AVENGERS '58 #6 An Avenger's Revenge Written by Bob Gansler

1958. Communists, aliens, terrorists. As the nation faced these many dangers, President Eisenhower brought together the greatest heroes of the day.

Marvel Boy - Super-powered youth armed with Uranian science
Venus - The goddess of love
3-D Man - The triple-powered protector
Gorilla Man - A human mind in the body of a beast
Human Robot - The mechanical marvel
Captain America - The driven patriot
Bucky - The all-American boy

Together, they protect America from the threats of this world and of others.

Bob Gansler presents: AVENGERS '58

What Has Gone Before: The super Communist agent, the Red Skull, was using WMVI to disable New York Police Department communications while his minions struck at the nation’s most important financial institutions.  The Avengers, with new members Captain America and Bucky, tracked the Skull down and shut down the operation.  The Skull escaped and wounded Bucky in the process.

The Avengers watched sullenly as the ambulance carrying the wounded Bucky sped away.  Cold Warrior was inside the ambulance, using the cold powers to minimize the damage as much as he could.  In the mess that was the WMVI broadcast studio, Captain America was seething in anger.  He had to be restrained by the Human Robot and Gorilla-Man from taking out his frustration on some of the Red Skull’s agents.

“Let go of me,” Cap screamed.  “These guys have to pay for what they did to Bucky.”

Venus went over and softly put her hand on the super-patriot’s shoulder.  “Calm yourself, Captain.  Bucky will get the best care possible.”  Her touch seemed to soothe him.  Slowly, Gorilla-Man and the Human Robot released him from their grasp, once they felt certain that he was under control again.

The police that had arrived on the scene mumbled among themselves.  They wondered if the maniac really was Captain America.  There had been rumors on the force that there had been a number of different men to play the role over the years.  A few FBI agents that were also there noted the discussion among the police.  They would report these concerns back to Director Hoover.

Marvel Boy motioned for the team to gather by him.  “The police can take of the clean up here.  Let’s return to FBI headquarters and work out a plan to stop the Red Skull once and for all.”

All of the Avengers assented to his plan.  They all boarded the Silver Bullet, which was parked just outside of the WMVI Building.  The short trip was marked by silence; none of the team said a word.  All of their thoughts were on Bucky’s plight.

Back at the FBI’s New York Headquarters, the Avengers trudged sullenly into the building.  They plunked themselves down around the conference table, but silence continued to reign.

Gorilla-Man was the one to break the silence.  “So what are we gonna do, just mope around here all day?  The Red Skull is still out there.”

“We’re worried about Bucky,” 3-D Man responded harshly, “Don’t you have any human emotions left inside that big ape body?”

Gorilla-Man rose to his feet and pounded the table with a massive blow.  “Look, you Christmas-colored freak,  I’m worried about the squirt as well, but it ain’t gonna do us any good sitting around here feeling bad for him.”  He pointed over to Marvel Boy.  “So unless Spaceboy has some brilliant idea of where the Red Skull disappeared to, I say we get out there and start looking for him.”

Marvel Boy pondered for a moment.  He and to admit that he did not have clever ideas as to how to find the Red Skull.  Unless the Communist agent began broadcasting those interference waves again, there was no way to find him.  “I don’t have any ideas right now,” Marvel Boy said.  “I’m open to suggestions.”

“The way I see it,” Captain America said gruffly, “is that we scour the city and pound anybody we suspect of being a Communist.  Sooner or later, somebody will give up information on the Skull, and then we can crush him.”  He pounded his right fist into his left hand.

“A very inefficient procedure,” the Human Robot commented.  “Furthermore, my understanding of the legal process would indicate that such behavior might be unlawful.”

“Unlawful?” Cap responded angrily.  “Listen, Robby the Robot.  My partner’s just got shot by Commies who are trying to take this country down any way possible.  There’s no rules when fighting the Commies.”  He waved his hand over the rest of the group.  “And the sooner the rest of you realize it, the better.  Otherwise, we’re all gonna be eating borscht and drinking vodka.”

