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

Masters of Evil by Craig Rousseau

1987 - Anatomy of a Cover - The Avengers #277

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=298282

Avengers Sorta Disassembled Part V: All We Are Is Pym Particles In The Wind

By Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

It’s the fifth and final chapter of our Trial Of Yellowjack retrospective. Lets wrap up the story and end with some closing thoughts on how Jim Shooter’s story arc changed the Avengers.

The Masters of Evil had just finished strapping their prisoner Henry Pym into his latest invention: a massive machine that supposedly allowed one to live forever. Thinking Pym might be lying, they decide to test it on him and flip the switch.

Turns out, it wasn’t a death trap… Under their very noses, Hank had actually built a war machine capable of defeating the Masters of Evil singlehandedly. Protected by an impenetrable reactive forcefield, ‘Super Hank’  took over the Beetle’s armor by remote control and crashed him into his teammates and that was just for starters. 

Within minutes, he stood triumphant over Egghead ánd himself at long last. It was a truly cathartic moment for Henry Pym , as he finally realized he didn’t need to hide behind a costumed identity to be a hero. 

 

Of course, Egghead couldn’t leave well enough alone and lunged himself at Pym, who knocked him back with a single punch. But while Hank turned away from him, Egghead pulled a gun and aimed to shoot him in the back. Only a timely arrow from Hawkeye saved Hank from being shot. 

Unfortunately, Hawkeye’s  arrow caused the gun to backfire and actually kill the villain.

The last issue collected in the The Trial Of Yellowjacket  trade is # 230, a tale that ties up so many loose ends, its no wonder they called it The Final Goodbye. 

First, there’s the matter of Hank’s involvement in the stolen adamantium shipment… The Avengers manage to… persuade… a few expert witnesses to take the stand in his defense.

 

In light of this new evidence, the judge dropped all the charges against Hank and both he and Hawkeye walked away scott free… Well, until both men had to appear before separate Avengers court martials, of course. This still left Hank with plenty of time to get some more closure by doing this.

 

Not too many heroes would even consider helping spread the ashes of their villains, but Hank Pym even delivered a eulogy of sorts for Elihas Starr while his niece Trish and family friend Fred Sloane looked on. Talk about closure…

But Hank still had one more stop to go on the road to redemption. He returned to Avengers mansion to attend the conclusion of his own formal hearing, conducted by the Wasp who treated him so coldly, it was both admirable and cringe worthy.  

Janet was all business when she brought up the point that Hank might have been influenced by outside forces during his transgressions and she offered him the opportunity to possibly clear his name, using Iron Man’s scanning device. Hank agreed to be scanned and while this would have been the ideal opportunity for Stern to push the reset button and reveal all of it wasn’t Hank’s fault after all… the scanner shows he was in complete control the whole time. This revelation made his expulsion from the Avengers’ ranks all but complete. 

Going upstairs, he found Jarvis had already cleared out his room and packed his bags. An emotional Henry Pym thanked the team’s faithful man servant, as he made his way downstairs for the final goodbye. First, he met Cap and the other Avengers and he left them with a surprising gift.

 

Leaving his Yellowjacket gear with the Avengers made sense. Scott Lang was running around as Ant-Man, Bill Foster had also taken over as Giant-Man and bad guy Eric Josten had claimed the codename  Goliath…. So why not Yellowjacket?

On an unrelated note, despite Hank’s claims that a good man was required to make Yellowjacket work out, Roger Stern would eventually have small time criminal Rita DeMarra steal Hank’s costume from the mansion and become the second Yellowjacket.

After saying goodbye to the other Avengers in an almost amicable fashion, Hank was met at the door by his former wife. It would be the first time the two would speak on panel about all the stuff that had driven the book for the past 17 issues since that fateful slap. How did Hank and Jan leave the shattered husk of their once fiery love behind?

 

Roger Stern has the first divorced super hero couple in the Marvel Universe  engage in a mature conversation about love and loss, while still keeping an open mind and acknowledging that appearances can be deceiving. Despite our best intentions, we sometimes simply don’t live up to the expectations we and others have of us. Hank simply wasn’t cut out for life as a superhero and is finally okay with that.

