The cover is pretty awesome! A George Perez and Tom Smith piece, it depicts the hand of the Black Widow holding a small golden coin, depicting the visage of our villainess, Madame Masque. Light is shining off the coin, and the little rays cut out little segments of the cover, which depicts a member of the Avengers team at this point. The only exception is Wasp, who is shown flying over Widow's hand. It's certainly one of the more unique covers I've seen here on this blog.
"Behind the Masque!"
Writer: Kurt Busiek
Penciler: George Perez (layouts), Paul Ryan (finishes)
Inker: Al Vey
Colorist: Tom Smith
Letterer: Richard Starkings of Comicraft, Albert Deschesne
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Editor-in-Chief: Bob Harras
The story begins with She-Hulk leaving Avengers Mansion.
She had stepped up to help provide the team with another powerhouse with the Vision gone. After the events of the last issue, he's back on board. And she has a law practice to get back to, anyway. But if they do need her help, like with the events of the upcoming Hulk Annual, she'll come do some smashing.
It's at this moment that the Black Widow, aka Natasha Romanoff, makes her return. Iron Man has asked her to come by. Where is the Armored Avenger? Well, he's busy coordinating with SHIELD. He tells them that if anything comes up about Madame Masque, the Avengers want first crack at her. SHIELD's then-director, Sharon Carter, is reluctant to do so, as Nick Fury wouldn't make that kind of deal. Not to mention that Jasper Sitwell pointed out that Madame Masque supposedly died in Chicago. Tony reminds Sharon that she runs SHIELD now, not Nick Fury. Run it her way, not his.
Black Widow enters the room and Tony asks if she got "the coin". Well, I'm sure Nat's got some cash lying around...oh, not that kind of coin. Okay, she has a very special coin. The two go to confer, and Janet asks if there's been any news regarding Simon. Wanda did hear a news report about the events of Thunderbolts #42 (September 2000), in which Simon had brawled with the Thunderbolt member Erik Josten, going by Atlas at the time.
Triathlon gets a call from Jonathan Tremont, the head of the Triune Understanding. The Triunes are holding a rally in Boston on Friday, and he's hoping Triathlon will be a part of it. After all, I can imagine for Tremont, having an Avenger there would be a boon for increasing membership. Triathlon basically says "If I'm free, I'll be there. If the Avengers need me, I'll have to help them out."
Tremont basically reminds him, "Hey, we turned your life around. It would be nice of you to come to the rally." But Triathlon has to prioritize the Avengers. Saving the world is more important than a rally. This conversation is overheard by Carol "Warbird" Danvers.
As she considers Triathlon's membership and trustworthiness, she enters the meeting room. The blonde bombshell is going a bit stir-crazy. She wants to go out, have some fun, cause some trouble. Vision offers to take her out to dinner. She reluctantly agrees. After all, Vision wants to build a personal life, and he and Wanda aren't together anymore, so...yeah. A bit awkward, yeah.
Let's switch scenes, shall we? Let's go out to a bar! This bar is normally a quiet, peaceful place near Columbia University. After all, it's frequented by scientists. Barfights are not a thing that happens often here, but one has decided to erupt. It started when someone suggested that Frits Zernicke (the comic misspells his name as "Fritz") didn't deserve the Nobel Prize for Physics that he won in 1953. He won it for inventing the phase-contrast microscope, which allowed the study of the internal structures of cells without harming the cells.
The response was words, but it escalated into shoving matches. And then punches and thrown drinks and chairs. We got a Royal Rumble in the house! And who started this madness?
"But wait a minute!" You may be saying. "How can Hank Pym be causing a barfight here, but also be at Avengers Mansion?!" Well, that's a mystery for another day. The Avengers are concentrating on another mystery: What was up with that fake Madame Masque from last issue? Tony Stark is especially keen on getting answers, due to him and Madame Masque both having history. She was an enemy and love interest of his in the past, basically the Catwoman to Tony's Batman.
During the events of Iron Man #245 (August 1989), and in Iron Man #11 (December 1998) and #20 (September 1999), a dead woman was found in bodies of water. And in all three occasions, Stark was able to identify all three of the women as Whitney Frost, the woman behind Madame Masque's golden...well, mask. Also, back in Iron Man #320 (September 1995), a mysterious woman known only as "Masque" first appeared.
Little was known about this Masque, although it was known she was not Madame Masque, despite their similarities. She also wasn't related to the X-Men's bodyshaping antagonist of the same name. She would become an honorary Avenger, after assisting Earth's Mightiest in some cases. Black Widow explains that this Masque was last seen during the events of Avengers #398-399 (May-June 1996) when she was kidnapped by a robot that was powerful enough to even take down Vision and Thor.
Widow admitted she didn't try to stop the robot because she didn't trust Masque. The robot left her the coin she has now, as a form of exchange. The coin contained information on the various families in the Maggia...except for the Las Vegas-based group that Madame Masque presumably led. Iron Man believes that this is all linked. And that Madame Masque is pretty for from dead.
Iron Man is more right than he could imagine. You see, there is a butte located several miles south of Las Vegas in the Nevada Desert. Butte. That's a funny word. Butte butte butte butte-
Okay, okay! It's not a real butte. The butte contains a massive control center, used to monitor and coordinate much of the criminal activity in the Southwestern United States. Deep within this butte resides the real Madame Masque, alive...but not very well. Paranoid and untrusting of anyone, she sees enemies in the shadows.
