"HAVOC ON THE HOME FRONT!"
Writer/Editor: Roy Thomas | Illustrators: Alan Kupperberg & Don Heck
Embellisher: Rick Hoberg | Colorist: Carl Gafford | Letterer: Joe Rosen
Consulting Editor: Jim Shooter
The Plot: In Times Square, the Invaders discuss their return to the United States in search of a powerful flying Nazi saboteur. The group is briefly accosted by some admirers, but when the Whizzer arrives in search of their help, they listen to his story: recently, the Liberty Legion was asked by the FBI to investigate the sympathies of New York's German-American population. Miss America headed out on her own to a nearby German bar, where she witnessed the kidnapping of a scientist by two Nazi agents.
Miss America followed the Nazis and came into conflict with their master, an armored agent -- and the saboteur the Invaders were looking for -- called Iron Cross. Miss America held her own against Iron Cross for some time, but he eventually defeated her. However, summoned by her distress signal, the rest of the Liberty Legion arrived. Iron Cross took them all out as well, aside from the Whizzer -- who ran away in search of help.
His story finished, the Whizzer implores the Invaders to help, and they agree.
Continuity Notes: A footnote points readers to "issue #6, among others" for more on the Liberty Legion.
As the Invaders wander Times Square, they're spotted by Nick Fury, Dum Dum Dugan, and the rest of the Howling Commandos. The way Fury speaks about the group, it seems clear that he hasn't met them in person yet. In the same scene, Cap tells a young fan that Bucky and Toro are aiding the war effort on the West Coast with the Kid Commandos.
When we first encounter the Liberty Legion, they're holding an Avengers-style meeting with a chairman and a secretary (Miss America, naturally...), discussing the business of revealing their identities to the government in order to prevent their being drafted. In the same scene, we get a half-page summary of the group members' backstories, followed by a page-and-a-half recap of their collective origin and battle with the Invaders. A footnote there directs readers to issue 5 and "the two MARVEL PREMIERE issues featuring the Liberty Legion."
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| Oh, and Jack Frost is there, too. He doesn't rate a panel. |
My Thoughts: This is more of a Liberty Legion story than an INVADERS one -- and specifically, it's more like a Miss America story, as she ducks out of the formal meeting, glibly turning her secretarial duties over to the Whizzer, so she can carry out their mission. And then she spends several pages dealing quite capably with Nazis, before Iron Cross finally overcomes her. Based on the original Liberty Legion story, I didn't have much opinion on Miss America either way, but after seeing her in action here, quipping and barely breaking a sweat as she goes up against Iron Cross, I really like her.
The appearance of Nick Fury in this issue brings another thought to mind, which has been percolating in my head for a while now: why doesn't Roy Thomas take more advantage of this series' setting as regards the existing, post-Golden Age Marvel Universe? I mean, he uses original Golden Age characters right and left, and he has created several of his own characters for both the Allies and the Axis -- but why haven't we seen a full-fledged Invaders/Howling Commandos team-up? Why hasn't Baron Zemo popped up? Note that Baron Strucker only appeared in a Don Glut tale. Heck, even the Red Skull, who
was a Golden Age villain later adopted into the Silver Age Marvel Universe, has only factored into one story.
Mind you, this isn't to say I haven't been enjoying the series. I like seeing the Golden Age characters dredged up now and then, and many (but certainly not all) of Thomas's original creations have been interesting, cool additions to the tapestry. But when that tapestry features a number of characters who were ret-conned into it in subsequent decades, why wouldn't you use them? To invoke a name I used above, I would've loved to have seen a multi-part Zemo storyline in INVADERS! (Of course, I'm biased -- he's my favorite Captain America villain. But still.)
Though I shouldn't be speaking like we're finished here. We still have a half dozen issues to go. I just know from flipping ahead in the collected edition that none of this stuff is going to happen!
Hey there,
ReplyDeleteI haven't commented on this blog in years, but I have been popping in from time to time and have been enjoying these posts on the Invaders. As a child, I had only seen the occasional issue up to this point, and thought the Invaders seemed cool in general, but this story arc was where I started to really take notice, mainly because I liked discovering the Liberty Legion and Iron Cross.
The big battle that closes out the issue reflects what had become a bit of a Marvel trope at this point in the late 70s. The all-powerful villain smacking down a superhero team, often one hero at a time. I always loved these kinds of scenes. At this point in my reading I had thrilled to the Avengers getting clobbered by the likes of Ultron, Nefaria and Korvac, and of course the classic Claremont/Byrne storyline where Magneto utterly defeats the X-Men. I think around this era the Sphinx was also thrashing the Fantastic Four and Nova's Champions of Xandar. All great stuff.
Obviously Iron Cross is not at the power levels of those examples, but the well-choreographed battle is no less fun. I was invested enough to want to see this storyline through to the end. So I'm looking forward to your next couple of instalments.
Thanks for posting these fun reviews. Till next time!
-David P.
Thank you for the comment, David! I agree; there were some great "team vs. one enemy" battles in the 70s. Believe it or not, to this day I've never read the legendary Count Nefaria story -- but I have read all the others you listed.
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ReplyDeleteI feel compelled to point out that Miss America being secretary parallels Wonder Woman holding that position in the Justice Society back in the Golden Age — which isn’t to say that she wouldn’t be stuck with the job regardless.
// The way Fury speaks about the group, it seems clear that he hasn't met them in person yet. //
RT notes in the lettercol that “as we see it” this story indeed takes place before Cap popped up in Fury’s mag. He also hypes an interview that he conducted with the late Bill Everett that’s finally seeing print in the first issue of the fanzine Alter Ego to be published in several years, and more pertinently to your post he reveals that the Don Heck pages in this issue were penciled for an unrealized Liberty Legion series.
Miss America refers to Iron Cross as Blue Max at one point, leading me to discover that it was the informal name of an order of merit in the German military through World War I.
I couldn’t find a reference by name to Marylou and Dexter, the pair of teenagers we see in one panel, so given their general look I assume that she’s meant to be Veronica and he Archie.
Thanks for the continuity note, Blam. It's kind of weird to see Fury a bit star-struck by Cap here, when I know that they'll go on to become great friends (most of the time) in ensuing decades.
DeleteThe only reason I know what "Blue Max" means is because I lurk regularly at the Film Score Monthly message board, where a few years ago* there was great jubilation over the release of Jerry Goldsmith's score to a 1960s movie called THE BLUE MAX -- so I learned it then by way of reading about the film!
Good thought on Marylou and Dexter -- somehow I actually hadn't caught that they were meant to be anyone when I read the issue!
* I typed "a few years ago" and then Googled to check exactly when that soundtrack was released... it was 2014. Apparently to my aging brain, eight years qualifies as "a few!" Ugh.
DeleteMy experience is that when incidental characters are drawn with more detail or variation on the artist’s usual style, and/or they’re given names despite appearing in like one panel, they’re a deliberate reference to pop culture or the creative team’s personal lives. Dexter and Marylou are specific and fairly unusual names. (Apologies for this sounding, I don’t know, so didactic.)
Lately in general and especially when reminiscing with family over the past couple of weeks — by which I really do mean the past couple of weeks — I’ve been explaining that “a few years ago” means any time in the past decade or so, “the other day” means any time in the past month or so, “a few weeks ago” means this calendar year…