Avengers #83
Come on in.. The Revolution’s Fine!
Having returned to New York to visit her ailing aunt in New York, the Wasp decides to check in on her friends at Avengers Mansion.[1] There she is shocked to see a gathering of female superheroes. A woman calling herself Valkyrie has gathered the Scarlet Witch, Black Widow, and Medusa of the Inhumans to form a new group called the Lady Liberators. Valkyrie’s motivation is simple: She is tired of male chauvinism diminishing the accomplishments of women. Valkyrie explains that she was a scientist who was treated as nothing more than a glorified secretary by her male peers. Seeking to prove them wrong she began working herself ragged on a new formula. Passing out from exhaustion, the fumes from her experiment gave her super-human powers.[2]
To convince the other women to join her cause and replace the male-centric Avengers, she shows the Wasp and Scarlet Witch footage of past battles and reminds them that their male counterparts get all the credit. For the Black Widow, she points out that she was refused membership on the Avengers, suggesting it was because she was a woman since the Black Panther and the Vision was invited onto the team.[3] Lastly, Valkyrie points out to Medusa that she is always living under the rule of Black Bolt, a man who can’t even talk. The other women agree to join the Lady Liberators and they soon take Valkyrie’s flying chariot to find and defeat the male Avengers.
At that moment, the male Avengers have arrived at the home of Tom Fagan, who operates the annual Halloween Parade in Rutland, Vermont. Fagan is pleased to see the Avengers and welcomes them into his home. There they meet Tom’s friends, Roy Thomas and his wife Jean. After the round of introductions, the Avengers are brought into town where they pose on a parade float.[4] As the parade begins, none are aware that the Masters of Evil have broken out of prison and are in town to kidnap Doctor T.W. Erwin, a renowned mathematician, and a parallel time researcher.[5] The villains force their way onto one of the floats in an attempt to get close enough to kidnap Erwin but they are instantly recognized by the Avengers. Although the Masters of Evil have their cover blown, they are able to easily defeat the male Avengers in battle.[6]
That’s when the Lady Liberators arrive and defeat the Masters of Evil. The male Avengers are thankful for the assist, but Valkyrie and the others quickly turn and defeat them as well. With the men defeated, the Lady Liberators convince Erwin to take them to the university where he keeps his experimental Parallel-Time Projector. That’s when Valkyrie reveals that she is actually the Enchantress disguise. She reveals that she manipulated the women so she could get access to this machine. This is because after she and the Executioner were defeated by the Hulk, Odin punished them by stripping them of half of their powers.[7] Not long after this, the Executioner was seduced away from her by another mystical woman.[8] Furious over this abandonment, the Enchantress sought to regain her lost power and also take out her anger on other men.
Before using the machine to restore her power, the Enchantress prepares to cast a spell to destroy the male Avengers. That’s when the Scarlet Witch reflects the spell back at their foe with one of her hex bolts, seemingly destroying the Enchantress.[9] This snaps the other women out of her spell and they free the male Avengers. Wanda explains that the Enchantress spell over her was broken when she called the Wasp a wench earlier. Having heard the Enchantress use the term before, Wanda instantly realized who they were dealing with.[10] When Goliath hopes they learned a valuable lesson about feminism, Wanda warns him to watch his chauvinistic attitude could cause the Lady Liberators to make a comeback.[11]
Recurring Characters
Avengers (Goliath, Quicksilver, Black Panther, Vision), Lady Liberators (Enchantress/Valkyrie, Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Black Widow, Medusa), Masters of Evil (Klaw, Melter, Radioactive Man, Whirlwind), Tom Fagan, Roy Thomas, Jean Thomas, (in flashback) Executioner, Casiolena (unidentified)
Continuity Notes
The Wasp and Yellowjacket had just recently went on a leave of absence on a government job in Avengers #75.
Although it is later revealed that Valkyrie is the Enchantress in disguise, what’s not explained is that her appearance as Valkyrie is not merely cosmetic. As detailed in Defenders #108, the Enchantress trapped Brunhilde’s essence in Globe of Souls. The Enchantress would use the Valkyrie’s essence for her own ends, as she does here.
Hawkeye petitioned the Avengers to allow the Black Widow to join between Avengers #32 through 38. Before they could make a decision she opted to become a spy for SHIELD instead. The Black Panther and Vision were made members of the Avengers in Avengers #52 and 58 respectively.
The Avengers are surprised to see that Tom Fagan is dressed like Nighthawk, a villain they fought in Avengers #70. This is actually a nod to the fact that when Fagan appears in a DC book, he is dressed like Batman. The Rutland Halloween Parade has been the first unofficial Marvel/DC crossover. For more on all of this see the parade’s appearance in Marvel Feature #2, Thor #206-207, Amazing Adventures (vol. 2) #16, Avengers #119, Defenders #100, and Generation X #20 for Marvel and Batman #237, Justice League of America #103 and 145, Freedom Fighters #6, DC Super-Stars #18, Ghosts #95, Animal Man #50, and Superboy and the Ravers #16 for DC Comics.
Mention is made of the Masters’ last defeat at the hands of the Avengers. That happened in Avengers #54-55.
Whirlwind calls Quicksilver a mutant here, however, neither he nor the Scarlet Witch are actually mutants. The pair were experimented upon as children by the High Evolutionary who covered up his work by making it so genetic tests would register them as mutants. See Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4-5.
The Enchantress and Executioner got their asses handed to them by the Hulk in Incredible Hulk #102.
This woman is not identified here. Defenders #4 reveals that she is Casiolena.
Except she isn’t. She’s back again next issue.
The Enchantress called Wanda a wench when they faced each other back in Avengers Annual #1.
Although the women here threaten to bring back the Lady Liberators, the team won’t make a comeback until many years later when it is reformed in Hulk (vol. 2) #7. However, that incarnation was less about some warped idea of feminism and more about punching Hulks in the face.
Topical References
Valkyrie shows footage of past battles using an old reel-to-rell film projector.
The appearance of Roy Thomas and his then-wife Jean in this story are not subject to the usual rules of the Sliding Timescale, which dictate that all real-life people appearing in Modern Age stories should be considered topical. Marvel Comics creators all exist in the Marvel Universe and in their relative prime.
The same can be said about the Halloween parade that is held in Rutland, Vermont, and its founder Tom Fagan. While they are not associated with Marvel Comics, the parade and Fagan were celebrated by both Marvel and DC Comics and featured in many stories. Although Fagan died in 2006 the parade still happened until 2019, it remains to be seen if the parade will come back once the COVID-19 pandemic is over. (This note was written in March 2021 and the page about the annual Halloween parade has been taken down from the Rutland, Vermont community website)
Jean makes a joke about the Avengers here, asking which one of them is Mrs. Peel. This is a reference to the British television series The Avengers which ran from 1961 through 1969. It was an espionage show back when those were popular. The series mostly featured a spy named John Steed (played by Patrick Macnee) who paired up with various female spies. The most popular one was Emma Peel played by Diana Rigg.
This story uses the term Women’s Liberation, which was a term used to describe the second-wave feminism that occurred between 1960 and 1980. I have replaced it above with simple “feminism” as this is a dated term that is no longer in regular usage.