Avengers #70: Review

Oct 2003

Geoff Johns, Olivier Coipel

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Story Name:

Red zone part 6: The great escape

Review & Comments

Rating:

Avengers #70 Review by Rob Johnson (February 27, 2021)

For the 3rd issue running they've used the title The Great Escape.
And for all 6 issues of this story arc J G Jones has painted the cover while Albert Deschesne helped Richard Starkings with the lettering.

Red Skull of course will be back in Captain America (2002) #29-32, the Avengers Disassembled issues.

Henry Gyrich may be staying on as Avengers liaison but he won't grace these pages again until #83. In between he'll appear in several Iron Man issues starting with #75.

Warbird will show up next as Jessica Jones' friend in a Alias #24 and #28 before also appearing in IM#75.

Next issue tells us what Wasp and Yellowjacket have been doing during the Red Zone arc. And they'll still be absent in the following storyline, the Hunt For She-Hulk. But Cap, Iron Man and Scarlet Witch will be there for #72-75, and recovered Ant-Man and Jack Of Hearts will join them in #73.
Black Panther, Falcon and Vision will sit it out and be back for #76.

With these long story arcs the Marvel Chronology Project has to stick other apps where it can. There are quite a few before #72.
Cap and IM cameo in the Spider-Man: Black & Blue & Read All Over 1-shot.
Then IM has his own #70-72 Vegas Bleeds Neon wherein Tony changes his armour again.
Cap, Ant-Man and (still here?) Warbird are in Alias #24 as Jessica Jones' past with Killgrave the Purple Man resurfaces.
Cap and Daredevil interrogate X-23 about her past in the X-23:Target X mini-series.
Ant-Man is in Alias #27 as Jessica's boyfriend, and then the whole team apart from Black Panther are in #28 as Jess defeats Killgrave and tells Scott Lang that she's pregnant but it's not his. And she tells Luke Cage it's his. That's the end of series, to be continued in Pulse. Wasp and Yellowjacket are included, so they'r back from Vegas (next issue). Warbird's there again. But then so is She-Hulk leaping through the air in the background in 1 panel. But she's currently gone missing in our series so we jhave to squint and pretend she's not there.
In Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #57-58 and #500 (the Happy Birthday arc) Dormammu and his Mindless Ones fight Spidey, Dr Strange and lots of heroes including IM and Thor. This is after Lord Thor's 'madness' which span off into an alternate future in his #67-79, at the end of which he realised the error of his ways and went back in time to stop it happening. Now he's regained his 'humanity' but will only have guest apps until it's time for his extended part of Avengers Disassembled in his #80-85.
J Jonah Jameson experiences his own version of A Christmas Carol in Marvel Holiday Special 2004 as lots of heroes fight lots of villains in the background the Avengers are represented here by Cap, IM, Wasp, YJ, Thor and Hawkeye who will be with the team in #73-76.

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 #70 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

Red Skull in his role as US Secretary Of Defence Dell Rusk has had created a mutated necrotising fasciitis bacteria which he caused to be released from a US biolab beneath Mount Rushmore. The Red Zone is threatening to engulf South Dakota but Avengers Scarlet Witch and Warbird are on the case. Carol Danvers flies around and uses her hand blasts to ignite a large pentacle around Wanda Maximoff to help her focus her Chaos Magic. The Witch casts a mighty spell which erects a giant wall of earth and water to keep the bacteria 'gas' contained. (And it incidentally burns all her clothes off.)

Meanwhile in the Pentagon Red Skull has captured Black Panther and Tony Stark to stop them developing a cure, plus Falcon and Henry Peter Gyrich to stop them exposing him. But the Avengers have uncovered the whole plot and Captain America arrived last issue to confront him. However Skull now has him trapped in a container full of the bacteria. Last issue ended with BP and Iron Man escaping and also confronting the villain.

IM tells T'Challa their priority is to save Cap before the contagion overwhelms his Super-Soldier serum. But RS had revealed how he was going to blame the bio-weapon on Wakanda so angry Panther attacks him while Shellhead moves towards Cap. But before Gyrich turned against Rusk he delivered to him some info about Iron Man's armour, and Skull now presses a button which disables the suit leaving Stark helpless as the 'gas'-filled container expands to enclose *him* as well as Steve Rogers. Beaten and bleeding Henry apologises for betraying his team-mates.

Johann Schmidt taunts the 'subhuman' T'Challa with what he's going to do to Africa. Panther deliberately takes off his gloves so that it will be his black skin that beats the villain into submission. As they fight Tony takes off his helmet, exposing himself to contagion so that he can give Steve mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Dell Rusk shot Falcon in the back in #68, and now he hangs in chains on a wall (outside the 'gas' chamber). But he summons up the strength to mentally contact his falcon Redwing. Who arrives with a flock of other large birds (through the broken window which was Cap's entry last issue). They slash at Red Skull giving Panther the chance to break his jaw.

Then BP uses his anti-metal claws to rip open the 'glass' container holding his 2 comrades. Cap's superhuman body is recovering but all-too-human Tony has succumbed to the disease. Steve tells T'Challa that Schmidt has antibodies for the bacteria in his blood to protect him. So the Panther unsheathes his claws to get some.

Later Stark Enterprises and Wakanda's CDC announce they've found an enzyme that will break down the red cloud of bacteria, and military planes spray over the enclosed affected area. Meanwhile Red Skull's involvement is made public and the US CDC cultivate his antidote and start injecting the surviving victims.

In Avengers Mansion Ant-Man and Jack Of Hearts (injured by a berserk She-Hulk in #68) are hospitalised under the care of Edwin Jarvis, but Falcon and Gyrich are recovering on their feet. T'Challa and Tony Stark bury the hatchet of their grudge and formally agree a technology sharing deal between SE and Wakanda. Warbird is leaving the Avengers to join Homeland Security as Chief Field Leader. The President offers Henry Gyrich an advisor job, but HPG elects to remain as UN liaison for the team - and Cap enthusiastically welcomes that. And Scarlet Witch and Vision visit young Paul (who Cap rescued from the Red Zone in #65) who is recovering well in hospital.

And a TV news bulletin says She-Hulk is still missing. We'll follow up on that in #72.

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