Slugfest!

Back when Stan Lee was still editor at Marvel, writer Roy Thomas and artist Sal Buscema, along with inker Sam Grainger, put together the first Squadron Sinister story from November 1969 titled "When Strikes the Squadron Sinister!" But it was only the second part of a 3 part story that began with previous issue (Avengers # 69: "Let the Game Begin"; Oct. 1969) and ended with the following issue (Avengers #71: "Endgame!"; Dec. 1969) The story featured Kang the Conqueror, the Grandmaster, the Growing Man, the Black Knight, the first appearance of the Invaders with the golden-age Captain America, Namor, and the original android Human Torch, as well as the Avengers: Captain America, Iron Man, Wasp (Janet Pym), Goliath (Clint Barton), Yellowjacket (Henry Pym), Black Panther, Thor, and the Vision. The Squadron Sinister actually made a one-panel appearance in issue # 69, but issue # 70 is the real Slugfest! What follows is a complete review of the first two parts of the story.

Following a battle with an android imposter Iron Man created by Midas and Madame Masque (Iron Man # 17 & 18), Tony Stark is at death's door and is recovering at the city hospital with SHIELD agents holding close watch in a restricted area of intensive care. When the Avengers arrive on the scene, Vision wonders aloud why Tony Stark's bodyguard, Iron Man, wasn't around to protect him. (I have no idea in which issue Tony finally revealed his identity to his fellow Avengers, but you would think the Vision, with his super-android brain would simply put two and two together!) Meanwhile, Thor has managed to locate Dr. Santini, Stark's best hope for recovery.

While Cap and Vision discuss medical issues with the doctor, Janet notices what apppears to be a little glowing doll under a cabinet. She picks it up and examines it until Yellowjacket chides saying, "If that child's toy fascinates you so much, bring it along to the waiting area!" Feeling a little embarrased, she drops it into a garbage tin and fails to notice it suddenly growing! But the ever-vigilant SHIELD agents do take notice as it climbs out of the garbage can, and thinking it might be a walking bomb, they reach to grab it.

The Growing Man pulls a judo move on one agent while another fires a blaster right between the eyes. Of course, since the Growing Man is a stimuloid android whose artificial cells multiply each time it is struck, it only results the increasing the size of the Growing Man, whose single objective is to kidnap Tony Stark.

The Avengers are alerted by the ruckus, and when the Growing Man crashes through the wall of Tony's hospital room, swats away Dr. Santini, and gathers up Stark's nearly lifeless body, Cap's shield strikes Growing Man upside its face! Then the rest of the Avengers join in the fray until they notice that each time they strike him, it grows. Thor calls for everyone to halt the attack when he finally recognizes Kang's emissary. (I guess even a god of thunder has memory lapses once in awhile.)

With Stark firmly in his grasp, the Growing Man crashes through the exterior wall of the hospital to the streets. Goliath increases his size to match Growing Man and challenges him to a face off. But the Growing Man will not be detered from his mission, and it doesn't matter anyway because suddenly Clint becomes dizzy from growing too quickly. Growing Man takes advantage of Goliath's sudden lapse and delivers a crushing blow!

Then he calls upon Kang to send "the Light of the Centuries" and becomes enveloped in a blinding fiery light which causes him to shrink down to human size as he is drawn skyward toward a dazzling sphere. Captain America and Thor fearlessly step into the Light and are swept up in the chase, and the rest of the Avengers follow as they are transported through a whirling void of time and space.
The Avengers find themselves in a palace throne room with Kang sitting upon a dais and his beloved Princess Ravonna held in a suspended state in a nearby cylinder. Also floating beside Kang is a pulsating tri-sphere, and at his side, a glowing sphere that contains both Tony Stark and Kang's stimuloid. The Avengers realize they are in 4000 A.D., the 41st century!Kang is in no mood to entertain their questions and tells them, "You are here to serve me!" Thor's pride is offended and he responds by saying, "Thor..and the Avengers...serve no man!!" Suddenly, Kang's legions appear and the room erupts into a melee! After vanquishing nearly every last one of his guards, the Avengers prepare to close ranks on Kang when they are suprised by the sudden appearance of one of their own, the Black Panther, who intervenes on behalf of Kang imploring the Avengers to join forces with him for the survival of Earth.

