THE AVENGERS VS THE DEFENDERS (1973)

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at Marvel Comics’ very first multi-issue crossover event – the clash between the Avengers and the Defenders. 

AVENGERS Vol 1 #115 (September 1973)

Title: Below Us, the Battle

Avengers Roster: Thor (Donald Blake, MD), Iron Man (Tony Stark), Captain America (Steve Rogers), Scarlet Witch (Wanda), Black Panther (T’Challa), Vision (N/A), Mantis (Mantis Brandt), Swordsman (Jacques Duquesne)

Defenders Roster: Dr. Strange (Stephen Strange, MD), Sub-Mariner (Namor McKenzie), Hulk (Bruce Banner, PhD), Silver Surfer (Norrin Radd), Valkyrie (Barbara Norris) and Hawkeye (Clint Barton) 

Villains: The Troglodytes

Synopsis: The Avengers fly in a Quin-Jet to Garrett Castle in England to check up on their British member the Black Knight (Dane Whitman). He has been out of touch for an alarmingly long time.

NOTE: That’s because the old Avengers foe the Enchantress turned the Black Knight’s body to stone in the pages of the (at the time) secret superteam the Defenders, covered previously HERE.  

Arriving at Garrett Castle the superheroes land their Quin-Jet on the grounds and warily approach the castle. The Avengers find their way blocked by an invisible force-field which surrounds the castle.

Nothing the heroes throw at the force-field penetrates it, not Captain America’s shield, not Thor’s hammer, not Iron Man’s repulsor rays nor the Scarlet Witch’s mutant hex-power nor the Swordsman’s fire, electrical and power blasts. The Vision can neither pass through the barrier in his intangible state nor blast through it with his solar eye-beams. 

Mantis’ mutant empathic powers enable her to detect the force behind the invisible barrier: Doctor Strange. In 1973 Dr Strange wasn’t as well-known to most of Marvel’s superheroes, and the Avengers’ lack of familiarity with the Doctor helps fuel the misunderstandings leading to their war with the Defenders.

The Avengers don’t know that Dr. Strange conjured up the mystic barrier to prevent any intruders entering Garrett Castle while the Black Knight was indisposed. Before the team can investigate the Black Knight’s disappearance any further, they find themselves attacked by an army of Troglodytes. These ugly, malformed but brutal humanoids turn out to be an inbred subterranean race forced underground by King Charles I in the 1600s.

After battles on the surface and under the Earth, the Avengers defeat the Troglodytes and learn that the Black Knight had previously encountered them. Taking pity on their plight, he had been letting them take provisions from Garrett Castle’s larders as needed. The mystic force field has been preventing them from doing so, hence their attack on the Avengers.

When all of this has been straightened out the Avengers board their Quin-Jet and begin their flight back across the Atlantic, wondering if the enigmatic Doctor Strange has abducted the Black Knight or possibly worse.

We join the villains Loki and Dormammu in the latter’s realm the Dark Dimension, where Dormammu saved Loki when he was temporarily blinded in his most recent battle with Thor. The pair have joined forces to destroy Loki’s foes the Avengers and Dormammu’s foes the Defenders and to menace the entire universe together.

To that end they have manipulated events so that the Defenders think that they can cure the Black Knight by rounding up the scattered fragments of a mystic relic called the Evil Eye of Avalon. Their quest to do so helps fuel their clash with the Avengers. 

AVENGERS Vol 1 #116 (October 1973)

Title: Betrayal

Villains: Loki and Dormammu 

Synopsis: At Dr. Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum, the gathered Defenders made contact with the spirit of the Black Knight, who was stranded in a dark nothingness where his soul had fled when his body turned to stone. Dormammu and the blind (at the time) Loki distorted the Knight’s message to the Defenders, convincing them to round up the six fragments of the Evil Eye of Avalon. 

While the Doctor remained in his impenetrable mansion the other Defenders scattered around the world to the locations where Strange’s magic had told them they would find the missing pieces of the Evil Eye.

At this point the Avengers, just back from their battle with the Troglodytes at Garrett Castle in England, tried to enter Dr Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum to inquire about the Black Knight. His automated mystic defenses, which functioned without any conscious thought required on Strange’s part, prevented the Avengers from entering (since they were uninvited).

This barrier is similar to the one around Garrett Castle, making the Avengers doubly suspicious now. The team returned to Avengers Mansion to regroup and debate their next move.

