Avengers Spotlight # 27 Acts of Vengeance 2

By Mark Rodriguez

When the Wizard was captured and sent to the Vault, a mysterious stranger let him escape and he set loose a lot of captured super villains. Hawkeye and Iron Man arrived on the scene but spent as much time fighting each other as they did the bad guys. Hawkeye used an EMP arrow to lock down the prison but it also affected Iron Man, making his armor useless. What happens now?

The issue starts with Boomerang breaking into Stark Industries. Another villain named The Ghost broke in there earlier and Boomerang wants the security video, as requested by his boss Justin Hammer. One of the cops try to pull an alarm but the villain tosses a boomerang through it. The cops tell him that this will send a signal out anyway and Iron Man is soon to come. Boomerang is eager to to take him down.

Boomerang is just itching to fight someone when a stranger in white appears, phasing through a wall. He says Iron Man has defeated Boomerang before even when his friends were helping him out, but if he wants to fight someone so badly, he has 'just the Avenger for him'.

Hawkeye is one having a bladder exam (um...?) as Mockingbird waits for him. Both are relieved that it was nothing serious and Mockingbird leaves. Iron Man is out to find out who blew up Avengers Island, when he is suddenly attack by explosive boomerangs. He gets ready to attack and sees Boomerang.

Hawkeye is surprised since he has never fought him before (I do believe he is usually one of Spider-Man's bad guys) and mentions that since the Vault break out, all the bad guys have been attacking heroes at random, but not necessarily their own rivals. Boomerangs tosses burning boomerangs he calls Flamerangs that the archer dodges. The boomerangs cause serious damage and innocent people are in trouble. Hawkeye uses glue arrows to jam up Boomerang's rocket boots. As the villain falls to the ground, Hawkeye heads out to tend to the civilians.

There are so many people in danger, the hero doesn't know where to start. Hawkeye sees a woman stuck in a burning building and heads up there to help. As he swings down with the woman in tow, Boomerang tosses a Razorang to slice the rope. Luckily they both fall on an inflatable rescue mat and Hawkeye tosses a net arrow to capture Boomerang before he gets away. The cops take him away but surprisingly the woman he just saves slaps him across the face.

no respect I tell ya!

She points to all the destruction caused and says that superheroes really are a menace. Hawkeye walks off feeling horrible.

C-C-CRAWLING IN MY SKIN....

The next story 'Some Assembly Required' starts with the Stingray helping salvage what he could of the now sunken Avengers island. Stingray checks out the sunken island and finds a room that stores deadly and he is suddenly attacked. On the surface, Firebird gets his distress signal and dives into the water to help. She is soon knocked back out and tells them that the Mad Thinker's Awesome Android is on the loose, and he has Stingray in his grasp. Yeah.... these villain names....

The Mad Thinker is bad enough but... Awesome.... Android...... Awesome Friggin' Android!!!!

The Black Widow is on the scene and shoots the android with her Widow Sting. The robot sets Stingray down but now develops a more powerful version of the Widow Sting and fires it back to the Black Widow herself. Widow signals for the other Avengers to come and help.

However at this time, all of the other heroes are facing other bad guys, Thor is fighting the Juggernaut, Iron Man is facing the Wrecker, Captain America is fighting the Sub Mariner, Quasar is fighting against The Absorbing Man and the Avenger West Coast are fighting against the U-Foes. Luckily Captain Marvel does hear the call and flies off to help.

Wanna find out what happens? Read Thor comics! And Captain America comics! In the meantime enjoy a comic about Black Widow and a group of unknowns fight a literal blockhead.

The Awesome Android.... takes down Hellcat and Moondragon tries to telepathically put it to sleep. Hellcat reminds her that the android has no brain to put to sleep, and Firebird swoops in to save them before the robot can attack them. Firebird then tosses flames at the machine before Black Widow can stop her.

