Avengers #239
Late Night of the Super-Stars
Recently married, Hawkeye returns to Avengers Mansion to introduce the team to his new wife, Mockingbird.[1] However, the only person in the mansion is the Vision, who appears before the couple as a holographic projection to tell them that the rest of the team is off on a mission in Los Angeles.[2] The Vision quickly explains to Hawkeye how his body has been rendered inert and only recently had he come out of a coma and was hooked into the Avengers computers thanks to some help with advanced technology from Titan.[3] Hawkeye then tells the Vision how he and Mockingbird took down a criminal called Crossfire who used sonic weapons against his foe. However, the defeat of Crossfire resulted in Hawkeye suffering some hearing loss when using a sonic arrow to counteract the villain’s weapons.[4]
As they make arrangements for Mockingbird to stay at the mansion with Hawkeye, the Vision gets a call from Wonder Man. Simon has been asked for the Avengers to appear on a popular late night television show. The Vision thinks this is a wonderful idea but the core team is away on a mission, so he begins making calls to former members to fill in. He reaches out to the Black Panther, the Beast, and Black Widow, who all agree to make an appearance.[5]
Hours later, Fabian Stankowicz is working on his latest invention to use against the Avengers. His father comes into the garage and tries to tell his son to stop making mischief, but since he won the lottery he tells his father to stop telling him what to do, as this is the only way he thinks he can make a name for himself.[6] As Fabian begins thinking of his next plan he gets inspiration when he catches a promo for the Avengers scheduled late night appearance.
The following afternoon, the Black Widow is the last Avenger to arrive at the studio located at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. As she catches up with Wonder Man, the Beast, and Black Panther, they are unaware that Stankowicz has sneaked inside disguised as a janitor and has been rigging traps finishing his work, Fabien then changes out of his disguise and joins the rest of the audience for the taping. By this point, Hawkeye introduces his new wife to the Black Widow. He is nervous at first due to his past history with Natasha and is relieved when she and Bobbi hit it off.[7] Soon, the Avengers are called to the stage, leaving Mockingbird backstage to watch from a television monitor.
After the opening monologue, the host of the show calls out the Avengers and in the middle of the interview, Fabian activates his traps. The Avengers find themselves attacked by a studio camera equipped with a laser beam, a steamroller that has a gravity shield that can also fire heat-seeking missiles. While the Avengers are busy dealing with these weapons, Fabien sneaks onto the stage and — protected from the carnage by a personal force field protecting him and the host — boasts about how he plans on defeating the Avengers. As the Avengers begin breaking down these traps, they get some assistance from Mockingbird when she comes to her husband’s aid. During the battle, the host learns that the force field only protects Fabian from outside attacks and uses a giant prop doorknob to knock Stankowicz out just as the Avengers finish trashing his weapons.
Later, back at Avengers Mansion, the ad hoc team of Avengers tells the Vision that Stankowicz is looking at a lot of prison time considering all the charges the television network leveled against him. Preparing to leave, the Beast tries to hand back his Avengers ID card, saying he doesn’t know it. This is just as the episode they just tape is about to be aired. Wonder Man sees this as a big promotion for his acting efforts and is mortified when the broadcast is interrupted by an emergency news broadcast about a chemical spill in the East River. The Vision asks the gathered Avengers to pitch in and help, prompting Beast to take back his ID card for now and they all race out to provide aid. On their way out, the Beast tells Simon not to get too upset, since there is a three hour time difference between New York and California and his efforts might not be totally wasted.
Recurring Characters
Avengers (Hawkeye, Vision, Black Widow, Wonder Man, Beast), Mockingbird, Fabian Stankowicz
Continuity Notes
Hawkeye and Mockingbird had a whirlwind romance and eloped in the pages of Hawkeye #1-4.
The Avengers have gone off to help Tigra save the life of Spider-Woman, as teased last issue. That plot thread gets resolved next issue.
The Vision was knocked out during the Avengers battle with Annihilus in Avengers #233. He came back online last issue and that’s when he got his equipment. His body will regain its mobility in issue #242.
It’s mentioned here that Hawkeye has been away from the team while recovering from the broken leg, that happened in Avengers #231-232. Hawkeye’s hearing problems are actually quite complicated see below…
The Beast states that he has his own team outside of the Avengers. Hank left the Avengers in issue #211 and quickly ended up joining the Defenders in Defenders #103 and has been working to make the “non-team” an actual team.
Fabien has tried attacking the Avengers on two different occasions and had his ass handed to him both times. See Avengers #217 and 221.
Hawkeye had an on-again-off-again relationship with the Black Widow that dated back to Tales of Suspense #67 until she broke it off for good in Avengers #76.
Topical References
This story revolves around the Avengers appearing on Late Night with David Letterman. All references to the show and the appearance of Letterman and his band leader Paul Schaffer should be considered topical as this story was published during the shows heyday.
This is particularly true since Letterman left Late Night in 1993 and the series has had other hosts since then. At the time of this writing there had many other hosts including: Conan O’Brien from 1993 to 2009, Jimmy Fallon from 2009 to 2014, and Seth Myers from 2014 to present.
Letterman and Shaffer went on to be part of The Late Show with David Letterman from 1993 until both retired in 2015, although Letterman more recently came out of retirement for the Netflix series My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.
It should also be noted that both men are in the 70s as I write this (in August of 2021), and eventually they’ll be dead, so there’s also that.
The television network is identified as NBC, the network that hosts Late Night. This should be considered a topical reference as this is a real world TV network.
Also referenced is a comedian named George Ferrari, that’s a made up name. So he’s not a topical reference.
What’s Up With This Cover?
This issue happened during Assistant Editor’s Month, was something that Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter came up with in 1983. The premise was that in the summer months while the editors were off at San Diego Comic-Con, the assistant editors remained behind and crafted the stories that would be published a few months after the fact. This wasn’t the reality, and the wackiness varied from book to book. Mostly it was an excuse to do a lot of “inside baseball” with creators making a lot of in jokes that, to the outsider isn’t as funny as they thought it was, but I digress.
In the case of this issue of the Avengers, other than the guest appearance of David Letterman, features a cover that is a parody the cover design of Silver Age covers published by rival DC Comics, particularly the checkerboard pattern at the top of the page as well as a Marvel logo that is designed to look like the one used by DC back when they called themselves National Comics in the 1930s and 40s. All of the Avengers book published in this period sported a similar stylistic design.
This concept would largely be abandoned after the first, which saw publication in January of 1984. Since then, the closest thing was a two issue Assistant-Sized Spectacular, which featured off-beat stories that were (mostly) out of continuity.
Hawkeye’s Hearing Problems
At the time this story was published, readers didn’t believe that Hawkeye had any prior hearing problems before the events of Hawkeye #4. This handicap would be mostly ignored after this issue and, years later, in Avengers Annual 2001, it is stated that Hawkeye’s hearing was repaired following the events of Onslaught/Heroes Reborn/Heroes Return. That remains the status quo until he’s made deaf again in Hawkeye (vol. 4) #15, when a villain called the Clown stabs him in the ears and issue #19 of that series features a flashback that states that Clint Barton was abused so badly as a child he suffered a loss of hearing and he learned sign language and all that.
I’ll talk about this at greater length here. But basically, if you’ve read my index, you know I am an “everything counts” rather than a “retcon stuff that doesn’t make sense” kind of guys. The latter point is lazy.
