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THE AVENGERS Volume 1, Number 117 (November 1973) Holocaust
The worldwide conflict between the Avengers and the Defenders continues this time around. It seems this multi-part crossover story was done at a time before such crossover “special events” were going on all the time, so readers from back then must have been blown away by all this.
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.
Dormammu is raging and ranting in his confusion over why the Avengers are opposing the Defenders in their efforts. 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.
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 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. Continue reading
THE DEFENDERS Volume 1, Number 9 (October 1973) Divide and Conquer
Neither the Avengers nor the Defenders are aware that they are being manipulated by Dormammu – an enemy of Dr Strange and the Defenders – and by Loki, an enemy of Thor and the Avengers. The Avengers think they are preventing the Defenders from enacting revenge against the world over their various grievances, a revenge that the reassembled Evil Eye of Avalon will make unstoppable. 