These days when it comes to pop culture it’s Marvel Comics’ world and the rest of us are just potential LMDs. You readers wanted more Marvel and I’m delivering. FOR PART 1 OF BALLADEER’S BLOG’S EXAMINATION OF MARVEL’S SUPERHEROINE MANTIS CLICK HERE
THE AVENGERS Volume 1, Number 118 (December 1973) To The Death
AVENGERS ROSTER: Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, The Scarlet Witch, The Black Panther, The Vision, The Swordsman and MANTIS
DEFENDERS ROSTER: Doctor Strange, Sub-Mariner, The Hulk, The Silver Surfer, Valkyrie and Hawkeye
Last time around the globe-spanning war between the Avengers and the Defenders came to an end in Los Angeles when both teams at last compared notes and realized they were being manipulated into fighting each other.
The 14 assembled heroes had recovered all six fragments of the Evil Eye of Avalon, which relic was hastily stolen by Dormammu. That flame-headed man-god who ruled over the Dark Dimension was a foe of Dr Strange and the Defenders.
For years Dormammu had been bound by his Galactus-like vow not to invade Earth’s dimension ever again but the reassembled Evil Eye of Avalon gives him the power to bypass that vow by simply MERGING our dimension with his.
As Dormammu taunted the Avengers and Defenders, our entire universe was becoming one with Dormammu’s vile domain. The landscape and buildings were all turning surreal and distorted, the sun’s light was fading and some people were transforming into the kind of monstrous beings who inhabit the Dark Dimension.
TO THE DEATH
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. Continue reading
THE DEFENDERS Volume 1, Number 10 (November 1973) Breakthrough! 
Synopsis: 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. Even though the Hulk WAS one of the original Avengers he quit the team at the end of the SECOND ISSUE, in 1963. 
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 AVENGERS Volume 1, Number 117 (November 1973) Holocaust 
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. 
The Lord of the Dark Dimension doesn’t know that Loki secretly manipulated the Avengers into becoming involved because he grew suspicious about whether Dormammu would really cure his blindness and share the power of the Evil Eye. 
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. 
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