INVADERS #2

"THE TWILIGHT OF THE STAR-GODS!"
Writer/Editor: Roy Thomas | Artist: Frank Robbins | Inker: Vince Colletta
Colorist: Petra Goldberg | Letterer: John Costanza

The Plot: While Namor, the Human Torch, and Toro battle the gods Donar, Loga, and Froh in the sky, Captain America and Hilda seek cover in a cave below. But there they're found by a group of Nazis and escorted to the underground lair of the scientist called Brain Drain. Brain Drain, a brain kept alive in a jar, explains to Cap that the "gods" are actually aliens who crashed on Earth months ago, and were responsible for his transformation. But Brain Drain stole a special ring from the aliens and used it to control them, naming them after Teutonic gods and placing them in service of the Third Reich.

Hilda's memories return and she throws the ring into a pool of chemicals, igniting a chain reaction. With no way to leave Earth, Hilda decides she and her crewmates should perish. Donar, Froh, and Loga abandon their battle and return to Hilda, joining her as she leaps into the exploding chemicals with Brain Drain in tow. Cap escapes the cave and reunites with the others. The Invaders board Namor's flagship and take off for Britain.

Continuity Notes: As mentioned last week, this is actually the second half of the story originally intended for GIANT-SIZE INVADERS #2.

Cap and Hilda nearly share a kiss before being discovered by the Nazis. I'm not sure why I find this notable other than that Captain America has always come across as a relatively chaste hero, aside from the periods where he has a long-term girlfriend (Sharon Carter, Bernie Rosenthal, etc.). To see him about to make out with this month's female guest star, like James Bond or something, feels off somehow.

Brain Drain's real name is Werner Schmidt. As mentioned above, he was grievously injured (essentially killed) when Hilda and her crewmates crashed on Earth -- but, apparently feeling sorry for him, they revived him as a brain in a jar with a robot body. Also, though he used the ring to control the aliens initially, he eventually developed his own willpower to the point that it was no longer needed. Brain Drain also reiterates that he was involved in the creation of Master Man.

Hilda reveals her real name as MCM-XLI, navigator of the nebula-cruiser Tekeli-Li. It's also strongly implied that she and her three male crewmates are physically (if not romantically) involved with one another. She routinely refers to them as her "mates" (not crewmates, as I've been saying), and when Brain Drain explains the presence of a woman on the crew, part of his reasoning is simply that "space voyages are quite long!"

My Thoughts: This series still isn't setting my world on fire (with apologies to the Human Torch and Toro). I mean, I guess any new book is going to take some time to find its legs; rarely does a comic spring, fully-formed, into existence. But aside from the first issue being an origin of sorts for the group, these adventures feel very humdrum. I can't quite put my finger on why, though. I'm not sure if I'm expecting something more momentous or what. The stories aren't bad by any means; they just read as sort of "standard-issue Bronze Age" adventures.

Part of this may be that I've built up the legend of the Invaders in my head for so long, after reading various reunions and flashbacks. Things like the Baron Blood story in CAPTAIN AMERICA 253 and 254, the reunion of the Invaders in John Byrne's NAMOR series, references to their exploits in things like the 1998 UNION JACK mini-series or the inaugural story arc of the short-lived MARVEL UNIVERSE series from a year or two earlier -- these have all given me this grand idea of the saga of the Invaders. But there is no saga yet, and perhaps there never will be! It's entirely possible that any grandiouse storyline I've conjured in my imagination was entirely ret-conned in the years after this series ended.

But we're still very early in the running here, so I won't write off the Invaders just yet. If nothing else, it occurs to me that everything I described above gives major spotlights to two characters who won't appear for a little while yet: Union Jack and Spitfire (not to mention Baron Blood). Perhaps my disappoint lies simply in the fact that the Invaders as I know them from flashbacks and sequels don't exist yet. Their roster has yet to be rounded out with two of my favorite characters from those various later re-visitations.

I guess we'll find out eventually if that's the missing ingredient here. But for now, the Invaders remain a decent, if unspectacular, read.