Ye Olde Avengers Rhyme & Repetition...

Once again, this blog shifts its focus from Chris Claremont and his mind control shenanigans to reviewing Chris' fellow comics creator Kurt Busiek's most infamous quirk: repeating words. Today's entry: April 1998's Avengers III#3. 

"Back from the dead... Wonder Man!"

The Avengers had only recently reformed following their return to the Marvel Universe proper after 1996's Onslaught storyline. Right off the bat, the entire team was threatened by mystical menaces summoned by Morgana LeFay in a complicated scheme to get her hands on the Scarlet Witch. Through Wanda's reality altering magics, plus that of the Asgardian Twilight Sword, Morgana could alter all that is at will. At the end of issue 1, she rewrote history and turned the entire planet back to medieval times, with the Avengers as her personal guard, the Queen's Vengeance.

By #2, some of the Avengers saw through this fake reality and, led by Hawkeye and Captain America, started a small rebellion. The bulk of the Avengers remained under Morgana's spell while the others fled to the nearby forest to prepare for their next move. Oh and much to Morgana's chagrin, Wanda had vanished too. And that's where we pick up in #3.

                                                                        "I..I please"

Either it's a shameless repetition, or the man's misquoted and he was just saying "ay ay". Considering Moondragon, or Selene as she's called here, was sifting through his mind with the equivalent of a rusty poker I'd bet on the latter.

                                                        "They're nothing. NOTHING!
                                                                       But... But...
                                                   All that matters... ALL THAT MATTERS..."

For someone so concerned with the fact she has lost control over her power, Morgana sure doesn't mind unnecessarily repeating herself. And her nephew Mordred joins in on the fun... Guess repetition is a family trait.

"... And then... and then..."

If the seemingly all-knowing narrator feels the need to do a William Shatner style repetition, you know something dramatic is about to go down. Like the appearance of Wonder Man.

                                                                        "But... But how?"

You'll note Wanda used the word "but" no less than four times in the brief space of two word balloons... And who can blame her, ionic energy Wonder Man does have a but-icularly nice behind.

"Pass in, pass in... Pass in, pass in..."

While artist George Perez does the heavy lifting giving life to Morgana's medieval world, complete with Arthurian castle and ditto landscape, Busiek shamelessly repeats his repetition. And yet the editor let it pass through, pass through...

The Avengers sneak into the castle, dressed as monks, only to be discovered by the Queen's Vengeance, which led to a repetition heavy battle.

                                                       "And so it goes, and so it goes."

Well, now that particular Billy Joel classic is stuck inside my head, and you're the only one who knows.

In the end, Morgana gets involved in the fight and taunts the Avengers with the Twilight Sword, which leads to the arrival of Wanda who uses Wonder Man as a weapon of sorts.

                                                         "This... this is madness!"

I'll say, Morgana... but then again, so it goes, so it goes. Darn that earworm!

                                           "That... that can't be Wonder Man up there...
                                            This is... this is way more than I'm used to!"

Repeating yourself twice in two sentences is also a tad more I'm used to, Justice...

                                                   "Wh-what? Who... Who... Who did...?"

We get it, Justice... You want to be an Avenger so bad, you're already starting to talk like one.

Meanwhile, during a battle that actually matters...

"I don't think you can handle this!"

"Kelly, can you handle this? Michelle, can you handle this? Beyonce, can you handle this? I don't think Simon can handle this!" And yet, Mr. Williams can still emphasize the fact HE needs more strength... Which is something Wanda was willing to provide...

"I won't... I won't stand for this..."

"... But I'll bet you lay down for it!"

Classic Golden Girls comebacks aside. Morgana is thoroughly pissed off and goes in for a final offensive which would have easily overpowered Wanda if not for the fact the Avengers all added their power to hers to help empower Simon. You can imagine Morgana didn't stand for that either, which actually helped the fact she repeated her words make more sense.

                                    "I won't let you do this! I won't let you unite like this..."

Oh fine, so she didn't exactly repeat her words, guess someone didn't let her.

                                                           "I'M... I'M AN AVENGER!
                                                         ...And she can't... she can't....
                                                                   Vision? VISION!"

Don't mind me folks, or the triple repetition pattern, on to the climax...

                                                                          "NO! NO!
                                                                But it fades... it fades..."

                                                   "We... We're back to normal!"
                                                           I... I am fine, Firestar!"

