A Short Hiatus

I have to admit defeat, if only briefly.  I thought it would be possible to start this blog while I was reading though my Acts of Vengeance collection.  Turns out there are just too many connections that I'm afraid to miss.  So I need to take a short break so I can work my way through the entire storyline before I can start blogging about it.  I may update infrequently, but I really need to get all my ducks in a row before I can really get going.  

Thankfully, I have no readers to disappoint.  

Damage Control #1 Vol. 2: No Vault Insurance.

After the unique opening chapter in Acts of Vengeance, one might expect a more conventional follow-up.  Perhaps a story that gives us a glimpse at the hidden forces behind the Vault breakout or one that escalates the threat toward the superhero community.  Instead, we get, well, Damage Control.  

Amazingly, the only story that ties directly into Avengers Spotlight #26 is Damage Control Vol. 2 No. 1.  This series begins with a simple question: who cleans up the collateral damage after a massive super-hero battle?  The answer: Damage Control, a massive corporation dedicated solely to that mission.  It's a light-hearted take on the hidden systems that allow New York to continue business as usual despite the number of times it is wrecked in a calendar year.  And who would use what is essentially a humor comic as a central focal point for a massive crossover?  Why, the same man that brought us the strangest opening issue of a massive crossover: Dwayne McDuffie.  

While this issue is, as you can see, #1 in a 4-issue miniseries, it is actually the second 4-issue miniseries for Damage Control.  Here is a sampling of the first miniseries, which also crossed over with the previous event: Inferno.  (Which I didn't care much care for, but that's beside the point.)  It would also make a brief re-appearance during World War Hulk, not to mention a brief comment here and there throughout the nineties.  

Issue #1 begins with Thor holding up the George Washington Bridge while Damage Control starts to put it back together.  We meet the main characters on site and Thor gets a surprisingly good joke in.  

I'm going to skip over most of the character bits and get right to the heart of the matter.  This is how Damage Control gets involved in this issue:

Yes, the old "dialed the wrong number for the Avengers" trick.  One might think that alerting the Avengers to a jailbreak would be more elaborate than speed dial.  (And, by the way, how is the Fantastic Four underneath Damage Control AND the National Guard? There's your problem.)

Once they get the message, Damage Control sends their finest team to the Vault: John Porter - Account Executive, Gene Strausser - Head of R&D, and Bart, the intern.  Fortunately, the doors are wide open.

Unfortunately, not all the villains have escaped.  

Don't worry.  He just needs to go to the bathroom.  No...really.  

At any rate, our heroes are soon discovered by the Wrecking Crew.  Thanks to a fortuitous relationship between John and Thunderball, our heroes manage to outwit the rest of the crew, contact the Avengers and escape from the Vault in one piece.  Captain America arrives on the scene and knocks out the Wrecking Crew.  Well, almost all of them.

Whoops.  

  

For any continuity buffs out there, this pretty clearly places this story during the act break of Spotlight #26.  There is some confusion in that issue as to how Iron Man and Hawkeye were notified of the breakout.  It appears that the Damage Control team sent out the wider message. In addition, the doors are still open, which places it before Hawkeye's electromagnetic pulse. Apparently, Captain America, and not Iron Man, was the first Avenger on the scene.  He didn't appear in that issue because he was knocked out by a wrecking ball.  

Despite being a comedy book, Damage Control #1 does a fine job of balancing the two parts of it's mission.  It manages to advance the plot, by explaining, in further detail, what happened at the Vault, while being pretty funny. While the Spotlight issue was ostensibly a more serious issue that had some strangely out-of-place humor, this series is designed as a pure humor title. The actual plot development is just gravy.  

Avengers Spotlight #26 - Tales from the Vault

Avengers Spotlight gets the honor of officially starting the Acts of Vengeance. If you're not familiar, Spotlight was usually split up into two separate 15 page stories, showcasing the lesser known Avengers in solo adventures. Hawkeye was often prominently involved. Needless to say, it was clearly the second-best Avengers spin-off book of 1989, especially with John Byrne in charge of Avengers West Coast.  Strangely enough, this obscure little book gets the honor of kicking off this company wide crossover. The story itself reflects this quandary. Even though it has a central role in the beginning of the crossover, Avengers Spotlight #26 is surprisingly irrelevant.  

