AVENGERS 114-135 (1973-1975)

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at Marvel’s Avengers series – issues 114-135. 

AVENGERS Vol 1 #114 (August 1973)

Title: The Night of the Swordsman

Avengers Roster: Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Scarlet Witch, Black Panther, the Vision, Mantis, the Swordsman

Villain: Lion-God

**

Synopsis: The villainous Swordsman rejoins the Avengers with a pardon and alongside his mysterious romantic partner Mantis, making her very first full appearance. Mantis is part Vietnamese and part unknown at this point.

The mysteries surrounding this superheroine will be resolved in this story arc that would probably be as famous as The Dark Phoenix Saga over at The X-Men if Marvel hadn’t pointlessly retconned so much of it decades later. Thanos, Kang, Loki, Ultron and Dormammu are among the villains.

At any rate, Mantis’ enigmatic abilities involve mutant empathic powers plus other-worldly martial arts techniques that let her down Thor and Captain America in a skirmish. The main story involved the return of the Avengers’ old foe the Lion-God. Mantis and the Swordsman proved crucial to defeating him. Click HERE.

CAPTAIN MARVEL Vol 1 #28 (September 1973)

Title: When Titans Collide

Villains: Thanos and the Controller

NOTE: This story at last draws all of the Avengers into the ongoing Thanos War that had been raging in multiple Marvel Comics titles in 1973. The previous chapters took place in the pages of Iron Man, Marvel Feature, Daredevil & the Black Widow and mostly in Captain Marvel’s series.

Thanos the Mad Titan is immensely powerful and has been leading his intergalactic army against his father Mentor and brother Starfox (Eros) and the rest of the Eternals who live inside Saturn’s moon Titan.

The Avengers fight Thanos and his minion the Controller alongside Drax the Destroyer, Moon Dragon and their fellow Avenger-at-Large Captain Marvel (Kree Captain Mar-Vell). Thanos wants the Cosmic Cube, later called the Tesseract, a powerful object that will give him universe-destroying power. 

AVENGERS Vol 1 #115 (September 1973)

Title: Below Us, the Battle

Villains: The Troglodytes

Synopsis: All eight Avengers mentioned above fly a Quin-Jet to England to check on the British Avenger-at-Large – the Black Knight. He has been out of touch way too long.

At the Black Knight’s home, Garrett Castle, the team battles a subterranean race called the Troglodytes and learn through Mantis’ empathic powers that the missing knight was with Dr. Strange when he disappeared. Meanwhile, in the Dark Dimension, Dormammu and Loki form an alliance to destroy Loki’s foes the Avengers and Dormammu’s foes the Defenders. Click HERE.

AVENGERS Vol 1 #116 (October 1973)

Title: Betrayal

Villains: Loki and Dormammu

Synopsis: From the Dark Dimension, Dormammu and Loki pool their energies to deceive the Avengers into thinking that the Black Knight was abducted by Dr. Strange and his new, secret super team called the Defenders (Dr. Strange, Hulk, Sub-Mariner, Valkyrie, the Silver Surfer and the former Avenger Hawkeye). 

The villains further manipulate both teams into trying to retrieve all six parts of the Evil Eye of Avalon, a mystic relic, each team for different purposes. The first battle in this global Avengers-Defenders War finds the Silver Surfer fighting the Scarlet Witch and the Vision in Tahiti. Click HERE.  

DEFENDERS Vol 1 #9 (October 1973)

Title: Divide and Conquer

Villains: Loki and Dormammu

NOTE: This clash between the Avengers and Defenders over the Evil Eye of Avalon was a crossover story in both their series and for 1973 this type of crossover was a huge event. That was long before crossovers became overdone in comic books.

Synopsis: The deceptions continue, as Hawkeye defeats Iron Man in Monterrey, Mexico for the second fragment of the Evil Eye. That makes two for the Defenders since the Silver Surfer won his segment last issue. Meanwhile, in Indiana, USA Dr. Strange easily defeats the Black Panther and Mantis for another piece of the Evil Eye. Click HERE.   

AVENGERS Vol 1 #117 (November 1973)

Title: Holocaust

Villains: Loki and Dormammu

Synopsis: At the lair of a wealthy international fugitive in the Bolivian jungle, Valkyrie and the Swordsman fight it out for another fragment of the Evil Eye. In Osaka, Japan Captain America and the Sub-Mariner fight over yet another fragment.

