INVADERS #38

"U-MAN COMES TO TOWN!"
Concept & Editor: Roy Thomas | Guest Writer: Don Glut
Illustrators: Alan Kupperberg & Don Heck | Inker: Chic Stone
Letterer: Jim Novak | Colorist: Carl Gafford | Consulting Editor: Jim Shooter

The Plot: Captain America, the Sub-Mariner, the Human Torch, and the Whizzer stop a shakedown by a group of Nazi sympathizers at a munitions plant in New York. Afterward, Whizzer leaves for a meeting with the Liberty Legion. He stops a mugging on his way, and then reports to his teammates that he is taking a leave of absence from the Legion in order to support the Invaders while they're in the United States. Miss America immediately volulnteers to join as well, and the two depart Legion headquarters.

In Chinatown, U-Man finally meets his mysterious master, Lady Lotus. After demonstrating her power to mentally control him, she dispatches him to California to capture Golden Girl. Elsewhere, Captain America chats with Bucky via the radio in Namor's flagship. The Invaders have been asked to investigate a sabotage ring in San Diego, and Cap believes Namor, Whizzer, and Miss America can handle it alone -- so he and the Torch want to visit their former partners, Bucky and Toro.

Later, in California, Cap and the Torch bail out of Namor's ship as it travels on toward San Diego. Meanwhile, the Kid Commandos thwart a Japanese sabotage plot at the Santa Monica Pier -- but in the aftermath, they're attacked and subdued by U-Man, who triumphantly hoists Golden Girl over his head.

Continuity Notes: As stated in the credits above, Don Glut is credited as "Guest Writer" this issue. Last issue he was simply credited as "Writer". While this is consistent with his prior work on the series -- sometimes he was credited as a "guest" and other times not -- he's definintely not a guest any more, as he will write the series through to its finale, issue 41. (Mind you, it's certainly possible Roy Thomas intended to come back at some point and everyone believed a "Guest Writer" credit was correct here, but history would prove otherwise in the end.)

Footnotes in this issue reference the Invaders coming to the United States in issue 35, and U-Man damaging Namor's flagship last issue. (And also the fact that the Liberty Legion's headquarters, New York's Times Building, had been renamed the Allied Chemical Tower by 1979 -- which is apparently no longer the case; Google suggests that it's now known as One Times Square.)

As noted above, Whizzer and Miss America temporarily join the Invaders this issue. This almost reads like incoming writer Glut taking the series in a new direction, as is often the case when a comic series changes creative hands -- but we'll see next issue that Union Jack and Spitfire are still very much in circulation.

Though she operates out of New York City's Chinatown, Lady Lotus is explicitly stated as being Japanese, an observation made by U-Man when he arrives at her lair.

At one point, the Whizzer refers to the new Invaders/Liberty Legion combo as being "all a bunch of winners," prompting Miss America to suggest that a name change might be in order when the war ends. This would be a reference to the group created in 1946, consisting of Captain America, Bucky, Namor, the Human Torch, Toro, the Whizzer, and Miss America, known as the All-Winners Squad. And we'll see them canonized into the modern Marvel Universe before this retrospective is finished.

My Thoughts: Though it's basically mostly concerned with moving pieces around and setting things up for the next chapter, there are some nice moments in this issue. I don't think I've mentioned it at all recently, but Thomas and Glut have been doing a nice job (with help from their artists) of showing Whizzer and Miss America getting closer. They went from a mildly hostile "Han Solo/Princess Leia" thing to the point where they're openly holding hands and embracing in front of their teammates. It's been fairly subtle, but fun to see.

Funnily, since INVADERS started, over in the pages of AVENGERS, the two were already ret-conned as not being the parents of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch back in 1977 -- and at this point, AVENGERS is in the very early going on a sub-plot that will eventually reveal that the man who was said to be their father in '77 is also an imposter. Before 1979 is done (but after INVADERS has been cancelled), Magneto will have been revealed to readers (but not the characters) to be the true father of the mutant twins.

Of course, none of that is germane to this series, but I found it amusing. As with Namor's flame, Betty Dean, being killed in mainstream continuity right around the same time Thomas brought her into INVADERS, something that was an accepted status quo when he started the series has since been upended (or is about to be) -- twice.

It's also fun to see the Kid Commandos in action, out of the shadows of their older teammates. I mean, they totally lose to U-Man, but they put up a fine showing against the Japanese saboteurs. I'll admit that I've never had much use for the teen sidekicks running around with the Invaders, but after they've been out of circulation for a while, you start to miss them -- so I look forward to their reunion with Cap and the Torch next time.

Speaking of which, I think that last week I promised I'd have more to say about Lady Lotus in my write-up of this issue... but I've decided those ruminations will fit better with next week's installment, so stand by!