Maybe this was useful in the days before Wikipedia, but if someone tried that now, fans would run the writer out on a rail and declare Marvel the most money-grubbing, callous corporation on Earth. Yes, an epilogue issue that is literally just Captain America summing up everything that happened in the crossover, and nothing more. It’s never explained, until it’s revealed he’s ALSO a robot, in the epilogue issue, Avengers Annual #19. And the Red Skull is back, somehow, after being interred by Magneto. Doom was smart enough to avoid the whole mess, as his representative at the council is revealed to be a Doombot for … reasons? It doesn’t change anything in the plot, and seems to be thrown in for not-so-shocking shock value. It was an advanced idea for the time that probably should have been expanded on, without so much of the uncomfortable “mongrel” talk from Skull (not just about mutants, but also about Falcon. Why are the world’s brightest evil minds following this guy they’ve never met into an activity they’re clearly not completely on board with? At least there are some good interactions between the characters, showing there’s no honor among thieves, but the fabled Magneto/Red Skull showdown is sadly over pretty much before it even starts. Many of the villain fights seem to be set up in other ways, with no mention of the greater plan being plotted from behind the scenes.Īnd the whole conceit of Loki pretending to be a lackey for these guys in bringing them together is really thin. Yet this “team” isn’t really seen doing anything. Loki (in disguise) assembles a group of the baddest, smartest villains in the world to finally take down their adversaries once and for all. Reading a summary of Acts of Vengeance, as I’ve done many times at the becoming-slowly-forgotten gem of a website, the unofficial Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe, it sounds like a pretty neat, well-directed story. It’s exposing the weird idea of arch-enemies to begin with, which might be a Quesada-like strike against it to old-timers, but that should be the least of someone’s concerns.
And it’s not even that old! Acts of Vengeance is the 1989-1990 Marvel crossover (but not really) that features Loki assembling a team of “mastermind” villains to delegate lesser baddies against heroes they don’t usually fight (sort of).
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