Prelued of the War-Devil!

Returning home from their battle with the Taskmaster, the Avengers find themselves stuck when the elevator from the hanger malfunction. After Iron Man fixes the problem they are greeted by their butler, Jarvis, who has various messages for the team: particularly an interview request for Captain America, an a woman calling the Beast for a date. Captain America tells the team to get cleaned up and prepare for a meeting at 1700 hours.

Meanwhile, at Stark International, Earl Cowan has finished rebuilding the Red Ronin robot, which had been destroyed in a battle with the kaiju known as Godzilla.[1] However, Cowan refuses to just hand over his work to the government and knocks out his supervisor so he can take the robot for himself.

Back at Avengers Mansion, Captain America is in the middle of a workout when he is visited by Iron Man and Jocasta. Both Cap and Iron Man agree that they should bring up making Jocasta a full member of the team in their next meeting. Jocasta is overjoyed and surprises them when she lifts Cap’s weights with one hand and puts them away.[2] Jocasta then goes upstairs to tell the Vision the good news. Although she feels a kinsmanship with the android, the Vision is just as distant with her as with everyone else, because he is focused on his wife, the Scarlet Witch, who is on temporary leave.[3]

At that moment, Wanda is out in New Jersey along the beach, contemplating her future. She is visited by Ms. Marvel who wants to talk about the idea of retiring and starting a family. Ms. Marvel gets Wanda to admit that starting a family is not the right choice because she doesn’t want to retire from heroics and feels that it is unfair to bring children into a world where their parents could be killed in the line of duty.[4] Glad to hear that Wanda won’t be retiring, Ms. Marvel offers to help her pack when, suddenly, she collapses to the ground.[5]

Soon it is time for the Avengers scheduled meeting and when Captain America arrives he finds Iron Man waiting for him. The Golden Avenger explains that he wants to step down as chairman for the Avengers because he needs to focus more of his time working as Tony Stark’s bodyguard and wants Cap to step in and take his place.[6] Steve is overjoyed at the suggestion and agrees to table it in the meeting after the others arrive. The meeting proves short and after it is adjourned, the Beast pressures Wonder Man into accompanying him on a double-date, assuring Simon that he’s being hooked up with an attractive woman. As Williams reluctantly joins the Beast, Yellowjacket and the Wasp bid farewell to Ant-Man, who helped the Avengers on their most recent case. Yellowjacket is also looking forward to returning to reserve status to focus on his experiments, but agrees to take the night off to spend it with his wife.

Later that evening, the Beast and Wonder Man arrive Madison Square Garden where a 60s tribute concert is playing. There they meet their dates: Candy Brown and Melissa Zimmerman. Simon is impressed with how attractive Melissa is, but is shocked when he learns that she is a divorcee who brought her annoying child Chauncy along with them because she couldn’t find a sitter. Adding insult to injury, Chauncy recognizes Simon as Mister Muscles on a children’s show.[7]

Back at the mansion, Iron Man has just heard that Wanda is coming back to the mansion, but explains her return is delayed after Ms. Marvel suddenly collapsed and had to be taken to the hospital. Although the Vision’s apparent lack of emotion makes Iron Man uneasy, the Vision allows himself to smile after the Golden Avenger has departed as he is looking forward to seeing his wife again. While at Stark International, Earl Cowan has entered the Red Ronin’s cockpit and activated the robot. With its booster rockets activated, the Red Ronin launches into the air, leaving the security staff to wonder how to deal with this situation. While at a hospital in New Jersey, the Scarlet Witch asks for an update on Ms. Marvel’s condition. The doctor tells her that her fainting spell is not uncommon for someone in her condition. When Wanda asks what he means, he makes a startling revelation: Ms. Marvel is three months pregnant. In the other room, Ms. Marvel sobs into her hands as she doesn’t know how this happened.

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Yellowjacket, Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Wonder Man, Beast, Ms. Marvel, Jocasta), Red Ronin, Earl Cowan, Ant-Man, Edwin Jarvis

Continuity Notes

1. Yeah, there was a licensed Godzilla comic book that took place in the Marvel Universe. The Red Ronin was destroyed by the King of the Monsters in Godzilla #14.

2. Except they don’t get around to making Jocasta a full member of the Avengers until Avengers #221, but that point she had gotten fed up with waiting.

3. In Avengers #188 Wanda discovered that her brother, Quicksilver, and his wife Crystal were expecting their first child, it caused her to consider the idea of having a family of her own. She took a leave of absence in issue #192 to sort this out. Here, she is referred to as Wanda Frank. This is because, at the time of this story, she was convinced that she is the daughter of Robert Frank, the wartime hero known as the Whizzer, per Giant-Size Avengers #1. In reality, she is actually the daughter of Natalya Maximoff and an unidentified man, see Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #4 and 12.

4. Here, Wanda refers to the time she and the Vision got married. That happened in Giant-Size Avengers #4.

5. This is the first clue to the fact that Ms. Marvel is pregnant. As explained in Avengers #200, she was gaslighted and then raped by Marcus Immortus, the offspring of Immortus.

6. Little does Cap know is that Iron Man is Tony Stark. Tony wants to offload some of his responsibilities after he succumbed to alcoholism as detailed in Iron Man #117 through 128.

7. In Avengers #194 it was revealed that Simon got an acting gig on the Uncle Elmer Show as the dimwitted Mr. Muscles who is the butt of all of Uncle Elmer’s jokes. Simon has been trying to keep this on the downlow because it’s humiliating.

Topical References

• This story presents the “Rockin’ 60s” event as a rock revival and that the group Hermin’s Hermits are on the bill. Herman’s Hermits were a British rock group that was part of the “British Invasion” of musicians that made it big in the United States. Although the group is still around as I write this in August 2021, the only original member is drummer Barry Whitwam and most of the members are in their 70s. They’re not long for the world is what I’m saying and that’s why this is a topical reference. Modern readers should interpret this as a tribute show as opposed to a revival.

• The Beast comments that the 60s music is right up Wonder Man’s ally. This is a reference to the fact that Wonder Man had been in suspended animation for a long time between Avengers #9 through 151. This story was published when the Sliding Timescale was not fully realized and writer David Michelinie is interpreting Simon’s time in suspended animation as happening in real time between publications (1963 to 1975) This is not longer the case, and per the Sliding Timescale modern readers should interpret Wondy’s time on ice as happening around 4 years of the modern age and should not be ascribed to any particular calendar date. One could assume that, in a modern context, that Simon Williams is a fan of classic rock from the 1960s, and not a statement that it was the last time he was immersed in popular culture.

• The Vision is depicted watching Connections a British documentary series based on a book of the same name. Hosted by science historian James Burke and explored the interconnectivity between scientific discoveries over the centuries. It ran for three series in 1978, 1994 and 1997. Unless you want to believe that the Vision is watching re-runs, its appearance here should be considered topical.