This makes his departure a noble one, he leaves the Avengers, head held up high… confident in the knowledge he redeemed himself and is now ready to go wherever life might leads him. At the time, Hank seemed pretty confident he would never again be a hero, so the goodbyes in # 230 had a real sense of finality. 

Its especially hard to watch Janet break down as she watches her ex husband literally walk out of her life, while she appears stuck behind the oddly prisonlike windows of Avengers mansion. Hank got out, but Jan is stuck there due to the commitment she made to be team leader. But that doesn’t mean she can’t have a proper cry over it all.

 

A course change started in 1981 finally pays off in 1983. Gone are the relics from late 70s continuity, the 1980s Avengers are a multiracial band of heroes led by a free woman, ready to deal with anything that comes their way. Once she’s done crying, of course.

In the months that followed, Roger Stern would put the Avengers on the map once more, delving into rich veins of past continuity while also braving new frontiers as the 1980s got into full swing. But not today…

“Today, there is pain and remorse and release. There will be enough time for joy and hope tomorrow”. How very true indeed.

Avengers Sorta Disassambled part III: Kick An Ant-Man When He’s Down

By Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

After getting himself booted out of the Avengers for dishonorable conduct and being framed for crimes he didn’t commit by his archnemesis Egghead, Hank Pym found himself in jail. Can things get any worse? Ow, you’d better believe it…

He suffered the ultimate insult for the next 6 months or so: being completely ignored. Jim Shooter had the entire fall and rise of Hank Pym all planned out when his duties as editor in chief unfortunately proved too time consuming and he had to take breaks. This meant fill in issues and guest writers scripting over Shooter’s plots... as a result, poor ol’ jailbird Hank got lost in the shuffle.

The effects were jarring, to say the least. After the Yellowjacket centric # 217, which ended with him in jail, one would expect # 218 to pick up on or even mention the matter. Instead, we get a perfectly decent stock story by J.M. DeMatteis which sees the Avengers trying to deal with the plight of the Forever Man, a human being who cannot die and is tired of this unending cycle of reincarnation.

Shooter returns for issues #  219  and 220, but the matter of Yellowjacket’s upcoming legal issues aren’t addressed at all by the team. It takes Moondragon of all people to even remind the readers something is going down with Hank.

 
Yes, Moondragon makes her triumphant return to the book. The last time she crossed paths with  the Avengers, the self important high priestess of the mind decided to help them pick their new line up. But now, she was pursuing higher goals, travelling the galaxy with her father Drax the Destroyer to bring peace wherever they went. In this case, the planet known as Ba-Bani.

Having succeeded in ending a planetary war by using most of her powers to ‘influence’ military leaders, Moondragon was left vulnerable to an imminent rebel attack on her stronghold. Because she had cured Drax of his rage issues, he couldn’t defend her so she decided to summon her former team to come to her aid. Sending her ship the Sensia to Earth, the remaining 4 Avengers feel oddly compelled to board the vessel and soon arrive on Ba Bani ready to defend Moondragon.

Lets face it, this two parter makes no sense. It takes the Avengers an entire issue to discover there’s no rebellion,  Moondragon actually controls the entire Ba-Bani population. Why did she go through this whole song and dance? Seemingly, all she wanted from the Avengers was to  mentally seduce Thor and take him as a lover.  If so, why did she need to bring the others?

Iron Man meanwhile manages to get through to the newly pacifist Drax, who breaks free from his  mental conditioning. Enraged, the Destroyer goes to confront his daughter, who feels she has no choice but to do this…

The effort of killing her father weakens Moondragon sufficiently for the Avengers to take her out. With the Ba-Bani free (and already back at war), the team agrees Moondragon has to pay for her crimes. Unfortunately, common Earth courts don’t exactly cover interplanetary mental domination and super powered patricide.

Shooter brilliantly solved this by having Thor teleport her to Asgard. If Moondragon insists on thinking she’s as a goddess, she ought to be judged by the gods, he reasons. Thor leaves Moondragon with Odin himself, who is ready to sit in judgement over her actions. This resolution would eventually turn out to be a neat set up for J.M. DeMatteis, when he drafted Moondragon for his New Defenders run.