This issue, like the rest of the run, is split into two stories. In this case, both stories deal with the same central plot: the breakout at the Vault. In part one, we follow the Guardsmen as they process the Wizard and the rest of the Frightful Four into custody. Then, eight pages in, we finally

 get an actual crossover with Acts of Vengeance when we catch a glimpse of the Mysterious Stranger:

That's it. He doesn't explain anything about the master plan: he simply opens the Wizard's cell and disappears. After that, the Vault is in trouble.  

However, instead of showing a big fight scene, we cut over to the main control room where the warden calls for help. He can't reach the Avengers, but he can reach...Damage Control?  More to come on that revelation later in the series. Anyway, after beating up the Guardsmen (off-panel), most of the villains escape (also off-panel). End of Part One.  

Part Two picks up with Iron Man arriving on the scene. Somewhere during the act break, we must assume that they've finally gotten through to somebody. He beats up a few supervillains before he's menaced by a real challenge: fellow Avenger Hawkeye! Yes, Hawkeye shows up, shares some sarcastic barbs with the warden before he runs into Iron Man and we get a wacky misunderstanding. 

It's hard to have a "fight then team up" moment when the two participants have known each other for years and are on the same team, but they manage to pull it off here.  To be fair, Hawkeye has a fair reason to be suspicious.  Iron Man *did* break into the Vault during the Armor Wars to steal the Guardsmen's armor.  It's certainly understandable that Hawkeye might think he had something to do with this incredibly similar event.  But if we learned anything from Civil War, it's this:

Iron Man is a dick. 

The threat of a repulsor blast upside his head straightens Hawkeye right up and they manage to put aside their differences and rescue the crippled Guardsmen.  They make it outside, just in time for one last joke:  

Oh, Hawkeye.  You and your wacky trick arrows.  Nice to see that they have the side effect of turning two Avengers into a vaudeville comedy team.  

McDuffie plays with the reader's expectations throughout this issue.  We don't get to hear anything about the master plan or how this ties in to the rest of the Acts of Vengeance. Most of the breakout and the fight scenes happen off-panel. There are frequent jumps back to the central command post There's an act break in the middle when most of the prisoners escape.  Then, at the end, when our heroes need to fight their way up through the Vault to the surface, we get the least exciting caption in comic book history: "Outside, 20 minutes later."   

It's an intriguing conceit, but one that leaves this issue disjointed and needlessly obscure.  As an adjunct, he also adds a large dose of comedy to the occasion, as seen in the last scene of the issue.  Even though this issue has many flaws, it shows a willingness to play with the standard tropes of the mega-crossover that helps give Acts of Vengeance such a unique flavor.  It doesn't fully work in this issue, but it's an attitude that really pays off in the stories to come.  

Prelude...to Vengeance

As with all good crossovers, Acts of Vengeance had a brief lead-in to get the comic-buying public excited for the upcoming event.  Before I get rolling, I'd like to take a brief look at these teasers.  I've already posted the teaser image, which I just adore.  It's a simple design with the broken icons of the Avengers on the floor and the faceless villains standing above them.  Dr. Doom and Magneto are immediately recognizable from that angle, even if others (like the Mandarin, the Kingpin and the Red Skull) are not.  

The first indication that something was afoot appeared in Thor #410, which is actually quite a ripping yarn.  Just look at that cover.  Dr. Doom fighting Dr. Doom, while Hercules, Thor and She-Hulk cower before the awesome energy crackling around them.  The story inside lives up to that cover, even if that exact scene never happens.  Dr. Doom steals Thor's hammer to power a device that allows him to stop time and attack the pretender to the throne of Latveria.  Hercules, She-Hulk and Thor's mortal form fight a bunch of Doombots to rescue the hammer while Dr. Doom fights his evil clone.  If that doesn't appeal to you, then you must have some sort of allergy that prevents you from getting to close to things that are awesome.  If that's the case, I feel sorry for you.  

