The Avengers Meet The Masters of Evil
By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Chic Stone.
Line Up: Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Giant-Man and the Wasp
Guest Stars: Paste Pot Pete
Villains: Baron Zemo and the First Masters of Evil consisting of The Melter, The Black Knight and Radioactive Man .

So what happens?:
News of Cap's return reaches South America where Baron Zemo is lording it over some natives. Remembering how Cap was responsible for covering his face in adhesive he is determined to finish the job of killing Cap, something that for years he felt he had accomplished.

Soon afterwards New York is attacked by a trio of super villains, the Black Knight sprays the traffic with a strange foam that leaves everyone and everything stuck to the ground, even ships in the harbour are stopped by the substance. The Melter and Radioactive Man cause chaos amongst the stuck New Yorkers destroying property and sticking down anything that escaped the Black Knight.

The Avengers confront them but the landbased Cap and Giant-Man are soon stuck to the floor. Luckily Jan keeps the Melter away while Iron Man rescues them, floor and all. Thor does slightly better but he decides to retreat until Hank and Cap are freed. Zemo arrives to survey the damage while the Avengers regroup.

Needing a super-dissolver Jan suggests calling Paste Pot Pete, an imprisoned Human Torch villain and criminal glue specialist. Hoping to help his parole he points them towards his dissolver and Iron Man retrieves it and frees Cap and Hank.

To take the battle to Zemo Cap calls in the teen brigade who agree to swap zemos stores of adhesive X for the disolver. The Masters go out to give New York another dose of adhesive X and end up freeing everyone. While they wonder what went wrong the avengers strike. Thor beats the Black Knight and Hank and Iron Man make a meal of beating the Radioactive Man with a complex plan involving, mirrors, balloons and lots of lead foil. Iron Man takes a bit less time to beat the Melter.

Cap takes on his nemesis but while he is able to rescue Rick Jones from Zemo he cant stop him escaping despite booby trapping a canister of tear gas in his aircraft.

So is it any good?:
Yes, it creates a new villain and immediately shows that he is someone to be feared by bringing in previously major villains as subordinates to him. It features a number of interesting conflicts which after 4 issues of hero vs hero battles and indistinguishable lava men work very well.

Lee gives everyone time in the spotlight without ever taking away from the idea that this is about Cap. It even brings in threads from the Human Torch series and gives an active role to Rick Jones. All in all it is a very well written team book.

The art is great as well, I love Chic Stone's inks on the FF and Thor and wish he had inked more of Kirby's work. This issue featured lots of wonderful panels, my favourite being Thor riding the Black Knight's winged horse, lance and beaten criminal in either hand.

Relying on the teen brigade to put the dissolver in place seems strange. It makes sense from a storytelling point of view. If the Avengers are able to sneak up to Zemo there is no need for the big confrontations later in the issue but it still seems rather dangerous. Why not just attack Zemo and then free New York themselves?

Despite some inherent silliness in the glue idea Zemo's plan is actually a lot more intelligent than most super villains' schemes.

On the downside Zemo's obsession with removing his mask reminded me of Radioactive Man's (the Simpsons version) quest to go out in public without a hat. Once Cap came along he came to life but the idea that he sat in the jungle waiting for the latest developments in glue removers was unintentionally funny. Kurt doesn't seem to have mentioned that in his Thunderbolts flash backs for some reason.

Are there any goofy moments?
When Cap and Giant-Man are glued to the floor Iron Man cuts a section the pavement away under their feet and tows them along the street in a truck. As Hank points out it is like water skiing on dry land and a nice moment of levity amongst the action.

Avengers Facts:
This battle was replayed in issue 2 of Marvels, a number of panels from here got redrawn by Alex Ross for that project and the TPB cover featuring Hank Pym as Giant-Man is also from this issue.

Cap's shield gets improved by Tony Stark to be controlled by magnets on his glove and contain a radio. It can be opened up like a pocket watch to check the workings.

Is it a landmark?:
Yes, the Masters of Evil are still turning up in Marvel comics today and Zemo's influence is still felt in Thunderbolts. Of this team of Masters only one, Radioactive Man, is still alive.

Where can I read it?:
It is is in the Essentials and Masterworks collections and Avengers annual 4