The android gets back up and now has Firebird's fire powers, but luckily she can create a forcefield to deflect her own flames. Suddenly Captain Marvel flies in dives into the sea. Underwater, she finds the Stasis Field Projector that keeps the robot in line. After speaking telepathically between Moondragon and the others, they are able to power up the Stasis device and take the robot down.

OMG..... his head.... opens up like a briefcase.... I can't.... I just can't......

Everyone is happy but Captain Marvel warns the others that when she went underwater she noticed that the other killer robots like the Super Adaptoid and Kree Sentry have now escaped. Black Widow also points out that when she called the Avengers, only Captain Marvel answered the call.. so she wonders what has happened to the rest of the team?

My Opinions

Wow, it's always cool to dive into the past and see the heroes of yesteryear. I do wonder whatever happened to characters like Firebird and Hellcat, and I kinda doubt we're gonna see Moondragon or Stingray in a Marvel movie any time soon. But hey, at least the Black Widow is here! It does make me wonder when the movies will finally give her the wrist mounted guns instead of just have her shoot regular guns.

Pretty fancy shooting, but lets hope they give you the Widow's Bite soon, maybe Captain America 3?

Also I guess this is a big crossover that spans issues of other comics... so I guess I didn't get the full story after all. After checking online, Acts of Vengeance spreads throughout several issues of Avengers, Avengers West Coast, Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Quasar and Amazing Spider-Man. Basically a big group of bad guys teamed up and decided they' have better chances going after each others' enemies instead of their own. That's why we saw Juggernaut go after Thor instead of the X-Men, and Boomerang messing with Hawkeye instead of Spider-Man.

Unfortunately I only got the issues associated with Avengers Spotlight. Maybe I'll find the rest someday at another con. But it does really suck to not find out what happened after Hawkeye accidentally knocked Iron Man out with the EMP arrow when he needed him most. I guess the Iron Man comics would follow up on that?

As for the issue itself, it was a decent read but wow to the lame villain names... especially when they're meant to be taken seriously. I mean the Mad Thinker was bad enough but the... Awesome Android.... and the thing looks like a muscle dude with a brick for a head. And then said brick opens up like a briefcase to shoot out whirlwinds? What was the Mad Thinker thinking when he came up with that one? But yeah, hard to get over the overly ridiculous name and take him seriously especially when he's a super robot that can copy any super power it comes in contact with.

This comic also came with a commercial for the classic TMNT cereal. I remember that, it actually did taste good, unlike most cereals that were based on a cartoon or movie and were out for a limited time. It's actually kinda coincidental in a way that they have a TMNT ad seeing that a name as Awesome Android sounds like something they would name one of the action figures.... I mean it ranks up there with Mondo Gecko and Merdude.

Anyways I can't really promise what will happen next but the comic did say the next issue will involve Wonder Man, the Wasp and the Mad Thinker as the Acts of Vengeance continue. Let's see how that goes.

Batman # 433 The Many Deaths of Batman Part 1

By Mark Rodriguez

Here is another series that I picked up at the Sci Fi Valley Con. I believe this story took place sometime before I started collecting the series (my first few issues were about the Crimesmith and the NKV Demon). I have to say, i've run across part 2 or 3 of this story, but never the whole thing, and I never wanted to just buy it incomplete. Thanks to the con, I found all the parts, so let's start with part 1.

Wow.... back when they used to cost 75 cents... Now we're up to 3 dollars a book...

The issue opens on a stormy night as police cars rush down the dark alleys. A local bum points towards something and they see Batman, hanging from a wall of wooden planks, seemingly dead. He's rushed to the hospital where they try to do what they can (a doctor even stops a nurse from trying to unmask him) but the Caped Crusader flatlines and is taken to the morgue.

The doctors are all saddened and one of them in particular goes to a bar to drink away the pain. A guy in a tacky green suit, (looks like a reporter to me) enters the bar and talks to the doctor. He then arrives at the morgue and bribes the guard there to let him take a look at Batman. He is shocked to see the fallen Dark Knight and starts taking pictures. The reporter sells the pictures and the story and the death of Batman is soon printed.

