Synopsis
Avengers, The (1963 series) #188 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
The Avengers (Beast, Captain America, Falcon, Ms Marvel and Wasp) with their ally Wonder Man are flying back from Mount Wundagore after rescuing Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch from Chthon last issue.
They make a detour to Attilan in the Himalayas to drop Quicksilver off with the Inhumans. His wife Crystal comes to meet them with Gorgon and Karnak. Black Bolt stays away, worried about his missing wife Medusa. Crystal tells Pietro she's pregnant, and Wanda wonders if she and the android Vision can have children.
Next day the quinjet resumes it's journey to New York using a polar route over the USSR. Wanda contacts her husband Vision to give him the news. Then she spots Beast reading the Darkhold they took from Modred and Chthon, and angrily blasts it out of his foot. Reading that evil tome is very dangerous.
They are buzzed by Soviet jet fighters. Beast, who turns out to be fluent in Russian, tells them who they are and requests permission to cross Soviet airspace. But before he can get a reply the MIG they're talking to is disintegrated in midair. Luckily the other planes realise it wasn't the Avengers' fault, and then they get recalled to base.
The team disagree about whether they should enter Russian space to help. Cap intends to consult their government liaison Henry Gyrich but the radio suddenly conks out (because Ms Marvel sneakily disables it). So he follows the majority opinion and takes them in. (Falcon's tokenist paranoia continues as he nurses a grudge because nobody asked his opinion. But nobody asked anybody else's opinion - they all just chimed in.) (And without Falcon's input it was a 3-3 draw - maybe Cap discounted his own opinion when he abided by the majority.)
Their destination is a nuclear power plant where soldiers are under attack from within. Despite that they aren't pleased to see the Avengers until the arrival of a Colonel who remembers Cap fighting with them in WWII. (Beast keeps up a running translation.)
Then another blast scatters the army and a large humanoid form calling itself Vanadium lumbers out. (This creature communicates telepathically so no translation is required.) It bats Ms Marvel aside but Wonder Man smashes it to bits.
The team move into the building and find 4 more monsters, all different, named Phosphorus, Carbon, Radium and Chlorine. Carbon turns to diamond and Cap's shield bounces off. Beast's punch sinks into Phosphorus' waxy flesh, who then flares up. Wasp tackles him next with her sting, as it's WM's turn to get batted - by diamond-Carbon into MsM. Falcon takes on Chlorine who smothers him in poisonous gas.
Scarlet Witch's hex disperses the gas and the Avengers beat a strategic retreat. But Sam Wilson sees Wasp is missing and goes back to find her. But instead he runs into a reformed Vanadium - literally as he flies into his fist. Outside the friendly Colonel has gone and Russian soldiers are all over and inside the quinjet. Until Wanda disperses them with another hex.
The Wasp runs to join her teammates. She had passed out from chlorine gas. When she awoke she saw the enemy turning a captured technician into a Cobalt being. And then they brought Falcon in, so she's come for help.
Ms Marvel and Beast rip a laser cannon off a tank and carry it with them as Wonder Man busts through a wall and Wanda's hex lifts Falcon out of danger. Then the laser breaks open the reactor and hot plasma melts the elemental foes.
Wonder Man smashes another hole this time in the roof. Wasp follows him out as Falcon and Ms Marvel give Cap, Beast and Wanda an airlift. The grateful Russian soldiers shoot at them as they board the quinjet and fly away.