Four Against the Minotaur
By Stan Lee, Don Heck and Dick Ayers.
Line Up: Captain America, Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch
Guest Stars: The Hulk
Villains: The Mole Man and the Leader.

So what happens?:
The new line up is shown around the Mansion and there is trouble brewing from the start. Hawkeye and Quicksilver dont want to take orders from Cap and Rick Jones wants to know why they were made Avengers before him. He is possibly missing the obvious answer that they are super heroes.

Even Cap is beset with doubts about the line up, Wanda is happy though as she shows her affection for Cap by being the class creep and agreeing with everything Cap says.

The mood only improves when they get to show off their skills, first in a training exercise and then against the Mole Man's robot that bursts into the mansion before giving them a message about finding the Hulk in the desert. Iron Man's last words to the team had been a request to bring the Hulk into the team so they are quick to act on this. Meanwhile we learn that the Mole Man thinks this new team will be easy to defeat so he programmed his robot to direct them to his base.

They fly to the deserts of the South West but are unable to find the Hulk (he is being held captive by the Leader) wondering what to do next they stand on top of a trap door the Mole Man has built and are sent tumbling into the depths of the Earth.

Hawkeye stops them falling to their deaths with a hastily fired cable arrow and they climb down to a large cavern. Almost instantly they are attacked by a giant bull headed monster that proves impervious to Cap's shield and Clint's blast arrows. They try running but the fight has caused a cave in and Quicksilver, ahead of the others naturally, is seperated from the team by the falling rocks. Hordes of the Mole Mans Moloids attack him as he trys to tunnel through the debris.

After putting up a quick fight he is captured and brought before the Mole Man.

Facing the Minotaur Cap takes charge and orders Hawkeye to blind the monster with a flare arrow before Wanda brings a wall down on top of it with her hex power leaving it trapped.

The Mole Man is trying to learn the secret of Pietro's speed when the others break into his base destroying his machinery with a few well placed Hexs and arrows. Rather than fight the Mole Man shoots them back to the surface on a hydraulic lift. Giving up on their quest to find the Hulk they instead return home with a new sense of team pride.

So is it any good?:
Yes, all of the silver age Mole Man stories involve a few moments of bad science and silly coincidences and this one is no different but it makes up for it by being more exciting than a lot of the earlier issues. This is one of the first times that team work is actually used and it reads as if Lee was really enjoying having to think how he used the characters. Before this Thor, Iron Man and Giant Man just hit the bad guys while Wasp looked on and Cap moaned about Bucky, here each Avenger has a part to play.

The bickering about leadership and Wanda's crush on Cap would become staples of Marvel team books and they give the book a bit more fizz than it had until now.

Issue 16 was really about the changing of the guard, how Iron Man and co felt about leaving the team and the practicalities of replacing them. This issue is about the new guys and even after reading hundreds of stories featuring Wanda, Clint and Pietro it was great to see them proving their worth. Cap actually gets to show that he is a good leader as well, taking the seemingly beaten Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch and coming up with a plan to beat the Minotaur. Pietro had a little less to do and was of course captured but there was still more for everyone to do in this issue than in preceding ones.

Villains feeling that this team would be easy opponents was a theme of this issue and the next few. Together with the bickering it helped introduce the idea that this team was a lot less powerful than the earlier incarnation and introduced an extra element of tension.

It isn't devoid of plot holes, the robot turning up in the mansion without explanation for example but it is enough fun to over look that.

The art is excellent as well, Heck brings Hawkeye's smug grin and Quicksilvers motion to life. His Minotaur is pretty good as well, well served by Dick Ayers years of doing monster comics. The action sequence are amongst the best Heck drew for the title.

Are there any goofy moments?
The Avengers deciding to stand on top of the Mole Man's trap door while they debate their plans is a bit goofy but finding ways to get the heroes underground to face the Mole Man always posed a problem.

Avengers Facts:
The Avengers get their own jet in this story, transport had been a bit of a problem in earlier stories allowing Lee to split the team up and walk them into ambushes.

The panels in this story that deal with the Hulk's whereabouts are reproduced from Tales to Astonish 69 making it a strange sort of cross over issue. The Hulk story doesn't feature the Avengers at all though.

Another tie in is with Thor 120, the Avengers appear there between this story and issue 18. Thor finds out about the replacement members and is so shocked by their arrogant attitude that he decides he has no time for them. This is the closest we get on panel to Thor leaving the team.

Is it a landmark?:
It is the Kooky Quartet's first outing but beyond that it isn't particularly important.

Where can I read it?:
In the Essentials or Masterworks volumes, or Marvel Triple Action 11