Kang recounts his tale of how a year earlier the Grandmaster appeared and offered him the power of life and death to save Princess Ravonna if Kang would only defeat him at the Game of the Galaxies, a game similar to chess. Kang has chosen the Avengers to serve as his chess pieces. But if he loses, Kang consigns himself and Earth to oblivion....to vanish as if they never existed. Captain America agrees to participate only if Kang will only return Tony Stark to the 20th century. Kang agrees and informs the Avengers that Stark was simply a pawn in his game.

When the Grandmaster originally appeared, he promised he would be back in one year, which happens to be within an hour. (Talk about procrastination! Kang waited until now to make plans to stop the Earth from being relegated to oblivion?!?) And so the Grandmaster arrives...and the game begins! Things proceed quickly as the Grandmaster directs his hand toward Captain America, Thor, and Goliath, causing them to fade and shrink and appear on one of the platforms of the tri-sphere, with other figures resembling chesssmen on the other two platforms. Then the tri-sphere transforms until it becomes one with the Earth itself. Then the heroes find themselves on that version of Earth facing the chessmen the Grandmaster has created by telepathically sending data to the living computers on his far-off home planet. Enter the grandmaster's chessman: Dr. Spectrum, Hyperion, Nighthawk, and the Whizzer.....the Squadron Sinister.
Meanwhile at a dining table in the 41st century, Kang directs his guards to remove the food from his dinner table because he hungers for the main course....battle! He heads over to a room where the Grandmaster and the remaining Avengers, Vision, Yellowjacket, Black Panther, and the Wasp, await the coming Game of the Galaxies. The Grandmaster directs their attention to a device called a Time-Scanner which has a viewscreen to watch Thor, Goliath, and Captain America witness the approach of the fourth and final member of their team, Iron Man. Cap quickly explains the situation and what is at stake: Earth will be relegated to oblivion!

The Avengers turn their attention to astral images of the Squadron who explains how the Grandmaster altered four Earthmen into super-villains for the sole purpose of besting them in the cosmic game. Their images fade and are replaced by images of four of Earth's most famous monuments: The Statue of Liberty, the Taj Mahal, Big Ben, and the Sphinx. Iron Man flies off first to the Taj Mahal, and Thor swings his enchanted hammer to transport the others to the fields of battle.
Captain America finds himself on Liberty Island where the statue has become the prize in the deadly game. As Cap moves in closer, his feet become ensnared in a rope that pull him upside down and slam his body against the base of the statue. When he regains consciousness, Cap finds himself aboard Nighthawk's plane which is carrying Lady Liberty by magnetic grapples. In his hand, Nighthawk holds a detonator which is wired to destroy the Statue of Liberty. Cap flings his shield and slices the device in two, rendering it useless. Nighthawk makes his escape through a hatch in the floor to try and manually disconnect the statue from the grapples. Cap dives down and delivers a powerful blow but Nighthawk quickly recovers and swings around one of the spikes on the statue's crown, connecting with a double-kick that sends Cap flying. With Cap off balance, Nighthawk throws an explosive pellet toward Cap, who reacts quickly and blocks the blast with his shield. The backlash of the blast knocks Nighthawk unconscious and Cap wins the battle!

Back in the room where the rest of the Avengers and the Grandmaster watch the viewscreen on the Time-Scanner, Kang exults over Cap's victory. But the Grandmaster quickly reminds him that one isolated skirmish is only part of the final outcome.

Next, Iron Man arrives at the Taj Mahal and recognizes the glowing figure on the roof as Dr. Spectrum, who is listening to his sentient power prism's voice directing him to strike the golden Avenger. When the blast strikes Iron Man squarely on his breastplate, he is knocked down. Spectrum comes around from behind to deliver the final blow in the form of a image construct of a hammer, but Iron Man hears the prism's voice and evades Spectrum's attack. Iron Man counters by firing his repulsor rays, but Doctor Spectrum is unfazed and gloats by saying, "The Grandmaster designed the prism to protect me from all harm. Nothing gets thru its poly-chromatic shield!" Iron Man uses the information Spectrum has shared to devise a plan, but before he can put it into action, Spectrum uses the prism to sideline shellhead.

