1980s: Ulterior Ultron part II: This Evil Multiplying

By Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

In the second and final part of our look at Ultron's 1980s appearances, the adamantium assassin is halfway through the decade when he starts to suffer from a complex combination of daddy issues and cybernetic schizophrenia. There may be no strings on the James Spader movie version, but the Marvel Ultron sure was governed by the ties that bind.

                                                       "Torn between two Ultrons!"

"... Feeeeelin' like a fool!"

As we covered last time, Ultron XI went to the Secret Wars, got his head handed to him and was left behind on Battleworld. He would have stayed there if the Thing hadn't decided to bring it back with him in April 1985's Fantastic Four I#277. Whatever happened to the adamantium pumpkin was never revealed, but six months down the road he showed up as Ultron XII in The West Coast Avengers II#1. 

     "Never shall the immortal Ultron rest until he has destroyed all who bear the name of Avenger!"

Heck of a way to start a West Coast franchise, Hawk... But Ultron wasn't working alone, he had joined his old ally the Grim Reaper along with M'Baku the Man Ape, Nekra and Goliath in a complicated scheme of revenge and sibling rivalry focussing on Hank Pym, Wonder Man and the Vision.

Avengers: Age of Ultron steered clear from the complicated relationship Ultron had with his father/creator Hank Pym, but writer Steve Englehart dedicated the first two issues of West Coast Avengers to this dysfunctional duo... And Pym wasn't even a member!

                                                         "Just watch me, dad! Just watch!" 

This was the first time Englehart started dropping hints this new 'n improved Ultron wasn't his usual, maniacal self. But nothing much came of it, not with so many villains to pound on. In the end, the Avengers and their allies Vision and the Scarlet Witch defeated the Reaper and his allies. Ultron escaped and, as always, vowed revenge. Let's see what his big plan was...

                          "Hello, dad! It's me again... Your loving son, Ultron Mark Twelve!"

Yup, the invincible, adamantium dipped killing machine resorted to prank phone calls. Over the next couple of issues, Pym was repeatedly called by his "son" who did very little but leave ominious, teasing messages. Just before he could ask Pym to ask around for "Amanda Hugenkiss", Henry had enough, cursed his boy out and hung up the phone. That provoked a very unique reaction from Ultron when he called again a little while later.

"You were right to put me in my place!

                          I've been an immature fool and I want to bury the hatchet... Father!"

Well, burying the hatchet is fine, son... But what about those eye lasers, pocket nuke and other deadly weapons you got stuffed in your chassis? Pym was intrigued by Ultron's apology though, and stayed on the phone for a while listening to his robotic seed make amends. He even agreed to meet with Ultron, naturally without even bothering to inform the Avengers one of their most lethal enemies had him on speed dial. Logic systems might be Henry Pym's speciality in the lab, when it comes to rational thinking he's the worst.

          "Father, now that you are divorced, it is likely that the only "son" you'll ever have is me!"

There's something uncomfortably comic about seeing those sappy lines come out of a grinning deathbot with a thermo-nuclear furnace in his throat. But Ultron seemed sincere enough in his intentions, so much so that Pym finally started to believe his story. According to Ultron, after "evolving" through 12 incarnations he'd finally worked out the kinks in his programming. He compared his hatred towards Pym and all mankind to a teenager going through puberty and rebelling against the world in general and his father in particular. All in all not the worst analogy and Englehart really sold the premise, even though most teens first go through puberty before they take (or make) a wife. All Jocastas aside, for a brief moment, Hank Pym felt he had a son.

And the bonding continued...

"My GOD! The face is still so threatening, but... he's hugging me!"

The idea that an artificial intelligence could eventually decide it had outgrown its basic programming (i.e. 'kill all humans') was a fascinating one. and Englehart really sells the premise. For a brief moment, Hank Pym even felt he had a son. Which was a lucky break, because at that point in his life he was pretty much down in the dumps. No purpose in life, no one to love, not even a steady job as either a scientist or a superhero. Having his greatest failure suddenly turn out to be a loving child felt like Hank's first lucky break in quite a while. But of course, we can't have that now, can we?

"You are almost too easy to kill!"

Ah kids, you turn your back for a second and there's two of 'em. West Coast Avengers I#7 revealed how Ultron Mark 12, or "Mark" as he preferred to be called, had come to be. Y'see, Ultron-11 was right in the middle of experimenting with his software when the Beyonder abducted him to go fight in the Secret Wars. The experiments continued unsupervised and ultimately led to the creation of Mark 12, who had been allowed time to outgrow his hatred for mankind.

