Coming after the introduction of this new team in Avengers #477-499, issue #0 is basically the soft-launch of this new, very bad series. The new team just bickers with the Avengers.
Issues #1-3 flow directly out of #0. After invading a country, this amalgam of interests representing various nations (the U.S., England, Atlantis, etc.), under the leadership of John Walker, who is dressed like Captain America now, fight a gang called the PTerrorists who are basically ex-Nazis working with Axis Mundi, whose name is basically self-explanatory.
Apparently, the “world” is uniting against Axis Mundi. I don’t know who most of the folks are on that screen, but I’m pretty sure the guy with the metal face is Destro from GI Joe.
From there, it’s basically a total of 10 issues (9+issue zero) of the same thing over and over. Lots of WWII characters appear. Thin Man from the old Liberty Legion is on the team. Fin and his daughter appear. And I’m not going to mention or tag all the various characters involved because, trust me, you don’t and should not care. But I will note a few:
Warrior Woman, who whips USA Agent in a completely non-sexy way–but throughout the story she is portrayed in a femdom way. And look at his face:
He’s enjoying that, right?
There’s a female Baron Blood now.
In sum: The art is awful. The interactions are weird and never feel natural. The heroes don’t act heroic and they’re impossible to care about…
Wolverine has a guest shot and sticks his claws into Namor.
One of the central characters in the story is another version of Human Torch named Tara. Jim Hammond seems to die in the series in order to save Tara from overloading and I’ll just say: I didn’t care.
I also didn’t care that Thin Man, who is portrayed as some kind of master spy, is still lurking around at the end even though he, too, is believed to be dead. He shows up in a trenchcoat on the last page…
…And we’re told “Never the end.” Please. Please make that be a lie.
Calling this series bad is an understatement. Stay away.
What is it about ‘The Invaders’ which makes Marvel want to assign it their absolute worst artistic talent-??? I am sure if the late Frank Robbins were still alive, he would have been put on this assignment. I haven’t seen any material with the Sub-Mariner in it lately, ( and I passed on Ryan Coogler’s “Wakanda Forever” for the simple reason that the director went out of his way to deny the fact that the Sub-Mariner is at least part Caucasian ) but I am pretty sure that, even well into his hundreds, he has not developed a “Dad-bod”. Swimming is the most form-developing exercise of them all, and swimming is pretty-much all the Sub-Mariner does. He’s gonna be buff well into his centennial years. So what’s all this “Dad-bod” nonsense-?? Although he MIGHT be getting a bit soft in his old age, if the Wolverine can actually impale him on his claws. In times past, we have seen the Sub-Mariner’s body withstand some extremely serious trauma- just look at the opening pages of ‘Super-Villain Team-Up’#2, where we witness Namor literally standing up to mortar round-bombardment! Doesn’t even hurt his cool, mid-seventies deep-blue disco suit!! So, unless our favorite Sea-Prince is undergoing some form of Atlantean middle-age physical decline, Wolverine’s claws should NOT be able to penetrate his what-has-been-determined-to-be his nearly invulnerable hide!! Shit!! I HATE poor continuity! On the fate of the Original Human Torch- I am ambivalent on the matter, for two reasons: Unless Marvel is going to ever commit to trying to actually DO something with this guy- I mean, eighty years ago, the Human Torch-and Toro-sold funnybooks. A LOT of funnybooks. So- why hasn’t the Human Torch-regardless of iteration-been able to do so ever since-?? He had a short-but-unsuccessful run in the early Sixties, in ‘Strange Tales’, but eventually, the Thing had to be brought in to help him sell the book, until it was finally cancelled- I think they SHOULD let the guy go up in some glorious blaze of glory! I am a VERY huge fan of Johnny Storm, and having multiple Human Torches on the Marvel Scene seriously dilutes the ONE thing in life that makes Johnny Storm special! So, that’s the argument AGAINST Jim Hammond- here is my argument FOR the guy: I like the fact that his status as an android makes him virtually immortal. I like the fact that as long as he exists, he will always look like a twenty-year old blond guy, no matter how long he exists. ( notice I was clever in avoiding the term “lives”, since androids cannot technically be “alive” ) This immortality-factor serves to underscore the “Human” Torch’s actual inhumanity, which, coupled with his staggering-and scientifically logic-defying power, are the two things which makes him ( it? ) interesting. The Human Torch was an ‘A’-list Marvel superstar in the mid-Twentieth Century, and, with the proper creative talent, I don’t see why he couldn’t be again! But, if this is not going to be the case, then allow him/it to go out in a “blaze” of glory, and stop stealing Johnny Storm’s thunder!! I have spoken!