Infamous Monsters of Hollywood Part 1: Make Way for the Night Shift!

Wonder Man has taken on the stunts on an unfinished film titled The Demon That Devoured Hollywood. Watching him on set are his fellow Avengers, Spider-Woman and the Living Lightning. After his scene is done, Simon tells his two friends about how The Demon was nearly completed when Jason Roland — the actor who played the film’s titular monster — disappeared one day. While Wonder Man is doing all the stunts, the acting is being done by Roland’s replacement, Wes Nelson.

As they are watching the next scene being set up, a noose lowers from the catwalk and ropes around Nelson’s neck and yanks upward in an attempted hanging. The Living Lightning acts quickly, using his electrical powers to slice through the rope. They then look up and see the perpetrator, a hooded man calling himself the Hangman. He villain declares that this movie set is now closed. When Wonder Man flies up to confront the Hangman, the Night Shift’s Brothers Grimm arrive to run interference.[2] The Living Lightning then turns into his energy form to give Wonder Man some assistance.

On the ground, Spider-Woman tries to figure out a way to help when she spots Wes Nelson being attacked by Gypsy Moth. Using her psi-webs, Spider-Woman manages to entangle Gypsy Moth, forcing her to let Nelson go. Not expecting to encounter the Avengers on the movie set, the Hangman orders a hasty retreat. In order to cover their escape, the Brothers Grimm toss a bunch of exploding jacks that temporarily blind the heroes. In the aftermath of the battle, the director of The Demon That Devoured Hollywood has received a note from the Hangman threatening to cast and crew if they do not halt production immediately. After his near death experience Wes Nelson decides to quit on the spot. The director isn’t bothered by this, saying that he can get Wonder Man to finish the rest of the shoot. Wonder Man accepts the role since it will also allow him and his fellow Avengers to protect the production from the Ngiht Shift.[3]

As the three Avengers are preparing to leave the set for the day they run into Janet Van Dyne, aka the Wasp. She was at the studio optioning her screen play about the Avengers to producer Dino Domani.[4] When Wonder Man tells her of their encounter with the Night Shift, he asks if she wants to help them out. Janet politely turns them down, reminding Simon and the others that she is on a leave of absence.[5]

That evening, at the Tower of Shadows, the Hangman calls a meeting with the other members of the Night Shift to discuss their next move. He believes that the Night Shift lacks the power needed to deal with the Avengers West Coast, but believes they are the right people for the job given each member’s various grievances with Hollywood. He also sees potential in the group now that they are no longer led by the traitorous Shroud and they kicked out the Werewolf by Night.[6] Misfit takes offense to this and tries to attack the Hangman. However, the new leader of the Night Shift is much stronger than he appears and his noose can move around light magic. When almost hanged himself, Misfit stands down and accepts Hangman’s leadership. The hooded maniac decides that the Night Shift needs a power boost and tosses his nose into the air. Suddenly a portal open in the air above them and Handman orders the Night Shift to climb up his rope and through the portal. They comply, little knowing that the power Hangman is offering them will cost them their souls.[7]

Meanwhile, Wonder Man has called a meeting of the Avengers West Coast to convince the group to guard Mammoth Studios. Simon is asking for one more Avenger to be on set to keep an eye on things. While most of the team is agreeable to the idea, neither Hawkeye nor US Agent think its anything more than a waste of time and resources. Iron Man compromises by deciding that the team will go out looking for the Night Shift and bring them in before they can threaten the studio again. That’s when Spider-Woman offers to investigate the disappearance of Jason Roland, since she believes that there might be a connection between it and the Night Shift’s attack on the production. Hawkeye, who has grown an interest for Spider-Woman, likes the idea and offers to tag along with her. That’s when Clint gets a poorly timed phone call from his estranged wife, Mockingbird.[8]

