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Avengers Vol. III, issue 22, page 21.
Colorist: Tom Smith
Artist: George Perez
Inker: Al Vey
After I started buying comic art, I became curious about colorists' art. I'm a big fan of the Avengers, and really enjoyed the Kurt Busiek / George Perez run. The colorist on that run, Tom Smith, is one of those people who's a wonderful ambassador for comics, interacting with the fans in an always positive manner so as to generate enthusiasm and foster affection for comics. In any case, I saw him put one of his Avengers pages up on EBay in August of 2002, so I grabbed it. Please also note Tom's original pencil sketch of Vance in the margin.
Vance Astrovik first got his superpowers in Marvel Two-in-One 69, went on to be a supporting character in the latter half of Ben's solo mag (The Thing), was a member of the New Warriors, and eventually joined the Avengers. At the top of this page, we see Hank Pym calming down after demolishing Ultron, thanks to Vance's deductions which gave the Avengers the victory. At the bottom, we see Vance and Firebird resting after the fight. Much as MTIO 69 brings Vance into his powers, this issue, even this page, is Vance coming to accept himself as belonging at the level of the Avengers.
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