Avengers #10

AVENGERS #10 (1964)
by Stan Lee & Don Heck
cover by Jack Kirby

From a modern perspective, this cover is hilarious for two reasons.
First, “the Avengers break up” doesn’t mean much anymore, as the team disbands every other Thursday.
Also, the “truly different” villain is so different that we have already seen him… in fact we have seen him twice… but we didn’t know at the time.

After showing a training session, the story begins with Iron Man proposing to give Rick Jones full membership and a costume, “like the Wasp”.
This despite the fact that Rick is just a random teenager and Wasp is a legitimate superhero with actual superpowers.

Way to make it about yourself, Cap. Apparently the decision to make a teenager a member of “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” hinges on whether it makes him sad.

Meanwhile Baron Zemo is moping around Enchantress and Executioner, who he has recruited in Avengers #7 after the Masters of Evil were defeated in Avengers #6.

But then the trio is contacted by this issue’s main villain: Immortus.

Years later we will learn that Immortus is actually a future version of Kang (more on that later), so it is quite amusing that years after his defeat he decided to attack the Avengers again… two issue later after his original loss.
Apparently he’s famous enough for Enchantress to recognize him.

To show he’s serious he decides to send folk hero Paul Bunyan to fight Executioner.
Most of the historical and legendary figures that appear in this story will later be retconned to be impostors from Limbo. To the best of my knowledge there isn’t a canon Marvel story where the actual Paul Bunyan shows up… but given Marvel’s “all myths are true” attitude, it’s not that hard to believe a superstrong giant exists.
Especially since the Asgardian Executioner recognizes him (WTF!?)… maybe he’s actually a giant from Norse Mythology that settled down on Earth?

Executioner might not be as strong as Thor but he’s able to handle Paul Bunyan quite easily.
My first thought was “poor Zemo is going to lose the house”, but… he’s a Nazi, so f##k him.

And to prove he’s worthy of joining the Masters of Evil, Immortus swears to destroy the Avengers.
I wonder if he knows Zemo is going to die 5 issues later.

I hate giving props to a Nazi, but Zemo’s right: what does he have to lose?

Okay, Immortus has at his disposal the entire history of Earth from which he can pick anyone to serve him. Does he send a horde of warriors to fight the Avengers?

Nope! He kidnaps Rick Jones by placing an advertisement on the back of a comic book.

AND IT WORKS!!!

You mean to tell me that:
1) Immortus knew that Rick Jones would read the ad
2) Rick Jones is the only one to answer the ad
3) Rick Jones is SOMEHOW dumb enough to believe someone is offering superpowers FOR FREE

And then Rick is captured by Attila the Hun.

So we have Attila (from the 5th century) taking Rick Jones (from the 20th century) to the Tower of London (in the 18th century), under the orders of Immortus (from the whatever century).
All to make me cringe from the 21st century.

Notice that all Immortus wanted was just setting a trap for the Avengers. Couldn’t he just take Rick Jones to his dimension in Limbo!?

Couldn’t Immortus just kidnap Captain America!? He can apparently summon people from all history!!!

In fact, why can’t he just kidnap the entire team!? Why kidnap Rick to influence Captain America to summon the Avengers?
WHY ARE YOU SO BAD AT THIS!?

What you might expect: Captain America to tell the Avengers he needs their help.

What actually happens is THE DUMBEST THING CAP HAS EVER DONE: pick a fight with them! WHY!?!?

Yeah I think his brain hasn’t fully defrosted yet.

Well I’m glad we wasted TWO PAGES on that fight before someone tries to talk some sense into Cap.

Immortus unleashes more time-displaced minions. It’s a bit funny that he sends Goliath to fight Giant-Man, since Hank Pym WILL use the codename Goliath in the future.

He also sends Merlin to fight Iron Man. He will meet the real one much, much later.

Good thing we’ll learn this is not the real Merlin, because this is an embarrassing show.

You might wonder why they eventually bother to retcon these people into being impostors.
It’s probably because Immortus also summons Hercules, who will join the Avengers (and become one of my favorite characters).

Hercules will debut in Thor. I always assumed that the idea to have these two fight came from Jack Kirby, since Stan admitted most of the ideas during that particular run came mostly from Kirby.
But here he is having them fight in a story that Kirby is not drawing.

Then Immortus decides to kidnap Captain America, therefore showcasing THERE WAS NO NEED FOR ANY OF THIS.

And of all the places to take him, it’s right where Rick is kept!!!

I know I keep hammering on this, but if all Immortus had to do was just remove Captain America from the team, he could’ve done that in an instant!!!

So now you admit Captain America is “certainly” the weakest Avenger… which implies he’s weaker than Wasp… but still you equate Wasp’s membership with Rick’s?

And apparently the Avengers suck without Captain America. (WTF?)

It certainly feels that way, because once Cap is back he immediately defeats Zemo AND Executioner!!!

And now… in the middle of this idiotic plot and in this lackluster moment… is one of the milestones of Marvel comics.
The very first AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!

This is suck a clusterf###k that Enchantress decides to erase the entire story by time travel!!!
SERIOUSLY!!!

The fact that this freaking story has the first AVENGERS ASSEMBLE! is a crime against humanity.

Enchantress, while you’re at it could you please make ME forget this story ever happened!?

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Historical significance: 2/10
Immortus is of immense importance for the Avengers, possibly as much as Kang… but he’s quite different from his classic self, plus technically speaking nothing actually happened.

Silver Age-ness: 10/10
The fact that anyone believes an advertisement about free superpowers from the back of a comic book is taken at face value.

Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
Early Avengers stories (before nearly the entire original members resign) are quite rough but charming. However there are some stinkers, and this one really hurts. Nothing makes sense, the plot is a farce, Immortus is a complete waste of a character… why, oh why is this the issue with the first AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!?!?!?

 How close is this to the modern character? 3/10
Let’s see what is kept from this issue. He’s a time traveler from Limbo, he has a goatee and a stupid hat… yeah that’s about it.

Immortus is a weird one: he can be a boring infodump and an annoying plot device… but he can be a very interesting master manipulator when he’s written right. His fights with Kang are often his best stories.

It’s pretty clear he was NOT created to be a version of Kang, though.
In fact we wouldn’t learn about that until 1974, with Giant-Size Avengers #3, thanks to Steve Englehart during the “Celestial Madonna” storyline.
I’m not very fond of that storyline, but connecting Immortus to Kang was definitely the right move…

…but it got a liiiiiitle out of control.