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:
