Just from the first moment you look at the cover, you can get a good idea what to expect, the Avengers facing off against a team of super-villains; the Masters Of Evil.  Lead by an unknown and new menace “Zemo”, leading a cast of antagonist that each of our hero’s has faced in a solo adventure.  we have  Radioactive Man,  The Black Knight, and The Melter back and together for the first time, to stop there former opponents new team.

But will this team of Super-villains stand a better chance united then they each did on there own? and what is Zemo’s motivation?  lets just say he is being put in via retroactive continuity, as a historic Captain America opponent.

Artwork

Jack Kirby’s artwork for  avengers #6 was top notch,  in fact one of the best things about the issue.  all you have to do is flip though to see the interesting and active way he shown the two teams in combat against each other;  never is there a feeling of stillness in the heat of the action.  the comic seems to come to life right from his pencils.

The panel i picked to include is one showing the avengers leaping into action.  It shows the team, unified  yet flowing into the battle.  with them as the focus, the backdrop is omitted, and unimportant left to just be a white background. I feel it is a fine example of the work of Jack Kirby, and a pillar of excellence for comic art of that time.

Characters & Development

Captain America

as the Avengers is the only title (at that time) Captain america was being actively featured in; it is no surprise that he sees the most development. Both in the form of how he interacts with others -from the avengers to the Teen Brigade –  and in his past, building upon the already rich past from the 1940’s comics.  We see a lot of growth for the captain in this issue.

Rick Jones & The Teen Brigade

Rick Jones seems to be building a place for himself and his group of teenage friends in avengers  a role similar to what was started for the Incredible Hulk back when he had his own title. There is a lot of potential in this, we will just have to see how it develops.

Originality and Continuity

If anything -Originality & Continuity- was the biggest risk of Avengers #6. Rarely have we seen such a cast of antagonist from such a range of volumes as in this issue.  It is amazing  that most of it seemed to fit smoothly; in fact it was not without its bumps.  Radioactive Man for example, was easily perceived as dead at the end of Journey Into Mystery #93.  Some of the other cast seemed to have slight character changes to fit the story, but none were brought back to life unexplained like radioactive man.

That said, I feel the risk was a warranted and successful one, while not being perfect, I feel it helped grounded the avengers into the events of the solo tales, as well as the marvel universe (more so by included Paste Pot Pete from Strange Tales #110.

Story

In the end the story fit together nicely, giving us a tale that our hero’s engage in where it takes more than just their powers to win, but there conning and teamwork. In the end, it is an adventure that feels epic and complete.