Avengers (Vol. I) #53
The Battle Joined!
Another
meeting between the Avengers and the X-Men, again on not the friendliest
of terms. Again, Magneto manipulates everyone in trying to conquer all...
and once again Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch are confused and/or one
of them injured. Lots of confusion on identities, but the Master of Magnetism
will savor a lesson in humility, coming from a most unexpected player.
Again we witness evidence of the Wasp's leadership capabilities, when she breaks out a fight between her three teammates. This is another issue when everything looks a bit too rushed and should have been expanded a bit. Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch don't do much and there is no in-depth characterization of the X-Men. Still, there's much conflict (everyone is battling everyone) and plenty of Buscema's typical muscle and posturing.
And the Toad finally gets some sort of last laugh against Magneto. Boy, each
time I see those X-Men costumes of that period, I can't believe how ugly they
were (particularly Angel's)! Cyclops does the most damage in the X-Men/Avengers
battle, hitting the Black Panther and Goliath with good blasts (he even gets
confused by Pym's action name... who hasn't, at some point?). And who would've
thought that the Beast, one day...?
