Marvel 1975.05 - Avengers #135

Avengers #135

Writer: Steve Englehart

Artist: George Tuska

Avengers: Iron Man, Thor, Vision, Hawkeye, Goliath (flashback), Wasp (flashback)

Villain: Ultron (flashback), Mad Thinker (flashback), Quasimodo (flashback), Thanos (flashback)

Regulars: Mantis, Moondragon, Jarvis

Guests: Immortus, Libra, Swordsman (ghost), Human Torch (flashback), Mentor (flashback), Silver Surfer (flashback)

The Avengers and Mantis confront LIbra and the ghostly apparition of the Swordsman in Saigon. Mantis asks for answers, but they're interrupted by the arrival of Moondragon. She tells them of her past. Her name was Heather Douglas. Her parents were killed when Thanos destroyed their car in 1953. Only Heather survived. She was adopted by Mentor of Titan, who took her to his planet and put her in a monastery for training. As she finishes her tale, Immortus arrives.

In the Avengers Mansion Jarvis is bringing food to the Scarlet Witch and Agatha Harkness. He hears a male voice laughing in their room. When he enters, the room is empty.

Continuing the Vision's origin: he sees how Hank Pym aka Goliath creates a robot, Ultron-5. Ultron hypnotises Hank into forgetting him, promising to return and kill him at a future date. Ultron then seeks an android to become his child, so he visits the Mad Thinker, the world's greatest expert on androids. The Thinker offers him the Human Torch's lifeless body as the only android he has available. Ultron repairs the android with the help of Dr. Phineas Horton, the Human Torch's original creator. The reconstructed android, now called the Vision,  has the Torch's memories, making him too noble for Ultron. Ultron finds a recording of Wonder Man's brainwaves in Hank Pym's laboratory, which he uses to reprogram the Vision.

At this point the present day Vision is yanked out of the control of Immortus.

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Giant-Size Avengers #4

Title: Let all men bring together

Writer: Steve Englehart

Artist: Don Heck

Avengers: Iron Man, Thor, Vision, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Mantis

Villain: Dormammu, Umar, Kang, Space Phantom, Crimson Dynamo, Radioactive Man, Titanium Man, Ultron (flashback)

Regular: Moondragon, Agatha Harkness, Jarvis

Note that I listed Mantis as a regular in my review of Avengers #135 above, but I've now listed her as an Avenger. In Giant-Size Avengers #4 Mantis is finally proclaimed an Avenger. That's a good question to ask in pub quizzes.

At the end of Avengers #135 the Vision was pulled out of the past into the present. It's not 100% clear who did this. It was probably the Scarlet Witch, but it could also have been Mother Nature. He arrives at the Earth's core and sees the Scarlet Witch held prisoner by Dormammu. It was Dormammu's laughter that Jarvis heard in Avengers #135. Dormammu's minions attack the Vision, but he defends himself by using the Human Torch's powers of absorbing heat to recharge his solar blasts.

Dormammu has hypnotic control over the Scarlet Witch, due to her new involvement with witchcraft. He makes her attack the Vision, who's unable to resist her magic spells. The Vision falls unconscious at her feet, and the shock causes her to regain her own will. She cools the lava that has been giving Dormammu his strength. Dormammu surrenders. She makes him promise never to attack the Earth again. He makes the promise, but at the same time he thinks to himself that he has no intention of keeping it. So much for the honour that he claimed to have in last month's Doctor Strange #7.

The Vision and the Scarlet Witch return to Avengers Mansion. He proposes to her, and she accepts.

In Saigon the ghostly Swordsman reveals that he's a Cotati using the form of the Swordsman to speak to Mantis and the others. I'm not sure how this works. Is it telepathy which merely makes them think they see him? I don't know.

The Swordsman says that the similarity between the histories of Mantis and Moondragon is no coincidence. Both were guided by the Cotati from afar. Libra was the only one who suspected anything. The Cotati were preparing two women in case one of them failed in her training or died. Both have succeeded, both are suitable to become the Celestial Madonna, but Mantis has been chosen as the perfect woman.

Mantis' destiny as the Celestial Madonna is to marry one of the trees in the garden, the oldest of the Cotati on Earth. The Swordsman's body in front of her is being used by the tree to speak to her. I hope it all makes sense now. I understand it. Almost.

Hawkeye tells Iron Man and Thor that he's spotted something suspicious. The Titanic Three (Crimson Dynamo, Radioactive Man and Titanium Man) are lying unconscious a short distance away. Iron Man wakes the Crimson Dynamo, who tells him that Kang attacked them. 

The three Avengers separate to look for Kang. Thor finds and defeats Kang. Iron Man finds and defeats Kang. Hawkeye also finds and defeats Kang, though not as easily as the other two. They're confused when they bring the three unconscious Kangs together. 

A fourth Kang appears in a spaceship. He says that as a time traveller it was easy for him to arrive from different points in the future. I need to get my head around that. It must have consequences. The newly arrived Kang uses a beam to pull Mantis up into his ship. The Avengers want to stop him, but Immortus tells them not to. While everyone was distracted by Kang's spaceship, he exchanged Mantis with the Space Phantom, who's able to send anyone to Limbo and take his form. Immortus, as the ruler of Limbo, was able to manipulate this change.

Before the wedding takes place, Mantis is made an Avenger. Finally!

And the wedding takes place. It's the Wedding of the Century. I wish Don Heck had made it a full page picture. It would have been beautiful.

The two couples depart on their respective honeymoons. And they all live happily ever after. Or at least, until next month's issue!