“You have such hatred for the Communists,” Venus stated.  “The way I understand Communism’s ideology, it sounds like it would create a very loving society.”

Marvel Boy chuckled slightly.  The high and might goddess was not omnipotent and she certainly was not omniscient.  Still he felt very attracted to her.  “The Soviet Union’s form of ‘communism’ is not a true expression of the brand of socialism espoused by Marx and Engels.  The Soviet Union is, in fact, a dictatorship.”

Dictatorship.  That was a term with which Venus was well acquainted.  She had seen many dictators over the centuries, including the first one, Julius Caesar of Rome.  “Ah, then I begin to see your antipathy towards them.”

Captain America sprang to his feet.  “Look, I’m not going to stand here and discuss politics with all of you.  I’m going down to the hospital and check on Bucky.  The rest of you can go and find the Skull.  If you do, you’d better call me, because I want in on the kill.”

After checking with some low-level FBI agents, Captain America found out to which hospital Bucky had been taken.  He convinced one of the agents to take him there.  Meanwhile, the other Avengers slowly bandied about ideas about tracking down the Skull.

At New York General Hospital, Captain America hurried his way through the halls. The hospital workers and patients were surprised to see the red, white, and blue champion.

“Is Captain America back again?” they whispered.

A number of police were stationed outside of the room where Bucky was resting.  They tried to bar Cap’s way, but he pushed them almost effortlessly aside.  Inside of the room, Bucky was lying unconscious with the Cold Warrior sitting at his side.  There were a number of tubes bringing various fluids to Bucky intravenously.

“How is he, Doc?”  Cap had been briefed that Dr. Sinkowitz, the Cold Warrior, had been the leader of the research team behind his and Bucky’s restoration.  If anybody could save Bucky, Sinkowitz could.

“He’s stable for now,” the Cold Warrior replied.  He had removed his facemask, but he was otherwise still in costume.  “The bullet did some nasty damage.  I’m worried about some potential hemorrhaging.”

“Hemorrhaging?” Cap replied.  “Then he might need some blood?”

“Yes, that’s possible.  I was hoping that you could donate some of yours.  I know both of you have the Super Soldier Formula in your veins.  I can’t think of a better candidate than you”

“Of course, Doc,” Cap responded as he took off his right glove and rolled up his sleeve.  “Take all you need.  I’m not going to let my partner die.”

“Thank you.”  Sinkowitz pulled out some equipment, and after pricking Cap’s skin, began drawing blood.  “I’m hoping that you might donate some blood for me to analyze.  I’d like to work on replicating the Formula.”

Cap shook his head.  “It won’t do you any good.  I manufactured the doses that Bucky and I took to work with our physiology only.  It won’t work for anybody else.”

“But surely you still have the notes from which you developed your doses?”

“No,” Cap replied strongly.  “I destroyed them after I developed it for Bucky and me.  I was bitter at the government for backing out on me, just because the Korean War ended.  They were not going to let me be Captain America, but they wanted my formula.”  Describing it as ‘his formula’ was somewhat inaccurate.  He had found it among the records of a former Nazi officer.

“Still, I might be able to replicate it” Cod Warrior said optimistically.

“Don’t you think that the military tried to do that after the original Cap, God rest his soul, was created?  Sure some people got close. like the Nazis’ Master Man and that British Union Jack, but they couldn’t do it exactly.”

Cold Warrior finished drawing a pint of blood and took the needle out of Cap’s arm.  “I suppose you’re right.  I guess it can’t be duplicated, but I’ll keep a close eye on this blood, in case Bucky doesn’t need it.”

Cap rolled his sleeve back down and put his glove back on.  “You do that, Doc.  Me, as long as Bucky seems OK, I’m going to see if I can get the other Avengers off of their rear ends and get after the Red Skull.”