The Mark 11 still had its sheer distate for all things fleshy. The issue also revealed how he came back to life. After Thing forgot all about him,  he was found by a nurse who didn't realize what the funny looking head was. She took it home and put it on top of her TV, considering it little more than a fancy paper weight... Being near electronics allowed Ultron to take over the set, feed off enough electricity to power his hypnotic encephalo-ray and he was back in business. The enslaved nurse shipped him to computer expert David Menconi on the West Coast who also fell prey to Ultie's hypnotic powers. Menconi was forced to drive Ultron to his old lab...

"Good! Now carry me inside!"

Long story short... With the help of Menconi Ultron-11 soon regained a body. He then realized there was a "successor" of sorts running around, the benevolent Mark. Disgusted by his loving, pacificist tendencies, Ultron-11 pretended to be Mark and lured Hank into the trap we saw before. Fair's fair, it's not like Pym could tell them apart. Luckily, the Mark-11 knew an easy way to make sure anyone could tell the difference.

                                                         "An Ultron that must cease to be!"

That wasn't the end for Mark, who forced his body to come to him and reattach the head as best he could. While Ultron-11 was busy torturing his father/creator, Mark sought out the one person who had a chance of fighting Ultron: the Avenger turned moviestar Wonder Man. In the past, he'd been terribly insecure and mortally afraid of death, even though his ionic form was practically unkillable. His fear of dying had caused him to falter against Ultron in the late 70s, but thanks to his new, Hollywood size ego Simon Williams was ready for a rematch.

"I won't make the same mistake you did!"

Poor Ultron, ripped apart by someone wearing the most 80s pair of shades you'd ever want to see. And as for Mark, he "died" soon afterwards, the faulty reattachment had caused the circuits in his head to fuse together beyond repair. Hank Pym was alone again... But luckily, he's a sane and stable man who'd never let life push him to make rash decisions...

Ultron returned in Fantastic Four, once again courtesy of Steve Englehart who wrote all but two of his 1980s appearances. There's a bit of a disclaimer though: the Ultron appearing in Fantastic Four I#331 was actually "just" part of a bad dream. Click here for the full story, but in a nutshell: Englehart had intended the Ultron encounter as an actual adventure, but pressure from Marvel editorial forced him to make changes to his planned storylines. In order to have his cake and eat it too, he decided to have the FF dream 'm instead. 

Reed dreamed that his new PC, the Ultron anagram"Turino XL", turned into a new version of the killing machine. However, in the dream Ultron was unceremoniously defeated by the She-Thing of all people... Talk about your regular revoltin' developments.

"Don't forget, honey, I'm not just a pretty face!"

Thank heavens it was only a dream. Ultron showed up one last time during the 1980s as part of the company wide Acts of Vengeance crossover. Brought together by a disguised Loki, the Kingpin, Doctor Doom, Mandarin and the Red Skull concocted a plan to rid themselves of their mortal enemies by playing a game of Musical Super Villains. They had their allies attack heroes who'd their never faced before, figuring the element of surprise would win them the day.

The Kingpin wanted Doctor Doom to defeat Daredevil for him. Doom being Doom, he wasn't about to lower himself to a lackey's work. Instead, he reconstructed and reprogrammed Ultron.

                      "Your circuits contain certain information on a Daredevil. Destroy him."

To keep the potentially lethal robot in check, Doom had decided to incorporate all 12 previous personalities into Ultron-13, essentially giving him a case of cybernetic schizophrenia. Ultron heard voices and they were all real and all his. This was of course right up the alley of Ann Nocenti, who wrote Daredevil I#275 and 276. 

In true Nocenti style, the rambling, functionally insane Ultron was sent against Daredevil who happened to be out in the woods with his friends, the mysterious Number Nine and Karnak and Gorgon of all people. You'd think that a glorified, blind acrobat wouldn't last two seconds against even an insane Ultron, but Nocenti managed to get two issues out of it.

"Kill the Daredevil. Why? I don't hate him. None of One through Thirteen hate him any more than the rest of humanity. Why must I commit this unnecessary act?" 

... Why must we read this unnecessary banter? Nocenti often incorporated characters suffering from mental disorders, she created the schizophrenic Typhoid Mary for instance. While she's usually very good at voicing the psychologically stricken, having a robot go through it is just plain silly.

