. See you then!