Space-Born Super Hero Part 40: Avengers #108

By the Pama! At last, I'm at the last comic I'm going to review in this series. Avengers #108 (1973) is Captain Marvel's last appearance prior to Jim Starlin's arrival in Captain Marvel #25. The story is "Check--and Mate!" by Steve Englehart, Don Heck, Dave Cockrum and Joe sinnott. The story follows on from what began in Avengers #106 with the Grim Reaper and Space Phantom having made an alliance with the hordes of Hydra. At this point in time, the Grim Reaper was motivated to fight the Avengers because he blamed them for the death of his brother, Wonder Man. Having learned the Vision's mind was based on that of Wonder Man's, the Reaper now concocts a scheme to plant Vision within Wonder Man's body, granting Vision the true humanity he's long desired. It's tempting to the Vision, but he mostly just plays along with the Reaper while the other Avengers do their thing.

The Avengers don't seem to do a particularly great job against the Space Phantom as Vision, Captain America, Iron Man, Black Panther, Hawkeye and the Scarlet Witch end up being captured and the Space Phantom heads to Avengers Mansion to tie up any loose ends by catching Jarvis and Rick Jones. However, Rick fights back against the Space Phantom and the villain decides to use his ability to assume other people's forms by claiming Rick Jones' body; however, at the very instant he does so, Rick vanishes and Captain Marvel appears! With Rick Jones cast into the Negative Zone, the Space Phantom can't perform his appearance-swapping trick and is cast into Limbo by the effects of his own powers. Afterward, Mar-Vell informs the Avengers that he and Rick had helped come up with this plan to aid the team, and the Scarlet Witch even threw her fight with the Space Phantom so that she could warn Rick. The threat is finished but the Scarlet Witch is still uptight about her missing brother, Quicksilver; Vision consoles her as their romance continues to bloom.

Thoughts: Captain Marvel appears for less than 2 pages, but as he and Rick had been brought in at the outset of this storyline, it doesn't feel cheap for him to turn up, and using the Rick/Mar-Vell body swap as a means to undo the Space Phantom's body swap powers is a neat idea -- kudos to Englehart for thinking of it.

And that's all there is in terms of plot recaps; let's sum this up.

Next: The finale! What exactly did I learn from this 40-part series? Let's find out!