Her only company are robots that are all named after various figures from history known for betrayal: Brutus, Fawkes, Quisling, Benedict, and Monmouth. She orders the robots to work, to create another bio-duplicate of herself. She uses these bio-duplicates as a way of interacting with the outside world. She fears going out, seeing enemies everywhere. The one that blew itself up in the last issue needs to replaced quickly.
It's here that we get a flashback, retelling the history of the woman under the golden mask. Once, she was Whitney Frost, the daughter of prominent financier Byron Frost. However, when he died, she learned her birth name was Giuletta Nefaria, and she was actually the daughter of Avengers and X-Men villain Count Luchino Nefaria. Not just that, but Byron Frost was actually a mob lawyer. Her fiancé at the time broke up with her, fearing that her relation to mobsters would hurt his political ambitions.
She would go on to become her father's second-in-command in the Maggia, and when he got arrested, she took his place at the big chair, as it were. She became known as "The Big M". She attempted to seduce SHIELD Agent Jasper Sitwell, only to genuinely all in love with him.
Her men turned on her, and she crashed her skycraft in an attempt to flee the authorities. The crash left her face badly scarred. She was rescued by the supervillain Mordecai Midas. Think Scrooge McDuck if he was Greek, human, and a supervillain. It was him who gave Giuletta her golden mask. Then he tried to kill her. Yeah, you see a theme here?
The betrayals seemed to never end. Sitwell and Nefaria drifted apart. When Luchino Nefaria fell ill, she turned to Tony for help. The resulting fracas seemingly ended with the death of Count Nefaria. However, he was not exactly dead. That's a story for another time. All of this was from previous Marvel stories: Iron Man #8 (December 1968), Tales of Suspense #97 (January 1968) (which was also her first appearance) , Iron Man #17-19 (September-November 1969), #106 (January 1978), #109 (April 1978), and #116 (November 1978). Yeah. That's a lot.
This, however, is all key to the portrayal of Madame Masque here. It's something I love Kurt Busiek's run for. It was at that point, scarred and broken from all of this, that Giuletta Nefaria retreated from the world, hiding in her butte. She created and sent out bio-duplicates, constructs that were practically indistinguishable from the real thing. However, they would evolve and grow wills of their own. They believed they WERE the real thing, forcing their...termination.
Giuletta believes the same thing happened with Masque. Masque had managed to break free before her conditioning could be completed, and Giuletta saw it as yet another betrayal, Masque sending the Avengers. Masque tries to explain that wasn't the case. She came to Iron Man for help because of her imprinting. Once, Giuletta loved Tony, and he loved her. Why wouldn't she go to him for help?
Giuletta insists that she does not love Tony Stark. She had heard that Count Nefaria had seemingly returned during the events of Iron Man 1999 (The 1999 Annual of Shellhead's book), but believed it was a trick by Stark. But even if it's not...she's got defenses in this butte against him. Masque points out that Giuletta is living in madness. She sees enemies in every shadow. Masque was created to pose as Giuletta, and she learned one thing: Tony Stark never meant to harm her. He cared about her. Deep down, Giuletta Nefaria wants to trust people again, but she's had so many knives stuck in her back.
A craft arrives, carrying a battalion of armored men.
Meet the Steelskulls. They're a group of Taskmaster-trained mercenaries led by the Grim Reaper. I like their look. I'm surprised they haven't been seen more often. He learned about the butte from some Vegas gangsters the Reaper...interrogated. They're met by the Avengers, and naturally, a brawl breaks out. The Avengers manage to get through the Steelskulls rather easily. Vision nearly captures the Grim Reaper himself, but gets ambushed by Madame Masque's Robot Brigade. Iron Man tries to tell her that they weren't here for her, but she's not listening. But then another guest arrives. This one is interested in a nice little family reunion.
Yup, Count Luchino Nefaria is in town. He's got Wonder Man and Atlas with him. Keep in mind, all three of these characters are real powerhouses. Our heroes are in trouble...
This comic is awesome. Some may complain about the history lesson we get about Madame Masque's past, but there is a point to it. This is something that I personally admire Kurt Busiek as a writer for. He takes a character's history and uses it to establish a characterization for them that makes sense. Giuletta Nefaria has been through a lot of betrayal in her life, both real and perceived. It makes a lot of sense that it have an effect on her mind. It also makes sense that she would be paranoid, that she would see enemies everywhere. He also manages to take up an abandoned plotline from an old Avengers book and incorporate it into his story. I love it!
The art here is rather unique. You see, George Perez did the layout work, but Paul Ryan was the actual penciler. You may be familiar with Ryan thanks to my review of Fantastic Four #403 (August 1995) from last October. I thought it was a pleasant surprise to see him draw Earth's Mightiest. He did great work, and thanks to the Perez layouts, you see his influence with the panel placement and the like. It's very well-done, two great artists making something beautiful.
If you want to read this for yourself, like I said with the previous review, I recommend checking out the 2012 trade paperback Avengers Assemble Vol. 3. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, spread it around! Take care of yourself, and each other. Stay safe, stay healthy, stay at home, and wash your hands often! Join me next time, when we see a new team rising from the ashes of the West Coast Avengers...
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