“I’ll keep a close watch on Bucky,” Cold Warrior said as Cap rushed out of the room.  “I’ll let you know if anything happens.”

Deep under the streets of the city, Albert Malik, the Red Skull, had established a new base of operations.  The location was almost directly below the United Nations building.  It had been from here that he had launched his scheme a few years that was ostensibly to hold the United Nations delegates hostage.  In actuality, he was searching for the Hitler Strongbox that was supposed to be in the august body’s possession.  One day he would find that box and the super-scientific secrets that the mad dictator had deposited would be used for the advancement of the Soviet Union.

For now, however, he had other matters to attend to.  The economic warfare operation was at an end.  Without the protection from police interference that the Frequency Destabilizer had afforded, he could not continue the attacks on the financial institutions.  He did not have the manpower necessary to continue.  Also, these American super-heroes were now aware of his presence.  That was going to make his efforts even more difficult.  Still, he comforted himself with the fact that he had killed that insolent brat, Bucky.  If only he had managed to kill the older American patriot as well.

“Next time,” the Red Skull thought.  “That insipid Captain America’s judgement will be clouded with his grief and anger.  I shall turn that against him and destroy him utterly.”  After that he would work on eliminating the other superpowered Americans.  First he would report to Moscow about these other superheroes.  Perhaps something could be arranged for them to be brought into conflict with the superhumans of the Red Star Brigade that was being developed.

It had been some time since the Black Hundreds had been produced for the War.  Now, most of those superhumans were dead or had disappeared.  Malik wondered if the disappearances were voluntary or had been arranged by the KGB or the like.  Even though he was a top spy, he did not have access to that information.

For the next few days, the Avengers grudgingly undertook Captain America’s plan to find the Red Skull.  They scoured the city and interrogating anybody suspected of having ties to Communism.  3-D Man was concerned about the justice of it all, but Captain America kept on telling him that it was for the good of the country.  Cap’s arguments seemed to be enough for Gorilla-Man as well but the others were dubious of the ends justifying the means.  Still, with no other leads, they could do nothing else.

At New York General, Cold Warrior watched over Bucky.  The youth was recovering, but it was his professional that it would still be a few more days before he would be able to get out of bed, much less resume his crimefighting activities.  Some of Captain America’s blood had been necessary for transfusion, but most of it was still left.  Professor Sinkowitz was tempted to do some analysis of it, but Captain America’s words rung in his ears.  The nation’s best biologists had worked on replicating the formula with no success.  How would he, whose expertise was in cryogenics, be able to crack it?   He decided that it would be wasted effort.

He had a few conversations with Director Hoover while he monitored Bucky’s recovery.  The Director seemed worried about the implications of Bucky’s potential death.  Sinkowitz had assured him that Bucky was going to survive, but Hoover was making veiled references to the effect on the nation that the death of one of its beloved heroes would have.   The conversation ended with Hoover saying something about putting some plan into motion.  Sinkowitz had no idea what that plan might be, but he had faith that the Director would be doing the right thing for the country.

The Avengers were busy rousting everyone that was suspected of working as a Communist agent.  Director Hoover was more than willing to put the resources of the Bureau at the heroes’ disposal.  They managed to uncover numerous suspects for which the Bureau had been searching.  Unfortunately, they were unable to find anyone with a connection to the Red Skull.

Finally, Marvel Boy came upon a shabbily dressed men selling copies of the International Workers of World newspaper on a street corner.  Marvel Boy strained his telepathic abilities and picked up an errant thought about the Red Skull.  He approached the man, who bottled up his mind once he saw the colorful hero.  His efforts to pierce the man’s thoughts again were unsuccessful, as he engaged the man in idle conversation.

Marvel Boy was convinced that this man knew something about the Red Skull, but the man’s mind was closed.  He needed some kind of opening, some kind of shock that would allow him access.  He left the man and called his teammates via the Interplanetary Cosmic Radio.  The group soon assembled two blocks down from the newspaper vendor.