Meanwhile, Loki, still stranded in Dormammu’s Dark Dimension, had begun to suspect Dormammu was just stringing him along with his promises to cure his blindness and help him destroy Earth and the Avengers once the Evil Eye had been obtained.

Loki – unknown to Dormammu – mystically contacts the Avengers and lies to them, claiming that Dr Strange was indeed their foe and that Strange had assembled a group of bitter outcasts to help him conquer the world. This was more believable in 1973 than you might think, as Loki laid out the membership of the Defenders:

The Hulk was always a fugitive and hated the world for hunting him, the Sub-Mariner blamed the surface world for the way its pollution and nuclear waste threatened the seas and his kingdom of Atlantis.

The Silver Surfer was still shunned because not only had the reptilian Badoon race from another planet framed him for destroying part of New York City but the Surfer himself had once embarked on a stupid plan to bring peace to the world by attacking various nations. He hoped that would end war and make humanity form one united brotherhood to protect themselves from him. (Bonehead!)

The Valkyrie (at left) had previously incarnated as a super-villainess in the Avengers and in a few issues of the Hulk’s comic book. Hawkeye had recently quit the Avengers in a huff when he learned that the Scarlet Witch was in love with the Vision instead of him. After that he had poutishly refused to help the Avengers and the X-Men save the world from Magneto just because the Black Widow had dumped him for Daredevil.

Plus, Hawkeye’s former mentor and now bitter enemy the Swordsman had returned to the Avengers – in Hawkeye’s juvenile mind an intentional back-stab since the Avengers all knew about his history with the Swordsman.

Loki convinced the Avengers that the Defenders sought the six pieces of the Evil Eye of Avalon so that they could get revenge on the world at large over their varied grievances. The Avengers then split up to round up the fragments of the Evil Eye, determined to do anything to stop them from falling into the hands of the Defenders.

With the stage thus set, the opening round of this multi-issue battle of super-teams saw the Silver Surfer up against the Vision and the Scarlet Witch in Rurutu, French Polynesia. The Surfer and his two opponents from the Avengers fight each other over the fragment of the Evil Eye in the island’s volcano.

The rubicon is crossed when the Silver Surfer’s actions nearly cause the death of the Scarlet Witch, convincing the Vision that the Defenders really are out for blood as well as world conquest. 

The Silver Surfer leaves with his section of the Evil Eye while the Vision sees to his lady love the Scarlet Witch and also informs the other Avengers that the Defenders really are as bad as Loki claimed and are willing to kill to obtain the Evil Eye of Avalon.

DEFENDERS Vol 1 #9 (October 1973)

Title: Divide and Conquer

Villains: Loki and Dormammu

Synopsis: The Silver Surfer, fresh from his battle with the Vision and the Scarlet Witch in French Polynesia, arrives back at Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum. The Surfer tells the good Doctor about how the Avengers seem to be opposing the Defenders’ plan to reassemble the Evil Eye in order to free the superhero called the Black Knight from the spell that keeps him trapped in stone form. 

To try to keep things reasonably plausible, Dr Strange is astonished by the Silver Surfer’s tale about having to fight for his fragment of the Evil Eye. Trying to ascertain why the Avengers might be interfering with the Defenders’ attempt to save the Black Knight (an Avenger himself), Strange uses the Orb of Agamotto to observe Avengers Mansion.

The Orb shows Dr Strange and the Silver Surfer that the evil residue of Loki permeates Avengers Mansion. In reality that’s because Loki mentally contacted the Avengers to trick them into going after the pieces of the Evil Eye. 

Strange concludes that Loki – whom the Sorcerer Supreme had battled years earlier – may be exercising some sort of mental control over the Avengers. (A reasonable theory, given how many times that sort of thing DOES happen in superhero stories.) The Doctor leaves the Silver Surfer there to guard the petrified form of the Black Knight while he (Strange) flies off to get his fragment of the Evil Eye. 

BATTLE TWO: IRON MAN VERSUS HAWKEYE – Cut to Monterrey, Mexico, where the Valkyrie and Hawkeye, astride the Black Knight’s flying horse Aragorn have just landed. A magick image of Dr Strange warns them that the Avengers may be operating under Loki’s control. Valkyrie leaves Hawkeye there in Monterrey to look for his fragment of the Eye while she and Aragorn fly off to Bolivia in search of her fragment.