The mutant hero/ villain called Sunfire gets caught up in the battle, buying enough time for Cap and Sub-Mariner to compare notes and begin to suspect that a massive deception is causing the Avengers and Defenders to fight. Click HERE.

DEFENDERS Vol 1 #10 (November 1973)

Title: Breakthrough

Villains: Loki and Dormammu

Synopsis: Thor and Hulk’s Los Angeles battle for the final segment of the Evil Eye of Avalon is interrupted by the arrival of the rest of the Defenders and Avengers, who have pieced together that they are all being manipulated by at least Loki and maybe other parties as well. 

With all six pieces of the Evil Eye in one place, Dormammu tips his hand by seizing the fragments and using the reassembled mystic relic to begin fusing Earth’s universe with the Dark Dimension. Click HERE.

AVENGERS Vol 1 #118 (December 1973)

Title: To the Death

Villain: Dormammu

Synopsis: Dormammu refuses to share the power of the Evil Eye of Avalon with Loki and imprisons him in a mystic cage. With the Dark Dimension fusing with Earth’s dimension virtually every single Marvel hero of the time makes a cameo appearance fighting people who have turned into demonoid monsters.

Even villains like Dr. Doom and Thanos are shown in action. The Defenders and Avengers fight their way through countless menaces to try reaching Dormammu. In the end the universe is saved and Dormammu is defeated and seemingly destroyed by the Scarlet Witch. The Vision suffered a mysterious malfunction during the final battle. Click HERE.

DEFENDERS Vol 1 #11 (December 1973)

Title: A God of Living Stone

Villain: Temax

Synopsis: The fate of the Black Knight is at last resolved through use of the Evil Eye of Avalon. The Knight is back in the age of the Crusades, where his spirit was summoned to animate the body of his slain ancestor.

Our heroes defeat a medieval menace called Temax, then return to the present day when the Black Knight explains he will stay behind for now to do all the things that he knows from history books his ancestor accomplished. Click HERE.

AVENGERS Vol 1 #119 (January 1974)

Title: Night of the Collector

Villain: The Collector

Synopsis: At the Halloween Parade in Rutland, VT the Avengers’ old foe the Collector tries for the third time to capture them and imprison them in his intergalactic museum/ menagerie.

Thor, Iron Man, Captain America and Black Panther are captured by him, but the Scarlet Witch, Vision, Mantis and Swordsman rescue them. Mantis shines again to save Rutland from the Collector’s revenge. Click HERE.

CAPTAIN MARVEL Vol 1 #31 (March 1974)

Title: The Beginning of the End 

Villains: Thanos and his army

Synopsis: The Avengers are once more swept up in the Thanos War as they again fight alongside Drax the Destroyer, Moon Dragon, and their fellow Avenger-at-Large Captain Marvel (Kree Captain Mar-Vell).

Thanos continues his all-out war on anyone opposing his attempts to impress his enigmatic female friend by gaining power over the entire universe.

AVENGERS Vol 1 #120 (February 1974)

Title: Death Stars of the Zodiac

Villains: Zodiac

Synopsis: The supervillain team called Zodiac returns for their latest clash with the Avengers. With their previous leader Aries now dead, Taurus has named himself the team’s leader and recruits a replacement for the original Aries.

The Avengers and Zodiac battle each other at Avengers Mansion and atop the World Trade Center towers. NOTE: Despite his presence on the cover, Captain America is off the team fighting Moonstone and the Secret Empire for a few issues. Click HERE.

AVENGERS Vol 1 #121 (March 1974)

Title: Houses Divided Cannot Stand

Villains: Zodiac

Synopsis: The Avengers thwart Zodiac’s plan to kill all of New York City’s Geminis but Mantis is left seriously wounded, just like the Swordsman was last issue. Two members of Zodiac seem to know more about Mantis than the Avengers do. 

Several Zodiac members rebel against Taurus’ leadership after the debacle with the Geminis, but Taurus shrewdly snares the traitorous members AND the Avengers in a deathtrap. Our heroes at last learn that Taurus is really their long-time civilian tormentor Cornelius Van Lunt. (NOTE: Like J. Jonah Jameson hounded Spider-Man and “Thunderbolt” Ross hounded the Hulk, Cornelius Van Lunt – from New York Old Money – had been hounding the Avengers for years.) Click HERE.  

