Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Most of the Avengers have been captured by the Space Phantom and the Grim Reaper. Captain America is slowly recovering his memories of a battle with Hydra, which had been erased by the Space Phantom. The Grim Reaper offers the Vision a chance to be human again, if he will help destroy the Avengers.
Rob Johnson
Peter originally wrote the above short synopsis for the Hulk Library because of the brief flashback of Hulk. I have now appended my own lengthy description for the Iron Man Library.:-
Grim Reaper and the Space Phantom have Black Panther, Hawkeye, Iron Man and Scarlet Witch trapped in an anti-gravity field (courtesy of the advanced alien tech of Phantom's people). Reaper wants to kill them now, but Phantom wants to wait until they have all the Avengers at their mercy.
This means they have to capture Captain America, Thor and Vision. (Like many foes who want to destroy the Avengers, he only considers the current roster.) They know that Thor is in Vermont (in #207 of his own mag). They don't know where Cap is. And they have agreed that Reaper's 'brother' Vision won't be harmed. (Although in true super-villain fashion Phantom doesn't intend to keep his promise.) Reaper expects to turn Vision to their side, a scheme he began in #102.
We, however, do know where Steve Rogers is. He returned from holiday last issue and had a forgotten memory triggered of fighting Hydra with Rick Jones (in his Bucky uniform), who also has completely forgotten it. He's been following the trail of the memory, recalling more of it as he goes. And it has brought him to an old underground Hydra base.
His memory now resumes with Steve and Rick fighting more Hydra guys in the base, who employed an anti-gravity device which was beyond Hydra's capabilities as far as Cap knew. Then they activated units which made them invisible (like phantoms, as Rogers said). Our duo escaped into a kitchen. When the invisible Hydra troops followed, our guys levelled the playing field by coating them with flour and stuff so they could see what to hit.
The Hydra goons escaped through a secret panel. Cap and Rick followed, wondering why the numerous villains weren't trying harder to kill them. It's as though they were under orders to keep them alive.
Suddenly the hooded Supreme Hydra popped up and confirmed their guess, before blasting them with a shrinking ray. The miniaturised guys escaped and sneaked up onto the Supreme one's control panel, as the master villain ranted that he'd been leading these Hydra troops by convincing them he was their leader Madame Hydra.
Cap reached the shrinking ray control and reversed it, returning himself and his partner to full size. They made short work of the Hydra agents in the room (who were seemingly oblivious to their leader's confession). Cap KO'd Supreme Hydra and unmasked him (but we don't see who it was yet).
Now in the present Cap realises that this whole memory must have been erased from his and Rick's mind, probably by the Supreme Hydra. Steve still can't remember whose face he saw under the hood. But he heads deeper into the abandoned Hydra complex hoping to restore more of the memory.
Meanwhile the android Vision has gone for a walk to continue brooding about the fact that he isn't human, and so can't return the love of the Scarlet Witch. Grim Reaper accosts him and repeats the offer he made in #102 to put Vison's mind (patterned on that of Eric Williams' brother Simon, aka Wonder Man, into the preserved body of said brother, so that Vision would get his desired humanity and Reaper would have his whole brother back. The price was Vision's help in destroying the Avengers. But Reaper now simplifies the deal by claiming that the Avengers were already as good as dead. But Vision still says no.
Grim Reaper chooses to believe that Vision turns the offer down because he doesn't believe Simon Williams' body can be revived. He takes him to where the body is stored, but then admits that, yes, Wonder Man is irrevocably dead. (It was still possible to believe such a thing back then, before everybody and his sister had died and recovered at least once.) Then Eric Williams tells him the real plan. With the aid of his ally he will give Vision the body of Captain America.
Reaper then recounts the secret history of the Space Phantom. At the end of #2 SP was himself confined to Limbo when he attempted to send Thor there (as part of his duplicating process). But soon in Thor #108 Loki put Jane Foster in Limbo, freeing the Phantom. SP contacted GR because he needs his knowledge of the Avengers. SP then replaced Madame Hydra (presumably sending her temporarily to Limbo) in the middle of the battle in CA#113, just before she ended the fight by accidentally 'killing' herself with her own missiles. SP then took over as a new hooded Supreme Hydra (which doesn't exactly gel with what SP said earlier in this issue to the Avengers). He then allowed himself to be captured and unmasked in the flashback we've seen.
But SP then whipped out a paralysis ray and froze Cap and Rick. he explained that the battle with Hydra had confirmed that Steve Rogers was the most perfect physical specimen to be used to hold Vision's mind. But the brain transplant requires Cap to be at peace.
To this end SP used his alien tech to wipe the memory that Cap and Steve were the same person from the whole world, completing the attempt to restore his secret identity that Cap had done in CA#111. Then he wiped the memory of this encounter from Cap and Rick, and waited for Steve to achieve satori.
Now Steve has his girlfriend Sharon Carter, and Cap has a new partner Falcon. So Steve is the happiest he's ever been, and now was the time to carry out Phantom and Reaper's plan. Reaper is helping Phantom destroy the Avengers, and Vision can have his mind transferred into Cap's body. And this time Vision says yes.