Avengers 41 page 5 (1967) by John Buscema

great page 🤩

"nuff said, Fanfare! :)

Big John B delivered the goods!

The man knew his way around the comic book page. The old "telling a story with pictures" addage applies here. Rip the dialog away and the story stands.

Magic!!

they should make a movie out of this....

I have been wondering how much of the movie might have been inspired by this run. 

The story, which ran about 4-5 issues, was set in classic cold war /James Bond politics. The Chinese had a super-weapon (The Psychotron) that attacked people with their fears. They needed a way to get it closer to the US (apparently all their own boats were in dock) and teamed up with the Soviets. The Widow went in under cover for SHIELD, something about submarine plans, and her former husband shows up on behalf of the Soviets, as the Red Guardian. 

Our own view of life in "The East" was informed by the paranoid mentality of the day. China did not even have enough technical skill to make reasonable steel (and the attempt to industrialize by crowdsourcing to villages contributed to the Great Famine during the Great Leap Forward), so this vast industrial complex is more of a fever dream view.

The monolithic view of communism had fractured between China and Russia, and in the 1960s most if not all communication between the two countries was handled in writing.

In 1967, the disasterous Cultural Revolution was just underway in China, and there is an irony to the selection of "Red Guardian" as the name for the Soviet superhero (and Natasha's presumed dead husband) who gets introduced in a few issues, given that the name for Mao's student-led insurrectionists was "Red Guard."

These few issues set up a lot of the back story for the character of the Black Widow.

The Yen and Yang, alpha and omega.  Great page!

Thanks. 

Classic page featuring one of the early Black Widow costumes. 

If ever there was a character begging for a new look it was Natasha! 

Tremendous John Buscema work happening on this beautiful page.

It's great when we see this outfit, even in a flashback.  Love the "B" earrings and the "W" button in the middle.  Fishnet stockings on a leggy lady turns heads.

Not a flashback! The real deal from 1967. Totally agreed on the earrings and button. Such a nice touch. 

Not a flashback! The real deal from 1967. Totally agreed on the earrings and button. Such a nice touch. 

I should have said, "Hoping to see a flashback of this outfit in the movie."  I wonder if they could adapt that for 80's fashion.

Woah. Awesome idea. I hope someone thought about that. Even if it was just meant to be a disguise. Marvel Studios has been so deferent to the source material that you have to believe it was on the table, at least.

Flashbacks? Costumes on the table? Do you two hang out at strip clubs? Lol.

"The Widow's Bite" 221 E 58th --- first round's on me

I will happily pay for a rond or two.

I find that line in your description very funny. ' The cover was out in the wild for a while but I've not seen it lately. ' Being made of paper its likely turned back into pulp by now. A desert would not do it much good either.....Lovely page, by the way!

Haha. Good point! And thanks!

I like how she took the fishnets all the way up to her neck. If it's sexy to the hips, what if I take it right to my neck...That was such a awesome/wacky costume. And that perm with the mask. 60s fashion was a thing unto itself. And I dig this great spy moment you got. Sweet super early JB Avengers page. Congrats!

Thanks, JH. High praise coming from someone who recently posted a Buscema Surfer page. I'm envious on that one. One of the few things that I had wanted that I could never score a win on. Congrats on that pick-up. I posted another view of the orginal fishnet costume, this time by Don Heck from issue 32, in a femme fatale/noir scene with an out-of-costume Hawkeye.

And thank you very much. :) I'll go check it out, it's such a cool costume. Those 60's Marvel designs were something else.

Great Black Widow page - thanks for posting it!

My distinct pleasure, Mark. I was pretty happy to see this Sketchbook topic. No hesitation what I was going to pull out of the collection at all.