AVENGERS Vol 1 #122 (April 1974)

Title: Trapped in Outer Space

Villains: Zodiac

Synopsis: The Avengers and the rebellious Zodiac members are forced to stop fighting and work together in order to survive Taurus’ death trap. Meanwhile, Taurus tries to consolidate his support among the remaining loyal Zodiac members. 

The Avengers and their foes manage to survive the death trap but then, to avoid prison the rebellious Zodiac members side with the loyalists as all 12 members attack the Avengers. Our heroes win, but the battle resulted in the 2nd malfunction of the Vision’s artificial brain and, shockingly, the Zodiac member Libra reveals that he is Mantis’ father. Click HERE.

AVENGERS Vol 1 #123 (May 1974)

Title: An Origin for Mantis

NOTE: The interior title noncommittally reads “an” origin for her, because her mysteries deepen and there are more surprises about her down the road.

Villain: Monsieur Khruul

Synopsis: Mantis furiously refuses to believe Libra’s lengthy story about him, her mother and her infancy. For the first time we readers learn that Mantis was once trained for a mysterious purpose by Vietnam’s secret chapter of the Priests of Pama, masters of a Kree version of Martial Arts.

That at last explains why Mantis was able to defeat Thor and Captain America with her fighting techniques. The still injured Swordsman loses his temper and enmeshes the entire team in a battle in Vietnam with the costumed army of Mantis’ drug lord uncle who uses the villain name Monsieur Khruul.   

The Avengers defeat all of Khruul’s drug-enhanced troops but not before he has led them in slaughtering all the Priests of Pama at the jungle temple where they trained Mantis and Libra long ago. Click HERE.

AVENGERS Vol 1 #124 (June 1974)

Title: Beware the Star Stalker

Villain: The Star Stalker

Synopsis: In dying, Khruul inadvertently freed an alien entity that the Priests of Pama had imprisoned in their temple – the Star Stalker. That being has the body of a huge bi-pedal dragon and wields enough ionic energy to be able to feed on entire planets like Galactus does.

A devastating battle breaks out between our heroes and the Star Stalker.

After defeating the Avengers and preparing to consume the Earth, the Star Stalker explains that he has clashed with the Priests of Pama on multiple planets over the millennia. The priests and priestesses were native-born Kree exiled from the home planet Hala long, long ago for preferring pacifism to the militarism that drove the Kree Empire.  

Flashes of memories from her time in the Pama Temple come back to Mantis and help her lead our heroes in destroying the Star Stalker. Mantis and the Vision are drawn to each other over their current troubles – hers involving her mysterious past and his involving the apparent degeneration of his artificial brain. Click HERE.  

AVENGERS Vol 1 #125 (July 1974)

Title: The Power of Babel

Villain: Thanos and his star fleet

Avengers Roster: Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Scarlet Witch, Black Panther, the Vision, Mantis, the Swordsman and Captain Marvel.

Synopsis: The Avengers, Moon Dragon and Drax the Destroyer battle Thanos’ intergalactic fleet above the Earth. Amid the action, our heroes come to grips with the fact that Moon Dragon has learned that Drax is really her father, just as Mantis recently learned the same about Libra.

Similarly, as Mantis was trained from a very young age by the Priests of Pama, Moon Dragon was trained from a very young age by the Eternals of Titan. 

In addition, it turns out that Mantis and Moon Dragon were born in separate countries on the exact same day, month and year. And just as Mantis is involved in a romantic triangle with the Vision and the Scarlet Witch, Moon Dragon has a romantic triangle with Daredevil and the former Avenger Black Widow. 

Thanos’ fleet is destroyed, but once back on Earth our heroes face the Mad Titan in his full, Tesseract-powered glory for the cliffhanger ending. Click HERE.

CAPTAIN MARVEL Vol 1 #33 (July 1974)

Title: The God Himself

Villain: Thanos

Synopsis: At long last the Thanos War ends in a final battle between him, the Avengers, Drax and Moon Dragon. Mantis and Captain Marvel play the most crucial roles in engineering the defeat of the Mad Titan. Mantis’ absolute control over her body’s molecules enables her to “phase” the Cosmic Cube/ Tesseract to Captain Marvel at the proper moment.

It appears Thanos is utterly destroyed when Mar-Vell shatters the Tesseract. The Mad Titan’s enigmatic female companion reveals herself to be the embodiment of Death, and she abandons Thanos to his fate since he failed her. Click HERE.

