Wednesday, December 31, 2014

"The End" Week: Super-Villain Team-Up #17!


I wish I could remember how I got most of a run of this series--probably some from the quarter bins, some from here and there. From 1980, Super-Villain Team-Up #17, "Dark Victory" Written by Peter B. Gillis, art by Arvell Jones and Bruce Patterson.

Actually, I missed the previous issue, with the Red Skull and the Hate-Monger (the cloned Hitler version) up to something; and they bring in some A.I.M. scientists to recreate the Cosmic Cube. Both the Skull and Hitler know one of them is going to have to go, since only one of them can wield the Cube: for his part, the somewhat glum-seeming Skull feels the vestigial pains of guilt over betraying his teacher. Not that that would stop him, but still.

The Hate-Monger had a telepathic link with one of the agents working against them, but as S.H.I.E.L.D. assaults Skull Island, the Hate-Monger tries to become one with the Cosmic Cube. But A.I.M. hadn't made that much progress on the Cube, so it doesn't have power, it's merely a prison. This was the last appearance of H-M for several years, since by this point a Hitler clone would've been pretty cliche; but like most things in comics it would resurface again.

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