"AN INVADER NO MORE!"
Writer/Editor: Roy Thomas | Illustrators: Frank Robbins & Frank Springer
Colorist: George Roussos | Letterer: John Costanza | Heroes All!
The Plot: The Invaders return to Falsworth Manor with their newest member, Union Jack, following a night of searching fruitlessly for Baron Blood. But upon entering the house, the heroes discover that Jacqueline Falsworth has been bitten by Blood, who had appaerntly visited the manor while the Invaders patrolled for him.
The next night, the Invaders head out to search London once more for their quarry, but Union Jack remains behind to guard Jacqueline. Blood attacks, however, gaining the upper hand on Jack via hypnosis. But the Human Torch, who had secretly remained behind as well, springs forth to attack Blood. The baron lures the Torch outside into the rain, where his flame is snuffed, and then escapes with a captive Jacqueline to a cavern near the manor house. Union Jack follows and confronts Blood, who cripples him with a boulder dropped on his legs.
The Torch summons the remaining Invaders, who join him in a renewed attack on Baron Blood. During the skirmish, Union Jack levers the boulder off his legs, sending it plummeting into the battlefield -- where it knocks Baron Blood onto a stalagmite, impaling him. In the battle's aftermath, Captain America reveals that Jacqueline has lost a great deal of blood.
Continuity Notes: Jacqueline is none too pleased with her father's resumption of the Union Jack identity, physically assaulting Captain America over it when the Invaders return to Falsworth Manor at the issue's start.
Baron Blood reveals his origin to Jacqueline: he is not her cousin John but actually her
uncle John, who left England years ago when the Falsworth patriarch passed away and Jacqueline's father inherited the estate. John traveled Europe and made his way to Transylvania, and -- well, I'll let him take it from there (and note that, in a nice touch by Frank Robbins, Dracula is drawn in his TOMB OF DRACULA character design with that big cool collar):
After allying with the Nazis, Blood underwent a treatment which allowed him to survive for limited periods in daylight, to assist with his cover identity as the son of John Falsworth, who had been "killed" in the Far East.
My Thoughts: The previous installment's "next issue" blurb stated that this chapter would feature "the end of an Invader! But don't be too sure
which one!" With all due respect to Roy Thomas, it was exactly the one I anticipated. When an adventure story brings an old guy out of retirement and back into action, chances are something terrible will happen to him, ending his renewed career before it can begin. That's just how these things work.
So, when Lord Falsworth triumphantly took up the mantle of Union Jack once more, saving the Invaders from Baron Blood -- and when the Invaders subsequently spent the final page of the previous issue and the first page of this one unabashedly and enthusiasticall fawning over Union Jack -- well, it was a pretty safe bet, even a sure one, that Union Jack would be the team member to go down.
But he gets a moment to shine, defeating his undead brother (at least for now) to end the battle, and Lord Falsworth will remain as a supporting character in INVADERS as the series goes along. Plus, this isn't the end of Union Jack, either! Another Falsworth will take up the mantle before long. That's in the future, however. For now, this Baron Blood trilogy proves a fantastic effort from the Thomas/Robbins team -- easily the apex of the series so far -- and in my eyes, at least, the Invaders are finally living up to what I had always expected them to be.
Gotta say, even as a kid, I knew precisely which Invader the title was referring to, but the story was still so well delivered that I didn't mind then, and I still don't now. I am now amused, looking at the art you chose to illustrate the review, that it had a case of Chekov's Stalagmites in the panel where Blood explains what the Nazis did to him. "If a vampire mentions sharp, pointy things in the first act, they had best impale him in act three."
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, while I imagine I encountered it before the next issue, this is the first time I can recall a comic I liked being hit with a fill in reprint, though this one, at least, had a fair reason for why. As opposed to the usual "Uhm. It's not done" that Marvel's books faced.