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Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes #4: Review

Feb 2005
Joe Casey, Scott Kolins

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Story Name:

(No title given)

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes #4 Review by (August 23, 2011)
Review: Full review found at issue #1.

Comments: Story takes place during the events of AVENGERS (Vol. 1) #8 with some changes to the original story.


Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes #4 Review by (October 9, 2011)
Apart from their buddies' series the Avengers also find time to appear elsewhere. Giant-Man and Iron Man help Reed Richards remove Dr Octopus's mechanical arms in flashback in Spider-Man Unlimited #18, and then all the Avengers appear in individual cameos when Doc Ock leads the Sinister Six against Spider-Man in his first Annual. They all (except Cap) attend Alicia Masters' sculpture exhibition in their civilian identities in Marvels #2. And this brings us to Av#8 and Kang. Kang's timeship is here shown as a sphere with a protrusion (which matches the one he used in earlier Fantastic Four appearances as Rama-Tut), rather than the UFO-like disc in Av#8. This issue concentrates on the final stage of the conflict. Rick Jones frees the captive Avengers, and then the ensuing fight is more-or-less like the original. Except that no mention is made of Wasp's role in bringing Giant-Man the acid-capsule gun. Just to round things off, I might as well throw in the new story from Av: Classic #8 where Rick Jones uses combat moves taught him by Cap in an attempt to impress a girl. But it backfires because she thinks he's a bully.

Apart from their buddies' series the Avengers also find time to appear elsewhere. Giant-Man and Iron Man help Reed Richards remove Dr Octopus's mechanical arms in flashback in Spider-Man Unlimited #18, and then all the Avengers appear in individual cameos when Doc Ock leads the Sinister Six against Spider-Man in his first Annual. They all (except Cap) attend Alicia Masters' sculpture exhibition in their civilian identities in Marvels #2. And this brings us to Av#8 and Kang. Kang's timeship is here shown as a sphere with a protrusion (which matches the one he used in earlier Fantastic Four appearances as Rama-Tut), rather than the UFO-like disc in Av#8. This issue concentrates on the final stage of the conflict. Rick Jones frees the captive Avengers, and then the ensuing fight is more-or-less like the original. Except that no mention is made of Wasp's role in bringing Giant-Man the acid-capsule gun. Just to round things off, I might as well throw in the new story from Av: Classic #8 where Rick Jones uses combat moves taught him by Cap in an attempt to impress a girl. But it backfires because she thinks he's a bully.

The Avengers also make several appearances between Av#7 and #8. They continue to guest in each other's titles, with Tony Stark in JiM#107, Avengers without Cap in JiM#108, the whole group in TtA#59, and everyone but Thor in ToS#58. The last 2 issues are significant. In ToS#58 Iron Man is tricked into fighting Cap, as a prelude to Cap joining him in ToS in separate adventures from #59. Similarly Giant-Man and the Wasp fight Hulk in TtA#59, before TtA becomes a split book from #60. Since Av#5 Hulk has appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #14. It is seeing reports of this fight that makes Giant-Man and Wasp go to Gen'l Ross's base to try to help Hulk (even though they wind up fighting him). This can be seen as a continuation of their concern for him at the beginning of last issue. Although TtA#59 obviously immediately precedes Hulk's debut in TtA#60, the Chronology Project delays the start of that series because for many issues it is a highly-continuous story. In the meantime they fit in some other appearances which mostly occur beyond the end of this issue. In later insertions Hulk fights Thundra from the future in Hulk: Raging Thunder and guest stars with the Avengers and everybody else in Untold Spider-Man Annual '97. Then he cameos in the non-flashback part of JiM#112.

The MCP also puts the DC/Marvel crossover Unlimited Access in this period, while the Indexes have it after Av#9. Either way Iron Man's old helmet with points above the eyes disagrees with this. I believe consideration of other characters in the crossover, especially X-Men, outweighed this anachronism. As well as gaining her sting Wasp continues to change her costume. She gets rid of its projecting shoulders and skirt in TtA#58, leaving a more form-fitting version. Two events happen in these individual issues that are relevant to Av#7. Loki sends the Enchantress and the Executioner against Thor in JiM#103, and Iron Man refuses to answer an Avengers summons in ToS#56 because he temporarily abandons his superhero identity. In Av#7 Iron Man is temporarily suspended from active duty because of ToS#56, and Odin banishes Enchantress and Executioner to Earth because of JiM#103. The 2 Asgardians team up with Baron Zemo and drug Thor into turning on his team-mates. IM ignores his suspension to join the battle, and eventually frees Thor from his enchanted state. Thor then sends the evil-doers into another dimension. The extra story in Av: Classic #7 shows how Enchantress, Executioner and Zemo escape from Dimension 6.5.

