Giant-Size Avengers #3

The confusion over the state of the Unliving Legion continues. Despite sometimes being described as dead this issue, when they are returned to when the came from Midnight and Wonder Man are shown as alive, in the comic panels that the original Avengers Index says they came from. And the Ghost is similarly in the quoted panel, although he of course *is* dead but still active. Due to an editorial mix-up Torch isn't here when the story continues in Av#133. He was presumably sent back whence he came, and Vision has to learn their secret connection alone. This issue includes a reprint of Avengers vs Space Phantom from Av#2. Presumably *not* because many years from then Avengers Forever will claim that Immortus uses Space Phantoms in disguise as his minions. It will claim that the characters supposedly brought forward from history by Immortus in Av#8 were in fact such SPs. AvF#9 doesn't mention the Legion of the Unliving in its history of Kang. Probably because it would suggest that the characters Kang used Immortus' machinery to grab from history in Av#131, including Human Torch, were also in fact SPs. Which would mess up a lot of the story between there and here.

Hawkeye didn't actually see Human Torch kill Iron Man in Av#132, because he'd already left to round up the other Avengers. Kang on the other hand *should* have known about it because he *was* there when it happened. An editorial comment says Baron Zemo must have spare paste-gun because 1 was destroyed when he dies in Av#15. However the theory that the Legion of the Unliving were actually brought from times just *before* their deaths means that he would still have the paste-gun from Av#15. But he'd still need a spare because Hawkeye destroyed 1 in Av#132. We are never told how exactly Torch saves Vision, but presumably it's all down to his intimate knowledge of the workings of his own body.

Mantis' comments during the fight with Midnight indicate that she is coming to believe that she *was* taught by the Kree Priests of Pama, as Libra and Star-Stalker related in Av#123 and #124 - even to the extent of swearing by Pama. The star over Avengers Mansion announcing the Celestial Madonna is here described as a mini-star which is therefore presumably floating much nearer its target, thus answering my complaint about Av#129. The policeman's walkie-talkie is very advanced, having a viewscreen for the time. Reed Richards and/or Tony Stark have obviously been busy inventing. We don't know it yet but we've been seeing the escaped Libra as the hooded figure in Av#130-132.

The cover blurb of Avengers #132 predicted 1 of Iron Man, Mantis or Thor would die. This issues cover does the same for Iron Man, Thor and Vision. But we already learned in Av#132 that Iron Man died, and this issue just confirms it. Roy Thomas is writing again from Steve Englehart's plot, as he was for Av#132. Apparently letterer L G Peter doesn't exist and hides Gaspar Saladino and John Costanza.