Of the 23 issues collected in Avengers Epic Collection – The Evil Reborn – issues that span #189-209 and Annual #10, from 1979 to 1981 – very few remain particularly impactful to the Marvel Universe. There are a few important moments, such as the introduction of Taskmaster in #195; Jocasta, one of Ultron’s various robot ex-wives who is now mostly ignored, joins the team briefly.
Other stories are either best ignored or invalidated now. The time crosses paths with the problematic Yellow Claw in #204 and #205, while they battle SJ3RX, the Red Ronin robot, who factored into the no-longer-canon Godzilla series, in issue #198.
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It’s a book of fun, of course – the era featured a delightfully Avengers team. Beast and Wonder Man wandered New York after bad dates and heavy drinking, Hawkeye popped in and out between his real job as a security guard, and the aforementioned Jocasta longed for a life like here human counterpart, Janet van Dyne while pining after Vision (who was, of course, in a fragile relationship with the Scarlet Witch). The artwork – largely by George Perez, with John Byrne and Gene Colan – marks some of the best of the era.
But The Evil Reborn also features one of the most notorious and troubling Avengers narratives of all time. It’s revealed, in issue #197, that Ms. Marvel – Carol Danvers – is three months pregnant. The problem is that she wasn’t pregnant the day before. The pregnancy only lasts three days, and the child is fully grown after another day.
Carol was not yet the flagship character she is today. Her solo series ended in January of 1979 after just twenty-three issues, and she joined the Avengers with issue #183 just a month later; her tenure with the team was a scant seventeen issues. With issue #200, she was gone.
That nothing in her preceding narrative (which stretched back to 1967) presaged her whirlwind, sci-fi pregnancy is only a lesser problem with this story, which culminated with the reveal that she had been impregnated by her own “son”. Marcus Immortus, Immortus’ child, was trapped in one of Marvel’s various magical spaces named Limbo. It’s revealed in #200 that he had kidnapped Carol at some earlier point and seduced her. “. . . admittedly,” he tells her (and the gathered Avengers) “with a subtle boost from Immortus’ machines.” He then spirits Carol away to Limbo indefinitely.
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A canny reader might realize that what Marcus is describing is assault.
It’s an ongoing problem with this guy.
Marvel Comics
The reaction to the issue was immediate. In the first issue of comics fanzine LoC, writer and comic historian Carol A. Strickland published the famous article ‘The Rape of Ms Marvel’, wherein she discussed not just the story that unfolds over those three issues of Avengers, but the state of women characters in comics as a whole. About Avengers #200 she wrote, “For such a storyline to pass through the echelons of editor, editor-in-chief, and Comics Code can only be a crime.”
It’s a true statement, and yet few creators involved have seemed to admit the story’s failings. In 2011, then editor-in-chief Jim Shooter apologized on his blog; he also claimed he had no hand in the story. “I am credited not only as Editor-in-Chief but as one of the co-plotters. However, I didn’t see anything in the book that jogged my memory. . . But, in those days, in any case, the buck stopped at my desk. I take full responsibility. I screwed up. My judgment failed, or maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention. Sorry. Avengers #200 is a travesty.”
Despite being criminal, the story precipitated a major change for Carol Danvers and the Marvel Universe. In 1981’s Avengers Annual #10 (included in this volume), then Uncanny X-Men writer Chris Claremont, who had written the last (and most important) issues of Ms Marvel, not only reclaimed Carol Danvers but held the team to task for their cartoonish allowance of her assault and second abduction.
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Upon her return from Limbo Carol is revealed to have moved to San Francisco, effectively going into hiding to avoid the team. It is here that her fateful conflict with Rogue occurs (the issue is Rogue’s first appearance) though the full conflict is not fully detailed until Marvel Super-Heroes #11, nearly a decade later. The X-Men and Spider-Woman, being the all-around good folks they are, take Carol to the X-Mansion to recuperate. When the Avengers come to check on her, she tells the story of her sexual enslavement. Wanda, a bit off the mark, asks why she didn’t reach out when she found her freedom.
Marvel Comics
It’s a heavy, deservedly angry scene that highlights not only Carol’s rightful feelings but also stands as a statement for both the fan frustrations and Claremont’s own. It then sets up the most important moments of Carol’s story; after this, Claremont smuggles Carol into Uncanny X-Men and gives her the powers for which she is known. The issue even establishes Carol’s friendship with Jessica Drew, arguably her longest and most important relationship.
Marvel Comics
Despite all these failures, botched storylines, and problematic villains, Avengers Epic Collection: The Evil Reborn might be the most important Avengers Epic Collection of its decade, firmly overshadowing any impactful moment found in books like The Yesterday Quest or The Kang War. Its most pivotal moment is hurtful; it is, unfortunately, also a necessary bit of Marvel history.
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