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Avenger, The [2]

Entry updated 28 October 2024. Tagged: Comics, Publication.

US Comic (1955). Magazine Enterprises. Four issues. Artists include Dick Ayers, Fred Guardineer and Bob Powell. Script writers include Gardner F Fox and Paul S Newman. 36 pages per issue, with four (#1-#3) or three (#4) long strips, all featuring The Avenger; #4 was padded out with a short text story and four one-page non-fiction articles on recent technology, including what proved to be an overly optimistic piece on the Flying Fan: the Hiller VZ-1 Pawnee flying platform, a one-man hover vehicle.

#1's opening tale #1 has Professor Phineas Fletcher wandering the streets of Empire City when a peculiar fog enshrouds him, enabling thieves to make off with his designs for a portable atomic motor (see Inventions; Nuclear Energy). He is found by millionaire Scientist Roger Wright who analyses the fog and realizes its ingredients could be obtained only from one of the city's shops. Now costumed as the red-clad Avenger, he checks the sales records to find the purchaser was the manager of an amusement park – a Russian agent who declares the motor will enable that nation to build a satellite that could fire upon anywhere in the world (see Weapons). The Avenger's origin story is this issue's fourth tale: seven years ago his brother and his wife had been kidnapped by the Russians to blackmail Roger into sending them the blueprints for his new airplane (which has an atomic motor). Not wanting the kidnappers to recognize him, he comes up with the Avenger costume and flies to Berlin in the plane (which seems closer to a Rocket in appearance). On arriving he uses a truth gas (see Drugs) on the head captor, to discover his brother and sister-in-law have already been murdered: he vows to fight for freedom.

Most adventures involve variations on stopping the Russians – or sometimes the Chinese – from stealing inventions, kidnapping scientists or preparing to attack America or another country (see Cold War). For instance, the stories in #2 involve: a lock which releases underwater bombs should an enemy ship or submarine pass by; the abduction of the scientist in charge of building America's "space platform" (see Space Stations), who is rescued when The Avenger goes to China and pretends to be from Mars (though there is a hiccup when it is noticed his helmet is embossed "Made in USA"); a portable H-Bomb that was accidentally activated and will explode in two hours, but en-route to being deactivated is stolen in London by foreign agents; and a purple beam (see Rays) which melts our hero's car, his investigations leading him to the secret Russian laboratories in the USA which built the weapon.

#3 begins with a couple of Cold War stories, but the final two show a change in tack. A boy finds a deserted Alien Spaceship and whilst investigating discovers a diorama of an alien landscape and some egg-like objects: he trips whilst taking the latter home to put in the fridge; they break and for miles around everything except humans (we see no other animals) grows to an enormous size (see Great and Small). The area is declared a restricted zone, so criminals decide to hide their loot there; we never learn what happened to the aliens. Another story has a gangster breaking into a house to find its owner has built a Robot: he forces its creator to make it robs banks (see Crime and Punishment). #4 has only three stories: one involves The Player, who wins all the Games and Sports he plays, and decides The Avenger will provide the challenge he craves. The other two involve the Russians and The Avenger planting double agents on each other.

There is considerable sf content, with The Avenger using various gadgets to get out of scrapes: an atomic dissolving gun that melts objects, a levitation device (see Antigravity), and radio-controlled drones in the form of small flying saucers. He also makes uses of a Computer, and a new Element he has discovered that turns iron and steel to powder.

With the cover of #1 announcing "The Red Menace meets America's newest hero", the level of Paranoia initially displayed by the Cold War plots is unsettling, though by #3 they are less strident and half do not involve communist nations (see Politics). Others treat them as more generic antagonists: in one #4 story the Russians, discovering The Avenger's spy in their midst, put him in a room designed to slowly fill with water (see Clichés). Despite some forgettable tales, the plots tend to be tighter than usual for this era; overall The Avenger was an entertaining comic with good artwork.

This comic's protagonist should not be confused with The Avenger (1939-1942), a non-graphic Pulp Magazine starring another Superhero with the same name. [SP]

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