Avengers: "The Price Of Victory"

Avengers #277 (1987)

By Roger Stern, John Buscema, Tom Palmer

Background: The Masters of Evil have invaded Avengers Mansion, badly beating Hercules and Jarvis. Led by the Wasp and helped by Thor and Doctor Druid, the Avengers are counter-attacking.

So, What Happens? The final battle between the Avengers and the Masters of Evil rages on. Thor faces Goliath in a fight so fierce it completely compromises the structural integrity of the mansion, while a shieldless Captain America squares off against a revived Wrecker, who now has the strength of the entire Wrecking Crew. Meanwhile on the roof Zemo orders Blackout to send the entire building in the Darkforce dimension, but Druid's telepathy gives Blackout enough self-control to resist the Baron's mental commanding, until the effort causes a cerebral haemorrhage that kills him instantly. Inside, with some help from Wasp, Cap holds the Wrecker at bay long enough for Thor to finally defeat Goliath, whose giant body topples on top of the Wrecker, putting him out of commission. Moreover, the damage to the building is enough to make Zemo's ship collapse alongside the rest of the third floor, with Yellowjacket inside. The girl survives, but faced by Captain America and the US Army prefers to surrender. On the roof, Druid recovers and Captain Marvel also arrives, easily destroying Zemo's guns. The Baron is alone and only has Captain America's shield for defence, but Cap shows up and asks to fight him alone, in revenge for everything he's done. The duel isn't just physical, as Cap confutes Zemo's claims about the Baron's father and remembers everything the Zemos have done to him, killing Bucky and injuring Hercules and Jarvis. Eventually, in his blind rage Zemo jumps at Cap, only to hit his shield and fall off the roof, refusing any help. Some time later, the defeated Masters are taken away by the army and the medics. Inside what's left of the mansion, Captain Marvel finds Captain America crying over the destroyed contents of his footlocker, including the torn photo of his long dead mother, the only memento Steve had of her. Now that the battle is won, he suffers the loss of his memories and of the mansion itself, which for a long time had been his home. Sharing his pain, Monica encourages him to salvage the past and build towards the future.


Notes: Blackout's death is one of the few that stuck, but his body is still around, inhabited by another person. More about it here. Believe it or not, one day Zemo will repent (to an extent), travel back in time, recover Cap's footlocker before it was destroyed and present it to Steve as a gesture of goodwill.

Something Silly This Way Comes: The time-scale doesn't quite work, Captain Marvel should be back at the mansion a lot sooner. Thor somehow whispers to Jan and the Knight in the midst of a battle without even looking at them.

Review: And so ends the occupation of Avengers Mansion, with a final chapter that goes straight to the heart of the matter with a passionate exchange between Cap and Zemo hitting far deeper than the blows they trade. Both characterizations are spot on: while Zemo has proved himself to be a strategic genius, his inability to look past the lies his father fed him and accept reality, and his one-track mind to the point of obsession prove to be his downfall. The Baron has demonstrated he only considers allies for as long as they are useful, and is ready to betray them to further his own ends. Steve is a polar opposite, ignoring all personal loss and pain by focusing on his friends' needs and on a deeper desire for justice. He's equally determined when concentrating on a goal, but flexible enough that it doesn't make him oblivious to everything else, as demonstrated when he stopped to fight the Wrecker and talk to Yellowjacket instead of going straight for Zemo.

The rest of the issue is really a sequence of battles, some more successful than others. Thor beats Goliath and is indirectly involved in subduing the Wrecker, meaning he played a role in defeating every single powerhouse among the Masters, some with extreme ease. His unique speech pattern also adds an element of drama ("mortal, your ignorance dwarfs your size!") that goes well in hand with the fury of the battle and the destruction of the mansion. The poor building is really torn apart this time, and could probably be considered the main casualty of the conflict since it will take a long time for the Avengers to use it again as HQ. The scene with Goliath smashing through the third floor or the wreckage around the fifty foot drop at the entrance in particular tell the tale of what happens when superheroes go all-out. Decades later, the family of the villainous Regent will be retconned into having been killed in this battle, but in this issue it's clear Stern had no intention of involving bystanders or anybody else, as the action is always contained inside what's left of the building.

Conversely, Blackout's demise comes across as convenient rather than dramatic. His battle for freedom and independence is well-written, but he was never a charismatic character and didn't really serve any purpose other than being a Deux Ex Machina to get rid of Captain Marvel and isolate the Mansion, so his death doesn't strike any chord. Likewise, Dr. Druid is still more or less an unknown quantity, and his short-term paralysis means he doesn't take any physical part in the fight. Then again, this is probably for the better since having such a personal storyline resolved by a stranger would have been disappointing. The one who fares the worst however is the Black Knight, reduced to arguing with a rather brusque Wasp and treated like an unnecessary spare wheel. A couple of issues ago Janet realized the role she had played in the Avengers' downfall, but apparently she's still either oblivious of Dane's feelings or simply uncaring. Either way, it's a soap opera element that feels redundant in this particular issue.

I've already praised the art a few times, and all the expressivity and powerful dynamism of the past few issues is also present here in abundance, but something I particularly liked this time were the backgrounds. It would have been easy to leave most of them blank, but instead Buscema and Palmer include plenty of debris and details, really conveying the violence of the battle and the destruction of the mansion. Couple it with some iconic close-ups such as Captain America crying at the end, and this is easily some of their best work ever.

Final Verdict: Despite a few flaws, an emotional and satisfying conclusion for one of the Avengers' greatest tales. 5/5