The Invaders #27

Name: The Invaders #27
Brand: Marvel
Availability: InStock

Apr 1978 · Marvel · 0.35 USD

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“Agent Axis -- Master of Murder!”

★ 1st appearance — Human Top

About this Issue

The Invaders #27 is the pivotal issue in which Gwenny Lou Sabuki acquires her light-based powers, setting the stage for her emergence as Golden Girl — a Japanese-American superhero whose very existence was Roy Thomas's deliberate push toward a more racially diverse Bronze Age Marvel. Simultaneously, teenager Davy Mitchell gains the power to spin at superhuman speeds, earning the name Human Top; the two new heroes together provided the essential nucleus for the Kid Commandos, the homefront youth team formally assembled one issue later in #28. The issue is also notable for its sustained, unflinching engagement with the reality of Japanese-American internment camps during World War II — an unusually pointed social conscience for a mainstream 1978 superhero comic. Taken together, these elements make #27 the critical origin chapter of a three-issue arc that substantially expanded the cast, thematic scope, and diversity of the entire Invaders series.

writer Roy Thomas · artist Frank Robbins · inker Frank Springer · colorist George Roussos · letterer John Costanza · cover Gil Kane, Klaus Janson

ComicBooks.com Value

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Raw (Fine) $4

CGC 9.8 · 21 in census $152

CGC 9.6 · 23 in census $53

CGC 9.4 · 9 in census $33*

CGC 9.2 · 4 in census $23*

CGC 9.0 · 2 in census $20*

CGC 8.5 · 3 in census $20*

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CGC 8.0 · 1 in census $20

CGC 7.5 none in existence

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CGC 6.0 none in existence

CGC 5.5 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 5.0 none in existence

CGC 4.5 none in existence

CGC 4.0 · 1 in census $20*

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CGC 9.8 $187 1 listing Raw — MINT $26 1 listing Raw — VF/NM $16.46 1 listing Raw — VF+ $19.72 1 listing Raw — FN+ $4.99 1 listing Raw — VG $2.8 1 listing Raw — GD $2.9 1 listing

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History

Roy Thomas, the series' writer and de facto steward of Marvel's Golden Age continuity, had been methodically building toward this story across several preceding issues, using the villain Agent Axis — a grotesque fusion of three Axis-power soldiers — as the narrative engine that would bring Gwenny Lou and Davy Mitchell into contact with the Invaders' world. Thomas and regular series penciller Frank Robbins crafted the issue as the middle chapter of a three-part arc running through #26–28, with the creative team otherwise unchanged: Frank Springer on inks, George Roussos on colors, and John Costanza on letters. The issue was released on January 17, 1978, with an April 1978 cover date, under editor-in-chief Archie Goodwin, and the cover itself was produced by Eli Katz. Thomas's intention, according to Tom Brevoort's contemporary commentary, was explicitly to create a more enlightened wartime youth team than the Golden Age Young Allies had been — one that included a Japanese-American girl and, in Davy Mitchell, an African-American boy.

Trivia · 8 facts

Title: 'Agent Axis, Master of Murder' — released January 17, 1978; April 1978 cover date.
Writer: Roy Thomas; Penciller: Frank Robbins; Inker: Frank Springer; Colorist: George Roussos; Letterer: John Costanza; Cover Artist: Eli Katz; Editor-in-Chief: Archie Goodwin.
First appearance (powered): Gwenny Lou Sabuki gains her light-projection and golden force-beam abilities in this issue, directly preceding her debut as Golden Girl in #28. She had appeared without powers in #26.
First appearance: David 'Davy' Mitchell — a young civilian who stumbles into Toro's hospital room — acquires the ability to spin at superhuman speeds (the Human Top) after being subjected to Agent Axis's malfunctioning surgical device.
Origin mechanism: A stray gunshot during a breakout attempt causes Agent Axis's surgical machine to short-circuit and release electrical energy through Gwenny Lou and Davy, mutating both teenagers and granting them superhuman powers.
Narrative context: The issue addresses the Japanese-American internment camp system as a central plot element — Gwenny Lou and her father Dr. Sam Sabuki are inmates of the Sandy Flat Relocation Center — giving the story uncommon social weight for a Bronze Age Marvel title.
Thomas recycled two dormant Timely/Golden Age hero names — Golden Girl and Human Top — for his new characters, consciously reviving forgotten wartime identities for a more diverse generation of retconned heroes.
Collected in: Invaders Classic: The Complete Collection Vol. 2 (2014), which reprints Invaders (1975) #23–41 alongside related material, making the issue readily accessible in trade paperback form.