Avengers #182: Review

Apr 1979

David Michelinie, John Byrne

Story Name:

Honor thy father

Review & Comments

Rating:

Avengers #182 Review by Rob Johnson (December 4, 2014)

Part of Django Maximoff's reminiscences reveals that *he* was the puppet maker in a flashback in the previous month's Spider-Woman #12. He made special puppets that the owner could animate with their life force. He gave 2 to Iron Man's old 1-off foe Mr Doll (Tales of Suspense #48). But Nathan Dolly's divided spirit got trapped in the dolls and they became the Brothers Grimm, seen since SW#3. (They die in that issue, and the Brothers Grimm starting in IM#188 will be totally different guys.) The Avengers team Django sees a picture of seems to be Black Panther, Captain America, Iron Man, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. The only period they were all together (apart from the mass gathering in #100) would be some of the issues in the range #75-88. And in those issues the team also included Goliath (Clint Barton), Thor and Vision. It's costume-change time again for Wasp, ditching the drab orange 1 for a striking new black and red affair. Cap pilots the sky-scooter seen in #171 (which I described there as a flying teacup), with Beast, Hawkeye and Jocasta as passengers. Iron Man, Vision, Wasp and Yellowjacket of course fly under their own power.

Thor leaves to confront Eternals and Celestials in Th#283-285 before popping back for Annual #9. Yellowjacket will appear in Marvel Premier #48 (the 2nd half of Scott Lang's origin as Ant-Man) before wandering back into this title in that Annual too. Wonder Man will return even sooner in #186, after guesting in Marvel Two-In-One #51 (featuring the regular poker game including Beast and Ms Marvel) and cameoing in Fantastic Four Annual #14. They can't get rid of Hawkeye so easily. Despite leaving the team he'll be heavily involved in the next few issues. Jocasta will continue hanging around Avengers Mansion, despite Henry Gyrich's misgivings, to be seen next in #185. Some of the official team take time out to help Black Panther (still in New York) in his #14-15 against Klaw. Beast, Cap and Vision are in both issues, Iron Man and Scarlet Witch only in #14. Maybe in #15 Wanda is packing for her trip.

From Our Blog:

Gwen Stacy, beauty queen of Standard High School, was Peter Parker's (alias Spider-Man) first great love.

Gwen Stacy: Classic Beauty

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Avengers #182 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

Dr Don Blake (secret id of Thor) is caring for the unmoving bodies of mutant siblings Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. But he tells Wanda's husband Vision that there's nothing he can do to bring them back. His unscientific (but correct) diagnosis is that someone has stolen their souls.

Vision, followed by Captain America and Hawkeye, goes to join the other Avengers who are trying to find out what caused their friends to collapse. Yellowjacket's ants didn't detect anything. Iron Man can't find anything relevant in the Avengers database, that they now have access to again as part of the reinstatement by the government of their privileges.

Wasp and Beast can't resist getting in a dig at their government liaison Henry Peter Gyrich. Some characters like Captain Marvel might have been able to sense something the others are missing, but HPG ordered them to leave last issue as part of the tightening of security. Gyrich chooses not to remark that Hawkeye, Yellowjacket and Wonder Man (also still here) are also not on the reduced official team (6 here including Wanda but not her brother Pietro), and that they must vacate the premises by tomorrow.

Suddenly the robot Jocasta says her cybernetic senses picked up an organic energy when the twins fell. And she has traced it to a place in the Bowery. Gyrich is disturbed because he thought she was a statue. If she's intelligent she needs clearance like anyone else. But Jocasta confuses him by asking if mere machines need security passes. Henry Peter leaves to check the regulations.

Wonder Man offers to stay behind on monitor duty. Simon Williams is leaving to become an actor, and he jokes that it wouldn't do to spoil his looks in a fight. Hawkeye isn't going to waste his last day on the team, so he and YJ and Jocasta accompany the 5 ambulatory current Avengers to the Bowery.

There we see the mysterious old man who has Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch's souls trapped in puppets. He says his name is Django Maximoff, and calls them his children Mateo and Ana. Despite their insistence that they are Pietro and Wanda Frank and their parents are the WWII heroes Whizzer and Miss America (as revealed in Giant-Size Avengers #1).

Django insists that they are Ana and Mateo, and they had their mutant powers when they lived with his gypsy tribe. Also he was the tribal shaman and possessed the magic Nivashi Stone.

But then their mother died in an attack by xenophobic villagers, and the twins were lost in a river. Django spent long years searching for them, but eventually settled down in Russia as a puppet maker. 1 day he saw a picture of the Avengers, a rarity in Soviet newspapers and he recognised his children. Since then he saved up his money to come to America, and used the Nivashi Stone to make the special puppets to trap their souls.

Maximoff hears the Avengers arriving, and attacks them with animated costumed dummies from a theatrical supply shop. This only holds them long enough to supply the cover for this issue. Then they enter the cheap hotel Django's staying in.

But when they get to his room Maximoff appears as a younger man, and the interior of the room is floating in space. They are attacked by Toad, Princess Python and Nighthawk, representations to them of gypsy totems. All this is of course an illusion. And as soon as they recognise that, reality returns.

Now-old-again Maximoff tries to escape with his puppet children. But puppet Wanda calls out to Vision, and he bars the way. Scarlet Witch begs her husband not to harm the old man, but tells him that the Nivashi Stone is the source of Django's power. So Vizh incinerates it.

The puppets slump lifeless, and back in the Mansion Pietro and Wanda revive. The Avengers take Django Maximoff home with them.

Later Scarlet Witch takes a leave of absence so she and Quicksilver can accompany their 'father' to Europe to check out his claims.