But the real action happens on the last page, after the threat is over and Dr. Doom is back in New York City.  

Yeah!  Without giving any details, these few panels provide the essence of Acts of Vengeance.  A frustrated super-villian.  A mysterious stranger.  A simple proposal.  A promise of vengeance.  That last panel especially captures the essence of this storyline: Our stranger is REALLY into his plan...just look at the size of that word balloon.  Doom is intrigued, yet suspicious, behind his metal mask.  This is everything I've ever loved about Marvel Comics.

The next installment takes place in Cloak and Dagger#8, which is slightly more problematic.  As you can see, the cover promises a "prelude to Vengeance."  Much like the previous issue of  Thor, we really have a regular issue of the comic with a surprise reveal on the last page.  The execution of this one, however, is not quite as good.  

First, let's cover the main story.  Now, the only Cloak and Dagger story I've ever read before this one is their Atlantis Attacks guest spot.  I had no idea that they had the worst rogues gallery in comics.  For example, the main villain in this issue is Ecstacy, an evil, female version of Cloak in bondage gear.  Here she is, pictured with the other two lame villains from this issue, the Crimson Daffodil and the Disciplinarian. (See!?!  Didn't I say they had horrible villains)

Here's a tasteful ass shot for you as well.

I really need to try and work "The demon of darkness has risen from the dead--and in a more alluring form" into casual conversation more often.  

Anyway, Cloak and Dagger manage to save the day and they head back to their church basement headquarters for a round of Extreme Battleship.  Suddenly, a cry breaks out and, well... 

I'll be honest.  I haven't read the next issue.  I don't know what's going to happen next.  But this page needs some serious breaking down.  From what I can tell, the jumping, clown dude is The Jester, Hydro-Man is holding on to a passed out Dagger, and the Von Strucker twins are in the back in front of a guy who I think is just called Rock.  Oh, and the Hulk is there for some reason.  

Please allow me to be a continuity stickler for just a moment.  The cover implies that this issue will provide a "prelude" to Acts of Vengeance.  The cover is dated Mid-November, before any of the official crossover issues have come out.  Yet, this all seems to be part of some larger plot, which we haven't seen created yet.  In fact, since the first "official" issue of the crossover involves a breakout from The Vault, Marvel's superjail for supervillians, this is probably supposed to take place after that point.  Which makes this a pretty crappy prelude.  

In Cloak and Dagger's defense, I do really want to find out what happens next after the pure insanity that is this panel.  

How do I love Acts of Vengeance?

Let me count the ways.

1) The premise is superb.  In case you don't already know, here it is in a nutshell.  All the super-villains, led by a secret cabal of the meanest bad guys in the Marvel Universe, decide to swap super-heroes.  For example, if Iron Man kicks your ass every tme, then don't fight Iron Man...fight Hawkeye instead.  I also love the concept because it really highlights the strengths of a shared universe.  Readers of individual titles are exposed to new villains.  Longtime fans (aka nerds) are to a logical conclusion: why wouldn't the bad guys all gang up and take out the heroes at once?

2) The execution is, well, excellent.  I'm going to be re-reading a lot of these issues and reading some of them for the first time.  My recollections may be hazy.  But these issues do contain a broad range of some of the finest comic professionals of the time.  Walt Simonson, John Byrne, Erik Larsen, Mark Gruenwald, John Romita, Jr., etc. etc.  And those are just the guys I can think of off the top of my head.  In fact...

2b) The more I think about it, 1989 might be my favorite year of comics.  It has three of my favorite crossovers ever (Acts, Atlantis Attacks and DC's Invasion!).  Grant Morrison is in full swing with Animal Man AND Doom Patrol.  Giffen and DeMatties are on Justice League, Scott McCloud is on Zot!, and Neil Gaiman is on Sandman.  Sure, when I was eight, I didn't know anything about most of these things, but I sure did love Atlantis Attacks.  It's only in retrospect that I've come to this conclusion and I will probably want to amend this decision in the future, but, right now, I'm hard pressed to think of a better comics year in my lifetime.  