Alas, the ill plotted Moondragon two parter were the last full issues of the title Shooter would write. David Michelinie scripted # 221 which saw the four remaining active Avengers finally dealing with their depleted ranks… all the while not mentioning Hank a single time.

At any rate, the team had two slots to fill and everyone had their own ideas on how to reach the quota of six members. Thor sought out Spider-Man who kindly refused, while Iron Man and Cap simply went to Hawkeye and asked the all too eager archer to rejoin. Wasp was the only one who took a little effort and held a recruitment drive of her own. Inviting the Invisible Girl, Black Widow, Dazzler, Spider-Woman and the She Hulk to an all girl tea party at her house,  Janet was about to make her pitch when an uninvited ‘friend’ dropped by.

Fabian Stankowicz was introduced in # 217 as a good hearted but slightly goofy inventor who had gained a small fortune after winning the lottery. Hungering for a taste of fame to go along with his fortune, he decided to pitting his mechanical genius against the Avengers would certainly get him some press.

He got beaten up mercilessly by the assembled heroines, who one after another took their leave until only the She-Hulk remained and happily accepted Janet’s offer for membership. The Avengers were back to fighting strength, right on time for # 222 which saw Steven Grant scripting Shooter’s plot and the return of Egghead and… the latest incarnation of the Masters of Evil.

Issue # 222 is significant for many reasons. It’s the first time we see the new Avengers in action against Egghead’s equally new Masters of Evil… but its also the first time in 5 months Hank Pym is mentioned ánd seen. Shooter even tries to explain away Hank’s absence from the book with an awkward exchange between Tony Stark and Scott Lang.

Scott Lang taking an interest in Hank’s case only makes sense, considering he owns his super hero identity to the man. It also shows a real sense of neglect on the part of Tony and the other Avengers. Sure, they can’t do an awful lot until Hank’s case comes to trial… but is a visit or a show of sympathy really too much to ask?

Meanwhile, the reason why Pym’s in the pokey is having troubles of his own. Egghead was initially rather pleased with causing the downfall of his nemesis, but that joy proved rather fleeting.

His plight actually helps inspire his latest nefarious scheme: come up with a cure for eternal life and get filthy rich selling it to the highest bidder. But to achieve all of this, he’ll need a few super powered henchmen to do the heavy lifting. That’s why not too long afterwards, a remote controlled torpedo destroys the Atlantean prison holding the fierce Tiger Shark. The aquatic baddie soon shows up at the Ryker’s Island prison to gather a few more recruits, like inmate David Cannon, better known as the Whirlwind. Right before his breakout, he was just having some lunch with fellow prisoner Hank Pym.


In a nice nod to established continuity, Shooter reminds the readers that Whirlwind is actually obsessed with the Wasp. He even posed as her driver in the early issues in order to get close to her. With his parole hearing coming up soon, Cannon openly fantasized about paying Janet a little visit. Naturally, that didn’t sit well with her new ex-husband.

Only moments after Pym is dragged away to solitary, Tiger Shark bursts through a wall and starts a jail break. He takes Whirlwind, the Scorpion and Moonstone and leaves the other prisoners to fend for themselves. Egghead is pleased by his latest Masters of Evil and he plans for them to rob a New York medical research center that night.

Having a few hours to kill before the job, Whirlwind decides to make good on his earlier promise and looks up the Wasp. He knocks out her driver Carrothers and waits for her right outside Avengers Mansion. When she finally enters the car, she isn’t too pleased to see him.

Also: picking a fight with the Avengers’ chairman in front of their headquarters? Not the smartest thing to do. Hawkeye is the first to come rushing to Jan’s aid, but luckily for Whirlwind his fellow Masters are nearby as well.

Despite their best efforts, the outnumbered Masters are quickly routed and sent back to jail. But Egghead isn’t too depressed about it, figuring this defeat may help the Masters see the wisdom of obeying his orders… next time.

Speaking of next time, in the fourth part of this retrospective on a certain TPB called The Trial of Yellowjacket, we’ll skip over half a dozen inconsequential issues and finally get to the trial and redemption of the aforementioned Yellowjacket in Avengers Sorta Disassembled: Ant’s For The Memories, Man!