Avengers, The (1963 series) #151

Although Thor says that Two-Gun Kid has offered to be on call with Hawkeye, they only refer to *Hawkeye* as being on detached duty. Thus it is not clear if TGK has become an Avenger here. Yellowjacket may claim not to be a full-time member, but he'll be in most issues through to #230. Thor probably transports Hellcat and Moondragon to Titan where, despite MD's stated intention to investigate Earth, the priestess will give the newbie mental training. But in Defenders #44 we will learn that the training is cut short by a threat which Hellcat is sent to Earth to warn about. Patsy then stays with the Defenders. Moondragon will guest in An#7 and Marvel Two-In-One An#2 (a 2-part Thanos story) and will be sucked into the Korvac/Michael saga. Meanwhile Thor goes off for an extended series of adventures in his own title from #239, a lot of them out in space. He will also appear in several Avengers issues leading up to and during the Michael saga, time-sharing in a mysterious way that will be explained then. As mentioned last issue Wonder Man was an Avenger for just #9, and died a hero. (In his recent app in the Celestial Madonna story he was brought through time from before his death.) Vision was given his brain patterns. WM's brother Grim Reaper blames the Avengers for Simon's death, and was seen to have his preserved body in #102&107. You will not be surprised to learn that GR has something to do with WM's reappearance here.

The Official Index places Ben Grimm's appearance before Fantastic Four #171. Ben lost his powerful body in FF#167, and Mr Fantastic gave him a powered Thing suit FF#170. Of course he regained his power soon after. The suit will eventually be reused by Darla Deering in the 2012 F(uture) F(oundation). The FF lineup changes Ben remembers are:- Medusa replaced Invisible Girl from FF#132 after Sue left Reed to look after their comatose son. She stayed until FF#159, even after Reed and Sue were reconciled. Thundra appeared several times during that era, usually on the FF's side, but I don't think she ever actually joined the team. But Power Man *did* join the team in FF#168-170 when they were Thingless as mentioned above. Ben obviously forgets about Crystal replacing Sue while she was looking after her newborn son in FF#81-95. The Champions are here between #6&7 of their own mag. Angel and Iceman left the X-Men in Uncanny X-Men #94 after the debut of the new team in Giant-Size X-Men #1. (Beast had already left for his Amazing Adventures. Cyclops had remained as team leader. Marvel Girl officially quit, but soon got dragged back in.) Gerry Conway isn't plugging series he's involve in with the last 2 scenes. The only connection is that George Perez was currently pencilling the FF.

The page breakdown is explained in detail in the letters page of #154. It agrees with where I have Jim taking over from Steve, but it gives Steve 6 pages and Jim only 5. Then Gerry doesn't write my suggested 6th page, but instead does the penultimate page of the issue, with the new lineup mobbed by the press and the onlookers. This mishmash is certainly a lot better than it sounds. Helped of course immensely by George Perez' pencils on the inside, and Jack Kirby on the cover for the 1st time since #30 (unless I'm right about #148). And Jack will be here up to #158. The letters page says that Gerry's additions contain plot points for his future issues. I don't think the Thing and Champions pages fit this description. But the old man is the Golden-Age Whizzer who claimed to be the father of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch in Giant-Size #1. The son he talks about is Nuklo from GS#1. He will become a regular cast member from #153. His stay will include Annual #6 where the supervillain with the Army will turn out to be Living Laser, in a plot involving Whizzer's missing son.

The price rises to 30¢ with this issue. The letters page explains why this issue has 3 scripters. The whole story should have been in last issue. Steve Englehart plotted it, but then ran out of time to write it all. (Due to the Marvel method of working the artist would have drawn the whole issue from the plot and Englehart would write the dialogue and captions afterwards.) When Steve had trouble Jim Shooter wrote the last 6 pages, but not in time. Englehart's 1st 6 pages were used in #150, the rest of the issue filled out with relevant reprint material from #16. This left 5 pages written by Steve and 6 pages written by Jim for #151. Gerry Conway takes over as editor from this issue, and will be scripter from next issue. He wrote 6 additional pages for George Perez to draw to fill the issue out. They are inserted at various points in the book. These are mainly the 4 scenes of other characters watching the news coverage, including the splash page of Thing. But these only add up to 5 pages. My guess for the 6th page would be the page full of Avengers who joined since #16. On that basis Steve's script takes us up to Beast accepting the offer of membership, and Jim starts with Wasp's objection.