"THE BLACKOUT MURDERS OF BARON BLOOD!"
Writer/Editor: Roy Thomas | Artist: Frank Robbins | Inker: Vince Colletta
Letterer: John Costanza | Colorist: Phil Rachelson
Writer/Editor: Roy Thomas | Artist: Frank Robbins | Inker: Vince Colletta
Letterer: John Costanza | Colorist: Phil Rachelson
There, Jacqueline introduces the Torch to her father, Lord Falsworth. Falsworth confides in the Torch that, during World War I, he was a costumed government operative called Union Jack. When Jacqueline mentions the vampire attack, Falsworth realizes that his old foe, Baron Blood, a super-powered WWI German operative, has returned. The Torch flies out to summon the other Invaders, and Cap, Bucky, and Toro spot his signal. The trio boards Namor's flagship and takes off, but the ship is immediately attacked by Baron Blood. Blood then escapes and changes into a human identity, while the Invaders regroup.
Joined by Namor, the team heads for Falsworth Manor, where Lord Falsworth reveals his secret to them as well. As the group heads to dinner, they are joined by one final guest: Falsworth's nephew, John -- Baron Blood's secret identity.
Continuity Notes: During the opening scene, Toro remarks that battling Nazi fighters over London alongside the Human Torch brings back "old times of a week ago". Not sure if this is meant to suggest that the Invaders participation in the Battle of Britain in issue 1 was just one week previous, or if the team has been in England, fighting Nazis, since then. For the record, the former seems quite unlikely given everything that happened between issues 1 and 7, including the passage of multiple days in the Liberty Legion story.
On the same page, Cap makes reference to the Red Skull's brainwashing of Namor, the Torches, and himself in issues 5 and 6 and in MARVEL PREMIERE 29 and 30. Cap also foreshadows Namor's return to an antagonist of the human race in early FANTASTIC FOUR issues by suggesting that he will revert to type when the war is over.
The Torch introduces himself to Jacqueline as Jim Hammond, suggesting as he does that he hasn't used the name in some time. Cap seems a little confused by his use of the name later in the issue as well.
The Torch seems smitten with Jacquline when they meet, but Jacqueline appears to have eyes for Captain America, glomming onto him immediately when she meets the rest of the Invaders later in the issue.
My Thoughts: Ahh, the good stuff! As I mentioned a couple weeks back, my main exposure to the Invaders over the years has been via flashbacks in various series: the Roger Stern/John Byrne CAPTAIN AMERICA run, Byrne's NAMOR run, and the Ben Raab/John Cassaday UNION JACK mini-series from the late nineties, particularly. And all of those stories focus very specifically on the trappings of the Invaders presented here: Lord Falsworth and the legend of Union Jack; Falsworth Manor, which will become the Invaders' British headquarters; Jacqueline Falsworth, who will eventually become the Invader called Spitfire; and Baron Blood, who will be a semi-recurring nemesis of the team.
I suppose we'll find out soon whether this perceived invigoration will last -- but for now, I'm just happy to see the Invaders I know finally forming up, in a very fun issue.
Ahh yes, the good stuff. While I read the earlier issues of Invaders as a kid, I had to be reminded of them by these posts. "Oh yeah right, the Liberty Legion came in there." But the Baron Blood story? Still right up there in my head. You're not wrong in saying that this story feels like the creators were finally into the book, because there's far more energy in the story than was in the first issues. The Baron Blood issues were a total step up, and given that there's only a handful of Invaders stories I remember after them, that might not be the best news for this series. Hell Ed Brubaker even returned to England and used some of this cast in various ways on his run, that's how good it was.
ReplyDeleteI'm gonna say, though, that despite his disguise, Baron Blood STILL looks like a vampire!
Believe it or not, I have now finished reading INVADERS! This is the furthest ahead I've been on the blog since I read and prepared posts for the entire Frank Miller DAREDEVIL run before the first post even went up.
DeleteAnd unfortunately, I think you're right. There's a lot of stuff ahead that I enjoyed, but aside from maybe one more story arc, the series never again feels quite like it's firing on all cylinders as in this Baron Blood storyline.
On the "clueless about the UK" front I like the panel where the Torch drives past a sign for "Penny Lane". There's no Penny Lane in London and the nearest is a track by the riverside in Shepperton (just outside). The famous Penny Lane is in Liverpool which contrary to what multiple Marvel comics say is not within spitting distance of London. (There's a Millie the Model where the girls visit London and one wants to see both Liverpool and Big Ben in the same afternoon!) And Falsworth Manor seems to be suspciously close to the centre of London plus both Falsworth men have not dressed properly for dinner. John's attire is called "morning dress" for a reason. (Yes there's a war on but what self-respecting country house did not have either tails or dinner jackets from before the war in stock?)
