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Invaders, The #3: Review

Jul 2013
Roy Thomas, Dave Hoover

Story Name:

Your Young Men Shall See Visions

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

Invaders, The #3 Review by (February 21, 2023)

Review: Whoa! This installment of the miniseries is a bit top-heavy with characters explaining themselves to their partners, their enemies, and their readers. All of this exposition was necessary (for the most part) but to cram it all together so that the other three issues could concentrate on the plot was a sacrifice Roy Thomas was willing to make. Once it’s all out there in the open we can move along with the bad guys’ scheme to unleash and earthquake on the US which is a fine old fashioned supervillain plot. And Aarkus, in his modern debut, is a pretty formidable bad guy, even though he’s a good guy. Blazing Skull is cool, a dude sent to fight for peace while looking like a monster from the bowels of hell; no wonder he hasn’t been successful, but boy, does he look cool, anticipating Ghost Rider by a few decades. And it’s always a joy to be able to write “transfusion of mongoose blood.”

Comments: The Golden Age Vision a/k/a Aarkus was introduced in MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS #13 and ran through issue #48 of that title; this is his first modern appearance and he will continue with THE NEW INVADERS and other titles. Title comes from the Bible, Joel 2:28 to be exact, famously quoted in the New Testament in Acts 2:17. Miss America references the popular radio show FIBBER MCGEE AND MOLLY. Ian Akin contributed to the inking. Includes text article by Roy Thomas “More Invaders Than You Can Shake a Swastika At,” giving capsule histories of the miniseries’ heroes.  






 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invaders, The #3 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

The Human Torch finds himself the prisoner of Battle-Axis along with Whizzer and burns his way out of the tube he is held in and aims to take on his captors but he is drenched in water and subdued. Torch demands that Golem, a Polish Jew, explain why he is helping the Nazis but Golem doesn’t answer. Torch then confronts Dr. Death, who explains he is Dr. James Bradley, former partner of Torch’s creator, Phineas Horton. The two fought over their handling of their creation and Bradley quit and took a second, incomplete android with him, becoming a crime fighter but eventually joining the Nazi cause. The other Battle-Axis members chime in: Spider Queen’s husband was killed by the Russians so she joined the Nazis to get revenge. Strongman gained his powers and decided he would be more at home among the Nazis who worshipped strength. Human Meteor is Irish and so naturally hates the British so he joined the Nazis. Amnesiac Volton just feels right as a Nazi. Dr. Death also explains their big scheme, Project Mojave. They are under the California desert and have built an oscillotron which they will use to create a massive earthquake, devastating the US West Coast and knocking the USA out of the War….

The Invaders (Captain America, Sub-Mariner) and allies (Miss America, Silver Scorpion, Blazing Skull) head west in Namor’s airship. Silver Scorpion explains how she was a friend of Professor Carson who created the armor for her though she is still unused to wearing it but the Battle-Axis killed her boss/crush Dan Hurley and she needs to avenge that. Meanwhile, Blazing Skull explains himself: he was a reporter who found an underground race of “Skull-Men,” was given their powers, and sent back to the surface world to fight for peace. Cap adds very brief versions of his (Super-Soldier Serum), Namor’s (born that way), Miss America’s (electrical accident), and Whizzer’s (transfusion of mongoose blood) so that everyone is caught up. SS confesses that she doesn’t know the location of the baddies’ secret lair, only that it’s under a dead lake; she lied so that they would bring her along. Namor’s ship uses sonar to see which lake is camouflaged. A huge gun rises from the ground and fires on them, bringing down the aircraft but Miss America is able to fly out and enter the base through the gun’s hatch. She fights a bunch of Nazi guards but is captured by Human Meteor. Then the rest of the team arrives and there is a big battle. Dr. Death forces his top scientist to turn on the Dimension Smasher which opens a gateway to another dimension and brings through the Vision, an alien named Aarkus, Destroyer of Evil. He surprises everyone by using his freezing powers to subdue Namor—because he knows Dr. Death controls the machine that can send him back to his own dimension. Aarkus then freezes Silver Scorpion and Golem bashes the distracted Captain America and Blazing Skull, leaving all of the heroes at the villains’ mercy….



Dave Hoover
Brian Garvey
Paul Becton
Dave Hoover (Cover Penciler)
Dave Hoover (Cover Inker)
? (Cover Colorist)


Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Captain America
Captain America

(Steve Rogers)
Human Torch
Human Torch

(Jim Hammond)
Vision
Vision

(Aarkus)

Plus: Blazing Skull (Mark Todd), Silver Scorpion (Betty Barlow), Whizzer.

> Invaders, The: Book info and issue index

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