Mar 29, 2026

5/10 - Scrambled Eggs and Swordman Cottage Cheese

I'll always praise Roy Thomas for his habit of bringing back old elements and linking them to present or recent events. We have a bit of that in this issue, which is the best part of the story. It explores Clint Barton's origin story a bit more deeply, connecting his older brother with his past and developing his conflict with Swordman further.

Gene Colan's art, in my opinion, is just a bit below his usual high standards; it seems somewhat rushed and less detailed than usual.

Apart from that, there are many absurd situations that detract from fully enjoying the plot.

Avengers Mansion suffers the same defect as the Baxter Building. Despite all the advanced security measures, any intruder can easily walk straight to the kitchen.

Swordman alone wouldn't be up to the task of posing any real threat to most of the Avengers' members, much less to any Avengers roster.

It makes no sense that Hawkeye stubbornly confronts the rest of the Avengers to stop them from confronting Swordman when he broke into the mansion.

Egghead is usually ridiculous by himself, but adding that corny way of talking raises the ridiculousness even higher.

Feb 18, 2025

Holy Maurice Evans! Roy is egg-tremely egg-cessive with Eggy's Shakespearian schtick here! We get Taming of the Shrew (pg4p3), Romeo and Juliet (pg4p3), Hamlet (pg4p3, pg7p4, pg17p3, p18p1, pg19p4, pg19p5), Othello (pg5p1), Julius Caesar (pg6p2) and MacBeth (pg16p4, pg19p1). Thanks to my mom the English teacher for making me read those plays when I was a kid, so I'd recognize them here. At first I thought that Roy was full of sound and fury signifying nothing* but then Clint says he's not great shakes and then quotes Hamlet himself! Why Roy - you're a fellow of most egg-cellent fancy!** If you think this was egg-asperating, Roy egg-ceeds this by cramming twenty or so Harlan Ellison titles into the dialog of Hulk 140.

* MacBeth, act 5, scene 5
** Hamlet, act 5, scene 1

There are letters from Shirley Gorman and Bobby Barton (do you he might be related to...nah!) And if the Shakespearian soliloquies weren't enough verse for you, they print Robert Frost's "Fire and Ice" poem that the title of issue 61 came from.

Suggested listening: "What's the Buzz?" - Andrew Lloyd Webber, for Jan's "good buzzing" on pg13p3

Feb 18, 2025

Roy spins his second retcon by retelling Hawkeye's origin from Avengers 19, but this time with his brother Barney squeezed in; to explain his decision to go straight and why he hasn't revealed his name up until now. Wasn't Barton supposed to be a mob boss? Now that he's "a hunk'a clay" (pg9p3), I might expect a plot about a power struggle in his mob to take his place, like the current Silvermane drama over in Spidey - IF Barton wasn't just there to fill in Clint's backstory. Clever to interweave Hank and Clint's old foes now that they've switched identities, but despite the bow snapping on pg5 last issue, Clint still falls back on using archery to save the day.

This is Colan's last issue, coinciding with the Egghead arc. You can either view the panels on pgs 2/3 as him trying to do a Neal Adams style layout, or a waste of page space. If Clint let "a thirst for revenge" motivate him (pg9p3), they would be called the Revengers, and I'd be reading Not Brand Echh instead. Clint gives Eggy "the finger" on pg19p5. BP thinks they haven't clued the world in to their lineup changes yet (pg11p3) - if this were today, they'd just post it on the Avengers website. And they also would know to change their password every 30 days! (pg10p4)

@Russ: Channeling Vincent Price would have been egg-ceptional! Egg-celsior!

Nov 24, 2024

They should've retitled this comic to "The Retarded Avengers". Why on Earth, after having their HQ invaded would they fight among themselves while the enemy is right in front of them? Look like all the Avengers do is fight among themselves for the dumbest of reasons.

Oct 7, 2023

Basically what johnchr said. The wino tossing the bottle at the end was a cute gag, but it was downhill from there.

As for the shuffling, I think most of it is just the shift away from Lee-Kirby to a full team with Stan as the EIC. And of course, Kirby had moved out to California and was probably figuring out his future with the company by this point.

