$3.99 Done Right and Wrong:
A Doomino Effect case study
featuring Iron Fist #14 and
Giant-Size Avengers / Invaders #1


I hate when comics cost $3.99.

I especially hate when I buy a $3.99 comic and I feel like I have no choice (within the realm of relative comic reading autonomy). I picked up Giant-Size Avengers / Invaders #1 because I was in a hurry at the comic shop and I didn’t look closely and thought I was buying the first issue of the upcoming 12-part series.

WRONG! Had I looked closer, I would’ve realized I was buying a collection of reprinted Avengers and Invaders stories from the ’60s and ’70s!! And for the most part, I hate comic stories from the ’60s and ’70s, especially thanks to the past few years, in which comics creators have done their best to try to convince the readers that the ’60s and ’70s were something other than hokey crap that was suited only for the seven year olds that bought it!

But as mad as I was at myself for buying the stupid thing, I was even madder at this inanimate heap of centrally stapled 4-color nonsense, and I was not about to let it have victory over me. I was going to read every page, no matter how much I hated it.

Man, it was awesome. The first story, “Endgame!” was from Avengers #71. In that issue, Kang the Conqueror and The Grand-Master are having some kind of 41st century battle by proxy. If Kang wins, he receives mastery over life and death; if The Grand-Master wins, he gets Earth. So Kang somewhat unwittingly plays the role of Earth’s protector, as it’s up to him to choose wisely and ensure victory for himself and the planet.

This issue is included because Kang chooses The Avengers and The Grand-Master chooses the Invaders, setting up what was probably the first clash between the two teams. Most of the action and all of the dialog in this issue is cheesy, but what makes that work is that this battle ends up being the delivery for a moral, as Kang becomes a tragic character who ends up giving up everything he wants in attempt at revenge. The unrealistically larger-than-life behavior of the characters ends up being more than tolerable because of the fact that this is little more than a fable, and you can totally see how a pre-teen would’ve been blown away by this issue and likely read it over and over.

That issue is followed by a reprint of Invaders #10 from 1976, which itself was primarily a reprint of Captain America #22 from 1943. It’s a battle between the team of Captain America and Bucky versus The Reaper, a Nazi spy sent to legally subvert the American population with anarchist propaganda. Its placement in this collection seems strange, which leads me to believe that the upcoming series will relate to it somehow.

Next was a reprint of The Invaders Annual #1 from 1977. This was something amazing. It was structured like the team comics of the 40s, in which the team would start the book together and then break up for solo adventures, only to reconvene at the end of the book for the final fight. As he explained in the notes at the end of the issue, writer / editor Roy Thomas gathered a team of artists with Golden Age roots to handle the solo stories, further deepening this issue’s tribute to the original Marvel super-team.

But what’s even more amazing about this issue is the story itself. Out of nowhere, this story goes from being a battle between The Invaders and three Axis super-villains to a return to the Avengers / Invaders battle from nearly 10 years earlier! We see what happened to each of the Invaders to lead up to their battle outside of time from Avengers #71. Thomas was so meticulous about honoring the existing continuity that he gave storyline justification for absolutely everything, including why Captain America was using his old shield and Namor had slightly different trunks.

They were details that could’ve been chalked up to nothing more than artists drawing things differently after a decade had passed, or ignored on the basis that no one would care, but instead Thomas acknowledged them and justified them. They weren’t always great explanations, but it was a commitment to continuity and the universe he’d helped create that is fascinating to watch play out, especially when you don’t see it coming at all. I can’t even imagine how exciting that would’ve been for a long-time reader in 1977 who didn’t have the internet or Previews to give it away.

The final chapter is a reprint of a “new” Roy Thomas story from 2006’s Giant-Size Invaders #2. Like the 1943 reprint, its inclusion isn’t obvious beyond being a nice ending to a Roy Thomas retrospective. Thomas gives a nice nod to the present, as Captain America closes out this 1940s battle to protect Roosevelt and Churchill by saying “If the day ever comes when America confronts a horde of suicidal fanatics, it’s liable to find them even harder to defeat than an army.”

