The team fights against an encroachment from an ancient magician. It’s a terrible story. But a great sound effect.
And a pretty funny panel with them looking in a hole.
Character: Wasp (Janet Van Dyne-Pym)
She named the Avengers. She designed many characters costumes. She married Hank Pym.
Avengers #207-208 (1981)
Avengers #222 (1982): New Masters of Evil
Hawkeye really likes potato chips.
This issue involves Egghead forming a new Masters of Evil, featuring Tiger Shark, Whirlwind, Scorpion, and Moonstone, and they get defeated in about a page and half. Seems about right.
Egghead has a robot maid girlfriend now.
What’s cool about this Jim Shooter-led (and sometimes scripted) period for The Avengers is the focus on She-Hulk. And her never-realized flirtation with Hawkeye.
By now, her solo book has been cancelled, and it was never all that great. But we see her developing into a full-fledged fan favorite during her stint with The A-Team, and then later when she joins the Fantastic Four she becomes an A-list character.
In this issue, she gets annoyed at her broken down pink caddie, and then gets a new outfit from Janet Van Dyne. When Hawkeye sees it, he ridicules her…
But then she kisses him full on the mouth.
I know, I know. If a guy did that, it would be rape. But when a girl does it, it’s funny.
In fact, in the same issue, Whirlwind starts to sexually assault the Wasp (she shrinks and stings the crap out of him). Lots of sex in these issues, which is kinda cool and appropriate. And sex is used playfully, and for evil by villains—I don’t think there’s sexual range in a lot of modern books.
It’s also worth noting how Wasp and Hawkeye, in addition to She-Hulk, get so much screentime in this issue (and others from this period). The other main characters, Cap, Iron Man and Thor, had their own solo books, but this was the only place you could read about these other heroes. It was special—another thing missing from today’s books, where there’s an event every six weeks so you see all the Marvel characters assembling all the time.
I know, I sound like an old fart.
Jim Shooter plotted this one.
AVENGERS #238 (1983): Spider-Woman returns
“Unlimited Vision!”
Vision has been comatose (and lying in a clear tube) since he hit Annihilus’ force field in Avengers #233, and he speaks for the first time as Starfox is lamenting over him. This inspires Eros to hook Viz up to ISAAC, the supercomputer back on Titan, which leads to Vision downloading ISAAC into Avengers’ Mansions’ computers and gaining the ability to cast holographic projections of himself using the Avengers’ communications networks. It also seems to be changing his personality.
He uses his newfound awareness to track down Moonstone and Blackout, who escaped from Project Pegasus’ prison last issue.
His personality changes will be an evolving subplot for a couple years.
At the end of the issue, Tigra is visiting Jessica Drew, who is also comatose and in a hospital on the West Coast, and an astral image of Spider-Woman appears in the hospital room.
