Synopsis
Avengers, The (1963 series) #143 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
Moondragon and Thor have come back to 1873 in Tombstone, Arizona to find Hawkeye. But they also found Kang there, doing his usual Conquering. They teamed up with Kid Colt, Night Rider, Rawhide Kid, Ringo Kid and Two-Gun Kid to stop Ace and his gang stealing uranium for the future villain.
Now Kid Colt uses fancy gunplay to persuade Ace to tell them how to get into Kang's fortress. Then Two-Gun Kid leads Hawkeye and Moondragon (all dressed in nondescript clothing) into his home town Tombstone, along with a bearded stranger in Ace's clothes. They use Ace's password to get into the futuristic citadel.
Kang detects them but lets them get a long way in unopposed. Suddenly he appears on a screen and says he's been waiting for them. He sent Dr Doom's time-platform back (in #140) to lure them here after Hawkeye. He was hoping for more of them, to get his revenge for his defeats while trying to capture the Celestial Madonna (in issues #2, 3 and 4 of the Giant-Size companion to this series).
Hawkeye and Moondragon remind Kang that his defeat had been a foregone conclusion, as is the fact that he will become the peace-loving Rama-Tut who came through time to ensure that things turned out as he remembered them. As usual Kang raves that he will never turn away from conquest.
As Kang launches an attack against the 4, we nip to the present to see what the other Avengers are doing. Last issue they were held in an escape-proof cell whose bars were made of an energy generated by Dr Spectrum's Power Prism. Now they implement Captain America's escape plan.
They have discovered that none of them can break the bars. And even Vision in ghost-mode can't pass through them. But Cap's special shield is able to get through. And if he holds it vertically in the cage wall its disc will cut a circle out of the energy bars. Then Vision can go intangible and float through the shield.
Vision does just that. (Although we see him also passing through the energy lattice behind the shield, which doesn't fit what sense I made of the plan above.) Once outside he destroys or disables the cage and our heroes are free.
Back in the past Kang's attack turns out just to have transported the 4 to another place, where they are really attacked by a giant super-evolved coyote monster. A sweep of its tail knocks Moondragon out. And Hawkeye's arrows and Two-Gun's bullets have no effect, and Hawkeye is also KO'd. Kang crows in triumph, but doesn't notice the bearded stranger behind him.
Kang then notices a hole in the cell wall, as we see the other man remove his beard to reveal himself as Don Blake. And then strike his cane on the floor to transform into Thor. The god explains that he took human form so that the villain wouldn't take precautions against him. (And presumably he briefly became Thor to make the hole in the wall.)
As in their recent encounters Kang boasts that his personal force-field protects him against Thor's blows. But as before Mjolnir is able to propel him, force-field and all, out of the building. And Thor prepares for their final battle.
As Matt Hawk stands alone against the coyote, Moondragon wakes up. 1 mind blast is enough down the monster. And Hawkeye recovers as well.
Outside Thor is pumelling Kang's force-field without let-up. The Conqueror is bowed, but strikes back with his Dissolution Beam. Thor is staggered, but stands against it as Kang pours on more and more power.
At last the villain begins to feel fear that he is outmatched. He turns the control dial up to 11, but the power is too much. He is ripped apart and scattered over the timestream.
Kang's citadel vanishes, and Immortus appears saying that the villain will never return. But Moondragon cries that he told them (in GSAv#3) that like Rama-Tut he was a future version of Kang. Surely this means that Immortus will now never exist.
The Lord of Limbo explains in more detail that Rama-Tut realised that even as he frustrated his earlier self's plans he made Kang more determined not to become his 'weak' future self. So he returned to being Pharaoh in ancient Egypt and devoted himself to studying time. Eventually this made him Immortus, master of time. And since then he has been subtly arranging for the today's result.
But still Moondragon was right, and Immortus fades away into unreality. And the Titan priestess mourns for a fallen god.
CharactersGood (or All)Plus: Phantom Rider (
Carter Slade), Rawhide Kid (
Johnny Bart), Ringo Kid, Two-Gun Kid (
Matthew Hawk).