“So what do you have, pretty boy?” Gorilla-Man asked impatiently.

“That man over there.”  Marvel Boy pointed to the newspaper vendor.  “He knows something about the Red Skull.”

“Did you try to read his mind?” 3-D Man asked.

“Of course,” Marvel Boy sighed, “but the man is blocking his thoughts.”

Gorilla-Man rubbed his hands eagerly.  “I’ll loosen up his mouth and his head.  Lemme at him.”  Venus looked at the beast-man with disdain.

“There must be a more effective method,” the Human Robot interjected.

“Quite right,” Marvel Boy replied.  “I think our good Captain is the answer.”

Cap nodded his head.  “I don’t have any problems with beating the truth out of him.”

Marvel Boy sighed again.  “I don’t think that will be necessary.”  Would he always be saddled with teammates of such brutal motivations?  “I think your presence may give me the opening I need.  I picked up a thought about you, Cap.  It seems that this man is rather afraid of you.”

“As well he should, the stinking Red,” Cap beamed.  “OK, what do you want me to do?”

“Just walk up to him,” Marvel Boy responded.  “I’ll be right behind you.  My guess is that the sight of you should frighten him enough to drop his mental guards.”

“Fine,” Cap grunted.  “But if he runs, I’m taking him down.”

Marvel Boy said nothing in reply.  The two Avengers walked up the street towards the newspaper vendor.  When the man caught sight of the red, white, and blue form of Captain America, he fell into a moment of panic.  His mental resistance dropped and Marvel Boy was able to probe inside.  In the matter of milliseconds, his Uranian-taught powers had taken all of the information that he needed.

The vendor started to run, and Cap sprinted in pursuit.  The super-patriot unslung his shield from his back and readied it for a toss.   The vendor stumbled over a garbage can when Cap made his throw.  The shield spun graceful through the air and impacted on the small of the man’s back.  Cap was upon him a second later, his hands clenching the man’s collar.

“Where’s the Skull, creep”  Cap shook the man violently.  “Talk, you rotten Commie, talk!”

Marvel Boy rushed to Cap’s side.  The other Avengers soon followed.  “Ease up, Cap” Marvel Boy said.  “I have the information already.”

Cap turned around.  He had been looking forward to roughing the Commie up some more.  He dropped the man to the ground.  “Ok, what’s the scoop?”

“It seems as if this man was working for the Skull when he made his takeover attempt at the UN Building.”  Marvel Boy looked at Cap.  “I believe that was the event that heralded your ‘return’, was it not?”

Cap said nothing.  He figured that Marvel Boy knew that he was not the genuine article.  Did all the Avengers know this?

“Anyway,” Marvel Boy continued.  “It appears that you beat him rather badly in that encounter.  That’s why he was so afraid of you, and it’s what made him drop his mental guards.”

“OK, already,” 3-D Man said impatiently.  “What does the guy know about the Skull?”

“He know that the Skull is holed up in the subway tunnels near the United Nations Building.”

“Down in the subway tunnels?”  Venus moaned.  “Those tunnels are filthy disgusting things.  They make the Augean stables that Hercules cleaned look like the paragon of cleanliness.”

Gorilla-Man growled.  “Well, if you don't want to get your pretty little goddess face dirty, us big ugly men will go bring the Red Skull out.”

Venus glared at Gorilla-Man.  “I’m perfectly willing to go down there to root out the Red Skull.  He’s a menace that must be stopped if love and peace is to reign on this war-torn place you humans have made.”

Gorilla-Man did not know what to say.  Was she really lumping him in with the rest of humanity?

“What is the Red Skull’s precise location?” the Human Robot inquired.

“He doesn’t know for certain.  We’ll have to go down there and find him,” Marvel Boy replied.

