NEW: Guide to Invaders, Marvel Comics

I’m back with another new guide for Patrons of CK! In a way, this guide is a combination of the last two. It significantly revises and expands existing guide content like the Guide to Old Man Logan, but it’s also a guide that refers to real world dates like the Guide to Stranger Things Comics & Novels! That meant putting together the reading order was a lot of fun, since in this case it involved a bit of actual historical research! Plus, I got to page through a lot of comics I own and love. That’s right, I’m introducing the most complete reading order on the internet to Marvel’s World War II heroes with my Guide to Invaders!

Guide to Invaders

This guide is available exclusively to Patrons at this time.

As with many new reading orders that involve expanding an existing section of a guide, when I began this Invaders reading order I thought to myself, “This can’t be too hard, right? I already know every Invaders series that has existed!”

The Invaders have two distinct periods of continuity – their World War II adventures and their various reformations in the modern day.

The modern day material is simple enough. But, the WW2 material hasn’t always been released in the order it works in continuity. And, since the team canonically stayed together to the very end of the war, that means they existed through the presumed death of Steve Rogers and Bucky.

Oh and, also, the original Human Torch killed Hitler.

Now do I have your attention?

Part of what makes The Invaders so fascinating to me is that they are one of the few instances of Marvel’s Golden Age comics being relevant to current continuity.

DC had already gotten into the first of their “Crisis on Multiple Earths” by the time Marvel’s Silver Age was getting underway in 1961. That meant all of DC’s Golden Age remained in continuity on their separate Earth – and, over time, that continuity was merged into their Prime Earth, meaning early adventures of Superman and Batman were now back in continuity (with some adjustments).

However, Marvel made just two mainstream nods to their Golden Age – unfreezing Captain America, and bringing back Namor, both of whom retained their 1940s character history in the 616 Universe.

Marvel wasn’t as much for team-ups as DC was in the 1940s, so Cap and Namor had relatively few on-panel interactions. And, remember, Namor was very much an anti-hero – often fighting against the original Human Torch, and at one point flooding all of New York City!

It wasn’t until 1969 in Avengers (1963) #71 that Roy Thomas invented the retroactive continuity of Captain America, Namor, and Human Torch teaming up consistently during World War II to fight the Axis forces. That was just a brief time-traveling mix-up by way of Kang, but Thomas would reassemble his invented team for a Giant-Size issue in 1975 that lead to an ongoing comic following their exploits in WW2.

The ongoing series added Bucky Barnes and Toro to the main trio, plus a pair of couples to fill out the roster – Union Jack & Spitfire in the first half of the series, and Miss America & The Whizzer in the second half.

Since The Invaders (1975) was set in 1942 – over 30 years prior to the present day of Marvel – there are barely any additional appearances to track during the title’s four-year run. The team had a tie-in to two issues of Marvel Premiere (1972), and that was it!

Except… there was What If? (1977) #4, which imagined what would have happened if the team remained together through the end of WW2, including Hit;er’s death at the hands of Jim Hammond, the Human Torch.

But, What If? isn’t in continuity, right?

Actually, What If? (1977) #4 is a incredibly rare example of Marvel officially canonizing elements of a What If? story! When Marvel recapped all of the original Human Torch’s history in The Saga of the Original Human Torch (1990) #1-4, it repeated the scene of Jim Hammond killing Hitler! It was no longer just a What If? – now it was part of Marvel’s history.

That added another wrinkle – it was fair game to write The Invaders beyond the bounds of 1942, which is where a 1993 mini-series and a 1998 anthology series remained. That meant other comics could insert later adventures for the team through Hilter’s death in April 1945 and beyond to the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and through the formal surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945.

That meant there was some fun actual history to dive into when it came to figuring out where to place various retcon Invaders stories.

The modern day portion of the Invaders reading order is much more straight-forward. We first see the core trio meet in the present day in Namor, The Sub-Mariner (1990) by John Byrne. Then, U.S.Agent tries to revive the team’s name in an arc of Avengers (1998) that spins off into New Invaders (2004), just prior to Winter Soldier’s debut. Later, the Golden Age Vision returns to reassemble the team in Invaders Now! (2010). And, Marvel launched a pair of ongoings in the 10s – the thoughtful All-New Invaders (2014) by James Robinson and Chip Zdarsky’s Invaders (2019) – my favorite comic of 2019!

Those series don’t particularly tell one continuously-developed story the way the WW2 material does. However, they all make good use of Jim Hammond and his struggle with humanity, as well as of Bucky Barnes interacting with the core trio as a peer rather than a sidekick.

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