Die ruhmreichen Rächer #5
This issue delivers the German-language debut of Avengers #4 (March 1964), the single most consequential early Avengers story: the Silver Age return of Captain America, rescued from suspended animation and formally welcomed onto the team roster alongside Thor, Iron Man, Giant-Man, and the Wasp. For West German readers in 1974, it was their first encounter with the narrative that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby used to tie the Marvel Universe to World War II history — establishing Cap's 'man out of time' status, introducing the shadowy flashback cameo that would become Baron Zemo, and permanently reshaping the Avengers' lineup. As the fifth issue of Williams-Verlag's brand-new Marvel programme, it also arrived at a moment when superhero comics in the German-speaking market were still a novelty, making this the issue that introduced countless European readers to Captain America himself.
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Williams-Verlag (operating under the BSV/Klaus Recht publishing umbrella) launched five Marvel series simultaneously in January 1974 — among them Die ruhmreichen Rächer — reprinting the Silver Age Avengers run in chronological order from the very first issue. The series appeared biweekly and ran to 100 issues through November 1978, with editorial duties credited in adjacent issues to Reinhard Mordek and Sybille van Geem. Issue #5, published in 1974, pairs the landmark Avengers #4 reprint with a second story drawn from Captain Marvel (1968 series) #2, following the anthology format common to the early numbers of the run.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Reprints Avengers (Marvel, 1963 series) #4 (March 1964) — scripted by Stan Lee, pencilled by Jack Kirby, inked by George Roussos — as its main feature.
- A second story is reprinted from Captain Marvel (1968 1st Series Marvel) #2, making this a two-story anthology issue.
- The Avengers #4 reprint contains the first Silver Age appearance of Captain America (Steve Rogers), shown thawing from Arctic ice after decades of suspended animation.
- The same story contains the first Silver Age appearance of Bucky (James Buchanan Barnes) in flashback, and the first (unnamed, shadowed cameo) appearance of Baron Heinrich Zemo, also in flashback.
- Captain America formally joins the Avengers at the story's conclusion, forming the team's third lineup: Thor, Iron Man (Tony Stark), Giant-Man (Hank Pym), the Wasp (Janet van Dyne), and Captain America.
- Published by Williams-Verlag GmbH (the German Marvel licensee under publisher Klaus Recht), part of a 100-issue run spanning January 1974 to November 1978.
- Williams-Verlag launched Die ruhmreichen Rächer simultaneously with four other Marvel titles in January 1974; the Rächer series ran biweekly alongside Die Spinne and Die Fantastischen Vier.
- The series reprinted the Avengers' Silver Age run in near-chronological order, giving German-language readers their first access to these foundational Marvel stories.