AVENGERS Vol 1 #126 (August 1974)

Title: All the Sights and Sounds of Death

Villains: Ulysses Klaw and Solarr

Synopsis: The Black Panther’s old foe Klaw teams up with Captain America’s foe Solarr. They take several Avengers plus an Ambassador hostage as part of an attempt to force the Black Panther to abdicate the throne of Wakanda.

Subplot-wise, the tension in the Mantis-Vision-Scarlet Witch romantic triangle grows even worse, Captain America quits the team and the Black Panther quits to focus on leading Wakanda during Killmonger’s ongoing uprising. Click HERE.   

GIANT-SIZE AVENGERS Vol1 #1 (August 1974)

Title: Nuklo, the Monster That Time Forgot

Villain: Nuklo

NOTE: In an editorial blunder, though Captain America quit the team before this story he was still being depicted.

**

Synopsis: Nuklo, the mutant son of Marvel’s 1940s superheroes the Whizzer and Miss America, emerges from decades-long stasis and goes on a rampage. While the Avengers try to contain the villain’s nuclear devastation, our heroes get the shocking news that the Whizzer is really the Scarlet Witch’s (and Quicksilver’s) father.

NOTE: For years, it was Marvel canon that the Whizzer and Miss America were Wanda and Pietro’s parents and the High Evolutionary raised them, but that was later retconned multiple times.

For this 1970s storyline, the Scarlet Witch, too, has now been reunited with her long-lost father, deepening the whole Mantis-Scarlet Witch-Moon Dragon parallels and mystery. Click HERE.  

AVENGERS Vol 1 #127 (September 1974)

Title: Bride and Doom

Villains: Omega, Maximus the Mad, the Alpha Primates and Ultron-7

Avengers Roster: Thor, Iron Man, the Scarlet Witch, the Vision, Mantis and the Swordsman

Fantastic Four Roster: Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, the Thing and the 2nd Human Torch

Synopsis: The Avengers and the Fantastic Four gather with the Inhumans in the hidden Himalayan city of Attilan for the wedding of the former Avenger Quicksilver and the former Fantastic Four member Crystal.

The Fantastic Four have brought Reed and Sue’s comatose child Franklin with them along with his caregiver Agatha Harkness. The three superteams are attacked by villains like Maximus, the Alpha Primates and Omega, only to learn that behind them lies the menace of Ultron-7. Click HERE.   

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #150 (September 1974)

Title: Ultron-7: He’ll Rule the World

Villain: Ultron-7

NOTE: This story was the last time that Ultron bothered numbering his iterations. For instance, Ultron-6 was the first time he had his body made out of adamantium and Ultron-5 was when he created the Vision. After this issue the next time Ultron appeared was in the Bride of Ultron storyline with no number.

Synopsis: Ultron-7 does a Villain Rant about how his android body was rebuilt with advanced Kree technology in Attilan, making him more powerful than ever this time. He toys with the Avengers, Fantastic Four and Inhumans and refuses to answer the Vision’s questions about his worries over his android brain’s deterioration.

Soon, Ultron’s attack is on the verge of killing all the heroes, but his built-in encephalo-ray wakes Franklin Richards from his coma and the mutant child exhausts his world-destroying powers by instead destroying Ultron-7. The child is cured and the wedding of Crystal and Quicksilver goes on as planned. Click HERE.

AVENGERS Vol 1 #128 (October 1974)

Title: Bewitched, Bothered … and Dead

Villain: Necrodamus

Synopsis: Now that Franklin Richards is conscious and no longer needs her protection, Agatha Harkness moves into Avengers Mansion to tutor the Scarlet Witch in learning to better control her mutant hex powers. 

Eventually, that draws Wanda and Agatha into battle with the Defenders foe Necrodamus. Subplot-wise, Mantis dumps the Swordsman for the Vision but the Vision finally, decisively rejects Mantis to remain true to the Scarlet Witch. Click HERE.

AVENGERS Vol 1 #129 (November 1974)

Title: Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye

Villain: Kang the Conqueror

NOTE: This issue marks the very first time that the Celestial Madonna is mentioned, but all of Mantis’ initial run with the Avengers is sometimes collectively called The Celestial Madonna Saga. Originally, the Celestial Madonna had nothing to do with Jack Kirby’s Celestials & Eternals but that was retconned many years later. 

