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Avengers Spotlight #24: Review

Nov 1989
Howard Mackie, Al Milgrom

Story Name:

A Show of Hands

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

Avengers Spotlight #24 Review by (July 20, 2022)

Review: And so it goes: action, comedy, passable art, and nothing more than a lot of fun.

The Firebird story is a lot more narratively and thematically complex, oddly retconning a minor character and then getting her past her trauma with some final narration. Firebird is a rare character with an actual religious motivation, and it’s a bit stronger than the occasional Catholicism of Nightcrawler or Kitty Pryde’s or Ben Grimm’s even less remarked on Jewish identity. And this leads her to a crisis of faith, having mistaken a scientific accident for a gift and calling from God but in the end she discovers the concept of primary and secondary causes, ingrained in the Scriptures and the theologies that sprang from them, which she seems never to have encountered before. Not sure of the point of it all was.

Comments: First story: Part three of four parts. Trick Shot (here spelled as one word) was first seen in SOLO AVENGERS 1-5. This is the second Razor-Fist, introduced in MASTER OF KUNG FU #105. Crossfire faced Hawkeye in HAWKEYE #4. Hawkeye makes a joke about the 1960s comedy team the Smothers Brothers. Second story: Firebird debuted in INCREDIBLE HULK #265 and appeared in WEST COAST AVENGERS #4-25. The cover refers to her a Espirita, a name used temporarily before returning to the more familiar Firebird; the name “Espirita” appears in passing only once in the story itself. Only appearance of the other SHIELD (Society of Higher Interstellar Education and Logistical Development).





 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Avengers Spotlight #24 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

Escaping the Death Throws onto a rooftop, an unarmed Hawkeye comes face-to-face with his archenemy Trick Shot, aiming an arrow at him. But Trick Shot turns out to be there to help the hero, firing his arrows to disarm and immobilize Knicknack. TS helps Hawkeye into an alley where he bandages his wounds and explains to the hero why all of these familiar foes are suddenly after him. A mystery villain has put a bounty on Clint’s arm; one of Hawkeye’s severed arms will bring a hefty price to anyone who can deliver with the caveat that the reward is forfeited if Hawkeye dies. Suspicious of Trick Shot’s motives, Hawkeye sneaks off on his own when his rescuer’s back is turned and heads down into the sewers. But he is unaware that he has been under surveillance and soon all of the bad guys know where he is too. Hawkeye runs into the killer Razor-Fist who is trying to kill him, having decided that the reputation of having killed an Avenger is of much more value to him than the bounty for taking his arm. Hawkeye uses a glue-type arrow to stick his opponent’s blades together and knock him out. But then all of the other villains arrive, blocking the tunnels: the Brothers Grimm, Mad-Dog, Bobcat, Bullet Biker, the Death Throws and, finally, the villain who set the bounty: Crossfire….

“Waste Not, Want Not” 3.5/5
Writer: Fabian Nicieza. Pencils: Gavin Curtis. Inks: Steve Buccellato. Colors: Steve Buccellato. Letters: Richard Starkings.
Synopsis: Firebird is trapped by a motley group of aliens of different species who have her suspended in a force field while they study her. They come to understand her language and then survey her development from her recent adventures to her association with the West Coast Avengers back to her encounter with a meteor of cold fire that endowed her with her abilities to control heat energy and it is this last that attracts the aliens’ concerted attention. She bursts free and demands to know who they are and what they want from her. They explain that they are SHIELD (Society of Higher Interstellar Education and Logistical Development) and she is aboard their orbiter. They have been examining her and have learned that her powers are the result of exposure to the carelessly discarded remains of a young student’s failed science project. Firebird is shattered, having believed that her powers were a gift from God and now she is nothing. But in the weeks that followed she came to a greater understanding of the complexity of her abilities and realized her powers were still from God but by a rather circuitous route and now she is ready to fulfill her calling….



Al Milgrom
Don Heck
Evan Skolnick
Steve Geiger (Cover Penciler)
Steve Geiger (Cover Inker)
? (Cover Colorist)
Letterer: Jack Morelli.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Hawkeye
Hawkeye

(Clint Barton)

Plus: Brothers Grimm, Crossfire, Death Throws, Firebird, Mad Dog (Robert Baxter), Razor-Fist, Trick Shot (Buck Chisholm).

> Avengers Spotlight: Book info and issue index

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