Avengers - Death Trap: The Vault

[history79]

Written by Danny Fingeroth, Art by Ron Lim

21 pages of 63

Comments

[shakalooloo]

Alway good to see writers remember that Thunderball is more than just a super-strong henchman for the Wrecker!

[tinygaylaura]

You would enjoy the way he was used in Ta Nehisi Coates excellent Black Panther run!

[dan_ingram]

Ah, ye olden days when criminals didn't casually walk out of prison.

[mazway_75]

Ah, I miss the Vault. Just a cool name for a super-prison but of course undermined by just how easy it really was for guys to break out of it.

Interesting timing as this was still when Venom was pure villain before they moved him into the "Lethal Protector" stuff but fun work. Also kind of liked Freedom Force and the uneasy alliance between them and Avengers was a fun read.

[beyondthefringe]

This story hits one of my favorite things: when heroes and villains can actually work together and find at least temporary, mutual respect.
i.e. the usage of Dr. Eliot Franklin, aka Thunderball, by emphasizing his intelligence and science expertise to help save the day, and how he and Tony connect.
Also the way Dr. Chen Lu, aka Radioactive Man, is used here... a distant precursor to his more heroic/altruistic/decent portrayal in Thunderbolts.

There's a time and place for the ruthless rivalry and personal whatnots between heroes and villains, and then sometimes it's just about a difference in opinions and goals. As much as we rag on Nick Spencer, I love his (and some other authors') take on blue collar villains as guys who aren't -all- bad. (Flash's rogues are another example of supervillains who don't have to be all murderstabdeathrevenge...)

[tcampbell1000]

DEATH VAULT trap the

[steverequin]

I seriously loved that, because of small details like Franklin using his brains, the bad guys in prison uniform instead of their supervillain costumes, the use of some villains who dropped out of sight for years like Frenzy... The only thing I can complain about is the use of the countdown cliché, the timer stopping at 00:00:00:00:00:01 One of these days, I'd like a timer to stop with 2:17 minutes to spare.

[blues32]

This portrayal of Venom is weird. Even in his earliest appearances, he deluded himself into thinking he only hurt people when he had to. By the time Venom had sharp teeth, his devotion to "innocents" was pretty clear. But the biggest weird thing has got to be him using the word "I" instead of "we" more often than not.