INVADERS #19

"WAR COMES TO THE WILHELMSTRASSE"
Author/Editor: Roy Thomas | Illustrators/Innovators: Frank Robbins & Frank Springer
Letterer: John Costanza | Colorist: Goerge Roussos | Consulting Editor: Archie Goodwin

The Plot: Namor, the Human Torch, Toro, and Bucky, all captives of the Third Reich, are paraded through Berlin. Captain America and the Destroyer observe from hiding, until Bucky angers a Nazi guard. When the guard prepares to shoot Bucky, Cap leaps into action, and the Destroyer follows. But in the ensuing skirmish, the Destroyer is killed by a grenade blast, and Cap is captured.

The entire incident is observed from hiding by Lord Falsworth, Spitfire, Dyna-Mite, and their aide, Oskar. The quartet has come to Berlin seeking a way to restore Dyna-Mite to his normal size, and looking for Falsworth's son, Brian. When the group heads to the Nazi Institute of Science, they run across the scientist who altered Dyna-Mite and the other Crusaders, but he captures them with a trap door and some knockout gas.

The next morning, Spitfire stands alongside the other Invaders, all drugged to prevent escape, for execution. As Master Man and Warrior Woman stand before a minister to be publicly wed, Hitler orders a firing squad to finish the Invaders. But before the squad can carry out this command, Union Jack leaps into the scene.

Continuity Notes: On the first page, narration states that the first World War took place in "Earth's second decade". I, uhh... think that's a "typo". Obviously Thomas meant to say the second decade of the twentieth century, or something similar.

The secret of Dyna-Mite (and of the Destroyer) is revealed to readers at last: Lord Falsworth and Spitfire recognized Dyna-Mite as Roger Aubrey, the best friend of Brian Falsworth. Though Dyna-Mite has no memory of his life prior to the Crusaders, Falsworth explains that he and Brian went to Berlin to break bread with Hitler following British Prime Minister's historic meeting with the German Chancellor.

The Nazi scientist explains that Brian and Roger were not allowed to leave Germany, for fear they might go back on their endorsement of Chamberlain's appeasement policy. When they fought back, Brian was arrested due to his status as a nobleman, while Roger was set to be executed. But instead, he was recruited for the Crusaders, while Brian escaped his cell and became -- the Destroyer.

My Thoughts: I'm not sure what to make of the issue's credits listing the Franks, Robbins and Springer, as "Illustrators/Innovators"... Stan Lee used to use the "Innovator" credit sometimes in the sixties, and I was never quire certain what it meant. It pops up a lot in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN circa the #60s and #70s. Sometimes it went to John Romita, which I took as a way to acknowledge that he did a ton of uncredited plotting on the series, but other times you would see it for John Buscema, who occasionally did breakdowns on the series. I suppose it may simply be a precursor to when you would occasionally see the penciler credited as "storyteller" -- a way to note that the artist on a book done "Marvel-style" contributes a lot more to the story than one working from a fully-written script.

Anyway! This is a good one. An exciting action scene to open things up, the resolution (more-or-less) of a pair of mysteries -- who are Dyna-Mite and the Destroyer, and what is their reltionship to the Falsworths? -- and a fantastic cliffhanger to close things out! I mean, I'm not kidding: the final scene of this issue is easily one of the most dramatic and exciting moments we've seen from Thomas and Robbins since things began, easily trumping pretty much everything else up to this point.

In part, that may simply be because this is sort of a "positive" cliffhanger. By definition, a cliffhanger is a moment to close out a chapter in a serial with the heroes in danger, so as to bring the audience back to find out how they get out of it. And while we do have that here, with the Invaders about to be executed, the story actually ends on a dynamic shot of Union Jack dropping in on the Nazis. It's the sort of cliffhanger that's less about worrying over the fates of your heroes, and more about getting pumped up by a big reveal. It's not something you see all that often, and I love it because of that.