Meanwhile in prison, the Penguin reads the news and is furious, stomping all over the newspaper. Two-Face also sees this and flips a coin. It lands on the scarred side and he gets enraged. Dick Grayson sees the news and Starfire soon arrives to comfort him.

Alfred prepares the daily paper as well as master Bruce's breakfast, but when he catches a glimpse of the headline, he drops the food and runs off. He checks both Bruce Wayne's regular bedroom and the Batcave, not finding his master anywhere. At a police commissioner convention, Gordon is informed of the news. He soon drives down to the hospital and tells the others in the car to 'Get out'. So far this is the only line of dialogue in the whole story.

Gordon checked out Batman's corpse and works up the nerve to unmask him. We see that the man under the mask.... is blonde. Elsewhere, Batman is standing on the top of a building, looking unconscious and propped up against a wooden board. The building blows and the witnesses are confused as they see pieces of Batman's costume falling everywhere, alongside all the debris What is going on?

My Opinions

This was an interesting read.... sorta, since there was no dialogue throughout 99% of the story. Yes, the only line of dialogue through the whole thing was Gordon saying 'Get out'. I wasn't expecting that, but it was done so very well. Right off the bat the first few panels establish the rainy night and the police cars rushing to get to the scene.

The artists did a really good job conveying emotion without a single word from neither the characters or the narrator. You get the panic of the emergency room as they try desperately to revive the Dark Knight, and the look of grief on one of the doctors as he tries to drink his sorrows away. The reporter guy buying his way to get the scoop. This comic did a very good job explaining everything that was going on.

I liked this issue and I'm curious to see where this goes. Why the fake Batman? Why this other fake Batman? And where is the REAL Batman during all this?

Two-Face demands the second issue now!!! It's part TWO after all....

Avengers Spotlight # 26 Acts of Vengeance 1

By Mark Rodriguez

There was a time before I actually got into comics. Yeah, hard to believe, I know. I forgot what exactly got me into them, I remember reading ALF comics and Madballs comics but never any 'serious' ones. When I saw the first Burton Batman movie, it got me curious about a more bad-ass Batman beyond Adam West's shenanigans, and it got me into the Batman comics. And somewhere along the line I decided to also check out Spider-Man as well as the Avengers and their own separate comics. I don't think I got into X-Men until the 90's cartoon.

Anyways, one of the series I read at the time besides the Avengers West Coast, was Avengers Spotlight where it was 2 stories in one. Usually a story about Hawkeye and the other about a random Avenger that didn't already have his own title. There was a story called Acts of Vengeance where several Marvel villains escape from the Vault, a special prison designed for super villains. I don't believe I ever got to read the end of it, but now that I got them all at the Sci Valley Con so I can see how this ended.

The comic begins by introducing the Vault, and the guards are bringing in their latest prisoner, The Wizard. He's the leader of the Frightful Four and they already have the other members Hydro Man, Klaw and Titania in custody. The guards wonder why they brought the Wizard since without his fancy weaponry, he's just a regular human. It seems he was brought in as a favor since he keeps breaking out of regular jail. One of the guards, calling himself Guardsman Prime arrives to take the Wizard to his cell.

whoa now, it's not THAT kind of comic there, sir!

Once in his cell, the Wizard can't find a way to escape, but his cellmate offers him a way out. The guards watch this on their security monitors, but as far as they can see the Wizard is talking to himself. The guard gets his armor on and goes to check it out, but the Wizard is now in his costume and he easily smacks him aside.

hmmm guy in green that only the Wizard can see? hmmmm......

The Guardsman fires a repulsor ray at the villain which he manages to bounce back against him. This knocks him up against a cell where Mr. Hyde reaches out to grab, making it easier for the Wizard to punch him. He now demands access to the control panel of the prison. The other guards get the alert on Level 5 and get ready to face them. Not only do they face the Wizard, they also face the other escaped villains that include Mr. Hyde and Electro.

The people running the prison see that the other levels have escaping prisoners as well. They're unable to call for outside help. Guardsman Prime manages to radio the Avengers with his helmet.

