Marvel Comics of the 1980s: Black Knight

Showing posts with label Black Knight. Show all posts

Monday, May 8, 2017

1990 - Anatomy of a Cover - Avengers Spotlight #39

By Steve Lightle

Saturday, April 22, 2017

1988: The Dreadful Druid part V: The Doctor Is Out!

By Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

The Avengers were rapidly approaching their 300th issue, but thanks to their new chairman ánd their new writer they wouldn't be around to enjoy that special anniversary. Leave it to Walt Simonson and Doctor Druid to take Earth's mightiest right over the edge...

The beginning of the end

Frankly, it's not like it was that hard to do. Simonson made sure the team suffered a steady stream of tragedies ever since he came on board back in #291. As a result, the number of Avengers left on active duty had been reduced to four: Thor, She Hulk, a severely handicapped Black Knight and their new leader Druid, who'd used his mental powers to convince the others he'd be best suited to take the reigns when Walt almost had Monica Rambeau die of sheer incompetence.

"In this moment of crisis, I see the fury of Dr. Druid unleashed!"

To be fair, Doctor Druid is never written as either an outright villain or an infiltrator out to destroy the team from the inside. Instead, and that's the truly tragic part of this whole enterprise, he genuinely believes his cause is just. In no small part because of a series of prophetic visions in which a gorgeous blonde woman adoringly assures him he's the last, best hope of all that is. All that praise and adulation feeds Druid's sizable ego. He falls for her charms even as she eggs him on to do what's right and he feels that includes making sure he's leading the Avengers when the fat hits the fire.

But, just who is this blonde lady? Well, that takes some 'splainin...

"But... you look different somehow..."

Why is she blue and dressed like Kang?

And here's where Simonson lost me when I first read these issues in the late 80s. Try and follow along: Time travel invariably leads to the creation of alternate timelines and time travelers like Kang the Conqueror have hundreds, if not thousands of rogue copies of themselves navigating the timestream. Invariably, some of these alternate Kangs get defeated or killed by others who don the armor and effectively become a version of Kang. Eventually, a fair number of these Kangs met up and formed an organisation called the Council of Crosstime Kangs. One of the latest Kangs admitted to the council was a female who claimed to be Nebula, the alleged granddaughter of Thanos. For convenience's sake, let's call her "Nebula Kang" for now.

With me so far? Good.

During her time on the Council, Nebula Kang learned that roughly 20 years in the future a period of 15 years was covered by an impenetrable Time Bubble. The Council believed a Celestial was building a superweapon inside it, which was all the power hungry Nebula Kang needed to hear. She wanted that weapon. Bad.

And that's where the Avengers come in. The Kangs also observed that eventually a team of Avengers would penetrate the bubble. Nebula Kang then figured she had to control the heroes and, rather logically, decided that the mind bending Doctor Druid would be an ideal stooge.

You're still with me? Well, that makes one of us.

All kidding aside, it gets even more complex when ultimately it is revealed Nebula Kang isn't *that* Nebula at all. It's actually an alternate version of Ravonna Lexus Renslayer, the princess that Kang tried to court back in a 1966 issue of Avengers. She first refused his love because he'd invaded her father's kingdom but soon realized she loved his raw machismo after all. She wound up sacrificing her life to save his in Avengers I#24.

"Perhaps... ' twas never meant... to be...!"

Oh Ravonna, if only the same could be said for this storyline...

Through the continued visions, Ravonna had Druid firmly in her grasp as she groomed him to have the Avengers enter the Time Bubble. An added wrinkle to her whole plan was the fact that she never bothered to learn which Avengers were actually destined to enter the Time Bubble. Even by 1988, there were close to 30 members, odds are you get the wrong bunch or even the wrong team. After all, you also had the West Coast Avengers by then. The odds don't favor this particular anemic East Coast line-up. And things get trickier when Ravonna wanted to get rid of Thor because Druid had proved unable to mentally coerce him.

That's why she planned for him to have a little "accident" in Avengers I#295. Using the Council's temporal technology, she captured a weaponized, technological T-Rex from an alternative future and set it loose on Washington D.C. She then made sure Dr. Druid knew about it.

"Less and less do I trust Druid's supposed psychic powers."

When you're part of a team designed to come together to fight the threats too big for anyone to face alone... Yet your leader insists you go solo anyway, despite the fact it was serious enough for him to have a vision over, you know you're in trouble. And Thor did indeed have a devil of a time against the mechanized monstrosity. Especially when it proved more sturdy than expected.

"AKREEEE!"

