INVADERS #37

"THE LIBERTY LEGION BUSTS LOOSE!"
Editor: Roy Thomas | Writer: Don Glut
Artists/Illustrators: Alan Kupperberg & Rick Hoberg | Inker: Chic Stone
Colorist: Carl Gafford | Letterer: Irving Watanabe | Consulting Editor: Jim Shooter

The Plot: Beneath the Atlantic, Sub-Mariner watches as Iron Cross escapes with Professor Schnieder. Meanwhile, aboard Iron Cross's submarine, the Liberty Legion members defeat his Nazi allies. On the surface, Iron Cross knocks Namor's flagship out of the air, sending it into a splash landing. Meanwhile, Thin Man covers the hole in the damaged U-boat while Namor lifts it to the surface. There, Jack Frost creates a floating ice platform to hold the submarine.

Namor takes to the skies in pursuit of Iron Cross, joined in his chase by the Liberty Legion's flyers, Miss America and Red Raven, as well as the Human Torch.Iron Cross knocks Red Raven and Miss AMerica out of the sky, but the former is saved by his own wings while the latter is caught by the Whizzer. Meanwhile, Iron Cross knocks out Namor as well, leaving the Human Torch alone to face him. When Namor emerges from the sea and hits Iron Cross, the villain drops Professor Schneider. Namor flies down to catch him, while the Torch overheats Iron Cross's metal armor, burning the man inside and fusing the suit's systems. Iron Cross plummets into the sea.

The Invaders and Liberty Legion regroup, cramming aboard Sub-Mariner's ship with their Nazi prisoners, and take off for the United States. Meanwile, the Atlantean U-Man arrives in time to watch the heroes depart -- then he is summoned away by the mental voice of the mysterious Lady Lotus.

Continuity Notes: This issue features a three-page, bizarrely structured flashback covering the previous two issues: the flashback opens with Blue Diamond recalling the Liberty Legion confronting and being defeated by Iron Cross after he had captured Miss America. Then we're warped into a flashback within the flashback, as Blue Diamond recalls how Miss America found herself captured and how the Liberty Legion tracked her down! It's really, really weird.

We breifly see U-Man's underwater silhouette approaching the fight early on, ahead of his full appearance on the second-to-last page. Funnily, his appearance is presented as a surprise here, which -- strictly in terms of this issue -- it is. He's not on the cover, his name isn't in the title; you would be legitimately surprised if you picked this one up and saw him appear at the end. However, if you happened to grab the previous issue, then you would've seen his name in the "next issue" blurb!

Anyway -- when U-Man does show up, a footnote directs readers to issue 4 for his prior appearance. It's unexplained why he has come to the scene of the battle, though it does not seem to be at the command of Lady Lotus. Rather, she orders him away from the area, instructing him to come to her.

Speaking of whom, this issue marks the first appearance of Lady Lotus. She appears to be your typical "Dragon Lady", which -- as with that sort of character's spiritual cousin (or more often, father), the "Yellow Peril", is an archetype I love. It's explained here that she has been mentally speaking to U-Man, but he has not yet met her. From what I can see, Lady Lotus will stick around as the main antagoist for the remainder of the series (which will be four more issues at this point).

This is not the end of Iron Cross, by the way! Fabian Nicieza would eventually use him, as with certain other random INVADERS characters, around the turn of century in THUNDERBOLTS and its spin-off mini-series, CITIZEN V AND THE V-BATTALLION.

My Thoughts: I mentioned it very briefly at the end of last issue's post, so I will go into a bit more detail here: I really like seeing Namor get a spotlight in this story. And not just a character spotlight, but a showcase for his powers, as well. Typically in this series, Namor is the Invaders' muscle, but he usually gets knocked aside until water can refresh him, at which point he either comes in and finishes off the bad guy, or the fight is already over. But that's generally the extent of his physical participation in any story. (Oh, he does also engage in rescue operations as well, when the plot requires him to be unavailable for a fight scene he could otherwise end with a single punch).

But in the previous issue and this one, we get Namor underwater, fighting Iron Cross one-on-one, and we also get to see him engage in a Superman-esque feat, lifting the punctured U-boat out of the sea to save the lives of all aboard. It somehow all feels more spectacular here than much of what he's done in prior installments. This is the Namor I signed up to see, and I've gotten precious little of him up to this point!

Beyond that, it's nice to see the return of U-Man, a villain I really liked in his debut and who I had hoped might become a recurring antagonist for the Invaders. Now, more than thirty issues and over three years since we last saw him, he's back. Better late than never, I suppose. Hopefully he's been saved up for something good, but we'll find out next time, when I'll also speak a bit about the new villainess on the block, Lady Lotus.