This was 96 pages for $3.99. Sure, it was entirely reprints, but bravo to the editorial staff for putting together a collection that not only prepared readers for the upcoming miniseries, but also rewarded them with a self-contained story. This was really a huge surprise.

Now obviously, Iron Fist #14 will fall into the category of how not to do a $3.99 issue. First off, this was jacked up another dollar because of 8 extra pages. Now Marvel could argue that 30 pages compared to 22 pages is roughly equivalent to the 33% increase one sees from $2.99 to $3.99, but that would presume that the cost-per-page to print a 22 page comic is the same as a 30 page comic, and I don’t think anyone who’s ever made a bunch of copies would believe that. Not to mention they sold at least 3 extra ads for the 8 extra story pages.

Then there’s the story itself. I’ve been a huge Iron Fist fan lately, but this just felt like a letdown. Maybe I’ll need to read it again, but it just felt like maybe it was 22 pages of story stretched out into 30 pages. Yet again, there was absolutely nothing about this issue that justifies the extra dollar, yet Marvel keeps reaching for it more and more often. Maybe they just felt like the $3.99 price tag would make it seem more like a big event.

Speaking of big events, though, there was definitely one over in the $2.99 New Avengers #40. We had the awesome awesome awesome reveal that Spider-Woman is a Skrull!! What I absolutely love about this is 1) It makes total sense, 2) it was so easy to expect all throughout the New Avengers run, but 3) Bendis always explained it away and gave justification to what could have otherwise been seen as suspicious behavior.

I’d been re-reading New Avengers from the beginning lately, and it’s clear that this means the following: 1) S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted The Raft under Skrull control, 2) the Skrulls wanted The Sentry out of his cell, 3) whatever going on in the Savage Land was Skrull business, and 4) it’s becoming increasingly more likely that Wolverine is one of them. I continue to be extremely impressed with how this event is being set up. I also love the fact that they’ve got Jim Cheung on art. I love Leinil Yu, but if he has to be gone, at least they got someone capable to take his place. I would say my only complaint would be that if I were only picking up Secret Invasion, I’d be annoyed that such crucial events and background are being revealed outside the main title.

Speaking of big events being set up, that leads me to Action Comics #864, the prelude to The Legion of Three Worlds. It’s a story from now narrated by The Time Trapper, some guy I’d never heard of, so the big reveal at the end didn’t mean much to me. I also find it a little bit annoying that now that there’s an upcoming Batman R.I.P. we’re getting all kinds of references to Batman dying. But other than that, I dug this issue.

I like that Geoff Johns was willing to make Lighting Lad look like a total douchebag and make Superman look like a pretty big dork for being friends with these future morons. I kind of think that maybe Johns didn’t mean for that to happen, but I’m with Batman on this — those Legion kids are a bunch of spoiled tools.

I also like that this acknowledges that Earth-1 has several Legions of Super-Heroes in several futures. I’m not really sure how they’re going to explain that, because different futures mean different parallel universes, yet I think they’re considering all of them to be futures of Earth-1. But at least someone in the DC Universe is acknowledging the monthly book they’re selling that stars the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Most importantly, I like this because it’s obvious that Geoff Johns is building up something good. I’ll take the mediocre art, annoying things and the unlikeable characters (maybe he’ll kill off the Legion of Superman’s Friends!) for a story that’s being built up right.

And speaking of stories that Geoff Johns is building, that leads me to Green Lantern #30, chapter 2 in the Secret Origin of Hal Jordan. What’s so awesome about this is that, as we discussed when part 1 came out, Johns is simultaneously telling a flashback origin story while setting up the next mega-event in the world of the Green Lanterns.

Like with Action Comics, I’ll take the fact that this issue seemed to reveal very little and Ivan Reis doesn’t quite seem to be hitting the mark like he usually does in exchange for a story that feels like it’s deliberately leading somewhere good. Johns has the luxury of being able to tell stories the way he wants to, and I’m cool with that.