TITLE: The Avengers Issue #88
YEAR: May 1971
COMPANY: Marvel Comics
STORY: Harlan Ellison
ADAPTATION: Roy Thomas
ARTIST: Sal Buscema
INKER: Jim Mooney
LETTERER: Shelly Leferman
Harlan Ellison is one of America’s well-known, influential writers who delved into New Wave speculative fiction.
Best known for the “Star Trek” episodes “The City on the Edge of Forever”, “I Have no Mouth, And I Must Scream” to name a few, he was a well-known for his novellas but also for his argumentative and abrasive personality.
Considered as one of sci-fi’s most controversial figure but yet many people were influenced by his work.
Ellison passed away a few weeks ago on June 28th and I figured, why not bring up a Harlan Ellison comic story, “The Avengers” issue #88.
Ellison conceived the plot, while Roy Thomas wrote the dialogue.
The story revolved around the heroes trying to find a way to weaken the Hulk.
Tony Stark/Iron Man, Fantastic Four leader Reed Richards and X-Men’s Charles Xavier joined forces to see if they can contain the Hulk, while the Avengers Captain America and The Falcon head to Bayou Country to check on Falcon’s friend but what they discover are people practicing voodoo.
Meanwhile, they all work together to find themselves in a swamp, coming across a monster.
While, Reed tries to check on the Hulk and finds out an alien known as Psyklop has kidnapped the Hulk. But what does this alien being hope to do with the Hulk
Overall, this issue felt like a filler issue, the antagonist Psyklop was cheesy, the storyline was OK and Harlan Ellison’s work felt out of place with this issue. Granted, the comic almost worked as if reading a sci-fi novella but the circumstances of who they faced in battle, just didn’t seem all that right.
It was an average issue of “The Avengers” at best.