Synopsis / Summary / Plot
The Phantom Rider rides his white horse through the driving rain up Spirit Peak. He presses a secret button on his belt and machinery opens the door of his secret cave. Inside he greets the haggard Texas Twister.
We learn that Twister has been delving into the world of demons since #8 where he discovered that his girlfriend Victoria Star/Shooting Star had been replaced by 1. He's come to his Rangers teammate for help in getting her back. But the Rider has his own agenda.
He claims to be the same Phantom Rider that Mockingbird 'killed' (by not saving him from a fatal fall) in 1876 in #23, after rejecting his love. But now he is truly a ghost and he's back for revenge. He adds his Commanche magic to Twister's ritual chants and together they will summon a demon to do their bidding. But what they get is ... Arkon.
PR thinks the spirit's barbarian garb means he is some Amerindian being. But Arkon says he's come from Polemachus to kill Wonder Man. PR can work with that - he tells Arkon to go after Mockingbird as well. But the other-dimensional ruler ignores him and stalks off - PR and TT's magic may have drawn him to this particular spot, but he came to Earth of his own will.
Another white-garbed figure, Moon Knight, consults his god Khonshu on the subject of the Phantom Rider. But the Egyptian deity knows nothing on the subject - and previous Fists of Khonshu have never encountered him. Marc Spector noted in #29 that Mockingbird had 'death on her mind'. He knows of nothing to cause that since he met her, and wonders if it stems from the encounter she had just then had with PR.
Tigra interrupts his musings and they kiss in the moonlight. But Iron Man interrupts them - he's come to this lonely spot to think things over. Marc taunts him about working for well-known playboy Tony Stark. And Tigra thinks what a shock he'll get when he becomes a full member of the West Coast Avengers and discovers that IM is TS. Angry Shellhead is about to start a fight with the unarmoured Knight when they are interrupted in turn by an arrow from team leader Hawkeye.
Marc and Greer leave to find somewhere more private. The 2 original(ish) Avengers chat. But Tony doesn't want to confide in Clint Barton, and flies off to do more thinking. And he won't be back until #50!
Clint's wife Bobbi/Mockingbird joins him. He may not have been able to get Stark to tell him what's bothering him, but it reminds him that Bobbi wanted to tell him something in #28. But she brushes it off as not important.
Dr Pym calls them in to take a call from the East Coast team (Black Knight, Captain Marvel, Dr Druid, She-Hulk and Sub-Mariner). They join Wonder Man as CM relays news they've received from the Captain (Steve Rogers' new identity) of how he was attacked by Iron Man in the Vault super-villain prison (in IM#228). Clint promises to find Stark and get to the bottom of this.
But before they can act the building is hit by an unnatural lightning bolt. They all, including MK and Tigra, dash out to see Arkon on their patio. Mockingbird wonders what the hero from the movie that Simon Williams (WM) plays the villain in is doing here. But Hawkeye recognises him as the real Arkon, who is angry with Wonder Man because it is forbidden to make images of the Imperion of Polemachus. (Several comics artists are in trouble then.)
Arkon challenges Simon to a duel to the death, but Hawkeye orders the whole team to pile in. However the villain has a nuclear device which he will trigger if they interfere. (But it will be perfectly safe during the fight.) Williams accepts because he's (almost) perfectly confidant of winning. After an exchange of blows Wonder Man grabs Arkon's shield and destroys it.
But just then Mocky sees Phantom Rider ride past. She sneaks off to follow him, and her memories remind us of the plot. During the Lost In Space-Time story (#17-24) the somewhat-crazy 1876 PR Lincoln Slade fell in love with her, kidnapped her and drugged her into forgetting her past and loving him in return. (Behind-the-Comics-Code-scenes the result was what we'd term drug-facilitated date-rape.) When she was freed from his control she pursued him and deliberately let him fall to his death off a cliff. (And later saw him dead and cremated.)
Bobbi had met a Phantom Rider in the present in #8. He was a member of the Rangers who was assumed human, although he claimed to be a ghost - a claim which he repeats now. Mocky doesn't believe him - Lincoln Slade pretended to be a ghost too, but during her time with him she learned of the tricks he used to make it seem like that.
They start to fight on another clifftop, and the Phantom demonstrates his ghostly abilities such as walking off the cliff and standing in midair. MB tries to expose his trickery, but this time it seems to be for real. And PR taunts her with telling her husband what she did - which was against the strict no-killing Avengers code that Clint lives by.
Arkon has a quiver of 3 kinds of 'lightning bolt'. He says the golden bolts open portals like the 1 which brought him to Earth. But the scarlet bolts are explosive, and he hurls 1 at Wondy. Simon tries to talk the Imperion down. He says Arkon caused a media sensation when he appeared on Earth (in Av#75). And Simon's movie was the 4th that have been based on his image.
This only enrages Arkon more and the fight continues. But WM reminds him that he never stays on this world for very long so he's a mystery to them. How were they supposed to know he would be offended by the movies? As both combatants sag bruised and exhausted Simon promises to tell the studios about it.
The Imperion says Wonder Man fought with honour and he will take him at his word. He uses 1 of his golden bolts and is away home.
Meanwhile Phantom Rider has Mockingbird hanging by her fingers over the edge of the cliff, in a reversal of the roles in #23. He makes to stamp on those fingers but then pulls back. He says she hasn't suffered enough yet, and climbs on his horse and rides off.
Bobbi swings her body to and fro and then lets go to land on a stairway that snakes down the cliff face. She doesn't tell the others what happened when they meet up with her.