This issue picks up after Avengers #6 and takes us through the battle with Kang in Av#8, ignoring the 2nd meeting with Zemo in Av#7. Indeed it suggests that the sighting of Kang's ship occurs immediately after #6 and leads straight in to #8, which strongly contradicts the Marvel Chronology Project and the various Official Indexes which have lots of intervening stories. Captain America: Man Out Of Time #4 may help here by saying that Kang's ship is seen several times over a long period before it lands for a confrontation. Av: Classic #6's additional story has Wasp feeling like a 2nd-class Avenger (echoing earlier fears by Hank Pym which lead him to add growing to Giant-Man to his Ant-Man powers). Not long after this Hank will give her her stingers in Tales to Astonish #57. But for now she has to deal without them with teen robbers on the run. I think this may be the chronologically earliest example of Jan's normal clothes shrinking with her. Later it will be established that this only happens with special clothing, which I think make use of Reed Richards' unstable molecules. The Avengers take to appearing as a group in their individual members' series. Between Av#6 and #7 they crop up with Thor in Journey into Mystery #101 and #105 and with Iron Man in Tales of Suspense #56. Captain America isn't with them except in JiM#105, but he does appear with Giant-Man and Wasp in TtA#58. His absence in JiM#101 was actually because that issue was published before Cap turned up in Av#4, but the chronologies delay JiM#101 to now partly because #101-104 are continuous.




 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes #4 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

The injured Captain America relates to his Avengers teammates (Thor, Wasp, Giant-Man) a nightmare he had about Baron Zemo, Bucky’s killer and how all he can now think of is revenge. He is now able to describe in detail the death of his partner—and his hatred for Zemo….

Meanwhile, Iron Man is meeting with NSC liaison Agent Murch and General Paul Wallace of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, informing them that they will work with the military but not for them. Resigned to this state of affairs, the General tells him of an unexplained craft that has landed outside Waynesboro, Virginia, and asks the Avengers to check it out. Soon a military plane carrying a team of soldiers is on its way to the area, with the heroes on board. Cap has been lost in his thoughts until a GI asks to interview him for the military newspaper STARS AND STRIPES. The soldier asks Cap why he does what he does. Cap replies that he wears the colors because he believes in something greater than himself and that he and his fellow Avengers are fighting for freedom.
The alien ship belongs to the time-traveling warrior Kang the Conqueror….five hours later the press is reporting that the Avengers have been taken captive by the invader and may be dead…nine hours later, Rick Jones has managed to shut off the paralysis ray and the Avengers are free to confront their enemy. Cap rallies the heroes by calling on them to "Assemble!" Thor breaks through Kang’s force field long enough for Giant-Man to shoot a capsule at the villain releasing an acid that eats through his armor. Kang launches a neutrino missile into the air but Iron Man shoots it down with his repulsor rays. Thor uses his enchanted hammer Mjolnir to absorb Kang’s energy and fire it back at him. As his body nears critical mass, Kang escapes to his ship and flees the planet. An interviewer talks to Captain America who calmly explains that facing death is in their line, they are here to serve the people, fighting tyranny because it is the right thing to do. General Wallace receives a call from the President….

The Avengers are now national heroes, honored with a parade in New York. Privately Murch informs Iron Man that they now have their security clearance but…it all depends on the participation of Captain America. If he ever leaves the team, their clearance is revoked.

That night, Cap confides in Thor that the need for revenge against Zemo is consuming him; Thor suggests that the cure may lie in fulfilling his destiny. Cap realizes that means killing Zemo….


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Barberoids 1 cover original artwork on ebay

Scott Kolins
Scott Kolins
Morry Hollowell
Scott Kolins (Cover Penciler)
Scott Kolins (Cover Inker)
? (Cover Colorist)


Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Captain America
Captain America

(Steve Rogers)
Iron Man
Iron Man

(Tony Stark)
Jarvis
Jarvis

(Edwin Jarvis)
Kang
Kang

(Kang the Conqueror)
Thor
Thor

(Odinson)
Wasp
Wasp

(Janet Van Dyne)

Plus: Giant-Man (Scott Lang).

> Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes: Book info and issue index

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