Jul 15, 2023

Egghead entrusts The Swordsman with Operation: Kill Goliath, but fails to specify which one. Not a great story. The Swordsman doesn't strike me as the type who would take orders from Egghead - he would only take orders from somebody who also had fighting skills, like Batroc in CA #105. The Avengers fighting among themselves made little sense, but The Swordsman and Egghead turning on each other with Egghead kinda winning made less sense. Flashback to young Clint and The Swordsman was a pretty accurate retelling of the flashback in Avengers #20. Two stars.

What was going on with the artists at this time? Werner Roth spends a few years doing X-Men, then gets demoted pencilling over Heck's layouts. Meanwhile Heck spends a year pencilling ASM over Romita's layouts. Then Buscema briefly leaves Avengers for ASM, then returns after a few issues, with Colan moving over from Daredevil to The Avengers at the same time, while Windsor-Smith fills in on Daredevil. Lots of shuffling, much of it short-lived and with little rhyme or reason. Romita's contribution to ASM is very unclear at this time - he gets credited as the co-ordinator and as a consultant during this time.

Interesting splash. Why is The Swordsman taking his frustrations out on that wino and garbage can? Egghead and The Swordsman was not the pairing I expected. It's been years since The Swordsman was an Avenger. They haven't upgraded security or changed their codes at all since then? The fighting for no reason was dumb. Then The Swordsman and Egghead turn on each other for even less reason.

Feb 23, 2023

Egghead should have lasted about 3 seconds against Swordsman

Jun 1, 2022

At first I had trouble believing that the Swordsman alone could pose any sort of threat to the whole team of Avengers. But then I remembered that these people are absolute idiots.

Apr 25, 2022

Come on Avengers you need better security practices. Deactivate someone's password once they become a villain.

Dec 3, 2021

What's with Egghead suddenly quoting Shakespeare left and right?

Not a fan of the Swordsman shooting all sorts of rays out of his sword. I guess it's the problem with having a lethal weapon for a character in a 60s comic, he can't exactly go hacking people into pieces.

Is Buscema coming back on this title? I like Gene Colan's work on Daredevil and Dr Strange a lot, but kinda miss Big John here.

Or and alternate 'Nuff said: "Got to keep poundin'... with all I've got!"

Add "But... feel funny... my aim's off!" if feeling extra naughty.

Jul 8, 2021

Yikes. Those are my only thoughts for this issue.

Sep 26, 2020

So first the Avengers fight among themselves about who will fight the Swordsman, and later the "villains" fight among themselves as well?

Sep 8, 2020

Centering the entire plot around some name changes seems like such a Roy Thomas thing to do. Ok issue. Glad they wrapped up Egghead’s story. While I’m a fan of Colan’s art, it just seemed so messy and hard to understand here. Two stars.

May 12, 2020

2 stars. Largely for Colan and a bit of development for clint

May 12, 2020

2 stars. Largely for Colan and a bit of development for clint

Sep 21, 2019

Wow, I guess I need to re-read this one. I thought it was fun and I normally am close to the general consensus including being almost lock step with the incorruptible Locust for the entire order thus far and yet I gave 4 stars? Maybe, I was in a jolly mood?!

Jul 16, 2019

This was just awful. It was more like a parody than an actual comic. 1 star.

Jul 13, 2019

Well, that wasn’t too good, was it? Roy’s ham-handed use of Shakespeare quotes made me feel like I was watching first season episode of ST:TNG. And you know it’s a true Roy Thomas story when the whole team fights each other for no reason other than to pad out a few pages.

I did absolutely love how the first thing the Swordsman attacks in this story was a garbage can. That alone earned an extra star.

Mar 19, 2019

Hawkeye getting his time in the spotlight is welcome.

It would be more welcome if the spotlight was shining on a decent story.

Oct 24, 2018

Egghead and Roy Thomas were deeply involved with their "Shakespeare's Best Quotes for the Everyday Man", it's Marveldom-upon-Avon : Macbeth, Othello, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar !

And then it went all to hell with a lame battle among Avengers. Too bad !