Synopsis: An artificial star appears over Avengers Mansion. The team’s recurring foe Kang the Conqueror attacks, stating that it is the Madonna Star and it signaled him that the time of the Celestial Madonna is at hand.

By appearing over Avengers Mansion it indicates that one of the women recently involved with the team – the Scarlet Witch, Mantis, Moon Dragon or Agatha Harkness – are the Celestial Madonna. (Neither the Wasp nor the Black Widow had been there recently.) Kang intends to force that Madonna to marry him because her offspring will possess unimaginable power.

While waiting for the Celestial Madonna to fully manifest, Kang launches a war to conquer the Earth using his new creations the Macrobots. Subplot-wise, the Vision has another malfunction during the battle. Click HERE.   

GIANT-SIZE AVENGERS Vol 1 #2 (November 1974)

Title: Death of an Avenger

Villain: Kang the Conqueror 

Synopsis: Hawkeye rejoins the Avengers to help save the world from Kang and the imminent World War his attacks are provoking. The team is aided by Rama Tut II, who turns out to be Kang’s future, reformed self. (As Rama Tut I, Kang was a villain who fought the Fantastic Four.)

The final battle takes place in Peking where Mantis is fully revealed as the Celestial Madonna, and the Swordsman dies in battle with Kang in order to save her life.

NOTE: A VERY “timey-wimey” element was added to the storyline with this issue. Technically, Marvel should have started their Kang movies with this storyline, back before there were multiple Kangs and multiple parallel timelines.

     Back with THIS storyline is when the Kang complexity started. The Marvel movies dumped viewers into the state of Kang stories from decades later by which time he had too many selves in too many timelines for it to make sense to new audiences. It would be like if the Game of Thrones tv show started with the 4th or 5th season. Click HERE.

AVENGERS Vol 1 #130 (December 1974)

Title: The Reality Problem

Villains: The Titanic 3 (Radioactive Man, the Crimson Dynamo & Titanium Man) and Slasher

Synopsis: Three days later, crowds are still surrounding Avengers Mansion as the Madonna Star shines. Rumors that it means the end of the world are rampant and the fact that an Avenger was killed by Kang emphasizes the danger. The Scarlet Witch stays behind to continue being tutored by Agatha Harkness when the other Avengers go to Vietnam.

In Vietnam, they bury the Swordsman in a strange garden at the now-deserted Pama Temple. They then investigate Mantis’ mysterious background for clues to what a “Celestial Madonna” may be. An international incident provokes a battle between the Avengers (Thor, Iron Man, Hawkeye, the Vision and Mantis) and the communist villains of the Titanic 3 and Slasher.

Meanwhile, a mysterious Hooded One wearing the robes of the extinct Priests of Pama observes our heroes from a distance. Click HERE. 

AVENGERS VOL 1 #131 (January 1975)

Title: Legion of the Unliving

Villains: Kang the Conqueror and his Legion of the Unliving (Baron Zemo, the original android Human Torch from WW2, Wonder Man, Midnight, the Ghost Mariner and the Frankenstein Monster) 

Synopsis: The next day in Vietnam, the Avengers continue to investigate Mantis’ past. Nomad, Captain America’s new superhero identity, joins them. Meanwhile, Kang and Rama Tut II fall into the clutches of Immortus (He Who Remains), whom 1975 readers would not yet have known was really another of Kang’s future, non-villainous selves.

In Immortus’ castle in Limbo, Kang imprisons both Immortus and Rama Tut II. He then uses Immortus’ technology to pluck six supervillains from the time-stream nano-seconds before their painful deaths. He threatens to return them to the moment of their deaths if they fail him.

Kang then abducts the Avengers in Vietnam to Immortus’ castle, where he orders his Legion of the Unliving to kill the male Avengers but bring Mantis to him alive so he can marry the Celestial Madonna. Click HERE.   

AVENGERS Vol 1 #132 (February 1975)

Title: Kang War Two

Villains: Kang and his Legion of the Unliving

Synopsis: The Hooded One meets a mysterious ally in Vietnam. In Limbo, the Avengers battle Kang the Conqueror and his Legion of the Unliving. Iron Man is killed and the Vision winds up mortally wounded. He is later found by Mantis, whom he informs he is breathing his last.