While conducting his own search through the city, Hawkeye sees the airborne Iron Man arrive and shadows him, unknown to Iron Man. The armored Avenger goes to the Instituto Tecnologico and uses his Avengers’ influence to consult with the faculty. Conveniently, a professor at the Institute is studying the Monterrey fragment of the Eye.

It was discovered months earlier and turned over to the Institute for research. Hawkeye arrives and steals the Eye segment and Iron Man pursues him. As the battle unfolds it turns out that after quitting the Avengers in a huff Hawkeye – in his pouting –  worked up special arrows to deal with Iron Man and does serious damage to Iron Man’s armor.

The pair wage a running fight throughout Monterrey exchanging nostalgic banter about the days when Hawkeye was mistakenly believed to be a supervillain and fought Iron Man a few times, both solo and alongside the Black Widow. The bantering turns to bitter exchanges as Hawkeye’s rabid hostility toward his former teammate makes Iron Man think Loki is right about the Defenders’ intentions. 

Despite Hawkeye’s childish taunting about how he prefers being a Defender to being an Avenger, Iron Man goes easy on Hawkeye, hoping to simply capture him. Hawkeye takes advantage of that and manages to escape with his fragment of the Evil Eye.

BATTLE THREE: MANTIS AND THE BLACK PANTHER VERSUS DOCTOR STRANGE – In Indiana, Mantis and the Black Panther have been using their Avengers’ clout to enlist the help of local law enforcement and others in the search for their fragment of the Eye. Meanwhile, the late-arriving Dr Strange flies in out of sight and lets his mystic senses lead him directly to the occult relic.

Mantis’ empathic abilities enable her to detect Strange’s presence, since she previously had empathically “sensed” his aura at Garrett Castle in England. Mantis and the Black Panther attack the Defender. Strange attempts invisibility and attempts a sneak attack in his astral form and attempts mystically disguising himself as an old woman boarding a bus, but nothing he does can conceal him from the enigmatic Mantis.    

The Black Panther is increasingly impressed with Mantis’ paranormal senses and her other-worldly, Priests of Pama-trained martial arts and resolves to learn some of her fighting techniques if or when he has the chance. (There are NO romantic elements to T’Challa’s interest in Mantis. He strictly wants to learn from her.)

With no choice, Dr Strange must fight the pair of Avengers and – fairly easily given his incredible powers – he defeats them and flies off with his Eye segment. The Panther refers to it as the Doctor “stepping on them like ants.”

T’Challa further states his (mistaken) belief that if the other Avengers don’t fare better against the Defenders, the world is doomed once the Defenders have assembled all six fragments of the Evil Eye.

AVENGERS Vol 1 #117 (November 1973)

Title: Holocaust

Villains: Loki and Dormammu

Synopsis: This issue opens up in the Dark Dimension ruled by Dormammu, the flame-headed villain who – with help from the blinded Loki – manipulated the Defenders into trying to reassemble the scattered fragments of the Evil Eye of Avalon.

Dormammu is raging and ranting in his confusion over why the Avengers are opposing the Defenders in their efforts. Loki feigns ignorance as he and Dormammu resume monitoring events from the Dark Dimension.

BATTLE FOUR: THE VALKYRIE VERSUS THE SWORDSMAN – The Avenger called the Swordsman has reached the Bolivian jungle in his Quin-Jet to search for his fragment of the Evil Eye of Avalon. The reader gets some character bits as Swordsy contemplates his checkered career on both sides of the law.

His respect for his lady-love Mantis and his gratitude toward her for getting him to go straight and rejoin the Avengers are prominently displayed as is his determination not to let down his fellow Avengers.

In the sky over a castle apparently built by a Nazi war criminal who escaped to Bolivia the Quin-Jet is attacked by the Defender called the Valkyrie astride the Black Knight’s winged horse Aragorn.

The Valkyrie uses her massive super-strength and the indestructible sword she appropriated from the incapacitated Black Knight to bring down the Quin-Jet. The  Swordsman (left) lands the crippled aircraft just outside the castle and pursues the Valkyrie inside, assuming that must be where the Bolivian fragment of the Eye is being held.    

NOTE: And it’s easy to see how Valkyrie’s casual appropriation of the Black Knight’s sword and flying horse added to the mistaken impression that the secret group called the Defenders had villainous motivations. After all, the Black Knight’s sword was used by Ares and the Enchantress in Avengers #100 to try conquering Earth and Asgard. 

