Sing it with me: “Don’t turn around, uh-oh! Der Commissar’s in town, uh-oh!” That’s who the team faces in issue #18, which is about as bad as Avengers comics can get.
Yes, that’s him. Cap calls him “bright eyes” but his eyes are jet black.
Turns out, he’s a giant robot communist who beats up the entire team. Seriously. One robot. The entire team.
Except that Scarlet Witch saves the day.
Also, Scarlet Witch likes the theater and wanted to be an actress…Never knew that.
Also Quicksilver wants to join the circus. Flash forward to Avengers #22 to see how this was actually foreshadowing.
But no matter how bad Avengers is right now, we still get a great moment like the one above, in which Cap sits alone at a table and laments his loneliness. I’m not sure how much of this is intentional, but he sounds so young—and really, he was probably about 21 when he got frozen, so that makes sense. Also note how he pines away for Nick Fury to answer Cap’s request to work for SHIELD.
These character moments elevate this otherwise low point in Avengers history and make it at least palatable. Nice assemble scene, too:
Yeah, poor, poor, Winghead! Living totally rent-free in that beautiful, Fifth Avenue mansion, eating only the finest cuisine known to Man, having it prepared and served to him by a classic British butler, absolutely nothing to do but cool out, watch TV, go to movies, etc., while waiting for the next Go-signal, and catching up on his zees! Yeah, he’s breaking my heart! As for your estimation of his age at the time of his going “on the ice” as being twenty-one- forget it. In ‘Captain America & The Falcon’#176, ( 1974 ) Rogers’ age at the time of his induction into the military was firmly placed at eighteen, in the year of 1940, meaning he was born on July 4th, 1940, ( no shit!! Check the texts!! ) meaning, as of April of 1945, shortly before the end of the war in Europe, when he survives Baron Zemo’s buzz-bomb explosion, he is a firm twenty-four years old, which makes a hell of a lot more sense than him only being twenty-one by the end of the war! Also- so Quickie and Witchy-Poo want to be a trapeze-artist, and an actress, respectively, eh-?? Like their colleague, the good Captain, they just don’t seem to realize when they’ve got it made in the shade! Think of all the circus performers and thespians in the world who would just give their nuts to be Avengers! It does seem that the grass is always greener! Mmmm-hmmm!
Yeah. Cushy mansion in the middle of NYC, a butler who is also a great chef, plus a stipend. Verrrrry nice deal.
Correction: ( whoops! I did it again! ) Steve Rogers’ birthdate, per the above-posted data put forth in ‘Captain America & The Falcon’#176, ( 1974 ) is, actually, July 4th, 1922, not 1940, as I rather absentmindedly posted! The birthday of July 4 is supported by, and has been published in, several various sources, including the character’s IMDB.