It begins to appear that Kang will have the Celestial Madonna after all, and through their offspring control of all time and space. Meanwhile, back in Vietnam the Hooded One’s mysteries deepen. Click HERE.

GIANT-SIZE AVENGERS Vol 1 #3 (February 1975)

Title: What Time Hath Put Asunder …

Villains: Kang and his Legion of the Unliving

Synopsis: The Avengers, scattered in Immortus’ labyrinthine catacombs, continue fighting Kang and his Legion. Back in New York City, crowds still throng in fear outside Avengers Mansion over the shining Madonna Star overhead. The authorities arrive to leave word that Libra (Mantis’ father) has escaped prison. Jarvis is alarmed at horrific sounds from the room where Agatha Harkness continues tutoring the Scarlet Witch. 

Meanwhile, back in Limbo, Thor comes across Iron Man’s dead body and it drives him into a berserker rage that he uses to turn the momentum against Kang and his minions. Hawkeye defeats Baron Zemo to free Rama Tut II and Immortus, who restores Iron Man to life.

SPOILERS: And as our heroes prevail, Kang escapes and it is revealed that Immortus is another of Kang’s future selves. The problem of what seemed like the Vision’s brain malfunctioning is resolved by the shocking revelation that his android body is really the overhauled body of the original android Human Torch from WW 2.

NOTE: This was a perfect explanation and development, since it gave the original Human Torch a special place in Marvel’s modern continuity. After all, their WW 2 Captain America had survived in suspended animation and Sub-Mariner – as a human-Atlantean hybrid – had an incredibly long lifespan. The Vision’s body being that of the original Human Torch would have meant all of Marvel/ Timely’s Big Three from the Golden Age were still technically active. Click HERE.   

AVENGERS Vol 1 #133 (March 1975)

Title: Yesterday and Beyond

Villains: Primitive Kree militarists

Synopsis: At Avengers Mansion, the Scarlet Witch becomes increasingly powerful under Agatha Harkness’ tutelage. Back in Immortus’ castle in Limbo, the Avengers are by now recuperated.

Immortus – as part of his atonement for his younger self Kang’s time-tampering – sends the Vision on a time voyage to learn how Ultron transformed the original Human Torch’s body into his own. Even more importantly, he sends the other Avengers (including Mantis, of course) on a time voyage to learn the secrets of the Celestial Madonna. 

In Vietnam, the Hooded One is revealed to be the escaped Libra wearing the robes of a Priest of Pama. He and other cosmic participants fear that Kang or some other menace may yet prevent Mantis’ transformation into the Celestial Madonna, plunging the entire space-time continuum into chaos.

Hundreds of thousands of years in the past, Mantis and the other Avengers witness the primitive Kree on Hala as they slaughter the peaceful, plant-like Cotati race and – as labor for the space-faring Skrulls – build the Blue City on Earth’s moon – at last providing the origin of the Watcher Uatu’s hidden city.

For the closing revelation of this issue, the Avengers witness the origin of the now never-ending Kree-Skrull War. Mantis wonders how any of this could involve her. Click HERE.

AVENGERS Vol 1 #134 (April 1975)

Title: The Times That Bind

Villains: The Kree

Synopsis: At Avengers Mansion, Moon Dragon arrives in answer to the Avengers’ summons regarding the Kree Priests of Pama since Captain Marvel cannot reply.

(He is involved in the Trial of the Watcher over at his own series.)

Moon Dragon is brought up to date by Jarvis about all the recent developments for the Avengers including the bright Madonna Star shining over the mansion. Soon, Moon Dragon fights and is defeated by a seemingly possessed Scarlet Witch.

Back in the time stream, the Vision continues witnessing the biographical events of the original Human Torch leading up to his reactivation as a pawn of the Mad Thinker for use against the Fantastic Four a few years earlier. This segment ends with Ultron-5 coming upon the original Torch’s android body after it was slain by the Mad Thinker.

Back with Mantis and the other Avengers, they witness the secret survival of the plantlike Cotati race and the origins of the Pacifist Kree, soon to become the Priests and Priestesses of Pama through the teachings of the Cotati. They also witness the REAL story of their encounter with the Star Stalker and their exile by the Kree Supreme Intelligence.

For the cliffhanger ending, the final sight witnessed by the Avengers is the scattering of the Priests of Pama to planets throughout the universe. The priest and priestess who set up a temple on Earth in the ancient past also plant several surviving Cotati beings.

