Collecting Avengers #178-188, Annual #8-9, Marvel Premiere #49 and material from Marvel Tales #100.

Avengers Annual #8 is written by Roger Slifer and illustrated by George Perez. Yellowjacket reassembled Doctor Spectrum's Power Prism to give the wasp as a birthday present. However, Jan is possessed by the prism as soon as she touches it and goes on to attack the Avengers.

Oh, good. Another story about the Squadron Supreme/Sinister/Who-Gives-A-Crap. Let's just say that I don't like them and leave it at that. At least George Perez is on art. This is another story about Hank Pym screwing up. At least he hasn't created a robot that wants to kill all humans. Getting your wife possessed is a pretty big screw up though.

Avengers #178 is written by Steve Gerber and illustrated by Carmine Infantino. The Beast's night out is ruin when he is accosted by an anti-mutant bigot. Then he is visited by an apparition that claim to have been inflicted by wounds committed by the Beast. A confused Beast returns to Avengers Mansion and tells the others about what has happened, but they are as mystified as he is.

I hear that Steve Gerber is a popular writer. Many people like his Howard the Duck for its satire. I have never read any of his comics before so I can't comment. I can say that this issue didn't exactly convince me that I should check out more of his work. I should have liked a Beast solo story, but it was a bit of a bore to read. I don't suppose that I should complain too much. This is just a filler issue until David Michelinie starts his run. Unfortunately, we have two more issues of filler until then.

Avengers #179 is written by Tom DeFalco and illustrated by Jim Mooney. A villain named the Stinger is out to destroy the Avengers and manages to capture the Black Panther. A bird-man by the name of Bloodhawk is caught while trying to steal a totem from the South Seas and is taken to Avengers Mansion. The Avengers take Bloodhawk to the island where the totem originated from and find it being menaced by a giant stone figure.

I may be wrong, but Bloodhawk looks like one of those loser Ani-Men that used to work for Count Nefaria. To tell you the truth, I don't care enough about the character to look online to see if there was a bird-man in the group. The Stinger looks just as goofy. I have to keep reminding myself that these issues are just filler. David Michelinie starts soon and all will be good.

In Avengers #180, a team of Avengers deals with the giant stone creature on the island of Muara while those left behind at Avengers Mansion are attacked by the Stinger.

It turns out that Bloodhawk isn't some loser member of the Ani-Men. He was experimented on by his father and ended up with bird powers or something. I guess it doesn't matter all that much since he doesn't appear again after this. I' not sure if the Stringer appeared again either. It's probably good if he didn't because I doubt the Shocker would have appreciated him ripping off his gimmick.

David Michelinie becomes the regular writer starting from Avengers #181 and John Byrne becomes the regular artist. Henry Peter Gyrich announces that the Avengers have to limit the numbers of members if they are to retain their priority security status.

Hurray! David Michelinie is the writer and we have a issue where the Avengers choose their new roster, my favourite type of story! There's no great shakes in this new line-up. Most of the team is the same s the previous one with the exception of Hawkeye. I will go into Hawkeye's saltiness at getting replaced later. In more pleasant news, this issue also marks the beginning of the Beast's long-lasting friendship with Wonder Man. I really like their friendship so it was a pleasure to see it start here.


In Avengers #182, Donald Blake tries to determine why the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver have fallen into comas. The culprit is revealed to be an old man called Django Maximoff, who claims to be Wanda and Pietro's father. Django has trapped their souls into puppets, so it is up to the Avengers to track him down and return Wanda and Pietro's souls.

So continues Wanda and Pietro's convoluted family history. First it seemed like the Whizzer and Miss America were their long-lost parents, now this Django guy claims to be their real father. Things are only going to get more complicated, but more on that later. The Avengers being attacked by reanimated mannequins reminds me of Spearhead From Space, the old Doctor Who serial with the Autons.

In Avengers #183, the Scarlet Witch departs with Django Maximoff to investigate his claims and Ms. Marvel is brought in as her replacement. Meanwhile, the Absorbing Man reforms after his previous defeat at the hands of the Incredible Hulk and makes a break for South America, where he believes he will be free from super-heroes.

It would sadden me to see the Scarlet Witch leave again, but I know that it's only temporary. She comes back at the end of the next story arc. In the meantime we have Ms. Marvel as a worthy replacement. I wish I could say that Ms. Marvel has a good run as an Avenger, but we all know that some bad times are ahead for her. Thankfully, it's going to be a while until I get to the infamous Avengers #200.

In Avengers #184, the Avengers do battle with the Absorbing Man. Meanwhile, the Falcon has been brought on to the team to adhere to equal opportunity policies and Hawkeye isn't happy about it.

Knowing how sensitive certain sections of the internet can be, they would undoubtedly call Hawkeye racist for his reaction to the Falcon joining the Avengers. I doubt that it is down to racism, Hawkeye disagrees with the fact that the Falcon is brought in just to tick a box. The Avengers are diverse enough with a robot and a mutant in the team. If it helps, the Falcon is just as salty about being the token black guy.