On a sidenote, yours truly initially believed this metal monster was Walt Simonson's way of spoofing Robosaurus, the fire breathing star of many a monster truck rally. However, Avengers I#295 predates the debut of the actual Robosaurus by about 6 months. Chances are the dinosaurs loving creator might have slightly been inspired by Grimlock, the similarly shaped and mannered Dinobots leader from the Transformers cartoon.

At any rate, while Thor fights for his life, She Hulk figures the others need to fly out and help him. But Druid has a unique way to make sure she follows the leader.

"You want to listen to me. Believe me Jennifer, this is all for the best."

It gets worse.

"Relax Dane! We shall save the universe! Whether you want to or not.
The Avengers are mine!"

Admittedly, that looks bad. But Druid really wasn't himself by this point. Essentially Nebula's puppet, he did all he could to please his beloved. So, when the Knight actually managed to launch the Quinjet and escape Druid's mental sway, she was less than pleased. Black Knight traveled to DC and helped Thor defeat the digi-dinosaur by ripping it beyond repair with his ebony blade. The two Avengers then headed back to Hydrobase to take down Doctor Druid.

One Asgardian thundergod and an armored knight with a mystical blade versus a paunchy soothsayer in a bedsheet... Ya'd think, right?

" When they awaken, they will be real Avengers at last.
Completely obedient!"

By then, "Nebula" had fully manifested herself in the timeline, which only served to further cement her control over Druid. She even supplied him with "mindbenders", devices that added even more mind control. While She-Hulk and Black Knight were kept in check with one, Thor turned out to need three. Even though everyone was in their thrall, Druid and "Nebula" insisted on keeping things as regular as possible.

"YOU, my slaves, you are the key."

And so they were, as issue #297 proved. "Nebula" had Druid and his Avengers board a Quinjet prepared for interdimensional travel and away they went. But as soon as they approached the Time Bubble and there weren't any easy ways in, questions and doubt set in. All Nebula knew was that only Avengers were destined to enter the bubble. Since she wasn't an official member, she bet on that technicality and had Druid orchestrate the quickest signing in ceremony in the team's history....

"Beloved, that's it! Dane's future is a void!"

And. after using his not too reliable precognitive powers, Druid mystically concluded Black Knight was the one without a future. You'd think that even Nebula would have questioned his foresight after he failed to foresee minor hick-up like, say, a teammate's wife turning into a giant sea serpent snacking on ships.

But no, Druid went ahead and mentally coerced his teammates to toss Dane out the Quinjet airlock as they were cruising right outside the time bubble. The Black Knight was rescued by a couple of Crosstime Kangs who were following their wayward member. Those Kangs used a handy gizmo to free Thor from his mindbenders. The Asgardian attacked, which soon led to She-Hulk freeing herself as well.

That all led to this regrettably unforgettable confrontation.

"Doc, thou just hast to be kidding!"

Right around that time, the Time Bubble is approached by a near infinite number of alternate Avengers quinjets from a myriad of realities. They're all desperate to pierce the barrier and this particular assemblage of heroes falls short. That's why as soon as the bubble opens, "Nebula" makes a run for it.

The lovesick Dr. Druid can do nothing but follow suit.

"Beloved!"

And with that, the era of Dr. Druid reached its end in November of 1988. He apparently vanished inside the Time Bubble. Now free of his mental domination, the three Avengers returned home to Hydrobase. Thoroughly demoralized and sickened by what happened to them, She-Hulk quit the team. Thor and Black Knight made an off panel attempt to find new members but readily give up as soon as no reservists or fresh recruits appear available.

"I can't believe they've all gone."

But gone they were, only for Steve Rogers to show up an issue or so before #300 to assemble a new team. Just like Gruenwald had wanted Roger Stern to do before all the unpleasantness began. The new Cap-centric lineup came together during the Inferno crossover and of course included Thor. The other roster picks were a bit more... eccentric. Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman joined, though they never even bothered to change out of their FF costumes. Another new recruit was the aptly named Forgotten One, an obscure character from Jack Kirby's late 1970s Eternals series. That couldn't have been the big plan Mark Gruenwald had in mind, could it?

And as for Doctor Druid... Considering what he'd done, it's surprising the Avengers didn't revoke his membership or voted him out in absentia. Then again, the entire east coast branch of the team was in absentia. Druid was left in comics limbo for close to two years until Roy and Dann Thomas came by to rescue him from obscurity in October 1990's Avengers Spotlight I#37. They decided to make ol' Druid a hero for the 90s.

