INVADERS #34

"HE WHO DESTROYS!"
Concept/Editor: Roy Thomas | Guest Writer: Don Glut
Artists/Illustrators: Alan Kupperberg & Frank Springer
Letters: Joe Rosen | Colors: Nel Yomtov | Consulting Editor: Jim Shooter

The Plot: The Invaders are startled to read in the newspapers that the mighty Destroyer has defected to the Nazis. Then, even as they discuss the situation, a radio news report states that the Destroyer is attacking the London Bridge with a Nazi fighter plane. The Invaders set out to stop him. At the bridge, the Sub-Mariner and Human Torch disembark Namor's flagship to assist with rescue operations, while Captain America pilots the craft in pursuit of the Destroyer's plane.

The plane lands at a castle on the moors, where Union Jack and Spitfire bail out as Cap maintains a holding pattern. The sibling Invaders, having deduced that the "Destroyer" is an imposter, enter the castle, with Union Jack insisting that he must unmask the villain masquerading as his friend. So, while Spitfire searches the castle for the real Destroyer, Roger Aubrey, Union Jack battles his impersonator. Spitfire finds Roger, who explains that he was captured behind Nazi lines by Master Man, who now wears his costume. Meanwhile, Master Man defeats and reveals himself to Union Jack. Master Man's three henchmen, who had been knocked out by Spitfire, come around and flee the castle rather than face the Invaders. When Master Man sees their plane taking off, he leaps onto its wing with Union Jack captive -- but U.J. struggles free and leaps from the plane. Spitfire creates an updraft to slow his fall, and Roger catches him.

Later, back at Falsworth Manor, Captain America invites the Destroyer to join the Invaders again, but once more he refuses, though he allows that he would be willing to work with them if they ever need him, as an "honorary" Invader. Then, moments after the Destroyer leaves, Lord Falsworth presents Captain America with a message from President Roosevelt, summoning Cap, Namor, and the Human Torch back to America immediately.

Continuity Notes: A footnote reminds us that Roger assumed Brian Falsworth's guise as the Destroyer in issue 26. We later get another footnote to that issue when Cap reminds him of the invitation to join the Invaders.

The opening scene depicts Brian and Jacqueline Falsworth in their civilian clothes. Then, throughout the issue, they each remove their masks more than once. And of course, the Human Torch and Namor never wear masks to begin with. But for reasons I will never understand, Captain America always keeps his mask on in this series. It's not to hide a secret identity, mind you -- everyone regularly calls him "Steve" when they're off-duty. But he just never removes the frikkin' cowl, even when he's just sitting around Falsworth Manor reading the newspaper, literally during tea time! As I noted recently, I'm pretty sure we've only seen Steve Rogers' face twice in this entire series, not counting any flashbacks to his origin. It's getting into THE TICK-level weirdness at this point.

Union Jack uses his new electrical powers, which he speculates were created by Mjölnir's energy interacting with his super soldier serum variant, several times in this issue. Now -- you may recall that in the previous insallment, Thor wiped the Invaders' minds of his meeting with them. This was just after U.J. demonstrated the new power in front of all the Invaders, and he speculated that he would soon have no memory of how he came by them, thanks to Thor's enchantment. But here, he surprises the Invaders with his new ability, while also stating that he's had the power ever since he "came into contact" with Thor's hammer.

So what exactly happened? Do the Invaders remember having some adventure involving the hammer of Thor, but not of actually meeting Thor? They clearly seem to have forgotten that they ever saw Brian demonstrate the power when he first acquired it, but it seems to me that, if anything, they should remember that but not remember anything about Thor. (And of course the simple answer here is that Roy Thomas wrote the previous issue and Don Glut wrote this one, so there's a discrepancy. But why Thomas, in his capacity as this issue's editor, didn't catch and correct the problem will remain a mystery.)

As I noted when they first appeared, Brian and Roger were eventually revealed to have been lovers, not mere "friends" as stated in these INVADERS issues. And also as I said then, I'm not sure when or where the ret-con first came about. It's hard to tell from their earlier appearance whether Thomas intended this to be the case. Likewise, I can't tell from the sequence below whether Glut is going for some subtext in his script, or if I'm just projecting it there based on what I already know:

My Thoughts: I like the Destroyer, so it's fun to have him back. I enjoy Master Man, who at this point is the Invaders' most recurring villain, so seeing him in action -- and against Spitfire and Union Jack, with whom he's barely interacted up to this point -- is fun, too. Overall, this is a fine issue, and the unmasking of Master Man as the fake Destroyer works well enough as a surprise. I think I tumbled to it only a page or so before the unmasking, which isn't bad. (Though I would argue that's in part due to Alan Kupperberg "cheating" a bit: when in the Destroyer costume, Master Man is drawn with much less bulk than usual. But hey, that's comics!)

Speaking of the artwork, this is a weird one on that front. I commented recently that Kupperberg and/or Frank Springer had stopped doing a "Frank Robbins impression" and that the style had changed to what I assumed to be a more natural Kupperberg effort. But as of this issue, the Robbins look is back in full force. I would chalk it up to this being another inventory story, drawn before they changed their style, but it clearly isn't since it continues directly from the prior issue with Union Jack's new super powers illustrated several time in the artwork (plus it cliffhangers into next issue as well). So I dunno what happened with the artwork, unless it's as simple as Thomas telling the artists that he wanted them to go back to the Robbins style.

But if that was the case, it would quickly become a moot point. This is Frank Springer's final issue as inker. He came aboard fairly early on, and meshed with penciler Frank Robbins much better than the prior inker, Vince Colletta. And he kept things consistent after Robbins departed a while back. But his tour has come to an end, and he will be succeeded by a rotating cast of brush-jockeys going forward, all working with Alan Kupperberg as the regular penciler for the remainder of the series (which is only seven more issues at this point).