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Invaders, The #5: Review

Dec 1975
Roy Thomas, ?

Story Name:

Red Skull in the Sunset!

Review & Comments

Rating:
3 stars

Invaders, The #5 Review by (July 3, 2018)

Review: The cool thing about the early Invaders series is how the whole thing operates on the level of, well, a comic book. A bunch of action and some minimal character-building but mostly just plain entertainment. Let all the other heroes brood, the Invaders are out for action! In this issue, we are shocked at the sudden heel-turn by the heroes going over to the dark side and Roy Thomas is a master of echoing the tone of the Golden Age appearances of these heroes. Best moment: Bucky and Toro critique their comic book portrayals—which is also something likely to have occurred in a 1940s comic. Sheer craziness! And more to come.

Comments: Part one of four parts. Title is a parody of a popular song, “Red Sails in the Sunset.” The other heroes mentioned, the Patriot, the Whizzer, the Fin, and Miss America, were authentic 1940s superheroes—and will show up in part two of this story (except for the Fin). Rich Buckler and Dick Ayers share the penciling duties.

Period Pop-Culture Details: Radio show FIBBER McGEE AND MOLLY.






 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invaders, The #5 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

A newly-built US defense plant is destroyed by the Invaders—Captain America, the Sub-Mariner, the Human Torch and Toro—while proclaiming their allegiance to the Third Reich! That night, the Red Skull interrupts the regular radio programming to boast about how America's greatest heroes now serve him in the goal of destroying the United States. In the White House, President Roosevelt asks FBI Agent Bill Stuart how this all happened; Stuart fills him in...

...a few days earlier the Invaders were summoned to Washington to participate in a new bond drive. Cap, Namor, and Torch agreed while Bucky and Toro were reading the latest comic books and drew the adults into a debate over the usefulness of the lesser-known heroes of the day, a debate that is highly offensive to the bond parade's sponsor Bettman P. Lyles. The parade proceeds the next day, with the heroes riding on a huge float, when they are attacked by Nazi agents. Cap and company easily defeat the armed goons but the sky opens up and the face of the Red Skull appears in a circle in the sky, demanding the Invaders come over to his side. Torch and Toro fly into the funnel and do not return; the arrogant Namor flies at the opening and likewise vanishes. Cap hurls his shield but the portal sucks him in too. Bucky challenges the Red Skull who mocks him as not being worth the trouble which sends the proud boy hero into shock...

...recovering, Bucky bursts into the Oval Office with an idea as to how the other Invaders might be rescued—but FBI man Stuart rebuffs him as only a kid and the President concurs. Disappointed and humiliated, Bucky leaves....

Story continues in MARVEL PREMIERE #29.



?
Jim Mooney
Phil Rachelson
Jack Kirby (Cover Penciler)
Joe Sinnott (Cover Inker)
? (Cover Colorist)


Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Bucky Barnes
Bucky Barnes

(James Barnes)
Captain America
Captain America

(Steve Rogers)
Human Torch
Human Torch

(Jim Hammond)
Red Skull
Red Skull

(Johann Shmidt)
Toro
Toro

(Thomas Raymond)

Plus: President Franklin D. Roosevelt (President Roosevelt).

> Invaders, The: Book info and issue index

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