"The reincarnation of Doctor Druid"

In a dutifully crafted but too dull to fully recap, the Thomases reveal Druid and "Nebula" have been surviving in a small, paradise like pocket of the Time Bubble, blissfully unaware of who or what they were until Druid's psychic powers ultimately reminds him of his past deeds. That leads to pages of poorly colored flashbacks, a fight with Nebula involving anti-time, a visit to 1961, a slight retooling of his origin to make him an official precursor to Doctor Strange, more meandering mystical mumbo jumbo before we end up with a rejuvenated Druid and a bad pun.

"Who knows, maybe this time I'll even keep my hair!"

Well Doc, there's good news and bad news. Yes, you'll hang on to your hair and you're even going to lead another team of heroes Roy & Dann Thomas salvaged Druid to make him the leader of the shortlived Secret Defenders series. However, after that book folded, Warren Ellis took note of the character so by the Summer of 1995, Druid's body would be burning in a dumpster, courtesy of Ellis' extreme take on Daimon Hellstrom. No worries, Anthony got better. Remember, he's a doctor ánd a druid.

Just not a very good one.

Thursday, February 23, 2017

1982: The Dreadful Druid part I: The Doctor is in!

By Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

Telepaths and the Avengers, it's never been a good match. Forget Moondragon, the most notorious mindreader to ever burden Earth's mightiest has to be Doctor Druid. His delusions of grandeur would lead to the team's 1980s destruction. Let's review the decade of the Druid!

"I am Dr. Druid!"

Well, technically, your name is Dr. Droom. Y'see, the character first saw print in June of 1961, a few short months before Fantastic Four I#1 hit the shelves and the Marvel Universe was born. Debuting in Amazing Adventures I#1, Droom was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and portrayed as a magician type adventurer who had a few typical run ins with monsters before vanishing into obscurity. Never one to waste a decent idea, Lee would later recycle most of the concept when he dreamed up Doctor Strange.

In the 1970s, Droom was salvaged and retroactively inducted into the Marvel Universe with a new origin and name: he was Anthony Ludgate, a psychiatrist who discovered his druidic ancestry after encountering the Ancient One who unlocked his mystical potential. This granted a paunchy, balding middle aged man considerable psi-talent, while also turning him into an expert hypnotist and master of the occult. Oh, and Droom became Druid to avoid confusion with a certain Latverian monarch.

In 1998, Roger Stern wrote the short-lived Marvel Universe that featured a band of adventurers called the Monster Hunters to go on, well, adventures. Remembering Dr Druid's original origin, Stern included him in the mix, thereby retroactively cementing his backstory well over 35 years after the fact. Clearly taking a liking to both the Doc and this team, Stern included the Monster Hunters when he wrote the 2000 limited series Marvel: The Lost Generation. They ran into the First Line around 1958, when hunting for a monster that turned out to be an early Skrull invader.

"As you wish"

Mind you, the Marvel Universe still relies on the sliding timescale. This concept, introduced in the 1980s, means that the events in Fantastic Four I#1 always occured roughly 15 years after whatever year it happens to be. Imagine that, it's 2017 and the rocket flight that gave the FF their powers happened after 9/11.

That still doesn't change the fact Anthony Druid was, physically speaking, past his prime by 1958 or even 1999 standards. Yet, as we enter the 1980s, he would slowly but surely rise to be a major player. Perhaps advanced meditation techniques, mental discipline or clean living slowed his aging but he didn't exactly look like a fitness guru. Not even when the Avengers first encountered him in 1982's Avengers I#225. To say they got off on the wrong foot is a bit of an understatement.

"They'll suit our purposes well!"

Here's Druid using his powers to enter Avengers Mansion undetected, clearly testing the team and its abilities to see if they fit his needs. The doctor is looking for heroes capable of saving the Black Knight, a former Avenger currently stuck fighting the crusades, and about to be killed by the Fomor, an ancient band of demonic, Celtic baddies. But instead of simply asking for help, he does this...

"I am Doctor Druid... And my powers stem from the earth magic of my ancient namesake"

So, can we talk about the codename "Doctor Druid" for a second? It has a nice, alliterative quality to it in the grand ol' tradition of smilin' Stan. But a druid is also a healer, a doctor if you will. This means his actual superhero name is "Doctor Doctor".Which is on a level of redundancy with the La Brea tar pits which translates as "the the tar tar pits".

" Even if that power were not augmented by another's...
My super-hypnotism would still stop you in your tracks!"

