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The Avengers #49

Feb 1968
Roy Thomas, John Buscema

The Avengers #49 cover

Story Name:

Mine is the power

Synopsis

The Avengers #49 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
Image from The Avengers #49
Hercules continues to explore the Olympus he found deserted in the last 2 issues. Returning to the vital Promethean Flame which has been doused and wrecked he is attacked by Typhon, 1 of the ancient Greek Titans. Typhon complains how Zeus banished him long ago, and he recently returned for revenge. He boasts that 'twas he who destroyed the Flame without which the Greek Gods can't survive. (As a Titan he expected to be unaffected.) But even he was surprised when the entire Greek pantheon faded away.

But now back to the main plot. In the last 2 issues Magneto returned to Earth and kidnapped Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch hoping to make them part of his Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants again. Herc is off on his personal mission above and Captain America has resigned from the team. A new good-guy Black Knight came to tell the remaining Avengers Goliath, Hawkeye and Wasp where Magneto was, but by the time they reached Garrett Castle their quarry had gone. While they wait for more news, Henry Pym is keeping busy perfecting a cybernetic helmet that will help him as Ant-Man, and keeping from the other 2 his fear that his growing to 25 feet last issue may have scuppered his career as Goliath.

Meanwhile Magneto's Magno-Ship has arrived at his island base that he raised from the ocean floor (in X-Men #4). Inside the island Magneto shows the Toad and his 'guests' a world of magnetically-powered machinery. He tries again to convince the 2 Avengers to rejoin his Brotherhood but now claims that his goal is not conquest but to provide a home here for the maligned mutants of the world. To this end he takes them to the UN HQ where he addresses TV cameras, which alerts the Avengers to get over there. Then he bulls his way past security guards to confront the Assembly to demand mutants be given a nation, with a seat on the UN Security Council.

The UN members object to Magneto's tone so he magnetically hurls a microphone at the apparent ringleader. But an arrow from Hawkeye smashes it. The Avenging Archer's non-metallic costume is proof against Maggy's magnetism and he easily dodges (in fact leap-frogs) the Toad. Then a guard shoots at the Master Of Magnetism but he diverts the shot to graze Wanda's skull. This was his plan, to incite Pietro's instinctive distrust of humans. Goliath gets here at last but Magneto makes Quicksilver think he's being attacked so he retaliates. Hawkeye ties him up with a rope arrow but Pietro's swift feet enable him to ram the archer in the guts. Then he picks up his fallen sister and the 4 mutants exit the chamber. Wasp tries to talk to him but he bats her away. They leave in the Magno-Ship. And the Avengers retire to lick their wounds and pride.

Finally we return to Hercules battling Typhon. The Titan fires blasts from his battleaxe and summons a monster from another dimension. After killing it the Prince Of Power discovers Typhon viewing Earth and planning to conquer it. But another axe-blast sends Herc to the place where the other Olympians have gone.


 

Review / Commentaries

The Avengers #49 Review by (May 14, 2022)
John Buscema's back on the pencilling after taking an issue off. And for this issue and next he's also inking his own work.

The mythological Typhon *wasn't* 1 of the Titans. He was a giant serpent-man with 100  snake-heads. Like the Titans he was defeated by Zeus and banished to Tartarus in the underworld. Roy Thomas knows his mythology so he has Hercules saying that mortals believed that Typhon had 100 dragon-heads.

This is the 1st mention of the idea of a mutant nation, an idea which will later be implemented in Genosha, Utopia and now Krakoa.

Magneto, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and Toad will go from here to X-Men #43-45 and then back here for #53 which is an Av/XM crossover.

This whole storyline will be revisited via time-travel in 1999's Domination Factor series.

Next issue resolves the Hercules storyline, but it ends with him leaving the Avengers and returning to Olympus.

> The Avengers comic book info and issue index

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Main/1st Story Full Credits

John Buscema
John Buscema
Unknown
John Buscema (Cover Penciler)
John Buscema (Cover Inker)
Unknown (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Art Simek.
Editor: Stan Lee.

Characters

All stories. Listed in alphabetical order.

Avengers
Avengers
Hawkeye
Hawkeye
(Clinton Barton)
Hercules
Hercules
(Heracles)
Magneto
Magneto
Quicksilver
Quicksilver
(Pietro Maximoff)
Scarlet Witch
Scarlet Witch
(Wanda Maximoff)
Wasp
Wasp
(Janet Van Dyne)
Plus: Goliath (Hank Pym), Toad (Mortimer Toynbee), Typhon.

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