The Avengers #10, November 1964 [published 8 Sept 64]  Yeah! I bought this one off the racks!

“The Avengers Break Up” - 20pp - Script: Stan Lee, Art: Don Heck, Inking: Dick Ayers, Lettering: Sam Rosen

Immortus’ entrance is suitably impressive with smoke and lightning.

Page 4, panel 1: Someone off-panel seems to recognize Immortus. We’re not told who, but I rather imagine it’s the Enchantress.

Notice that Bill tells Rick Jones the super-powers ad is on the back cover of a comic book, but we then see Rick reading the ad on an interior page. Communication is such a nice thing.

The Captain America of late 1964 is just way too dour and serious. Speaking of which there’s a nice pic of the angry Cap at the bottom of page 7. This Cap also flies off the handle way too easy.

What Cap accuses the other Avengers of at the bottom of page 8 is the opposite of the truth. Cap says the others didn’t want Rick to become an Avenger, which is in opposition to the fact that Iron Man recommended Rick for membership earlier in this very same issue.

Iron Man says flames are blinding him when he’s being shot by a fire extinguisher!

The graphic on page 10, with the hourglass and the close-up of Immortus’ eye, is a nice representation of time-travel.

During this issue, Immortus summons these personages from the past: Paul Bunyan, Attila the Hun, Goliath, Merlin and Hercules. I note that they are all under an obligation to serve Immortus in his designs. Also see how Immortus tells Attila what time and place to take Rick Jones to.

The individual battles with Goliath, Merlin and Hercules were kind of fun.

I want to say something about the close-up of the Enchantress on page 16. I think Dick Ayers inked the guidelines Don Heck drew before drawing the Enchantress’ eyes. I can see no other use for those lines.

You know, I do like the concluding battle with the Masters of Evil this issue. It’s kinda fun.

Did the Enchantress always have the power to travel through time? Yes, but she undoubtedly didn’t feel the time was right to use it ’til now. This would also indicate how she might have heard of Immortus before (being fellow time travelers).

A note about continuity: the Merlin in this story is not Mad Merlin from JiM96 or any later Merlin we would see. And the Hercules from this story sure isn’t the Prince of Power that we’ve come to know and ridicule. I’m tempted to just say let’s write this off as characters from alternate timelines, but then someone would get all super-serious and extreme about that and what to know which Earth they’re from. *SIGH!* Let’s just enjoy the story, okay?

Anarchy and Chaos are the natural state of the human race. Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And Chaos must always ultimately triumph.
Last Edited By: Joseph William Marek Aug 18 12 8:13 AM. Edited 1 times.