Yup... During his first official encounter with the Avengers, Druid ambushes and kidnaps them in their own headquarters with a casual arrogance to rival many a supervillain. The team is then strong armed into fighting the Fomor on his behalf. In the end, they're successful and the Black Knight returns to the present, seemingly none the worse for wear. But you'd think they'd be pretty ticked off at Druid for treating them as pawns.

You'd be wrong.

"Until we meet again, my friends!"

And meet again they did... Apart from a brief and entirely too inconsequential encounter during the Contest of Champions published later in 1982 the Avengers and Dr. Druid wouldn't cross paths until Roger Stern was well into his fourth year as writer on the book and about to launch his defining story arc: the Mansion Siege.

After months of careful preparation, Baron Helmut Zemo led his new Masters of Evil in a successful take-over of Avengers Mansion. Things were looking grim, with Hercules and Captain Marvel out of the picture, Captain America and the Black Knight captured and the mansion closed off by an impenetrable darkforce barrier, courtesy of the mentally addled Master known as Blackout.

Luckily, Dr. Druid happened to be in town promoting his new book...

"I've an old debt to repay".

By this time, Doctor Druid has made a name for himself writing books, dispensing advice and using his image as a professional celebrity guru to make a more than decent living. In essence, he's Dr. Phil with more incense. Now imagine Phil McGraw suddenly dressing in skintight hot red bodystockings and a cape, ready to use his knowledge of the mind to aid the troops. Sounds nuts, right?

Yet, that is exactly what is going on here. But, Dr. Druid actually has super powers...

"Listen to me! Do not resist... the barrier must fall! It must fall!"

How else would he have gotten past the guards, mentally forcing the loopy Blackout to let him in? And yet, pay attention to his motivations here. Yes, he shows up to help out, but not to be a hero. He only wants to settle a self perceived score. And in doing so, he doesn't care about the military that has scrambled to secure the mansion. Unfortunately for dear ol' Anthony, having a big brain doesn't mean he's immune to gunfire. As soon as Zemo spots him talking to Blackout on the roof, the Doc gets zapped. Druid's down, but not out...

"Though paralyzed by the needler, Dr. Anthony Druid reaches out with his powerful mind, desperately appealing to Blackout's psyche"

Thanks to Dr. Druid, the Avengers manage to retake their mansion and defeat the Masters. In the aftermath, the team is in understandable disarray. With Avengers Mansion in ruins, Jarvis hospitalized and several members suffering physical and emotional wounds, it was an awful time to be with the team. You might say they needed a doctor and Druid happily stuck around, offering to accompany the Black Knight when he left the hospital for Hydro Base, the floating, artificial island the team had been using as launch pad for their Quinjets.

"Quite sure, dear lady! There's not a thing to worry about!"

Well, apart from the fact you actively helped an insecure, injured adventurer with brain injury get away from proper medical treatment would be a thing to worry about. Especially when Hydro Base gets attacked by the Atlantean strongman Tyrak a few pages later. Here's Doctor Druid showing he can mess with the best.

"I shall take no more such indignities!Foul air-breather, you will not entrance me!"

Silly Druid, you can't mess with the mind of a merman who's delusional enough to dress like that.

In the end, with a timely assist from the Wasp and Captain Marvel, it's the Black Knight that takes Tyrak down by puncturing his armor's water supply, after which Marvel quickly dehydrated him. Robbed of his strength, Tyrak is tied up and put in an aquarium of all things. Afterwards, Druid and Wasp have a heart to heart...

"Doctor, I held back because I wanted someone else to save the day!"

Talk about irresponsible and self involved. No, not the Wasp, though she's no prize either. I'm talking about Druid, who once again proves his "heroic" actions were simply motivated by self interest. He only came to see the Black Knight at the hospital to study the man's magical sword. And when he realized Dane was dead set on leaving for Hydro Base, he did nothing to stop him while making sure he got to tag along. Not exactly the kind of behavior you'd expect from a physician, let alone a superhero.

So, there's no way Doctor Druid would ever become an Avenger, right? He's temperamentally unsuited for the job, more of a pop culture oddity than a superhero and let's not forget he kidnapped the team and forced them to fight for their lives.

"The ayes have it. Welcome to the Avengers, Druid!"

... Never mind.

It's easy to forget the Avengers have always been eager to hire criminals. After all, their first line up change saw the founders get replaced by two mutant terrorists and a criminal, commie loving archer who broke into the mansion and tied up Jarvis as part of his audition. But would Druid prove himself to be as heroic as Quicksilver, Hawkeye and the Scarlet Witch? We'll find out in part II of The Dreadful Druid: The Doctor Is In Over His Head