3) My twisted childhood.  You see, I was the kind of kid that loved the villains more than the heroes.  I'm sure that many comic obsessed kids have dressed up as the Joker for Halloween in their lives...but how many dress up at Doctor Octopus?  It might just be me.  At any rate, for a kid that loves the villains, a crossover that has at least two different covers proclaiming "the ultimate super-villain team-up" becomes the greatest crossover ever.  

4) Compression and decompression.  It doesn't hurt that this story really lends itself to the necessities of the major crossover.  This event affects every hero at the same time, but, due to the nature of the threat, affects them all in a different way.  Each hero has a new villain to face and a unique challenge which needs to be met.  It may be part of a larger scheme, but, on the individual level, the threat is personalized.  As a result, your average comic book reader can follow as many or as few of the crossovers as they choose.  

It is certainly possible to follow the main plot by only picking up the central issues, primarily the Avengers titles and the individual spinoffs.  It's also possible to only follow the story of the characters you like most.  For example, back in 1993, I purchased the now out-of-print trade paperback Spider-Man: The Cosmic Adventures which collects Spidey's involvement in Acts of Vengeance.  This just happened to coincide with him receiving cosmic powers, but that comes later.  The point is that I didn't even know that was an Acts of Vengeance crossover until I received it in the mail.  It certainly makes reference to the overarching storyline, but the TPB has a more or less self-contained arc.  Of course, if you love the premise (like me) it's certainly possible to track down every single tie-in across the entire universe.  

Well.  That turned out long-winded.  Those are my preliminary opinions, at least, as to why I think this deserves memorializing in a project like this.  If you're lucky, and everything goes well, you might get a rundown for Atlantis Attacks.  

A Brief Preface

I honestly don't remember where my obsession with Acts of Vengeance began.  If I had to guess, I'd blame my grandma.  

Back in the late 1980's, my father's parents lived in Long Beach, WA, about two hours from my hometown.  It's a wonderful little beach community, but I really only remember two things outside of the beach house: Marsh's and the comic rack at the local grocery store.  

Every time we visited, my grandmother would treat me to a comic off the single rotating rack in the front corner of the grocery store.  I was primarily interested in Heathcliff, He-Man and those weird Ghostbusters comics.  

Somewhere along the way, though, I became hooked on the superheroes.  I specifically remember getting getting the Deadly Foes of Spider-Man miniseries at that grocery store.  And, even though I can't remember when, I suspect that this grocery store was where I first discovered Acts of Vengeance.

As far as I can tell, it began with Captain America #366.  It's one of the few issues of my collection that I clearly purchased back in 1990.  I don't know why my nine-year-old self decided to pick up this issue in particular.  (Maybe because the cover is awesome.)  The story almost certainly didn't make any sense, considering it is smack in the middle of a massive crossover, but I must have enjoyed it.  At the very least, I had to find out what happened next.  

I spend the next decade (or so) tracking down all the crossovers, tie-ins and parodies.  I took a brief break from the world of comic collecting for a brief period, then came roaring back with a passion in 2003.  

Recently, I began reading and rereading the major Marvel events in chronological order.  (Why, yes, I am a huge nerd...how did you know?)  I also tracked down reviews and information about each crossover as I went.  The site dedicated to Secret Wars II was especially enlightening.   However, when it came time to re-read Acts of Vengeance, I discovered that there was no online repository of knowledge singularly dedicated to my favorite crossover.  Sure, there's your Marvel wiki and your Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe, but these only provide the briefest of explanations.  There's not even a reliable chronology!  

So, I've decided to take it upon myself to fill this niche that perhaps only I think needs to be filled.  Much like the indispensable Not Blog X, I will take an issue by issue look at the entire crossover from beginning to end.  But first...what is this whole Acts of Vengeance thing anyway?    

More to come.

It begins

Watch this space.