At any rate the new resident of the castle is a George Soros type of bloated rich pig quasi-fugitive with Nazi connections and a vast collection of stolen artwork and relics. The Bolivian fragment sought by Valkyrie and the Swordsman is part of his collection and the two super-beings fight over the item throughout the castle, causing a huge amount of damage in typical style.

It’s the Swordsman’s alien Makluan sword with its power blasts, electrical blasts and fire rays against Valkyrie’s incredible strength and (the Black Knight’s) Ebony Blade. In the end the fugitive billionaire shoots the Swordsman from behind when it looks like he’ll get away with the Eye fragment, part of his beloved collection.

Valkyrie takes the segment of the Evil Eye and leaves as Bolivian authorities responding to reports of a flying horse and an Avengers Quin-Jet arrive. Those authorities get medical aid for the Swordsman and arrest the “elusive” Robert Vesco/ George Soros scumbag.

BATTLE FIVE: CAPTAIN AMERICA VERSUS THE SUB-MARINER – Cap from the Avengers and Subby from the Defenders do battle in Osaka, Japan for their fragment of the Evil Eye of Avalon. The significance of this matchup would have loomed large for Marvel Comics devotees.

Both super-heroes date back to the late 1930s (Sub-Mariner) and early 1940s (Captain America), when Marvel was called Timely Comics instead. Cap and Subby were two of their most successful Golden Age heroes along with the original Human Torch, who was really AN ANDROID who could Flame On. (When Marvel returned to superheroes in the early 1960s they reused the name the Human Torch for Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four.)  

In terms of verisimilitude the in-universe explanation for the two heroes still being healthy and vital was: a) Sub-Mariner (who came BEFORE DC’s Aquaman by the way), as the mutant offspring of a human and an Atlantean, had a much, much longer lifespan than normal human beings, and b) Captain America was in suspended animation in a block of ice for decades. As for the original Human Torch, as an android the possibility of his survival was always floating around. 

Getting back to the action, 1973 was part of a several-year run where Captain America’s strength had been increased to about Spider-Man level so he did reasonably well against Sub-Mariner in their fight through the streets and beaches of Osaka despite Namor’s Hulk-level strength. 

The clash between Marvel’s two Golden Age superstars was interrupted by the Japanese mutant superhero Sunfire. In 1975 Sunfire would very, VERY briefly join Chris Claremont’s “All-New, All-Different” X-Men team consisting of Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler and others.

Sunfire (at right) grabbed the Evil Eye segment for himself, assuming it was a native Japanese relic that the outsiders were stealing. As Cap and Subby pursued Sunfire their side-conversation led Cap to realize the Defenders were actually trying to use the Eye to return the Black Knight to normal and led Namor to realize the Avengers had been duped by Loki into thinking the Defenders were villains.

In the end Sunfire was defeated, then Captain America and the Sub-Mariner decided to call off their own battle to try to determine what was really going on with the Avengers/ Defenders War. With Cap in his Avengers Quin-Jet and Subby flying under his own power they left Osaka with their segment of the Evil Eye to do just that.  

DEFENDERS Vol 1 #10 (November 1973)

Title: Breakthrough

Villains: Loki and Dormammu

BATTLE SIX: THOR VERSUS THE HULK – Because of the Marvel Cinematic Universe audiences today automatically associate the Hulk with the Avengers. Back in 1973 that was not the case. During the 70s and 80s the Hulk was thought of purely as a Defender.

Getting back to the story, the final fragment of the Evil Eye is in Los Angeles, where the Hulk has dug it up with help from the spell cast by Dr Strange. Greenskin is causing the expected city-wide panic but before he can leave with the Eye fragment Thor arrives.

The thunder god, still under the mistaken idea that the Defenders want to reassemble the Evil Eye for malevolent purposes, tries to beg the Hulk to give him the fragment. Foolishly he appeals to him as a former Avenger, which just makes the Hulk mad and the fight is on. 

The battling super-foes inflict kaiju-sized damage on Los Angeles but as the hours go by the more it becomes apparent that Thor and the Hulk are so evenly matched the struggle could go on indefinitely. The only thing that breaks up the contest is the sudden arrival of the combined forces of the rest of the Defenders and the Avengers.

