This is "From a Different Point of View," a feature where I discuss a comic book series with another writer. In this case, it is Eileen Gonzalez who will be going over the history of the Avengers with me, story by story!

When last we checked in with our heroes in Avengers #75, "The Warlord and the Witch," by Roy Thomas, John Buscema and Tom Palmer, Yellowjacket and the Wasp leave the Avengers as the government has asked Hank (and his fellow scientist, Bill Foster) to go to Alaska to work on a project and the Wasp decided to go along with her husband.

While those two Avengers were leaving, two older Avengers, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, were back into the comic, as Quicksilver approaches the Avengers to help him. First, of course, there's the obligatory "fight each other for no reason" sequence and once that's over, the Avengers compel Quicksilver to see why he needs their help. You see, while trying to find a cure for Scarlet Witch's missing mutant powers, they accidentally drew Arkon the Magnificent to our dimension. Once drawn here the first time, Arkon could then travel back and forth freely and bring people with him. He was the leader of a dying planet in another dimension, as the energy rings around the planet were slowly dying. They noticed, however, whenever Earth set off a nuclear bomb test, it would power their planet for another year. So their plan was to destroy Earth entirely with a nuclear bomb blast so big that it would power their world forever. He was distracted by Scarlet Witch's beauty and also kidnapped her to make her his bride, but then he kidnapped the world's top nuclear scientists.

This leads us to Avengers #76, "The Blaze of Battle, The Flames of Love," by Roy Thomas, John Buscema and Tom Palmer.

I opened with, "It's kind of crazy, after losing such an amazing inker in George Klein, that Tom Palmer has really stepped it up here. The Buscema/Palmer pairing might be even BETTER than the Buscema/Klein pairing! If not better, it's at least basically in the same ballpark, quality-wise, which is really impressive." Eileen replied, "The artwork is super great this issue. Which is more than I can say for the story, but I'm sure we'll get to that. I even like the fiddly bits on all the Avengers' tech." I responded, "Is there a story in this comic? I'm not sure if I noticed. The art is purty, though!" Eileen replied, "There is something purporting to be a story. For which Quicksilver is willing to risk Vision's snark."

I noted, "I love how the Avengers continue to just mess around with technology. In the sense that you have a genius in Black Panther, but he then just has, like, Cap pushing buttons for him." Eileen replied, "Beats Hawkeye. But you'd think the Vision could make himself useful here. Or that Cap would know how to turn off a machine without smashing it with his shield." I replied, "NO MATTER WHAT, EILEEN! But yeah, you gotta love Vision just being a super big douche here, telling Panther than his machine might have worked had he used Vision instead of a human. 'If you were human, you wouldn't be such a douche.' So the lesson is, I guess, just let Vision be a douche, I guess?" Eileen replied, "Well, Clint isn't in this scene, so someone had to fill that role! Quicksilver is being kind of a jerk too, but at least he has something of an excuse. But even he acknowledged that maybe he shouldn't be insulting the only people who can help him find his sister."

I noted, "His shouting was weird, though, right? That was the most exposition-driven rant I've ever seen. And the facial work was ALL over the place, no? Eileen replied, "It's been a while since we've seen Pietro, but I remember he always had a penchant for slightly odd dialogue. No question his face is weird here, though. And just as we were talking about the nice artwork, too..." I replied, "Right. And then the Vision is suddenly now all high and mighty about the Avengers. membership. It's quite odd. 'We're ashamed that you were a member.' Really, Vision? Where is this coming from? Suddenly now Vision is the Avengers gatekeeper?" Eileen replied, "When have they ever been ashamed of Quicksilver? I know he didn't leave on the best of terms, but that never came up. Vision doesn't even know him!" I replied, "Well, I mean, he fought them, so I guess that's pretty shameful, right? But yeah, Vision has never met him, so it's super lame of him to be dropping this noise on him. Especially since, you know, Vision has fought the Avengers MULTIPLE times!"

Black Widow then drops in to break up with Hawkeye. I'll write about this scene in the future (perhaps closer to the release of Black Widow's movie), but basically, Black Widow was getting her own series, so they needed to write her out of the Avengers, and they did so as bizarrely as possible, with Widow tearfully telling Hawkeye she can no longer be with him and that's that.

Eileen noted, "Black Widow and Hawkeye's relationship is still better than Wanda and Arkon's."

I replied, "The Arkon/Scarlet Witch stuff is pretty darn rote, right?" Eileen responded, "Yeah, it's dull. The only thing women seem to be good for is as love interests, and the fact that Wanda starts to sympathize with the wannabe mass murderer is a little gross." I continued, "Thomas breaks out his poetry books again for a good sequence, but yeah, it's still stuck in the context of the overall iffy sequence. Where Scarlet Witch is SO passive here. And then begins to fall for Arkon a bit. It does not do her any favors. It makes her look fairly weak."

Eileen replied, "Not helped by the fact that she has no powers and does nothing to help herself here." I noted, "The flower poem ('Flower in the Crannied Wall' by Alfred Tennyson) could have been powerful in a better context. Like, let's say that Arkon had turned to her for help or something like that. What if she WILLINGLY went to help him save his world and he lied to her about his plans? Then these scenes would be interesting, as she begins to fall for this bold warrior, not knowing that he plans on destroying her planet. But instead, it's like her only plan is to basically seduce him into not destroying her planet. It doesn't suit her." Eileen agreed, "I like your other idea. It would make a lot more sense than 'kidnapping via magic book.'"

I finished with, "Notice Roy Thomas once more pulling a fast one with the roster. 'Surely, Arkon is a big enough threat to bring Thor and Iron Man back into the book, right?' But it ends with an amazing panel of the team arriving in Arkon's dimension. This at least bodes well for some awesome Buscema action in the back-half of this comic book!