INVADERS #13

"THE GOLEM WALKS AGAIN!"
Writer/Editor: Roy Thomas | Artist: Frank Robbins & Frank Springer
Colorist: George Roussos | Letterer: John Costanza

The Plot: The Invaders, awaken, prisoners of Colonel Eisen, a.k.a. "The Face" -- the commander of the Nazi forces in Warsaw. Eisen taunts the Invaders and then takes Captain America's shield to study it as a way to get back into Hitler's graces, following the recent theft of some heavy water under his care.

Elswhere, Jacob Goldstein, who has come into possession of the heavy water, performs a ceremony with the water to create a Golem. Goldstein is merged with the earthen creature and storms through the Nazis in Warsaw, headed for Eisen's castle. There, the mindless Golem frees the Invaders and goes in search of Eisen. Captain America follows, recovers his shield, and watches helplessly as the Golem pursues Eisen to a tall tower and throws him off, killing him.

In the aftermath, the Golem changes back into Jacob. He insists on remaining in Poland to aid his people in someday revolting against their Nazi overlords The Invaders honor his wishes and depart.

Continuity Notes: This issue, it's Spitfire's turn to recap previous events for the readers, albeit without any footnotes.

The story's final panel mentions that the Invaders leave, with no way to know that eventually the Jews of Warsaw will attempt an uprising, and that thousands will die in the process.

And that's it! A surprisingly continuity-light issue from Roy Thomas. I gotta be honest; I didn't know he could do it!

My Thoughts: First, let me note that this is a great issue. Lots of fun. Colonel Eisen devises some fun traps to keep the Invaders prisoner (trapping the Torches in a tank of water with breathing apparati on their faces, and shining infrared light on Namor to dehydrate him while encasing him in a concrete block). Captain America is sort of the "main" Invader in this one, getting a moment to shine as he attempts to escape captivity, deducing that the Golem is actually Jacob, and providing a POV for readers as the Golem takes out Eisen. It's a very fast-paced, exciting story; probably my favorite straight action issue thus far.

But, all that said, the issue also unfortunately shines a light on how the Invaders inherently don't really work as a concept. I mean, think about it: this is a group of the most powerful super heroes of the Golden Age, retroactively banded together to fight the Axis. And they've shown time and again that the Nazi war machine poses little challenge to them. They can demolish planes, warships, and tanks with minimal effort. In reality, they should be leading a charge through occupied Europe, liberating nations as they go, sending the Nazis into a panicked retreat. But they aren't. Here, they come to Warsaw, spend some time in the Jewish ghetto, and, aside from witnessing the death of the city's German commander, do nothing to make things better. They just beat up some Nazis and then leave, rather than liberate the city to make way for an Allied advance.

You can argue that the Allies aren't ready yet to station troops across Europe behind an Invader-led column, but that feels weak to me. The Invaders, as they exist here, are revisionist history on Thomas's part. There was no Golden Age super-team originally; it was just a bunch of separate heroes doing their own thing, and that can be used as a very simple explanation as to why they didn't liberate Europe early and often: they weren't organized. But when you turn them into a team, there's no more excuse. Thomas wants to retain the real-world history of World War II, because that's how the Marvel Universe rolls, but it really just doesn't work with this premise he's created.

So we readers must enjoy INVADERS with a very large suspension of disbelief. But the flip side of that, in my opinion, is a responsibility from Thomas to help guide that suspension by not sticking the Invaders into situations where they could absolutely make a massive difference and choose not to. Can anyone really imagine Captain America wandering into a place where people are being oppressed and killed, and then just leaving without so much as trying to liberate them? I sure can't. And the fact that Thomas puts Cap and the rest of the team into a situation where they do exactly that is a huge failure on his part.

I can suspend disbelief with the best of them, but when we get to the extent where a writer is practically dangling that disbelief in front of me, daring me to really and truly overcome it -- which is exactly what Thomas does here -- then I can't help but see the cracks in the premise, amplified to the Nth degree. Hopefully this won't become a recurring thing as the series moves along!