Luckily they aren’t there to fight, but to explain to Thor (the Hulk doesn’t care) why the two teams declared a truce. In flashback Doctor Strange and the others relate how Captain America and Sub-Mariner compared notes and realized that they were all being used by at least Loki and possibly an accomplice.

Cap and Subby rounded up the Vision and the Scarlet Witch in French Polynesia, the Swordsman in Bolivia, Iron Man in Mexico and the Black Panther and Mantis back at Avengers’ mansion. Sub-Mariner then got the assembled Avengers past the mystic defenses at Dr Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum.

Inside the Avengers came face to face with Doc plus the Silver Surfer, Valkyrie and Hawkeye. Sub-Mariner prevented his fellow Defenders from jumping to conclusions and attacking the Avengers, following which all the assembled heroes began comparing notes to try to determine what was really going on and what the Evil Eye of Avalon had to do with it.

The Defenders and Avengers who fought each other around the world for the other fragments of the Evil Eye reconcile with each other as explanations are offered all around. Hawkeye, of course, strikes the lone sour note, childishly taunting his former teammates about how much he was enjoying fighting them alongside his NEW teammates. Hawkeye and the Swordsman do their usual macho back and forth, too.

Eventually the two super-teams decided to go out west to get Hulk and Thor and the final fragment of the Eye. With all the super-heroes now up-to-date the Avengers use their authority to declare a whole block of Los Angeles off-limits to the public as the 14 super-powered figures plan to reassemble the Evil Eye, unsure of the potential consequences.

At first Dr Strange just laid the six pieces near each other on the street, smallest to largest. The fragments could be telescoped together to reassemble the relic. From the Dark Dimension, Dormammu at last had what he wanted and struck. He transported his mystic servant Asti the All-Seeing to Los Angeles, where Asti scooped up the six segments and – before the super-teams could stop him – he teleported back to the Dark Dimension to give Dormammu the reassembled Eye.

With the Evil Eye in his possession, Dormammu at last carries out his plan. Causing a gigantic mental image of himself to appear in the skies over Los Angeles he does his Villain Rant, spelling out to the Defenders and Avengers what he’s doing.

Though he was bound by his Galactus-like vow to never invade Earth’s dimension again, the Evil Eye of Avalon gives Dormammu the ability to simply MERGE our dimension with his.

All of the Earth (plus our entire universe) begins to take on the demonic aspects of the Dark Dimension. Even the people begin turning into monstrous figures like the kind that inhabit Dormammu’s realm.

The Avengers and the Defenders defiantly tell Dormammu’s mental image in the sky that they are joining forces and will do whatever they can to save the universe from him. 

AVENGERS Vol 1 #118 (December 1973)

Title: To the Death

Villain: Dormammu

Synopsis: This story resumes right where we left off, with the Avengers and Defenders defiantly telling Dormammu that they’ll do whatever they have to do to save the universe from him. In typical pulp fiction fashion there’s an arbitrary but dramatic deadline to race against: Dormammu tells the heroes that in one Earth-hour the merging of dimensions will be complete and irreversible.  

While the other superheroes fight off the demonic creatures beginning to surround them, Dr Strange casts a spell to prevent the Avengers and Defenders from turning into Dark Dimension creatures for the necessary hour. He tells his comrades that he can’t protect everyone on Earth the same way or he’ll be too weak to help them fight Dormammu.

The Doctor wants the Avengers to join him and the Defenders in a direct attack on Dormammu but – rather foolishly, given what’s at stake – the Avengers argue that they can’t abandon the innocent people of Los Angeles to their fate. Strange counters that the entire damn UNIVERSE will suffer if they don’t act quickly.

As the argument continues amid battles with Dark Dimension demonoids, Nick Fury, Contessa Valentina Allegro de Fontaine and Dum Dum Dugan arrive with dozens of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Fury’s outfit was as much a paramilitary organization as an intelligence unit and, with guns blazing they tackle the monstrous beings now reproducing geometrically out of the local population.

Satisfied that S.H.I.E.L.D. will be fighting to help the locals the Avengers agree to accompany the Defenders. Dr Strange casts a spell that takes the 14 superheroes out of Los Angeles and into the heart of Dormammu’s realm. Meanwhile the Contessa and some of Nick Fury’s other agents turn into demonoids themselves.

MORE bickering breaks out among the heroes as Thor calls out to all of those Avengers and Defenders who can fly to join him in racing to the far-off spot where they can see Dormammu and his ally/ pawn Loki standing.

