Sal's Sunday Punch #4

Well it's that time again, so what's say we take a stroll down kick-butt lane with our fine friend Sal Buscema? How about a battle between brothers? Being brothers is great, but there's always a bit of sibling tension. Especially when there's a woman involved.

But what happens when one of the brothers is a photonic man, and the other one is an android? What happens when the woman is a witch who dresses all in sexy, sexy red? Surely any tensions would be resolved rationally -- between friends.

I know, Viz. What kind of BEAST would be
friends wth Wonder Man?

Guess not...



So this little piece of Marvel history is from 1977, from Avengers #158, written by Jim Shooter, drawn by Sal Buscema, inked by Pablo Marcos, lettered by Joe Rosen, Coloured by Don Warfield... and editted by Archie Goodwin.


So what's the issue like? Well honestly, it's a fight issue. Vision vs. Wonder Man, then once that's resolved, over to the new super villain Graviton for a huge fight with all the Avengers. It's not bad as fight issues go -- and of course is really helped by Buscema's incredible way with action.

Too bad, you've got Graviton to fight yet!

I should also come clean and admit that there's no actual sibling rivalry in the Vision/Wonder Man fight. It wasn't until during the West Coast Avengers run that they really became 'brothers'. Nope, it's pretty much entirely about Vision being pissed off, then getting jealous because Wondie is being nice to the Scarlet Witch.

Expect extreme relationships (especially when there's sexual tension) in a Jim Shooter story.

--Andrew S.
(Oh yeah, plus check out Jim Shooter's blog, if you haven't already.)