Avengers #94. The Kree Skrull War Part 6. Mandroids.

Frying pan, thy name is, "Vision." Some people have more sticking power than others, and this is the issue where we learn that the Vision's wrought from purest Teflon.

Having somehow caught up with the fleeing Skrull ship, the red faced robot confronts the Super-Skrull in it in an attempt to liberate the captive Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and Captain Marvel. After a short argument with the villain, he decides he really can't be bothered to rescue them and goes back home. Whatever happened to heroes willing to fight to the death against impossible odds?

He's not the only one to head home. Now rid of his non-stick foe, the Super-Skrull returns to the Andromeda Galaxy with his captives. There, by threatening Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, the Skrull King blackmails Mar-Vell into agreeing to build him an omni-wave transmitter that could destroy the Kree home world.

Back on Earth, the Avengers are facing a peril of their own as H Warren Craddock unleashes his secret weapon on them; the Mandroids, a bunch of men in Tony Stark designed titanium armour. During this fight, Iron Man suffers the ultimate indignity of knocking himself out by tripping over whilst roller-skating.

And who's that showing up at the very climax, courtesy of a convenient man-hole cover? Why, if it's not Triton of the Inhumans.

I have to say I like Neal Adams' work more this issue than last. I still think the panels are occasionally too packed with detail for their own good but it has the expected stylishness and I do love his portrayal of the Great Refuge surviving a nuclear attack from the Super-Skrull's ship.

After a few pages, John Buscema takes over for the mid-section before Adams returns to complete the later stages. Despite Tom Palmer inking both men, the switch is surprisingly jarring - the contrast between Buscema's more melodramatic and simplified Kirby-style story-telling and Adams' more unconventional and detailed approach does tend to hit you in the face. It's also obvious Buscema didn't get to see Adams' work on the issue before doing his bit, so the look of the Skrull ship changes completely. Suddenly it has a crew, and the Super-Skrull's captives are being held vertically rather than horizontally. Writer Roy Thomas tries to gets round it neatly by inserting a line of dialogue that suggests the Super-Skrull's transferred to another ship since we last saw him, a page earlier, but we're wise to such wily tricks.

The main irritant of the issue has to be the Skrull King's daughter Anelle who really is a limp piece of lettuce. Granted, she's a good guy and he's a bad guy but her constant whingeing about everything her war-like father gets up to does start to get on your nerves after a while.