Dr Strange counters Thor’s order, pointing out that the normal laws of physics do not apply in the Dark Dimension. Doc further states that, given his and the Defenders’ past experience fighting Dormammu the Avengers should accept HIS leadership in the coming attack. 

Thor grandly announces to his fellow Avengers that, though it rankles, they must all follow Dr Strange’s orders until the Evil Eye-wielding Dormammu is defeated. Captain America throws his weight alongside Thor’s in backing that decision and, while the other Avengers reluctantly agree (the entire universe is at stake, you prima donnas), Hawkeye and Valkyrie gloat over the Avengers’ discomfort.

(Isn’t there a gaggle of high school girls we could send against Dormammu instead of this bickering bunch?)

Meanwhile, Dormammu is practically drunk over all the power the Evil Eye has bestowed on him. While relishing the merging of dimensions he also conjures up a mystic image of the approaching Avengers and Defenders so he can keep an eye on them as they fight their way toward the floating rock where he and Loki are standing.

Loki, still blinded following his (then) most recent battle with Thor, once again complains to Dormammu that he STILL hasn’t restored his vision like he promised to do once Loki helped him trick the Earth heroes into reassembling the Evil Eye. The Lord of the Dark Dimension reminds Loki how he betrayed him (Dormammu) by tricking the Avengers into fighting the Defenders for the fragments of the Evil Eye of Avalon.

Angrily, Dormammu causes a mystic cage of energy to imprison Loki. Back with our approaching heroes, they have gotten close enough to the heart of Dormammu’s realm that they now face the Mindless Ones, a race of headless mystic beasts possessed of incredible physical strength and who shoot lethal energy blasts from their neck-cavities. (No, I’m not kidding.)

After the battle with the Mindless Ones rages for a while, Dr Strange announces that there is no way to actually defeat the creatures, but they might be able to frighten the unthinking beasts into fleeing if all of those Defenders and Avengers capable of energy-projection join forces in one big burst. This figurative “swat on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper” succeeds in scaring off the Mindless Ones.

The enigmatic Mantis’ empathic abilities enable her to sense all the confusion and pain of the inhabitants of our universe as the dimensions continue to merge into one. She tells her comrades that they have only 20 minutes remaining in the hour Dormammu mentioned.

ASIDE: We now get a fun glimpse of assorted other Marvel Universe characters dealing with the ongoing threat, though they don’t yet know what is going on.

Readers are shown the FANTASTIC FOUR fighting various demonoids around the Baxter Building, SPIDER-MAN taking on demonoids in Times Square, future Defender LUKE CAGE (POWER MAN) fighting them on Broadway, KA-ZAR and his sabre-tooth tiger Zabu fighting them in the Savage Land and DR DOOM fighting them in Latveria. Marvel’s supernatural figures are engaged in scattered battles, too, figures like GHOST RIDER out west and MAN-THING in the Everglades.

In the Great Refuge of the Himalayas the INHUMANS are fighting, too, helped by the former Avenger Quicksilver, who is living there with his girlfriend, the Inhuman named Crystal. Out in space, ADAM WARLOCK is fighting demonoids on Counter-Earth, the Kree and the Skrulls and all the other alien races in the Marvel Universe are fighting them, too, as the dimensions merge. On Saturn’s moon of Titan, the one and only THANOS is also battling demonoids.  

It is implied that the X-Men (Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Beast, Marvel Woman, Polaris and Havok) and any other Marvel heroes not shown in the preceding montage were already transformed into Dark Dimension monsters.  

Back in the Dark Dimension, the Avengers and Defenders have at last gotten within shouting distance of Dormammu and Loki. Dormammu, long a foe of Dr Strange and the Defenders, unleashes his wrath on that super-group first. With his own godlike power increased by the Evil Eye that he holds, Doc, Sub-Mariner, Hulk, Silver Surfer, Valkyrie and Hawkeye are soon lying defeated and unconscious.

Now, with their traditional battle cry of “Avengers Assemble” the rest of our heroes attack Dormammu. The Lord of the Dark Dimension transforms the stone slab beneath the feet of the approaching Avengers into quicksand. Those Avengers who cannot fly – Captain America, the Black Panther, the Swordsman and Mantis – begin sinking into the bog.

