The Avengers have to get jobs to pay the rent for the Avengers Mansion that Tony Stark has been letting them live in for free. But Jarvis is still willing to work without pay.
He’s such a gentleman.
Rather than move out, some of The Avengers start demolishing buildings for pay.
Others go on talk shows. Theeeeeeeere’s an appearance by Johnny!
Vision seems to enjoy it.
But, of course, it’s all a trap and they have to blah blah blah. Not a great premise. Even worse, Black Panther-who is a f*cking King so you’d think he’d be able to muster up some rent money) is a “Wakanda first-er.”
Plus, he’s already earning money (in his secret identity) by teaching kids in a “ghetto high school” about African witch doctors.
Wow.
This was a VERY interesting single-issue story, presenting the Assemblers with a unique problem not often encountered by the generally money-easy world of professional superheroes. Only the Fantastic Four occasionally experience this problem, but the Avengers??! Never! It’s a little weird to see Tony Stark caught with his financial pants down, ( although, right now, in both the ‘Iron Man’ and ‘Batman’ regular comics series, both these guys are currently flat broke! The Big Two must be trying to out-do each other with this particular storyline ) and bizarre to see him come to the Avengers Mansion late at night to hit his personal friends with a bill for back-rent. Speaking of which, even factoring in the Marvel Time-Compression factor, doesn’t $120,000 seem like a soft amount of back-rent for one of New York City’s most desirable addresses-?? I would have factored the amount as into the millions by that point in time! And what’s with the Black Panther, cheaping out on his teammates-?? Is he a member of the team, or NOT-??? All for one, and one for all, right-??? Wakandan chivalry appears to be a little different from how we understand it here. The Black Panther and the nation of Wakanda have been known to come to the Fantastic Four’s financial rescue, from time to time, and T’Challa doesn’t even have membership in the FF! Roy and John Buscema are to be applauded for their depiction of the inner-city high school shown here, in all it’s politically-incorrect accuracy. It’d be tough to depict a scene like that in today’s comics. And what’s up with “Johnny Carson”, here-?!! Not only does this guy not even look like the legendary King of Late Night, but he’s sure not acting like him, either! Here’s Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch laying it all on the table, and Carson is RIDICULING them!!! Whaaaaaatt-??? I was a HUGE fan of the late, incomparable Johnny Carson, ( and I even was fortunate enough to attend a taping of one of his ‘Tonight Show’ editions, on April 16th, 1985!! ) and I do believe that Johnny would have been infinitely more sympathetic towards his highly-distinguished guests, who have participated in the salvation of our planet on many numerous occasions! But, all’s well that ends well, the Assemblers do manage to raise the necessary funds, Van Lunt’s hostile takeover of Stark Industries is averted, and the Mighty Avengers don’t have to move to a Detroit bomb-shelter!! All in all, a good day at the Mansion! Word!