For our gang, The Invaders was always low on the totem pole when the new monthlies were out. We didn't like Frank Robbins, we didn't like World War 2, and we could easily get our fix of Cap & Subby elsewhere.
Bucky was interesting, 'cos technically he was dead, but sad to say, for most of the '70's, The Invaders was right down there with Human Fly and Iron-Jaw when it came to worthless comics. When swapping books with friends you couldn't give this one away.
We were, of course, completely and utterly wrong.
This was actually one of the most consistently fun team books Marvel had in the Bronze Age, Roy Thomas' ultimate love letter to the comics of his childhood, but more importantly, it's an endless barrel of craziness, with Rascally inventing new ( and ever nuttier ) characters nearly every issue.
In fact, there were now so many new WW2 heroes and villains, The Invaders nearly approaches self-parody at times, were it not for the fact that you know Thomas meant every damn fanboy word of it.
And Robbins is right up there in terms of visual excitement, his characters leaping and gyrating all over the page, in trademark bodily contortions impossible for regular artists.
Here's a prime example, where Roy & Frank see how many new characters they can squeeze into one issue, and have it all make sense.
Ah, for the days when British people in comics talked like Spitfire does here, eh wot?