ReplyDeleteAnd isn't it hilarious that the first Union Jack was "a special secret operative" who had his country's flag all over him?! The whole "personification of the British flag and nation" also feels very American - the British historically haven't gone in for flag waving much to the point that excess use of the flag has stoked controversy. Freedom's Five seems an awfully conveniently timed line-up of heroes - there's no hero from Russia or Italy or Japan or from any of the British Dominions (some of which were asserting their own identities by then). I don't know if it was ever done but an obvious story would be for a (renumbered) Freedom's Five to have contained an Italian or Japanese hero but come the Second World War they would now be on the Axis's side setting up a confrontation between once allies.
Thanks, Tim. I've read before that draping oneself in the flag is an America thing that we transplanted onto American-created British characters. Besides Union Jack, there was of course Captain Britain. Though his second costume, also inspired by the Union Jack, was designed by Alan Davis... I wonder if he was under any instructions from Marvel U.S. when he came up with that look?
DeleteI remember reading that in relation to the character of Hauptmann Deutschland as well, created by Mark Gruenwald and... Kieron Dwyer (?) in CAPTAIN AMERICA. He was garbed in the colors of the then-brand new unified German flag, and I believe Gruenwald received mail from some German fans who felt that the look, along with his name, was too obviously American in its genesis. Marvel kept the costume, but, comically, they changed his name to Vormund, which they thought meant "guardian" -- but which it turned out was actually the word for a "legal guardian". I think they gave up at that point and kept him as Vormund even though it was technically incorrect.
I like your idea for a Freedom's Five schism of sorts, if the team had included anyone from countries who wound up on the Axis side during the War! A missed opportunity, unfortunately.
Fabian Nicieza would eventually do almost the reverse of that, though, in THUNDERBOLTS and his CITIZEN V mini-series. There, Brian Falsworth's "close friend" (more on that when they debut in a couple months), Roger Aubrey, ran a postwar outfit called the V-Battallion, which included, among others, an Invaders villain called the Iron Cross in its membership.
I was reading Thunderbolts at the time and can recall buying the limited series but couldn't remember that at all. But that period was probably the second worst period of the original run beaten only by Fightbolts.
DeleteA German hero running around in his country's flag is... a very bold move given the country's history and sensitivities. In the 20th century this was even more the case - it took a long time for even sports fans to use it much. When Germany hosted the 2006 Football World Cup the flag came out en masse for the first time in post war history, in contrast to when they hosted the 1974 World Cup. I wouldn't be surprised if Marvel's German reprinter had words on this. The German for that sort of "guardian" is actually "Wächter" which almost certainly wouldn't have been used as the spelling is so close to an existing character - Gruenwald himself had once had the task of ensuring new character names didn't reuse existing ones to avoid problems like the two different Novas.
(By the way the flag is not a new product of the 1990 reunification though both the design and colours were linked to various pan German groups seeking unification in the 19th century. The current flag design was first adopted as the national flag by the Weimar Republic with the Nazis replacing it. In 1949 both German states readopted it with East Germany modifying the design in 1959 by adding a coat of arms. In 1989-90 removing the coat of arms became the symbol of the reunification movement.)
I liked THUNDERBOLTS quite a bit, both under Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, but I agree that Nicieza's run deteriorated in quality as it went along. The V-Battalion stuff was all post issue 50 if I recall correctly, and that's right around where I tend to believe the series started to decline considerably.
DeleteI like Nicieza a lot of the time, but I find that occasionally he tries to get too clever for his own good, and his stories become impenetrable. That happened to THUNDERBOLTS after issue 50, and it was the case for a lot of his NEW THUNDERBOLTS run, as well.
A large part of the problem for me was that he tried to make Baron Zemo a three-dimensional and somewhat sympathetic anti-hero, but the end result was a character with utterly incomprehensible motivations. I used to think I just wasn't paying close enough attention, but eventually I realized that no, Nicieza had a habit of under-explaining certain labyrinthine plots which I'm sure made complete sense in his head.
Anyway -- thank you for the clarification the German flag! I'm a little embarrassed to say that I never realized it had a historical origin.
ReplyDeleteI got this issue fresh off the spinner rack for sure. And it spurred me to pick up the next couple, which hooked me — although I only ended up with half the run at best, given the logistics of buying comics back then, by the series’ end.
While I’m not sure I knew or cared at the time that the other members of Freedom’s Five were created just for this issue, among my early back issues (acquired right around when Invaders was new) was the issue of Marvel Super-Heroes introducing Phantom Eagle with, fittingly, some Timely reprints of Cap, Namor, and Torch. Also, I can’t help wondering if Roy was at least subconsciously thinking of the Batman of All Nations / International Club of Heroes from the 1950s, which included the Knight and Squire as well as the Musketeer; of course, those are easy cultural tropes to land on, and Roy’s names are less thuddingly generic.
I don’t recall a vampire’s powers including control of the elements other than perhaps creating or becoming some fog or mist, but the depiction of Baron Blood summoning up the wind and how it buffets Torch are so, so very Frank Robbins — he just loved to make things swirl.
All I've ever known about vampiric elemental powers is the ability to turn into mist as well. Perhaps some actual control of the weather itself was one of the Nazi upgrades to Bloods power!
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