Strangely, the Vision is trapped in the quicksand, and his lady love the Scarlet Witch hollers for him to simply turn intangible and fly out of the mire. The Vision, entirely uncharacteristically, panics and remains solid and continues sinking.

NOTE: This bizarre panic attack is indicative of a deeper problem that will unfold alongside of Mantis’ mysteries in future Avengers issues. The Vision’s problem will also tie into an enigmatic discovery that Ant-Man made in the Vision’s android brain during the Kree-Skrull War a few years earlier.

Getting back to the action, the Swordsman uses fire-blasts from his high-tech Makluan sword to fuse some of the quicksand into solid sand-bars so he, Mantis, Cap, the Black Panther and the hysterical Vision can hold onto them in order to keep from drowning. The Scarlet Witch uses one of her mutant hex-spheres to blast herself over the quicksand, where she joins Thor and Iron Man in attacking Dormammu. 

The villain gestures, casting a spell to strip the approaching trio of their heroic identities. Thor turns back into the lame (as in limping) Donald Blake, MD. Iron Man’s armor disappears, leaving him as plain ol’ Tony Stark, whose heart begins to fail without his armored chest-plate.

To Dormammu’s surprise the Scarlet Witch stands unscathed and still costumed. Wanda informs him that she has no “other” identity or de-powered form to be transformed into. She’s a mutant, so her powers were born WITH her.

With Dormammu now distracted by the Scarlet Witch’s suicidal assault on him, Loki frees himself from the mystic cage, planning to attack Dormy, too. The Scarlet Witch’s hex powers cause the Evil Eye of Avalon to absorb Dormammu into itself.

Not even the Eye can contain so much power, however, and Dormammu’s energies erupt like a volcano from the Eye, blasting the approaching Loki. The mischievous Norse deity’s sight is restored, but with Dormammu’s god-like power added to his own it’s more than Loki’s mind can handle and he lapses into utter, helpless insanity. (NOTE: Of course, this too is only temporary.)

The Earth and the rest of our universe are saved and returned to normal, as are Thor and Iron Man. The Avengers are puzzled by the Vision’s panic attack and make the android Avenger even more red-faced than usual by asking him what caused it. The Vision emphasizes that he himself does not know.

Dr Strange teleports our heroes – plus the captive, crazed Loki – back to our dimension. The Avengers file a report that lets the world know that an inter-universal threat has been defeated. The Defenders return to Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum to try returning the Black Knight to normal. 

DEFENDERS Vol 1 #11 (December 1973)

Title: A God of Living Stone

Villain: Temax 

Synopsis: The Defenders learn that not even the Evil Eye of Avalon can undo the Enchantress’ spell that keeps the Black Knight in stone form. It reflects how Dormammu was just misleading them into thinking it could cure him to motivate them to reassemble the Eye from its scattered fragments.

Next, our heroes learn the Knight’s spirit was summoned from the black nothingness where it was before to the time period of the Crusades. His soul is needed to animate the body of his slain ancestor Sir Percy, the Black Knight of that time period. Dane Whitman retains his memories as his spirit inhabits the body of the Black Knight of that era as that Knight’s soul passes on from his injuries.

Dr. Strange, Hulk, Sub-Mariner, Silver Surfer, Valkyrie and Hawkeye are transported back to that era by Doc to meet up with the Black Knight and the Crusader army to discuss the situation. 

The Defenders learn that the army’s magician cast that time-traveling spell when Sir Percy died, so that the Crusades-era Black Knight’s body – now animated by his descendant Dane Whitman’s spirit – could help the Defenders save the medieval world from a mystical menace.

The Black Knight and the Defenders battle the supernatural stone creature Temax and prevent it from destroying the Earth of the Crusades era. 

It turns out that this is what was always fated to happen. Dane Whitman will go on to do all the things that history told him his ancestor Sir Percy did from that point on. Sir Percy’s soul – in Force Ghost fashion – will continue advising Dane Whitman like he did in his modern-day adventures. 

Dane Whitman is thrilled that this is his destiny, since he has spent his life immersed in the history of his ancestor Sir Percy, never realizing that – from this point on in the Crusades – he was reading about his OWN deeds in Sir Percy’s body.

The Defenders leave the contented Black Knight in the past and return to our time. Hawkeye decides to leave the group and pursue a solo career. In the near future, he will rejoin the Avengers. Sometime well after the 200th issue of the Avengers the Black Knight returns to our time period and he, too rejoins the Avengers.