Iron Man soon arrives to help and Prime mentions how he caused the last break out at the Vault. A villain named Orka socks Iron Man from behind, but Stark soon knocks him out. Iron Man goes to another room after he reconnects the emergency power and finds a lot of knocked out guards. Hawkeye arrives to evacuate some of the scientists and will then help take down the escaped criminals.

Hawkeye tries his best WolverBaterine impression. Still an awkward pose though.

Iron Man socks out Whirlwind and said the guards never stood a chance since they were wearing Stane armor. Just then Hawkeye sees Iron Man and blames him for this break out since the last one was caused by his armored wars. Hawkeye fires arrows at Iron Man, and even though Stark tries to convince him that he's just a guy hired by Stark, the Avenger Archer already knows who he is.

Iron Man blasts a bad guy that was behind Hawkeye, and then takes moment he was distracted to aim his palm into his face. Iron Man says he's an Avenger and he's there to help out the guards, and he can help if he wants. Hawkeye still holds him responsible for every criminal that escapes when he's suddenly grabbed at blade point by Scarecrow.

Hawkeye easily flips him over his shoulder and aims an arrow at him. Scarecrow asks what kind of arrow it is. Hawkeye says he ran out of special arrows and is using a good ol fashioned sharp pointy arrow, and the villain decides to lock himself up. Iron Man carries a huge stone slab with all the guards on it and needs the archer to cover him. Once outside, Iron Man remotely shuts down all security doors in the prison but says anyone inside can still undo that. Hawkeye shoots an EMP arrow towards the prison which disables all of the systems inside the building. However this also puts Iron Man's armor out of commission, leaving Hawkeye all alone with any other super villains in the are until back up arrives!

way to go Hawkeye....

My thoughts-

Pretty interesting issue though it did showcase this random guard guy quite a bit. I heard of the Armored Wars, I guess between that and the previous prison break it left Iron Man looking bad towards fellow Avengers.

I do like all the little references and things that I know now that I didn't know back then. I've seen villains like Klaw and Whirlwind in the Captain America and the Avengers arcade game. Thanks to the Iron Man movie I know who they're referring to when they mention that the guards' armor is made by Stane's company, and it's funny how the 'bad guy' armor is so inferior to Iron Man's armor. Plus we recently saw Mr. Hyde in the Agents of SHIELD show in the form of Skye's father.

Not much to say about the story itself except we get a decent explanation of the Vault and how it works, get to see some of the bad guys and Iron Man and Hawkeye fight each other as much as they try to work together. I didn't know Marvel had their own version of the Scarecrow.

The comic does show the sign of the times, mostly those classic NES game ads. I did like how the classic game Jordan VS Bird was advertised twice, the real NES version and the handheld Tiger game version. People really wanted to see who was the better between the two, huh?

maybe if I find a copy I'll review it someday

Another interesting this is this annual poll, and considering that this took place back in 1989, it was cool to compare what happened then to what's happening now. These polls were voted for by fans and they're pretty long so I'm only going by the top 5 of each category.

Favorite Avenger that currently has his/her own magazine
1- Captain America
2- Iron Man
3- She-Hulk
4- Thor
5- Hawkeye

Favorite Avenger that does not have his/her own magazine
1- Wonder Man
2- Black Knight
3- Black Panther
4- Vision
5- Beast

Favorite Candidate for Avengers membership
1- Spider-Man
2- Daredevil
3- Ant-Man
4- Dr. Strange
5- Wolverine

The last one has me curious about Ant-Man since he IS an Avenger... unless he left the team and the fanbase wants him back. As for the others on the list.... well, the vast majority of the Marvel good guys actually are or have been Avengers at one time.

The last thing I'd like to mention is how odd Hawkeye specifically said his arrow will release an Electro Magnetic Pulse. I don't know.... I guess I'm so used to people just flat out saying EMP. Maybe the expression wasn't used as often back in the late 80's. Anyway, we'll see what happens next.