Plot by Michelinie, Mark Guenwald and Steve Grant starting from Avengers #185. Script also by Michelinie. The Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver arrive in Transia with Django Maximoff. Wanda is haunted by visions of the sorcerer Modred, who leads her on a trip to Mount Wundagore and the lair of the High Evolutionary.

This was a nice downtime issue after the action of the fight with the Absorbing Man. The Beast goes out on a date. Tony Stark flirts with Ms. Marvel. Jocatsa tries to strike up a conversation with the Vision, but he is missing his wife. I think it is nice to have a rest between stories instead of it being all action all the time. Having nothing but action is ever so tiring.

In Avengers #186, Modred plans to use the Scarlet Witch's hex powers to free the Elder God Chthon. Meanwhile, Quicksilver learns about his origin from the High Evolutionary's former servant Bova. It's only a matter of time before Pietro finds out what has happened to Wanda and alerts the Avengers.

Now, on to the mess that is Wanda and Pietro's family history. At this point they thought that Robert and Madeleine Frank (the Whizzer and Miss America) were their parents. Madeleine was with child when she and her husband arrived at Mount Wundagore. Madeleine gave birth to twins, but died during childbirth. Now we find out that a woman named Magda came to the High Evolutionary's lair heavy with child. Bova was the midwife when Wanda and Pietro were born. The High Evolutionary planned to give the children to the Franks, but Madeleine died in childbirth and Robert was unable to deal with the loss, so the twins were given to Django Maximoff and his wife. We don't know this yet, but the woman Magda will turn out to be Magneto's wife. She flees into the night shortly after the twins are born and is never seen again.

The Avengers arrive at Mount Wundagore in Avengers #187 and discover that Chthon has possessed the Scarlet Witch.

There has been a running theme of the Beast feeling inadequate compared to the rest of the Avengers. In this issue he finds a suit of armour that used to belong to one of the Knights of Wundagore, who once defeated Chthon years ago. He is the only Avenger not to have been captured, so it come sup to him to save the day. We also find out more history about Chthon and Wundagore. The origins of Werewolf by Night and Spider-Woman are all linked to it. It's too complicated to explain here and to tell you the truth it rather makes my head spin.

Bill Mantlo is writer for Avengers #188. The Avengers drop off Quicksilver at Attilan and decide to take a shortcut through the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, they are soon attacked by a group of elemental monsters.

I knew it had been too long since we last had a fill-in issue. I know that Bill Mantlo isn't to everybody's taste, but I like his work just fine. To tell you the truth, I haven't read much of his work except some of his Incredible Hulk. I guess I haven't read enough to form an opinion. I thought these Elements of Doom were kind of corny, but they were pretty neat all the same. We even got a bit of a science lesson as they explained their respective powers.

Avengers Annual #9 is written by Bill Mantlo and illustrated by Don Newton. Hawkeye and the Beast discover a hidden complex underneath Avengers Mansion. The complex was built by Tony Stark's father Howard. The presence of the two Avengers reactivates a robot by the name of Arsenal, which attacks believing them to be enemy agents.

I don't really see what warranted this story be be published as an Annual. The story doesn't seem all that special, it's just about the Avengers fighting just another giant robot. It could have easily been two regular issues and nobody would have been the wiser.

The story from Marvel Tales #100 is written by Scott Edelman and illustrated by Mike Nasse. Hawkeye and the Two-Gun Kid happen upon the Purple Man's lair and are forced to fight each other.

We never actually got to see much of what happened when the Two-Gun Kid decided to stay in the 20th Century. I would have liked to have seen him try to adjust to life in the modern day, but I will settle for a story of them fighting the Purple Man.

Marvel Premiere #49 is written by Mark Evanier and illustrated by Sal Buscema. The Falcon fails to stop an hitman named the Silencer from assassinating a foreign diplomat. However, the Falcon thinks he knows who is behind the mask.

I get the impression that Marvel Premiere was a try-out book to see if certain Marvel heroes were popular enough to get their own ongoing series. Doctor Strange was the lead character for a while before he got his second ongoing series and Iron Fist made his debut in the series before he went on to his own series. The series was also used as a means to finish the stories of characters whose series had been cancelled like Black Panther or Werewolf By Night. The Falcon issue wasn't intended as a try-out for a solo series, it was originally intended as a fill-in issue of the regular Captain America series. He would get his own limited series in the 80's though.

This collection took a while to get going with an Annual story about characters I didn't care about and some forgettable fill-in issues, but things soon got into gear when the David Michelinie and John Byrne issues started. The issues with the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver getting turned into puppets were a little silly, but fun. Then there was a cool fight with the Absorbing Man. The story about Wundagore, Chthon and more revelations about Wanda and Pietro's family history made my head spin a bit, but it was still a cool story.

My rating: 3.5 stars.

Next time: Batman- Road To No Man's Land Book 1