Maybe not as silly ha-ha as the Ultron-11 head with a TV set for a body, but still pretty bad. Ultron's biggest enemy was himself and a surprising, moral dilemma. He is supposed to be perfect, unlike humanity which is inherently flawed. However, since human hands created him, doesn't that make him imperfect as well? After almost 44 pages of quasi-philosophic moral meandering, Ultron (and the readership) had enough. He practically tore its own head off, which saddened Number Nine who he'd decided to take as his bride. She felt he didn't deserve to die, because there was an inherent good hiding behind his voice (Mark-12's influence no doubt).

Daredevil wasn't convinced...

"Crkkk!"

Yup, a robot who knocked out Thor and ripped through entire teams of Avengers like a box of Kleenex during flu season is brought down by a pissed off man in tights carrying a branch. How the mighty have fallen.

                                                                       "That's it."

You said it, DD!

And with that rather depressing story, the 1980s came to a close for Ultron. Luckily for him and Avengers fan everywhere, the 90s were far kinder to everyone's favorite electronic executioner. Roy and Dann Thomas would make him a mainstay during their early 90s Avengers West Coast run that also introduced his new "bride", the sassy Alkhema. Ultron became a threat to be reckoned with and the anticipation for his return was palpable in the late 90s when Kurt Busiek and George Perez relaunched the Avengers.

The two titans were well aware Ultron was in demand and made sure to tease his inevitable appearance. For instance, with this scene from Avengers III#10.

"Enjoy it while you can, my flawed progenitor... My time is dawning!"

Ultron took his time getting ready... And when he finally made his move nine months later, it led to one of Marvel's most beloved, shocking and intense stories. Over the course of four issues, Ultron took over the country of Slorenia, wiped out its entire population and almost got around to repopulating the planet with drones he planned to give personalities based on the memory engrams of his "family", the kidnapped Vision, Scarlet Witch, the Wasp, Wonder Man and Hank Pym.

Busiek was one of the first who got the essence of Ultron right... You should be deathly afraid of him, not because he's "just" an unbeatable robot. No, it's because Ultron is better than you. That's one of the few things Brian Michael Bendis got right during the dreadful and ultimately inconsequential Age of Ultron event. Given enough time, Ultron will overcome us all. And not because he's "just" functionally immortal. Ultron can keep reinventing himself, becoming better and better with each new incarnation... And what's worse, the older, tough as heck versions are always right around the corner should he need them.

Nothing conveyed that sense of knot-in-stomach dread than the ending to Avengers I#21. The Avengers had pretty much expended themselves fighting and destroying what they thought was Ultron. Only for another to show up moments later. And another. And another... Which led Firestar to ask just how many of them there were. The rhetorical query got a sphincter tightening reply.

"Oh, no..."

In conclusion: every decade gets the Ultron it deserves... The 1980s version of the robot wasn't all that concerned with exterminating humanity. Taking a cue from the American political climate, it was all about "me, me, me", or better put: "me and my daddy". Steve Englehart went out of his way to get Ultron to try and form an emotional bond with his "father", a man who as Busiek and Perez would reveal, had used his own engrams as a basis for the robot's personality matrix.

Ultron's unsupervised navel gazing led to the ultra-sensitive Mark who also got his time to shine as part of the "chorus" of previous personalities in Ann Nocenti's Daredevil. "Mark", for all his kindness and uniqueness, was exactly what was wrong with Ultron in the 80s. It's hard to make a robotic villain relatable on a human level without taking away the cold, robotic origins that made it so unique in the first place. 

It's a delicate balance and, of course, entirely dependent on the culture's stance. Remember, the touchy-feely approach was all the rage in the 80s...  Star Trek: The Next Generation launched in 1987 with the ship's psychologist seated on the bridge, right next to the Captain.

Luckily for us, Ultron outgrew his cuddly phase in time for the movies.

Surrender to the Age of Ultron, puny flesh beings!

Eighties August 8 part IV: Best Crossovers Of The 1980s

By Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

It's day four of the Eighties August 8, we're at the midway point. The 80s marked the beginning of the company wide crossover. What started out as an exciting way of seeing different heroes interact with each other grew into an annual tradition until finally it spun out of control in the early to mid 90s... But for now, let's look back to when the going was still good.
8) - Evolutionary War (1988)

I really wanted to like the Evolutionary War, Marvel's first attempt at having a company wide crossover that solely played out in that year's annuals. The story featured Herbert Edgar Wyndham, a mad scientist turned uber powerful evolved human, who was determined to help guid mankind to the next phase of evolution through several schemes that brought him into conflict with a variety of Earth's heroes. As stories go, not the worst outline. But the sad truth of the matter: most of the material really wasn't very good.