As the Avengers realize that what they are seeing is really the garden where they buried the Swordsman they emerge from the time-stream and materialize in that garden in the present day. They are greeted by Libra, still in his Pama Priest robes AND by a member of the Cotati race who tell them that the fulfillment of the Celestial Madonna is at hand. Click HERE.

AVENGERS Vol 1 #135 (May 1975)

Title: The Coming of the Celestial Madonna

Villain: Ultron-5 

Synopsis: Moon Dragon arrives at the Pama Temple in Vietnam, where she becomes a member of the Avengers. Immortus, Libra and the Cotati provide closing explanations regarding the role of the Celestial Madonna and the survival of life in the universe. Immortus unveils a coffin which seems to hint at yet another Avenger dying before this is all over.

Moon Dragon and the others also learn how she, Mantis and the Scarlet Witch were subjected to parallel life events to see which of them would qualify to be the Celestial Madonna. Back with the Vision, he witnesses the secrets of Ultron-5 upgrading the “dead” Human Torch’s android body into his own.

That done, the Vision too returns to normal space-time but near the center of the Earth. There he sees what has been causing the Scarlet Witch to act possessed – her tutelage by Agatha Harkness was hijacked and taken advantage of by Dormammu in order to enthrall Wanda.

The seemingly destroyed Dormammu is being reborn and his rebirth will wipe out the Earth. Click HERE.

GIANT-SIZE AVENGERS Vol 1 #4 (June 1975)

Title: … Let All Men Bring Together

Villains: Kang the Conqueror, Dormammu and the Titanic 3

Synopsis: This wild, multi-tiered storyline that impacted so many aspects of the Marvel Universe at last comes to a close.

In my opinion, this would have made a perfect story on which to end the Avengers series if it had been canceled or something.

While a battle goes on with the still weak but growing stronger Dormammu, the Titanic 3, drawn by so much activity at the Pama Temple, attack the Avengers and the suddenly arriving Kang. Kang the Conqueror defeats them as he enacts his final, desperate attempt to seize the Celestial Madonna by way of multiple short-term future versions of himself. 

The Scarlet Witch’s love for the Vision empowers her to break free of Dormammu’s control and he is exiled back to the Dark Dimension before he can reach full strength. Kang is thwarted in taking Mantis. In the aftermath, Immortus conducts a ceremony marrying the Scarlet Witch to the Vision and Mantis to the Cotati member meant to be her husband.

(The Cotati had adopted the shape of Mantis’ late love the Swordsman to fool Kang if you’re wondering why the green Cotati temporarily looks like the Swordsman.)

Mantis and the Cotati then merge and elevate themselves to a higher plane of existence, with their union and eventually their offspring securing the continuation of life in the universe into the very far future. Click HERE.

*** SPECIAL EPILOGUE: MANTIS MEETS THE JUSTICE LEAGUE

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA Vol 1 #142 (May 1977)

Title: Return from Forever

Villain: The Construct

NOTE: Okay, in 1977, after he was fired by Marvel, Steve Englehart was working for DC. This was long before Marvel and DC did actual, separate continuity crossovers between their companies’ superheroes.

     Circumstances at the time would not permit him to openly present this Justice League story as an official epilogue to the Celestial Madonna Saga but readers could certainly recognize what was up and smile at the obvious point of this story.   

Synopsis: With tongue-in-cheek, Englehart presented the Justice League helping a woman calling herself “Willow” but who was CLEARLY supposed to be Mantis – right down to her powers and her repeated tendency to refer to herself as “this one.”

She told the JLA that “This one has come from a place she must not name and needs your help.” Willow – in a preview of later depictions of Mantis – has green skin because of the way she “joined” with a “mate”. On a higher plane of existence she and her mate had conceived a new life form.

A being called the Construct (slyly depicted as having characteristics “reminiscent” of both Thanos AND Ultron) wants to kill Willow before she can give birth to the new life form. The Construct has been pursuing her across the Multiverse and he at last caught up with her here on the Earth inhabited by the Justice League. 

The Construct is destroyed and Willow returns to a higher plane of existence to give birth to her offspring. JLA letters pages a month or two later included at least one oblique reference to the obvious Mantis connection in the form of a reader asking why Kang the Conqueror didn’t show up. Englehart and the others at DC wryly pretended not to know what the reader meant. Click HERE.