Avengers #235: Review

Sep 1983

Roger Stern, Joe Sinnott

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Story Name:

Havoc on the Homefront

Review & Comments

Rating:

Avengers #235 Review by T Vernon (December 17, 2022)

Comments: Part one of three parts. The Wizard is one of Marvel’s earliest villains, introduced in Human Torch’s solo series in STRANGE TALES #102 (August, 1962); he was the longtime leader of the FF foes, the Frightful Four. The first page claims the Mansion was wrecked in FANTASTIC FOUR #257 but the Mansion doesn’t show up in that comic. She-Hulk is a fan of the Beach Boys.

Review: Nice tale from Roger Stern’s run on the series, where he concentrated on the interplay among the heroes rather than complicated plots, not to say the stories weren’t good but it’s the characters Stern liked best. Wizard, a smug jerk and usual Fantastic Four baddie, gets his comeuppance herein and it’s satisfying. And the Spidey appearance is to whet our appetites for the next issue…wherein Spidey is an obnoxious wise guy.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Avengers #235 Synopsis by T Vernon

Wasp directs repairs to Avengers Mansion while Captain America chooses not to question her working methods. He checks in on Scarlet Witch, sitting by and caring for her comatose husband Vision. Cap broods briefly over the recent changes in the Avengers lineup with Iron Man and Thor leaving as he heads to the gym to oversee Starfox’s daily training session—and the alien is late. He is in the park, canoodling with a young lady when he remembers his appointment and flies off to the mansion. Starfox arrives a few minutes late so Cap rebukes him; Starfox apologizes and Cap realizes he is really mad at Tony Stark and he apologizes to Eros before they start….

She-Hulk is jogging through Manhattan when a driver enters her crosswalk so she punches a hole in his hood. The driver accosts her, Jen threatens to get ugly and Spider-Man arrives to calm them both down and resolve that matter peaceably. Spidey and Jen chat: she mentions having trouble finding an apartment and refers to her Avengers stipend of $1000 per week. Spidey is dumbstruck at the amount….

At a Vermont prison, the Wizard is being questioned about the whereabouts of the Plantman. Then an agent x-raying Wizard discovers he has no skeleton, being a plant-based construct. Fake Wizard tries to escape and is shot down. The real Wizard is in his high-tech Long Island mansion and learns that the imposture was discovered and now he will have to review his defensive systems….

Raymond Sikorsky of the National Security Council is briefed on the Wizard’s escape so he calls the Avengers. The team assembles and Wasp lays out the map of places Wizard has used as a lair in the past. Scarlet Witch asks to be left behind to watch over Vision; Wasp demurs and assigns that duty to Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau). The others split into two teams, Cap, Shulkie, and Wanda are one and Wasp and Starfox make up the other….

Cap’s team heads to Wizard’s mansion and they enter, splitting up to search so Wizard springs his traps. Shulkie enters a room unaware that a teleporter is placed so that she keeps entering the same room without knowing it. Cap enters a room with an anti-gravity field and lasers firing at him as he spins through the air. Scarlet Witch walks into a chamber with a pocket of non-causality, interfering with her hex power. So Jen smashes her way out, Cap uses a laser to shoot his way out, and Wanda fires a hex through the floor, blasting Wizard. The baddie tries to escape so Wanda hexes him into a crash-landing; Wizard threatens to detonate a nuclear device under the mansion but Cap had already spotted it and removed the detonator….

Back at Avengers Mansion, Cap praises Wasp for her leadership decisions, as do Wanda, and Cap M….

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