Two beings suddenly meet on the astral plane; they recognize each other as Loki and Pluto. They quarrel but neither can harm the other in their astral forms. Loki proposes a scheme: they are each troubled by a god they cannot defeat—so Loki suggests they try to kill each other’s foe, Loki versus Hercules and Pluto against Thor. And they will each establish an alibi….
The Avengers (Hercules, Giant-Man, Crystal, Thunderstrike, Vision) are hanging around the mansion when they notice Captain America is brooding about something. But Cap won’t open up. This upsets Hercules so that he goes out, seeking forced revelry….
Advised by Pluto, Loki descends into Tartarus to find the imprisoned Titan Typhon and free him to act as Hercules’ assassin. The Titan agrees to the scheme but Loki is attacked by a harpy, a Centimane called Kottus, Arges, a cyclops, and a nameless Yellow-Crested Titan. Typhon fights them off and Loki is inspired to free them as well to aid the plot against Hercules…
...who shows up at a classy restaurant with a woman on each arm, though he has told them the night out will be platonic only, as his heart is spoken for by Taylor Madison. He tells them of his twelve labors, done to atone for his murder of his wife and children; one of the woman, thinking he’s joking, makes a flip comment which sends Herc into a rage. Frightened, she runs off. Then Typhon arrives to challenge Herc and the four monsters crash in to terrorize the mortals. Herc declines to activate his Avengers card considering it cowardice. Herc is brutally beaten by the gang until he passes out, his card activating when he hits the floor. The Avengers arrive quickly and challenge the villains. Typhon tears down the building’s pillar as a distraction so he and his allies can escape, with Hercules captive. Loki, watching from afar, is displeased, noting that Typhon could have taken a few moments to kill Hercules instead of capturing him. Giant-Man holds up the restaurant’s ceiling while the others get the occupants to safety. When police and firefighters arrive, the Avengers determine that as Typhon has a greater hatred of Zeus than of Hercules, the monsters may be on their way to Mount Olympus….
But first, Typhon leads his force back to Hades where they submerge Hercules in the waters of the river Lethe, which induces memory loss in the hero. Typhon then convinces Hercules that Zeus has banished him to Hades and now they are escaping to seek revenge…
…so the baddies plus Herc enter Olympus, Herc battering various citizens while Typhon enters the Temple of the Promethean Flame where he extracts his enchanted axe from the brazier, which was part of what kept the flame burning. The flame burns down then goes out, transforming all of the Olympians into insubstantial wraiths. The Avengers arrive and take on Typhon’s henchmen, Thunderstrike absorbing a lightning bolt from Arges and clouting him with his hammer. Crystal spars with the Harpy before punching it in the mouth. Vision faces Kottus and goes insubstantial, allowing the monster to pass through him to be impaled on a pylon, though Vision’s organs are damaged in the operation. Giant-Man grapples with and slam-dunks the Yellow-Crested Titan on his head. Captain America arrives at the Temple to confront Typhon, only to find himself being beaten up by the hypnotized Hercules. Cap flees, leading Herc to the stables where he taunts Herc with the memory of his murder of his wife and children, expressing doubt that Herc really did clean the Augean stables. Herc rips up the foundations and floods the stables, washing Cap away. Herc decides he must save Cap from drowning to slay him with his own hand. Herc dives into the river which washes away the effect of the River Lethe and saves his old friend. With his memory back. Hercules battles Typhon with Cap loaning him his shield in a dicey moment. Frustrated, Typhon resumes his original form, a tentacled monster that can entangle both Cap and Herc. The other Avengers arrive and use teamwork to take Typhon’s axe and toss it back and forth, keeping it away from the monster until it is dropped back into the brazier, reigniting the Promethean Flame and releasing the Olympians from their wraithlike forms. Recovered, Zeus sentences Typhon to an even harder sentence in Tartarus and when the monster refuses to reveal who released him from the pit, Zeus accuses Pluto anyway. Pluto claims innocence, which is disbelieved, until Persephone, his wife and daughter of Zeus, confirms his alibi. Zeus lets the mystery remain for the time being and teleports the Avengers back to New York. Meanwhile, Loki still holds Pluto to his side of their compact….
Story continues in
THOR ANNUAL #19.
Your marvelous holiday shopping starts here
Story #2Master of His Own Density
Writer/Penciler/Inker:
Al Milgrom.
Colorist:
Mike Marts.
Letterer:
Ken Lopez.
Synopsis
Vision and Giant-Man are working out in the Avengers gym, testing battle strategies against one another. They quit for the night, planning to work on Vision’s density-changing abilities the following day. Vision goes to the monitor room and plugs himself into the internet….
A bit of AI gains sentience and names itself “Gliitch;” it plots world conquest but needs a physical form to escape the internet. It soon comes across the Vision, downloads itself into his brain but realizes any attempt to take over the android would be stopped by Vision’s defenses. Then it hits upon an idea….
The next day, Vision spars with Giant-Man but Gliitch has hacked into his programming so that when he attempts to increase his density, it’s his intellect that grows denser, making the Vision grow stupider until Gliitch is able to slip past the programmed defenses and take over. Gliitch reveals itself to Hank who attacks the possessed android. Gliitch increases his density, forgetting he had sabotaged it and so Gliitch grows stupider, allowing Vision to regain control of his body. Gliitch fades until it winks out of existence….