Heading back across town, the Avengers were soon below street level in the vicinity of the United Nations Building.  They had sent a message to the Cold Warrior apprising him of the developments.  He reported that Bucky was doing well, but that he felt he should continue monitoring his progress.

On the trip across town, the Human Robot had put together a search procedure based on the tunnel plans that he had stored in his memory tapes.   Following the search plan, they began to converge toward where the Skull was actually holed up.

“The Red Skull must be here in this abandoned tunnel,” the Human Robot declared.

“Great, let’s get him.” Captain America went rushing down the tunnel.

“Cap, wait,” 3-D Man called out to no avail.  He turned back to the others.  “Shouldn’t we have a plan?”

“It appears that the modus operandi of this team is to overwhelm our opponents.”  Marvel Boy shone his light-jewel ahead of them as the Avengers rushed down after Captain America.  They could hear bullets ricocheting ahead.  Cap was pinned down by rifle fire coming from numerous directions.  His shield was up protecting him, but he could not make any headway towards the gunmen.

“Human Robot, go,” Marvel Boy called out.  The automaton waded through a hail of bullets until he reached Cap’s side.  The other Avengers, after waiting for a few moments, followed behind the metal man as the gunfire concentrated on him.

Marvel Boy swept his light beam back and forth across the tunnel.  It revealed the locations of a number of the gunmen as well as blinding two or three.  3-D Man flexed his triple-powered muscles and leapt at one of the Red agents that Marvel Boy had revealed.  The gunman tumbled backwards a few times upon impact

Cap had taken advantage of the distraction and rushed forward into a group of gunmen.  He pounded them mercilessly with his shield.  The Human Robot was getting rather annoyed with the bullets bouncing off of his metallic frame.  Would they ever realize that he could not be harmed by such ineffective weapons?  A powerful punch was all it took to stop a Commie who was pelting him with bullets.

Gorilla-Man lumbered forward and snatched up an enemy agent in either hand.  Most of the gunfire had stopped now with the enemy agents fearing to hurt their own. The beast-man brought his captives heads together rather abruptly, knocking both of them insensate.

Venus and Marvel Boy glided through the fray and looked for the mastermind of the operation.  They found the Red Skull in a small alcove off of the side of the tunnel.   He was putting together some frightfully large gun.  He stepped out and leveled the weapon at the duo.

“You found me, but you’ve also found your deaths!”  The Red Skull first fired at Marvel Boy.  The Uranian-bred youth was able to dive out of the way of the beam itself, but he was buried under the rubble that the plasma beam had created upon impact with the tunnel wall.  The Red Skull smiled at the power of the weapon.  The disfigured scientist known as the Gargoyle had done the State a fine service by inventing it.

The Red Skull pointed the weapon at Venus.  “You’re Venus, the so-called goddess of love.”  He took careful aim.  “In the Soviet Union, we are an atheist state; religion is just an opiate of the masses.  We have destroyed God and we will destroy you.”

Venus stood her ground.  She believe that her Olympian constitution would be more than the power of the Skull’s rifle.  Before the Skull could fire, Cap’s shield zipped by her head and smacked the Skull’s weapon; the disc rebounded past the onrushing Captain America.  Cap was soon on top of the apparently disarmed Communist agent.  The two wrestled for a few moments. but Cap’s strength was too much for the Skull.  A few rabbit punches to the face, and blood could be seen oozing out the Skull’s mask.

Cap rose to his feet and dusted off his hands.  “I let you off easy, Skull.  I should have killed you for what you did to Bucky.”  He turned to check on Venus.  The Skull meanwhile reached into his cloak and pulled out a slim pistol.

“I’m not done with you, capitalist swine!”  the Red Skull uneasily rose to his feet and pointed the weapon at Cap.  Once gain, he was stopped from pulling the trigger by the impact of Cap’s shield.  Cap and Venus turned to see which of their comrades was responsible for the pinpoint toss.  They were almost as surprised as the Red Skull was.