Bobbi is still in Detroit but wants to fly out to Los Angeles so the two can talk about their marriage. Barton turns down this idea, saying that he’s going on a mission to find the Night Shift. He makes a point of saying that he is investigating the villains with a male member of the team to keep his interest in Spider-Woman a secret from his wife. When Clint gets off the phone he learns, much to his chagrin, that US Agent volunteered to back him and Spider-Woman up. The Agent having only done so because it would annoy Hawkeye to no end. The trio head to the home of Stella Houston, Jason Roland’s ex-girlfriend. Stella tells the Avengers about her romance with Roland and their time as Hollywood celebrities.[9] However, she doesn’t know what happened to Jason. On the day of his disappearance he went into his dressing room to get out of his make-up before an interview and just disappeared. Stella was labeled a jinx and that curtailed her career pretty quickly. Luckily, she put aside enough money so she wouldn’t have to live her forced retirement in poverty.

As the three Avengers are on their way out, a nose loops around Hawkeye’s neck and yanks up. This is, obviously, an attack by Hangman and when Spider-Woman tries to cut the rope with one of Clint’s arrows she is shocked with electricity. That’s when the rest of the Night Crew arrive and attack. US Agent figures this is going to be an easy fight with his super-strength, but quickly discovers that someone has boosted the Night Shift’s powers. US Agent is overpowered by knocked out, but rather than kill the trio, Handman has something else in mind. Hawkeye, Spider-Woman, and US Agent are then taken back to the Tower of Shadows where they are shackled to a mystic circle. When they wake up they are helpless as the Night Shift form a circle around them and begin reciting an ancient incantation. This magic spell causes a portal to open over the mystic circle and a massive demonic hand emerges and begins bearing down on the three captive Avengers.

Recurring Characters

Avengers West Coast (Iron Man, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Wonder Man, US Agent, Living Lightning, Spider-Woman), Mockingbird, Night Shift (Hangman, Brothers Grimm, Dansen Macabre, Digger, Gypsy Moth, Misfit, Needle, Tatterdemalion, Tick Tock), Stella Houston, Wasp, Satannish

Continuity Notes

1. Regarding the Handman, Wonder Man states “I thought some movie critic killed him a while back!” He is referring to Harlan Krueger the first Hangman of the Modern Age who first appeared in Werewolf by Night #11. As seen in Bizarre Adventures #31, Krueger was killed by movie critic Matt O’Brien, who killed the Hangman with his own scythe. It will be revealed next issue that the new Hangman is Jason Roland himself. This story misidentifies Matt O’Brien as Jack O’Brien.

2. Wonder Man recounts the last time the Avengers fought the Night Shift. That was in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #40.

3. Wonder Man mentions that he starred in some of the Arkon films. He first got a role in Arkon IV as we saw in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #6.

4. If you are curious as to how much of a shit show Janet’s pitch meeting went, see Avengers West Coast Annual #6.

5. The Wasp decided to take a leave of absence from the group in Avengers West Coast #74. She’ll get pulled back into Avengers service during Operation: Galactic Storm as seen in Avengers #345.

6. As explained in Captain America #330, the Night Shift were formed by the Shroud, a vigilante posing as a criminal. He manipulated the Night Shift into targeting other criminals in order to tear the criminal underworld apart from the inside. The Shroud and Werewolf were last seen with the group in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #40.

7. As we’ll learn next issue, Hangman is an agent of the demon Satannish.

8. Hawkeye and Mockingbird has been estranged for quite some time. The reasons for it are quite complicated:

   • Clint and Bobbi got married back in Hawkeye #4. It was all marital bliss until the time when the West Coast Avengers were struck going backward in time circa West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #17-24. As seen in issue #18, while in the 1800s, Bobbi was kidnapped by the Phantom Rider just as the rest of the Avengers were going backward in time.

   • Bobbi was forced to drink a love potion that made her loyal to the Rider. Eventually, she shook off the effects of the potion and, in a battle with her captor, did nothing to prevent him from falling off a cliff to his death, as seen in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #23. Because of Clint’s staunch belief in the Avengers rule about killing, Bobbi kept the truth of what happened a secret for months.

