New Avengers (Military - AAFES) #9

Background

In keeping with its current policy to produces “specialty” comics for various companies, and concerns Marvel has released yet another in its series of New Avengers “Military” comics exclusively for the U.S. Armed Forces under the auspices of the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES). The comic itself is distributed exclusively on U.S. Military bases.

Story 'Hero Exchange'

In an effort to discover the key to releasing Fin Fang Foom, Ultron and Juggernaut break into the US Headquarters of the Fort Jackson Military base, only, they are stopped by not only a full regiment of soldiers, but Avengers, Captain America, Thor, & Iron Man. As can be expected, the pair of supervillains just don’t know how to stand down before a superior force, and attack, only to be met head on by the Avengers.

After a very brief encounter the trio of heroes manage to put the villains down for the count. No sooner than they are out of action than a hologram projection of The Vision shows up to inform Cap that the containment cell holding Fin Fang Foom was breached (when Iron Man took down Ultron by crashing through the side of the building), and the evil dragon was spotted some 400 miles north of the military base.

Thor is ready to fly there (after a brief rest), when they are offered a plane ride from one of the soldiers. Once on the plane, the heroes are offered food and drink that the soldiers acquired from the Exchange prior to leaving. They then explain to the heroes the history of the Base Exchanges which are on military bases all across the world and which extend all the way back to colonial times when the soldiers were able to purchase things and even play games at them.

Cap explains how he and Bucky (this is obviously Steve Rogers, so this story — if it were to take place inside cannon (no guarantee) — it would have taken place prior to the his death and “rebirth”), during WWII were on an Exchange base when it was attacked by Baron Zemo, whom they handily defeated, thus protecting the base. A service man named Testa talked about leaving his family behind and discovering how homey the exchange base was once he reached the Gulf, and how bases were set up in all the countries in that part of the world, even in Kuwait.

The soldiers continue with telling the history of the Exchange bases during WWII and after — how the bases employ folks to man the bases to take care of the servicemen and women, with everything from commissaries to golf courses and more.

By this time the transport plane is over the target and the three heroes bail out of the plane in order to deal with the threat of Fin Fang Foom, which is where the story concludes.

General Comments

Unlike previous issues of this series, this particular issue is a tad light on the actual action, but it does give a very interesting and informative history of the Exchanges and thus proves to be an interesting story in its own right.

Overall Rating

As always the comic itself is fun to own, and as it did give a very comprehensive history of the group that was actually sponsoring it, it was rather interesting in its own right.

Footnote

This comic was produced especially for the U.S. Military, and is only sold on Military bases, but can be acquired easily enough off any of the auction sites, and makes a very nice addition to a serious collector’s library.