“He’s back from the dead!” the Red Skull screamed.  “I killed him!”

“No Commie’s gonna off me!” was the enthusiastic response from Bucky.  He had slipped by the other Avengers during the battle and come upon Cap and Venus’s predicament just in time.

The Red Skull rubbed his hand, which was pulsing with pain.  There was no victory to be gained here.  He took off running for a side exit to the tunnel.  Cap turned to see the villain escaping and gave chase.  Bucky was a few steps behind.

The exit led through to an active tunnel.  The Red Skull leapt over the three rails to the other side and continued running.  Cap and Bucky popped into the tunnel and spotted the Skull running on the other side. They began to chase him, but before they could jump to other side, a train came rushing by.  The patriotic duo had to flatten themselves against the wall to avoid being crushed.  When the train was completely past, the Red Skull was gone.

Cap and Bucky returned to the other Avengers.  Gorilla-Man and 3-D Man had dug Marvel Boy out the rubble.  The nominal leader of the team was a little shaken, but no worse for wear.  They made sure that all of the Red Skull’s henchmen were secure.

“Bucky, what are you doing here?” Cap put one hand on the lad’s shoulder and mussed up his hair with his other hand.

“I heard that you had the Skull located, and I wanted some payback” Bucky responded enthusiastically.  “Cold Warrior’s probably angry at me for leaving the hospital, but I just had to be here.”

“And we’re glad you did, “ Cap responded.  “Captain America and Bucky are in action once again.”

FBI Director Hoover paged through the report on the Red Skull affair once again.  His disappointment over the Red Skull’s escape overshadowed his satisfaction with that particular manifestation of the Red Menace being stopped for now.  However, his thoughts were actually focused on his Captain America and Bucky.  He had received a number of reports of the patriotic duo’s behavior.  Perhaps Sinkowitz’s cure had not been all the Professor had promised.    He was also trouble by Bucky’s close call.  While the return of Captain America and Bucky had not been officially heralded, word was spreading through the country.  The death of Bucky would have had a great impact on national morale.  “The country needs Captain America and Bucky,” he thought, “but it doesn’t need a dead Captain America and Bucky.”  This was a quandary, but Hoover felt he had a solution.

A seemingly innocuous boat floated helplessly in the Atlantic Ocean, not far from the North Sea.  Its engines had been damaged, actually the propellers had been forcibly removed by the humanoid figure that was rapidly swimming away.

“That’ll teach those Reds not to put radar boats out in my ocean,” the flat-headed humanoid mumbled as he dove back into the sea.

A few hundred yards from the scene, the seawoman known as Namora broke the surface of the water just as the other swimmer dove beneath it.  “Wait!” she called out, but her quarry was beyond the sound of her voice.  Her long blond hair was slightly matted against her head.  Still, with her tiara and confident bearing, she still looked like the Atlantean nobility that she truly was.

“So close,” she grumbled.  She knew that she would not be able to catch the disappearing figure.  Even her mutant strength and speed was not enough to catch her intended quarry, her cousin, Prince Namor of Atlantis.

She decided that she would head for America.  Perhaps she could enlist the aid of the America government in the search for her cousin.  Namor had been missing for a long time.  She felt he needed to return home, whatever the reasons for his disappearance.  She slipped back beneath the waves and headed west.

FLASHBACKWORDS

COVER CREDITS: Bucky from Captain America #; Red Skull from Young Men #24

NEXT ISSUE: The Return of The Avenging Son?

Namora meets the Avengers with hopes to enlist them in her search for the missing Prince Namor.   Complications arise, and another hero is brought in to help in the search.  Plus, FBI Director Hoover moves forward with his plans for Captain America and Bucky.

Comments, criticisms, and concerns for FLASHBACKWORDS accepted at rgansler@facstaff.wisc.edu

The Avengers '58 web page is at http://www.cae.wisc.edu/~gansler/avengers58/av58.htm