Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Same Fight, Different Artists

Some of you are old enough to remember this story...

...where, as part of a game, the Grandmaster And Kang were sending some of the Avengers bopping through time and space to fight other folks, so the villains could resolve a wager.

And The Vision, Yellowjacket and the Black Panther ended up in 1941, fighting Namor, The original Human Torch, and a much younger Captain America!!

That story was written by Roy Thomas, and 8 years later, he was writing the Invaders! So he decided to re-present that fight, from the Invaders' point of view!! It's good to be Roy!

So, this creates the perfect opportunity to compare and contrast the styles of different artists depicting the same scenes!

I'll  present several scenes from the tussle. The first panels from each scene are from Avengers #71 (1969), drawn by Sal Buscema and inked by Sam Grainger. Those will be followed by the same scene from Invaders Annual #1 (1977), as drawn by Frank Robbins and inked by Frank Springer!

Enjoy!!

1969


1977


1969

1977

1969



1977



1969


1977


1969

1977

1969

1977

1969

1977
Well, that should be a help to someone's art history doctoral thesis, right?
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4 comments:

  1. Britt ReidDecember 2, 2014 at 8:42 AM

    I find the changes in dialogue between the two versions interesting.
    Cap no longer refers to the Panther as a Nazi.
    The Torch no longer mentions feeling "strange" when passing through the Vision's dematerialized form, etc.
    Considering the same guy wrote both versions and he's known as being obsessive about details like that, it seems Roy Thomas is not above retconning himself!

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  2. George ChambersDecember 3, 2014 at 4:22 AM

    I remember this story! The Invaders revisitation stands in my mind as the best example of Roy jumping through hoops to make sure the Continuity God was satisfied. See the panel where it's stated that the Invaders were "as they were in 1941" because of Cap's triangular shield and Namor's black swim trunks? When Roy wrote the first INVADERS story, Cap was already using the familiar round shield and Namor was wearing his scaly green budgie-smugglers. Uh oh, problem for Roy! He solved this by inserting a back story where three Nazi villains stole the shield, the trunks and a vial of the Torch's blood in order to make superweapons for the Axis. The shot of the Shark (the aquatic Nazi villain) using Namor's trunks as the battle flag of his E-boat was priceless!

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  3. googumDecember 3, 2014 at 8:32 AM

    The reprint in Marvel Super Action was one of my first Avengers comics, but I don't see the Invaders side often enough! Nicely done.

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  4. Mista WhiskasDecember 3, 2014 at 11:53 PM

    Awesome sauce

    ReplyDelete