Avengers 146

We review the ever-popular Avengers 30 cent variant issues next. There are five Avengers 30 cent variant issues 146 - 150. "Heed the call, then - for now, the Avengers Assemble!

Issue 146 is the second of a two-parter begun in issue 145.  These two issues are the Assassin stories which either came before or after the Squadron Supreme/Kang saga.  The Assassin has been offered ONE BILLION DOLLARS for the destruction of the Avengers.  The Scarlet Witch is worried about Captain America dying as a result of an unknown weapon from an unknown assailant.  The Beast lets us know that "Reed Richards is working on the theory that Cap was put away by a new form of Radiation Poisoning." 

We cut to the Assassins agents gloating that "the Plan is working to perfection!  The Avengers are so concerned about Captain America that they've left their own defenses down." 

Chapter Two begins with Cap on the operating table where Dr. Don Blake is placing the counter-radiation capsules inside Cap.  Since Dr. Don is operating, Iron Man is making sure the LMD (Life Model Decoy) of Thor (we can't have people discovering the connection between Thor and Dr. Don) is working.  A nurse approaches Iron Man, Hawkeye, and he Vision with some coffee.  She thoughtfully provides Iron Man a straw so that he doesn't have to remove his mask.  Unbeknownst to the Avengers, the nurse has drugged the coffee and just when they realize the coffee has been drugged, the "B" Squad of the Assassin's Agents attacks.  Hawkeye collapses from the poisoned coffee first.  Then Iron Man is gassed before he can operate his eye-and-mouth shields.  The agents then turn their attention to Thor (actually Thor's LMD) and shoot him in the back where the LMD drops like a sack of bricks.  The Agents ask themselves "Can we have slain a God?  Dr. Don continues to operate on Cap while the Vision fights on against a seemingly endless supply of enemy agents.  The vision has turned himself diamond hard (this is before the days of Viagra, when anyone can do it) and the Assassin appears and slaps something on the Visions back which prevents him from controlling his body and the Vision collapses.  The Assassin lets us know that the drug he has poisoned the Avengers with produces unconsiousness and then when it reaches their hearts - instantaneous death.  The assassin receives a report form agent B-12 (also a good name for a vitamin) that they have killed Thor.  He goes to check and realizes that the agents have just killed a robot and that Dr Donald Blake is Thor and that while "Thor is immortal -- Dr. Blake can die and since only Blake has the ability to save Captain America, with one bullet - I kill two Avengers!"

Chapter 3 begins with the hand holding the gun secretly pointed at Dr. Black being speared with one of Hawkeye's arrows.  Apparently Hawkeye "spilled his cookies" before the poison reached his heart and of course Iron Man has a synthetic heart which the poison apparently did not work on.  Hawkeye and Iron Man then removed the device from the back of the Vision.  The Assassin gets the drop on Hawkeye and keeps Iron Man and the Vision at bay with a gun pointed at Hawkeye's head.  Dr. Blake surprises the Assassin from behind and the Vision transforms the Assassin's weapon to a useless piece of slag.  Then Iron Man used his repulsor rays to rip the costume off the Assassin - where the Avengers find that the Assassin is actually the Nurse who poisned them.  Paging Michael Turner to draw this page.  Please.  Pretty please...  The nurse has a special gas bomb hidden in the back of her tattered dress which she hurls at the Avengers to cover her retreat.  She escapes but realizes that she doesn't have her radio to call her Agents to her aid.  As she approaches the first two Agents, they do not recognize her as the Assassin and fearing that something is wrong and that they have been spotted, they blast her to her death.  The Avengers then mop up all the Agents.

Issue 146 is particularly hard to find in high-grade.  The cover is primarily black including the spine and both the top and bottom corners.  Only three copies of the regular issue have been graded at 9.8, the last sale of a 9.8 in July 2008 for $432.  Only twelve copies of the 30 cent price variant have been certified in all grades with one 9.4, one 9.2, two 9.0s and two 8.0s comprising the condition census.   One 9.0 sold in June 2009 for $103. 

Interestingly, the first page of the issue contains the offer of a special bullpen bonus: an autographed NO PRIZE for the true believer who can tell exactly where this two-part tale falls in the Avengers Continuity. I don't know who won the NO-PRIZE, but for questions about Avengers Continuity, you should go here http://www.whiterocketbooks.com/avengers/avchron2.txt