The main problem with Evolutionary War was that only a few of the books really mattered to the actual story. Having the Punisher fight the High Evolutionary's footsoldiers who were killing drugdealers in Bogotá made for an okay but ultimately pointless story. Same goes for the Silver Surfer annual which saw the Evolutionary ask the Eternals to help map the Silver Surfer's DNA until he was able to convince them it wasn't a good idea.

Now, not everything is pure filler. While the X-Factor annual wasn't as pivotal as the cover suggested, it did feature a confrontation between Apocalypse and the Evolutionary which was a joy to read. And the finale in Avengers Annual I#17 remains a personal favorite of mine, with Captain America (as the Captain) desperately trying to get a makeshift team of Avengers together to help him deal with the High Evolutionary once and for all. The actual Avengers were disbanded at the time, still the Mr. Fixit Hulk, X-Factor's Beast, Hercules, Falcon, a newly reconstructed Jocasta and the criminal Yellowjacket (Rita DeMara) showed up to help save the world.

Even though yours truly didn't much care for the story I did buy the omnibus that came out a few years back, proving once again the old adage: If at first you don't succeed, resollicit!

7) - Fall Of The Mutants (1987)

The main reason this crossover didn't break into the top 5 is the simple reason it really wasn't a crossover at all. Following the success of 1986's "Morlock Massacre" storyline that ran through the pages of Uncanny X-Men, New Mutants and X-Factor, it was decided a new event was needed to boost sales.

Back when there were just three X-men related titles (written by only two people!), deciding what to do was easy. Chris Claremont and Louise Simonson came up with Fall Of The Mutants, a three month special event that would put the aforementioned teams of mutants through the wringer... without them ever meeting! The X-Men were in Dallas where they apparently sacrificed their lives fighting The Adversary, X-Factor was forced to deal with Apocalypse who assaulted New York with his four horsemen, one of which happened to be Angel. The New Mutants suffered perhaps the most personal loss: their teammate Cypher was killed during a mission against a forgettable Dr. Moreau type villain called the Ani-Mator.

Well crafted stories, one and all... But the only thing that really crossed over was the Fall Of The Mutants logo that appeared on the covers. There were, however, a few other titles who joined in on the fun. Captain America, Daredevil, Hulk, Fantastic Four and Power Pack all published Fall Of The Mutants tie-in issues with varying degrees of relevance.

All in all, 25 years later, Fall still holds up...

6) - Secret Wars II (1985-1986)

"Fear me, you lords and lady preachers, I descend upon your Earth from the skies!"

If only Secret Wars II had been as energetic and to the point as Queen's bombastic rock classic Seven Seas Of Rhye. Instead, the sequel to the smash hit of 1984 will mostly be remembered as longwinded, rambling and plagued by pedestrian art. In a nutshell: the Beyonder came to Earth looking for a purpose, which makes about as much sense as you asking an anthill for career advice.

That's not to say writer Jim Shooter's exploration of the nature of desire was either wrong or poorly thought out. Often profound, Shooter's story in fact preceded Wallstreet's Gordon "greed is good" Gekko by well over a year. Secret Wars II examined the ever changing human nature through the eyes of the naive but all powerful Beyonder, who in many ways learned about the world he'd entered like any newborn would... If that baby was capable of exploding planets and dropkicking Celestials, of course. Another often overlooked theme Shooter quite effectively touched on, was life in the mid 80s U.S., which he showed through the prism of Molecule Man and his chubby sweetie Marsha. Both had virtually limitless potential, but instead they were seemingly content holding down mediocre jobs, only to come home to watch mediocre television and stuffing themselves with junkfood. The most excitement they got was playing boardgames with friends. Was it bliss or were they blissfully trying to settle?

Secret Wars II ran for nine issues and had crossover tie-ins with just about every mainstream Marvel title. From Cloak & Dagger to Dazzler, from Uncanny X-Men to Power Man & Iron Fist, they all had to contend with a visit from the Jheri curled "one from beyond". While most writers were able to use the Beyonder in some way to progress the storylines they were actually interested in telling, there was still an undeniable sense of forced participation. After all, the one writing Secret Wars II also happened to be the one who signed their cheques.

