Avengers, The (1963 series) #150

The Lady Liberators were only seen in #83 where a disguised Enchantress formed the team, including Avengers' ally Black Widow and Inhuman Medusa. Iron Man's faceplate lost the controversial nose in IM#85, but the change was bigger than that. The OI just calls it an upgrade, but the Iron Man Armory gives it a new number Model 6 - the depolarising armour. Tony's permanent chestplate is now soft when not in action. But at a signal it extrudes the rest of the armour and then the whole thing stiffens. The early Avengers took turns to be chairman. Cap was probably undisputed (except by Hawkeye and Quicksilver) chairman after #16 until he left in #47. Thereafter the chairmanship probably rotated again, even after Cap, Iron Man and Thor 'permanently' rejoined in #93. Vision is seen chairing a meeting in #98, while Iron Man takes charge in #112. Some time after that Cap presumably became permanent chairman, because Thor says in Giant-Size #4 that *he* took over from him when Cap left after GS#1. Despite the promise of an election Iron Man will remain chairman for while now. The mention of Wonder Man in the TV summary is a set up for the end of next issue.

This is a disappointment for something billed as a 150th anniversary special - two-thirds is a reprint of #16 (because Steve Englehart couldn't finish the script on time), and some of the rest is a review of even earlier issues. Archie Goodwin is editor for just this 1 issue. The full cast from recent issues is here:- Beast, Captain America, Hellcat, Iron Man, Moondragon, Scarlet Witch, Thor and Vision along with the returning Wasp and Yellowjacket. Hawkeye is off in the mid-West with Two-Gun Kid. Hellcat hasn't been in any comics designated as occurring since #149, and Moondragon was only in Marvel Team-Up #44,51. W&YJ are *not* just released from hospital. According to the Official Index since their release in #148 the couple visited the Mansion in the out-of-sequence #146 and even stayed overnight in the equally misplaced CA#224. So dialogue must be changed to say either that they are deliberately here for the roster change or just happened to pop in without knowing it was going on. George Perez 1st draws here the chairs with personalised emblems on the back that will be a feature of his Avengers meeting room. Of course Sal Buscema introduced the idea back in #72, but I'm not sure anyone apart from him reused it since then.