Yup, Morgana's defeat immediately caused the collapse of the alternate reality she'd created, returning the Avengers to their real guises and identities. They seemed none the worse for wear... for the most part. Wanda's never been able to pick between Vision and Wonder Man and why not... they're so alike. For one thing, they enjoy repeating the bleeding obvious. Heck, even when one of them is obviously bleeding to death...

                              "He was... he was shattered... It's Simon, Vision... It's Simon..."

Considering the Vision's personality matrix was based on Simon Williams' brain patterns, that last bit of repetition feels a little like poetry. But with the threat of Morgana dealt with and everyone more or less back to normal, the issue neared its end... 

So, why not end with a panel that has no word repetition whatsoever, though it does repeat another classic Marvel sequence...

"What are we gonna do with 39 Avengers?!"

Who knows, Beast... Angel didn't know either, back in the day...

Come to think of it, Hank... You weren't even there for the Krakoa mission in Giant-Size X-Men I#1. How could you know what Warren said?

Ah well, so it goes... so it goes!

Spider-Woman's entitled to some mind control

Nowadays, Spider-Woman seems mostly linked to Brian Michael Bendis.

When he took over the reigns of the Avengers back in 2004, Bendis quickly made it a point to rebuild Jessica Drew into a flagship character. Whether or not Bendis' approach was the right one is besides the point, the first Spider-Woman has been firmly entrenched in the limelight...

But before there was Bendis, the Secret War, the Secret Invasion and the Secret/New/Sorta-new-Heroic Age Avengers... It was Chris Claremont that decided the dark angel's fate.

And of course, whenever Chris Claremont's writing your book, you'd best be prepared for some mind control.

Case in point, issue # 35, also known as the second issue Claremont wrote for the book. Spider-Woman faced a 60's inspired villain known as Angar the Screamer, whose very voice causes people to experience hallucinations that makes them do all sorts of stuff they normally wouldn't even consider.

Unfortunately, not even Jessica proves to be immune to Angar's vocal offensive. She's even subjected to a hallucination that proves frighteningly realistic.

Morgan Le Fay, the actual witch from the legends of King Arthur and Camelot days, had it in for our heroine. Not that she had time to consider the magnitude of this discovery, she had to finish off Angar the Screamer. A feat she accomplished by ripping open a few bags of cement that caused the Screamer to develop a rather large... lump... in his throat.

An interesting aspect of Spider-Woman's powers is her ability to acquire a natural immunity to any type poison she's been subjected to. Apparently, this also includes vocal powered mind control.

At least, that would explain what happens a few issues later when Jessica finds herself fighting Juggernaut, Black Tom Cassidy and Siryn, a young Irish girl whose super powered vocal cords were able to induce illusions.

Jessica was rescued by a team of X-men that had arrived in San Francisco to assist, unfortunately they didn't share her immunity to Siryn's screeching so the mind control trick could be used succesfully once more.

Angel dropped the dark angel like a ton of bricks, but fortunately she survived... long enough for Claremont to put her through the wringer  Morgan Le Fay decided to make good on her promise to exact her revenge on Jessica.

As all century hopping witches tend to do, Morgan took her merry time. After showing up as part of Angar's illusion, Morgan lay low for a while, only making her presence known when Jessica visited a medieval fair with her best friend Lindsay McCabe.

"The grand enchantment begins..."

With everyone else buying into the illusion, Jessica was quickly conned into believing she, in fact was Morgan Le Fay!

Jessica completely buys into her new identity, that is until she gets snapped back to reality when a plane flies over and rattles her back to her senses in a rather lovely sequence by artist Steve Leialoha.

"Its hard to remember... some kind of dream..."

Oh, no, its no dream... Something Jessica soon discovers when Morgan continues to attack her in real life... Le Fay holds Lindsay captive, trying to persuade the heroine to join Morgan.

"Thou art bound to him. As surely as the Earth is to the sun". 

Having a time hopping witch from the middle ages try and mind control you is bad enough, but when she explains you'd otherwise still be the unwitting servant of the Elder God Ch'ton... Just because that ancient demon lord was trapped in the mountain you spent your first 30 years on, wasting away in suspended animation? And you think you have problems...

As mind control goes, this one's a doozy. Doomed if you do, darned if you don't... 

Wonder how Spider-Woman handled that offer...

She could... And she survived.

Thank god for that natural immunity to mind control, eh?