5) -  Atlantis Attacks (1989)

Atlantis Attacks is the first crossover Marvel actually put some P.R. power behind. In an attempt to boost sales for the multipart Summer annual crossover about Marvel's undersea ne'erdowells, they sent out sponges to retailers. Because, y'know... things get very damp around Atlantis and hey, you try and come up with something better. What, complimentary sea monkeys? Now that's just racist!

The editors took the lessons learned from Evolutionary War to heart, though. Instead of having eleven annuals that told pretty much standalone stories, they now constructed a 14(!) part connected story that saw the Deviant high priest Ghaur ally himself with Sub-Mariner's old enemy Llyra. Together, they planned to revive the Elder God Set using a complex five pronged plan that brought them into conflict with pretty much every superhero who had an annual out that year.

Not every chapter had the best possible art and some of it did still feel like padding (looking at you New Mutants Annual I#5), but all in all Atlantis Attacks told intriguing or at least fun stories. From the seven superheroines Ghaur kidnapped so they couldbecome Seth's brides, to Atlantis' inevitable invasion of New York which was secretly to facilitate a blood sacrifice needed to appease Seth... It was well thought out and felt like an actual event, instead of incidental skirmishes against semi-connected foes. As it stands, the final battle against Ghaur and Llyra remains one of the most underappreciated slobber-knockers of the late 80s.

4) - Secret Wars (1984 - 1985)

The year was 1984 and Marvel wanted to sell some toys.

While that might be a bit unfair, Secret Wars was created to help promote a line of toys and playsets based on Marvel characters. Back in 2011, writer Jim Shooter detailled part of the origin story of the first ever company wide mega crossover on his blog. Any fan of Marvel in the 1980s knows the set up of Secret Wars: a mysterious, all powerful force calling itself the Beyonder summons a number of Earth's superheroes and villains, as well as Galactus, to a patchwork planet named Battleworld. Once there, they have one simple instruction: fight each other, for whoever wins will gain their heart's desire.

The toyline wasn't that big a hit, but the book itself proved incredibly popular. Part of the appeal was the fact most of the heroes had undergone mysterious changes during their time away. Spider-Man had a new costume, She-Hulk had taken the Thing's place with the Fantastic Four, the Hulk had a broken leg and more. Finding out the how and why behind these changes, not to mention seeing most of your favorite heroes and villains interacting, brought readers back month after month.

Still, the maxi-series wasn't without its detractors. Both John Byrne and Secret Wars artist Mike Zeck have gone on record say how dull and unimaginitive they felt the book was. And Shooter's scripting could at times be a tad too overwrought and shouty, as Brian Cronin pointed out back in 2007: out of 12 issues worth of dialogue, only 14 sentences did not end in an exclamation mark(!). But I don't care, Secret Wars (or 'Geheime Oorlogen' as the Dutch publisher Juniorpress translated it) was the first crossover series I got into as a kid and I absolutely loved its grandiose scope.

3) - Contest Of Champions (1982)

You never forget your first time...

Contest Of Champions was originally intended to be a comics tie in to the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics. For that reason a number of international superheroes like Talisman, Defensor and Collective Man were created. The project was well under way, penciller Pablo Marcos was already drawing the first scripts and then... the USA decided to boycott the event to protest Soviet Russia's military actions in Afghanistan (plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose...). So, while Marvel's editors considered the project effectively defunct and moved on, nobody told Marcos. He dutifully kept working on the script he'd received. When he eventually sent in his art, wondering when he could expect the rest of the story, people were stunned. Still, the half finished storyline gave editors Mark Gruenwald, Tom DeFalco and writer Bill Mantlo the idea to finish the tale anyways.

The plot could easily be reworked, now featuring Grandmaster who used Earth's heroes to engage Death in a cosmic game of chance. Each picked a team of 12 heroes who had to compete against each other. If Grandmaster won, Death would restore his fellow Elder of the Universe the Collector back to life. and with an art assist from John Romita Jr. who had to update Marcos' depictions of the various characters and team line ups to reflect their then current incarnations, the three part Contest Of Champions was a fact. Not only does Contest hold the honor of being the first crossover, it's also Marvel's first ever limited series.

Ironically, despite the involvement of so many A-level creators, one massive mistake was made when they messed up the final score. The story claimed the game ended in a tie, but the decisive battle was won by Shamrock who in fact was on Death's team. This major whoops was later addressed in the 1987 Avengers and West Coast Avengers annuals.

