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Greetings fellow comic fans, and welcome to another addition of Ye Olde School Cafe’. This week’s story will be part 1 of my favorite Avengers tale, The Avengers: Under Siege. This story was written by Roger Stern and visually conceptualized by John Buscema and Tom Palmer; it covers Avengers #270-271 and #273-277.

First off, let’s talk about the Avengers line up at this time; it’s one of the best in my opinion. The roster includes Captain America, Thor, Hercules, The Black Knight, Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau), The Wasp and Ant-Man (Scott Lang). This group spent a lot of time hanging out together at Avengers Mansion when they weren’t fighting some evil threat, so it was a very sacred and comforting place for them. Recently the team has faced off in a huge battle with Kang the Conqueror. After defeating that threat, they welcomed The Black Knight and Namor the Submariner into their super group.
This is where our story begins, with people outside the mansion protesting Subby’s initiation into the team because of his previous acts against the people of Earth. You see, a while back Namor got ticked off at the “surface dwellers” and decided to try and take over, and obviously some people are still bitter over it. At this moment we see a plot start to unfold to try and tear the Avengers apart. The villain behind these evil machinations is none other than Baron Zemo; he’s one of Captain America’s major enemies, and a crazy Nazi too.
Zemo gets an idea that he and some of the other villains have gotten their butts handed to them by the Avengers, so why not start their own evil version of the Avengers, a la The Legion of Doom. He sets out to actually restart The Masters of Evil, a name that has been used a couple of times before but without any significant results. The first incarnation was started by his father, who was subsequently killed in a battle against Captain America back in WWII. For those of you who don’t know, Baron Zemo is the guy who sent that experimental airplane into the sky in England during WWII that Cap and Bucky jumped on and tried to stop, but Cap ended up jumping off and landing in the English Channel, while Bucky was presumed dead when the plane detonated. This is the son of that Nazi war criminal, that now plagues the Avengers.
None of the previous groups of the Masters of Evil would make an impact like this one would though. This group led by Zemo featured Moonstone, Mister Hyde, The Wrecking Crew, Grey Gargoyle, the Fixer, Goliath, The Absorbing Man, Yellowjacket,  Tiger Shark, Titania and a secret weapon called Blackout. The latter was a mentally unstable guy who can control Darkforce energy and use it to do his will. We see how Zemo subtly manipulates the Avengers, so that Namor is going back to Atlantis and Hercules is being occupied at a bar. This takes out  two big guns in the Avengers arsenal, and while that is going on Wasp and Black Knight are also indisposed, so it leaves the perfect window of opportunity for The Masters to attack Avengers mansion!
This is something that was never tried before, but with all the muscle on this team they storm the front gates with only the butler Jarvis on monitor duty. He activates the mansion’s defenses, but they are all but useless against the might of these monsters. They easily gain access into the headquarters and subdue Jarvis while he is attempting to send out a distress call to the Avengers. He gets beaten to a bloody pulp as the rest of the Masters celebrate their overtaking of the home of the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes! Come back next week to find out the stunning conclusion to this unforgettable story. We will see a major hero get beaten so badly he’s hospitalized, and also find out what can make even the most courageous hero cry. See you next week!
Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net