Avengers #4

2nd story:- This continues from New Avengers #3. Hawkeye mentions his past with Swordsman, Trickshot and Black Widow. Swordsman and Trickshot trained him in archery, as described in Avengers #19 and Solo Avengers #3 respectively. Black Widow led him astray in various issues of Tales of Suspense starting with #57, before reforming. A footnote says Black Widow refused to be interviewed for the book. This is the first mention of these chapters being part of a book on the Avengers. Spider-Man will actually be offered Avengers membership in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #3, but will turn it down due to a misunderstanding. It will be a ,long time after that before he serves a brief stint in Av#329-333, and then another long gap before he joins up properly in New Avengers (2005) #1. To be continued in New Avengers #4, where Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch will sign up.

This is part 4 of 6 of the Avengers' Heroic Age story The Next Avengers, in which the Avengers have to stop the whole of space/time/alternity collapsing. (No pressure then.) Killraven first appeared in Amazing Adventures #18 in 1973, where he fought Martians who have taken over the Earth in 2001. Needless to say, since then this has been declared an alternative timeline. Killraven met Spider-Man in Marvel Team-Up #45, while Spidey was adrift in time after a temporal adventure with Dr Doom. There have already been alternate versions of Killraven in some comics. This one seems to have been ripped from within the main character's sequence, and so must be another alternate. Devil Dinosaur is another invention of the 70's. He had his own title by Jack Kirby set in his own prehistoric era. Which is another alternate reality because it has dinosaurs coexisting with pre-humans. He has been brought into the modern Marvel reality several times, and has recently been living in the Savage Land. And he'll still be there in the Skaar: King of the Savage Land limited series published after this. The dinosaur in this issue is never actually called Devil Dinosaur, but the red colour is distinctive. Hopefully he's another alternate version, without his pal Moon-Boy, because he comes to an ignominious end here. This story also never gives names to the Next Avengers, nor who their Avenging parents are. I'll reveal the information contained in their DVD when I get to #6. The aged Iron Man was also in the Next Avengers film. As was an old Hulk. But I don't believe he was called Maestro, and didn't have Maestro's look. And his young white-haired female companion remains a mystery.