2) -  Inferno (1988-1989)

Roughly a year after Fall Of The Mutants, the X-office unleashed an inferno on the poor children of the X. Flowing naturally from the pages of Uncanny X-Men, the crossover told the story of Limbo demons S'ym and N'astirh who planned to merge their realm with Earth to rule over both worlds. Over the course of the year leading up to the event, the coming catastrophe was strongly hinted at. The barriers between dimensions growing thin and S'ym's march to wrest control of Limbo from its ruler Magik was a plotline in both New Mutants and Uncanny X-Men. And then, when the demons managed to seduce X-Men associate Madelyne Pryor to become their Goblin Queen, the fuse was lit and no one could escape the exploding powderkeg that followed.

For three months' worth of issues, Limbo's ravenous residents rained down on New York, ready to take a massive chunk out of the Big Apple. The city itself became infected by outerdimensional evil, turning inanimate objects like cars, statues, mailboxes and payphones into vicious creatures out for blood. While the X-Men dealt with the main crisis, many of New York's heroes got in on the action trying to contain the effects of the incursion. The Fantastic Four helped keep the city safe from such varied menaces as Kang, Necrodamus and Graviton who all sought to benefit from the chaos. The event spawned the formation of a new Avengers lineup and caused Spider-Man's foe the Hobgoblin to strike a deal with N'astirh to become a true demon.

Even though they mostly didn't run into each other, thanks to the shared backdrop of a New York gone mad, Inferno felt like an actual intercompany crossover. Even if the actual, byzantine storyline played out in Uncanny X-Men and X-Factor where it taught a confused 8 year old the meaning of words like 'obtuse', 'opaque' and 'wtf did I just read?'.

1) - Acts Of Vengeance (1989)

Perfection.

Acts of Vengeance might just be the single best crossover Marvel did in the 80s... and it didn't finish until early 1990! Of course, naysayers complain about the blithingly simple plot: a cabal of high profile villains like Doctor Doom, Magneto, Kingpin and the Red Skull join together to finally beat their most hated adversaries... by siccing bad guys on them they were unaccustomed to.

For those who claim that's a silly trick, yes... definitely. But it worked for the heroes so many times in the past. How often didn't either the Fantastic Four, X-Men or Avengers win a battle because they quickly switched opponents? The idea that a group of brainy baddies set aside their egos (as much as possible) to think of the perfect person(s) to take out their archenemies makes total sense. It did when I was a kid and it does today. And besides, it was just fun to see heroes try and deal with menaces they're unfamiliar with. Thor fought the Juggernaut, Iron Man found himself face to face with the Wrecker, Quasar had to adapt to defeat the Absorbing Man and a remnant from the first Secret Wars and what was left of the X-Men ran into the Mandarin. The resulting dust ups were a joy to read.

The cabal was brought together by Loki, who gleefully sat back and watched the mischief he'd caused. He also did nothing when holocaust survivor Magneto turned on his fellow cabal member Red Skull. Kingpin quickly abandoned his compatriots when the Avengers finally moved against them and Doctor Doom was too busy to notice anyway. He sent a bevy of baddies to fight a cosmically powered Spider-Man and also found time to sink the Avengers' floating island headquarters Hydrobase. Fun was had by all, unless you were one of the good guys, that is.

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*Naturally, these picks are solely based on my own, anything but unbiased preferences. Think I'm wrong or an absolute idjit for leaving out your particular fave? By all means, join the conversation!

1989 - Acts of Vengeance house ad

1989 - Acts of Vengeance

Just a heads up to save your pennies. In March next year, the Acts of Vengeance Omnibus will hit the stands. Over 700 pages of Marvel 1980s goodness. It was a company-wide crossover that brought the 1980s to an end and ushered forth the 1990s.

More details ...
Two dozen of Marvel's top talents set more than 40 super heroes against at least as many super villains in the premier crossover event of the 1990s! Plus: the debut of the New Warriors! The destruction of Avengers Island! Spider-Man's cosmic power and the madness of the Scarlet Witch! A three-headed monster, a three-faced robot, a trip through the worlds of What If? and more! Special guest-appearance by Abraham Lincoln!

Collects Avengers (1963) #311-313, Annual #19, Avengers Spotlight #26-29, Avengers West Coast #53-55, Captain America (1968) #365-367, Iron Man (1968) #251-252, Quasar #5-7, Thor (1966) #411-413, Cloak & Dagger (1988) #9, Amazing Spider-Man (1962) #326-329, Spectacular Spider-Man (1976) #158-160, and Web of Spider-Man #59-61.

Hardcover: 744 pages