Synopsis
Avengers, The (1963 series) #178 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
This strange issue starts with Beast's night out in a nightclub being ruined by a bigot. After he leaves he is accosted in the rain by a gaunt figure in tatters who claims to represent Hank's wounded soul. Then a lightning bolt reduces him to soot. The disturbed hero races back to Avengers Mansion where he tells Wasp and Wonder Man (on duty at the time) what's just happened.
Over the following week Beast can't concentrate, earning him a reprimand from Captain America.
Later he tells the story again to his date Winnie at another nightclub. He thinks the apparition was telling him to get more connected with normal human beings. Winnie suggests he can start by getting her something she needs.
But then we shift to a literally 2-faced villain calling himself Manipulator telling some mob bosses that this is all a demonstration of how he can get heroes like the Avengers to do their dirty work for them. Winnie will persuade Beast to steal a black box from the apartment the bad guys are now in. They watch through a 1-way mirror as Henry McCoy does indeed enter an adjoining room and grab the box.
But Manipulator traps Beast in a cage, and then the villains confront him. Manipulator claims that Beast is the bad guy here. Hank counters that he was retrieving the stolen life's work of a man for his daughter. And he opens the box to prove it.
But a light beam from the box floods his mind with images from his past. And in a hypnotic trance Beast sings and dances at Manipulator's command. The villain claims that the hero will remain under his control, even after the effects of the light beam have worn off.
The mob bosses readily pay Manipulator for his future services. But he hits them with a beam from his eye, and starts them dancing, as FBI(?) agents enter. They are satisfied with Manipulator's demonstration.
Manipulator leaves. The agents take the memory stimulator in the black box, and call the police to arrest the mobbies. Beast recovers his senses and leaves the dancing mobsters before the cops arrive.
But on their way out the agents are accosted by the gaunt man in tatters.
Enemies
Manipulator (Robot).