Once again as Spectrum is about to deliver the decisive blow, Iron Man reaches for a stud on his chestplate that activates an ultra-violet beam, exploiting Spectrum's one weakness: color above the prism's power spectrum! And although Iron Man takes heart in his triumph, he's left to wonder the outcome of the other battles.

Over in the land of the pyramids, Thor approaches the Sphinx and feels the earth quake beneath his feet. Hyperion explodes from beneath the ground catching Thor unaware. Then he grabs a giant boulder and flings it toward the immortal one, but Thor manages to sidestep the attack. Hyperion takes time to explain his origin and tells Thor he comes from the first atom split by a man-made cycltron. The Grandmaster rescued him and imbued him with enough power "to obliterate your puny planet."

Thor flings the uru hammer at Hyperion, but when it strikes his chest, it bounces off leaving him unharmed.Thor tries to reason with Hyperion and tells him that his vengeance will be his undoing. But Hyperion flys toward him, knocks him down, then turns the burning glare of his atomic vision on Thor. The thunder god uses Mjolnir to absorb the searing bursts and calls for Odin's aid. Hyperion boasts that he will allow the mallet to strike him before he seals Thor's doom. But when the hammer whirls around him, it creates a vortex that shrinks him and forms a bubble of glazed sand that traps him. (Basically, Thor puts Hyperion in time-out!)

Once again, back in the room where Kang, the Grandmaster, and the rest of the Avengers (Vision, Yellowjacket, and Black Panther) watch the outcome of the battle on viewscreen on the Time-Scanner, Yellowjacket figures out how Thor beat Hyperion. He says, "His hammer duplicated...and reversed...the atomic process that gave Hyperion his powers!" But the Vision reminds them to temper their optimism until all the battles are fought.

Then the scene on the viewscreen changes they see Goliath near Big Ben in Britain. Unexpectedly the Black Knight arrives. Not wanting any interference, Goliath tells him to "flake off". The Black Knight is angered by the rebuff, but before he leaves both Goliath and the Knight witness a disturbance in the distance; the clock face appears to be obscure in such a way that it almost seems to disappear! Goliath realizes this is his cue for battle, and as the Black Knight follows him, he once again tries to get him to leave telling him, "This's gotta be strictly an Avengers show!"

But of course, Goliath is going to need all the help he can get because the final member of the Squadron Sinister, the Whizzer, is the cause of the disturbance and wastes no time in trying to sideline the giant. The Whizzer attacks Goliath by speeding around him, creating a tornado that envelops the Avenger. The Whizzer then stands back to enjoy his victory, but the Black Knight attacks him from behind, striking him with the flat of the Ebony Blade! Then Goliath snatches the blade from the Knight's hand angrily explaining he had simply been "playing possum" and had shrunk down to normal size.
But the damage has been done. The Grandmaster appears in the sky and intervenes by tearing through the fabric of time and space and telling the Black Knight, "You have interfered in the game! And in doing so...you have prevented a clearcut victory!" The Grandmaster gathers up all the "chessmen" and begins preparation for the second and final phase of the game, leaving behind a very confused Black Knight.

Dane Whitman realizes they have taken the Ebony Blade with them. Now he must somehow find a way to journey to the future and retrieve his enchanted sword. (But notice the big artistic continuity gaff in the picture below: He still has the Ebony Blade sheathed at his side! Oops!)

Man, did some of these 70s storylines get convoluted! But Marvel did a great job of coordinating the storylines with the Avengers and Iron Man. Members of the Squadron Sinister would later be incorporated into the Squadron Supreme. Of course, its apparent to any comics' fan that the members of the Squadron are thinly-veiled replicas of their DC counterparts: Hyperion= Superman; Nighthawk=Batman; Doctor Spectrum=Green Lantern; Whizzer=Flash. The whole idea is also similar to JLA vs. the Earth 3 counterparts (see Justice League of America #29 and #30); in fact, the cover to issue #70 is like one of the battles between the multiple-earth heroes featured annually in the pages of Justice League of America.

Next, I'll get around to a comprehensive review of Avengers # 71, which not only concluded this three-part story, but also featured the first appearance of the Invaders.