AVENGERS #64-65 (1969): 1st Barney Barton

This is conclusion of the saga, which started in Avengers #63 and continued in Captain Marvel #14 and Sub-Mariner #14. The final leg of the trilogy also starts a two-parter for The Avengers.

And the splash pages of this comic are AWESOME.

Egghead has a death ray in the sky, and The Avengers can’t find it. But then someone shows up who used to work for Egghead but now wants to turn on him.

The betrayer of Egghead is Small-time gangster Barney Barton, and we learn about Clint Barton—who changed from Hawkeye to Goliath last issue—having a criminal past. 

The team goes to space to stop the death ray, but Barney is killed in a battle against Egghead’s robots. 

And you can see, in the panel above, that Clint swears to get revenge if it takes the rest of his life.  Turns out, it only takes one issue.

Egghead then hires The Swordsman to go after the team, and we learn about Clint and Swordsman’s shared past as circus performers. 

Swordsman breaks into the mansion.

Swordsman is such a jerk.

Swordsman wins at first but of course in the end, Barton captures both of the villains and feels at peace with his brother’s death.  “Just a little.”

Leave a Comment