Avengers #9 (1964)
by Stan Lee & Don Heck
cover by Jack Kirby
Wonder Man receives such an enthusiastic announcement on the cover that I’m sure Stan Lee has plenty of ideas of how to use him in his Avengers run.
The Masters of Evil, fresh from the defeat of their first appearance two issues ago, are hanging around another dimension.
Not that I’m in a rush to agree with a Nazi, but if Zemo hadn’t pushed them to actually do something the Enchantress might have stayed there for years just posing for the camera.
So the trio returns to the Amazon jungle where Zemo has established his base.
Meanwhile, someone is blaming Tony Stark for the failure of his company.
That’s because Stark’s inventions are so much better than his competitor just can’t keep up.
On the plus side, this opens up possibilities in the supervillains market.
Meanwhile, Iron Man is busy with the subplots of his series…
…while the others struggle with the loves of their lives.
The inventor, Simon Williams, agreed to follow two complete strangers to the Amazon jungle and strip down to his underwear in fron tof an old man with a mask and a German accent.
Zemo gives him superpowers by exposing him to “Ionic Rays”, typically called ionic energy in later stories.
That’s the third most common ways people of the Marvel Universe can get superpowers when exposed to radiation, a VERY distant third place after gamma rays and cosmic rays.
Wonder Man is not the only one but he’s by far the most notable character with this origin (which honestly goes a long way to highlight just how distant this third place really is).
This despite the fact that ionic energy can grant you invincibility!
Pretty sure you meant invulnerability, Enchantress.
We’re missing out not having Jack Kirby on pencils, because I don’t think Don Heck sells the idea that Wonder Man should be way more jacked than Simon Williams.
Why would THE EXECUTIONER use a gun instead of Zemo!?
Wonder Man has indeed many powers besides in this story! They are, in order of when they are mentioned:
1) super-strength
2) invulnerability
3) that’s it
Believe it or not, but this will be Wonder Man’s best costume for quite a while.
Considering that it’s probably STILL in the top five, no wonder he’s infamous for wearing bad costumes.
He’s a real powerhouse, given that his fists strike as hard as Thor’s hammer.
A comparison that won’t ever grow old, according to Wonder Man and nobody else ever.
Okay I was being too harsh earlier: Wonder Man can technically fly… but it’s because Zemo put rockets in his belt. In later years the rockets will be powered by Wondy’s own energy, but at this point they seem to be entirely independent.
And Baron Zemo doesn’t use his own technology to fly himself because shut up.
Wonder Man is SO strong that even Executioner considers him a threat (giving some credence to the idea that he’s as powerful as Thor).
But there’s a catch… the same process that gave him his powers will also kill him unless Zemo gives him regular doses of an antidote.
You can’t even trust Nazi war criminals these days.
Eventually Zemo lures the Avengers into a trap by robbing a bank.
This is to make Wonder Man look good in front of the Avengers.
The Masters of Evil still escape, but that’s enough to warrant an invitation to join the Avengers.
Hey there’s like eight superheroes in total at this point, they can’t be picky!
He still tells the Avengers that he was transformed wihle in South America…
…but the best he and Zemo can come up with is that he was vacationing there.
No wonder this guy will get a career as an actor.
The only reason the Avengers believe his story is that the Enchantress casts a spell.
If she can manipulate them so easily, what’s even the point of the ruse?
Also, why come up with the bogus idea of him contracting a fatal disease instead of saying the truth, that the same process that gave him is powers is killing him?
Wouldn’t that be more believable anyway?
Especially when the plan requires multiple super-geniuses looking for a cure.
I can sort of understand Tony Stark since biology isn’t his field, but Pym and Don Blake SHOULD notice that Wonder Man’s condition has to do with him being irradiated and not by a disease!
I’m guessing the Avengers might have second thoughts on admitting Wonder Man in the team considering he’s ALREDY captured by Zemo!
Welcome back, casual 60s sexism, you were not missed.
Stop making me agree with the Nazi, comic!!!
We are still in the period when the Wasp’s stings are mechanical and she can’t shrink down without using her gas, so I’m a bit more willing to believe she couldn’t break free on her own.
When the Avengers show up, the Masters of Evil are ready.
Thor’s weakness is being separated from his hammer for 60 seconds. Although that boulder doesn’t look nearly big enough to be a problem for Thor.
Giant-Man’s weakness is being kicked really really hard.
And Captain America’s witness are artists that forget to actually draw his enemies.
Unlike the vast majority of villains who just waste time with elaborate schemes, Zemo decides he’s going to kill the Avengers immediately.
Comic, STOP MAKING ME AGREE WITH THE NAZI!!!
You’ve read a fictional story in your life before, right?
Wonder Man moves the boulder juuuuust enough to allow Don Blake to transform back into Thor.
But the Masters of Evil ESCAPE AGAIN, leaving Wonder Man back to die in the arms of Iron Man. Without knowing he’s Tony Stark, I might add.
Historical significance: 9/10
Wonder Man’s importance in the Avengers has decreased significantly over the past twenty years or so, but he was central to a lot of their major storylines.
Silver Age-ness: 4/10Even
when you consider they have a sorceress, the amount of times the Masters of Evil escape is just ridiculous. As is the fact that there is absolutely no reason to come up with the lie about catching a lethal disease.
Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
I don’t know if this was as revolutionary as intended in 1964, but today you can see every twist and turn coming five pages in advance.
There’s also the inexcusable idea of introducing a character with a grudge against Tony Stark and then proceed to NEVER MENTION IT during the rest of the story!
Wonder Man comes across as having a very generic and boring personality; his redemption still works, but it carries next to no impact considering we just don’t know this guy.
But this story has an unlikely fan: George R.R.Martin, who has a letter praising this story in a later issue (and yes it IS the same Martin, he mentioned this letter in interviews).
How close is this to the modern character? 4/10
Wonder Man’s legacy on the team would be felt in 1968, when Avengers #52 introduced his brother supervillain Grim Reaper. Who, two years later, would discover that Wonder Man’s “brain patterns” had been used by Ultron to create Vision.
Because I guess the Avengers kept those around?
Wonder Man would stay dead for a record 142 issues, being resurrected in 1976 on Avengers #151.
The rumor is that this was done because Jim Shooter had heard that in 1964 DC Comics had complained what Marvel introducing a Wonder Man was seen as a treat to Wonder Woman.
So when DC introduced Power Girl, after Marvel had its own Power Man (Luke Cage’s mostly forgotten superhero name), Shooter retaliated by resurrecting Wonder Man.
I wasn’t able to find a confirmation of this theory, though.
Although Wonder Man’s resurrection took a bit longer: he was initially brought back as a thoughtless zombie… sorry, a “zuvembie”… but he would eventually regain his mind.
There was a lot of emphasis on the fact that Wonder Man wasn’t in some kind of suspended animation. He was most sincerely dead.
The relationship between Wonder Man and Vision, and just how much of Simon there is in Vision’s personality, will be the subject of countless Avengers issues.
I told you that Wonder Man had bad luck with costumes, right?
Here’s the second one, which I think we can all agree is already a downgrade from the original.
Avengers #164 introduces a concept that will be central to the character: he’s no longer human, but some sort of energy being that is mostly solid.
Three issues later, he would receive what is most likely his most iconic costume.
Or rather non-costume; there’s a serious split between Avengers fans between those who think this is terrible and those who love it.
I’m ambivalent on this… I think it’s a great design (no shocker, it’s by George Perez) but it doesn’t entirely fit a superhero.
It did solidify the main Wonder Man staple: he tends to go around wearing sunglasses because THIS is what his eyes look like.
This period would introduce Wonder Man’s close friendship with Beast, and his interest in acting.
It, uhm, it took a while for his acting career to improve.
This was during the Michelinie run, where the friendship between Wonder Man and Beast was at its best.
These two have one of the best superhero friendships of the whole Marvel Universe, and it’s a damn shame that Beast is always stuck with the X-Men because I would rather see him hang out with Simon than doing anything else.
Seriously Marvel, you’re wasting SO much potential not giving these two a regular book!!!
Back to Wonder Man and his costumes… he debuts a new look in 1985, right before joining the West Coast Avengers.
He’s doing little more than ditching the jacket, but since that was the part that didn’t really work as a superhero costume (especially for an invulnerable guy), I consider this an improvement and the first “good” Wonder Man costume.
The same cannot be said by Wonder Man’s greatest shame, much worse than the crimes that ruined his own company… his radical costume change the following year.
The ONLY redeeming quality of this costume is that it moved the rockets that allow him to fly from his belt to a jetpack on his back.
However there are drawbacks:
1) he looks utterly ridiculous
2) the jetpack CANONICALLY blasts heat directly on his butt
That atrocity lasted a whole TWELVE ISSUES before public opinion forced Wonder Man to change costume.
And if you’re wondering if I’m talking real life or in-universe… BOTH.
His new costume, which was just the previous one with barely noticeable changes, is the one he wore both on the rest of West Coast Avengers and his own personal series, which lasted from 1991 to 1994.
This is BY FAR my favorite period of Wonder Man’s life: the series followed his efforts to become a serious actor in Los Angeles and how to balance that with his duty with the Avengers.
It’s an underappreciated little gem of the 90s, capable of switching between funny and deep stuff.
He would eventually die AGAIN and be resurrected by Scarlet Witch, gaining the ability to turn at will into a being of energy. This allowed him to ditch the belt rockets, because he could just fly in energy form.
Aside from the white hair, this is probably his best costume… but I think that only George Perez was able to truly draw his energy form properly.
After A TON of angsty stories revolving around Scarlet Witch and/or Vision, Wonder Man was mostly stuck as a kind of generic superhero whenever he wasn’t in the Avengers.
His characterization has been all over the place… I think he was a hardcore pacifist for a while?… and he’s switched back and forth between old costumes.
Excluding the green one, to everyone’s relief.
Also I think the rockets are gone for good? He doesn’t seem to always be able to turn into energy, but he tends to be able to fly on his own.
At the time of this writing, Wonder Man has a new regular series again.
I’ve only read a couple issues, but it seems solid… it’s FINALLY back to telling stories about his career as a superhero actor, instead of angsting about Scarlet Witch for the millionth time, and it takes full advantage of just how bonkers his history really is.
I honestly don’t want Wonder Man back in the Avengers unless the writers figure out a new angle for him. I feel like everything you could do with him in the team has been done to death.
Keep him as a struggling actor who occasionally gets tangled with superhero business, he’s the only one who fits that niche PERFECTLY.