   • Things went south when the the spirit of the Phantom Rider possessed his modern day descendant and revealed the truth to the rest of the Avengers. As seen in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #34-35, Hawkeye didn’t take it very well either and this put a strain on their marriage.

   • From issue #37 on, Clint and Bobbi split up. However, Mockingbird came back in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #46 and convinced Clint to help her train the Great Lakes Avengers and work on their marriage. Although Clint agreed, the two could not reconcile and Clint returned to the west coast team in Avengers West Coast #60.

9. Believe it or not, the whole Jason Roland back story was covered in one of Marvel’s old horror anthology titles. Namely Tower of Shadows #5. Here, Spider-Woman states that the events of that story took place about 7 years prior to this story. This measurement of time, in my opinion, is factual. See below.

Topical References

• The character Gypsy Moth has a problematic name. Specifically the term gypsy, which was a term used the Romani people. Many now consider it to be a pejorative and it is no longer part of common usage. Even the moth that was originally given that name is now referred to as the spongy moth in the scientific community. Its usage here can’t really be changed because this is what the character called herself. One could argue that the character herself gets a pass as Gypsy Moth’s alter ego is Sybil Dvorak, a person of Romani descent.

• When US Agent says tonight is Hawkeye’s lucky night, Clint retorts with “Why? You decide to go spend the 90s with the Avengers East?” Statements that this story is taking place in the 1990s should be considered topical as they are relative to the date of publication.

Tower of Shadows Timeline

Tower of Shadows was a short lived horror anthology series that was published by Marvel between 1970-1971. It ran for 9 issues and paid homage to popular horror comics of the Pre-Comics Code 1950s such as Tales from the Crypt and Vault of Horror, right down to having a “host” introduce each story. All of these stories were self-contained one-offs but some of the tales have been introduced as part of the continuity of the Prime Marvel Universe, as we’ve seen in this issue and it’s incorporation of the Jason Roland story from Tower of Shadows #5.

In the story above, Spider-Woman states that the events of the Tower of Shadows story took place seven years prior to this one. The question that it raises is if we should be consider that measurement of time topical or factual.

It’s certainly not based on publication dates since Tower of Shadows #5 was published 21 years prior to Avengers West Coast #76.

If we accept the “seven years” at face value and measure it up to the Sliding Timescale, this would have placed the events of Tower of Shadows #5 happening around “Year One” of the Modern Age. I think this works and should be accepted as factual.

This is based on the general understanding that many of Marvel’s old sci-fi monster stories of the 1950s and early 60s (published in Tales of Suspense, Tales to Astonish, Strange Tales, and Journey into Mystery among other anthology books) all occurred in the Prime Marvel Universe prior to the start of the Modern Age (pre-Fantastic Four #1 in other words).

While Tower of Shadows was published a good decade or two after the fact is kind of a moot point. It was a horror anthology series in the spirit of the books published in the 1950s. As such, I think these stories either predate the start of the Modern Age or occurred early enough that superheroes were just ramping up and weren’t as visible. In that case, the seven year timeframe given by Spider-Woman would work.

Supporting this idea is a story in Tomb of Darkness #21. This was another horror anthology series published in the 1970s. It featured a story titled “I Created Grutan!”, a reprint of a story first published in Strange Tales #75 in 1960 under the title “I Made the Hulk Live!”. However, there was some changes made to the story. That story features a scientist and his lab assistant. In the original story, the assistant’s name was Blake. However, when it was reprinted in Tomb of Darkness, his name was changed to Pym — as in Hank Pym, aka Ant-Man/Giant-Man/Goliath/Yellowjacket of the Avengers. This was confirmed in Hank’s profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #13, placing the story as happening prior to his discovery of Pym Particles. Thus supporting my theory that these stories also pre-date the Modern Age.