History of the Avengers, 1965

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The following is a history of the Avengers for the year 1965, in which the team saw a major shift in personnel that left Captain America as the unquestioned leader of a lineup that, for the first time, contained none of the team's original members. The Swordsman later joined the team thanks to a trick played by the Mandarin, but his shaky membership lasted only a few days.

History

As the world turns

In early 1965, Giant-Man and Wasp received a frantic message from the ants that to Pym was a sure sign of danger, although their signal was so frenzied he couldn't interpret it precisely. He called the rest of the Avengers, but they—Thor in particular—were somewhat annoyed at Pym's vague call to action. He decided to look into it himself, and at the anthill in question found a seemingly bottomless chasm within. Carefully falling and climbing down into the deep hole, Pym found himself in an underground lair operated by the Mole Man. The latter and his Moloid minions subdued Giant-Man with some difficulty. Mole Man had activated a device that had caused the planet to gradually increase the speed of its rotation, which the ants had noticed first. Above ground, the rotation was becoming more severe to the point that it was beginning to affect human infrastructure. The Avengers realized that Pym had been right, and Wasp used their image projector to track the signal from his cybernetic helmet. Mole Man spotted Wasp's image, and sent the Moloids to the surface to attack the Avengers. The four heroes fought them off, and began to devise a plan to rescue Giant-Man and defeat Mole Man.

Iron Man required some Stark technology for his plan, so Cap and Rick Jones went to his plant in Flushing to retrieve it. There they found some criminals stealing from the factory, including the big and burly man called Monk, and incapacitated them. Iron Man used the transistors Cap brought back to build a high-powered digging device, which the team used to get down to Mole Man's subterranean lair. When the four arrived, they were confronted by not only the Mole Man, but also the Red Ghost. Red Ghost was a communist scientist who had previously battled the Fantastic Four, capable of turning himself and others intangible. Though he proved to be a potent force, able to make himself and Mole Man effectively impervious to the heroes' attacks, Giant-Man managed to shrink to ant size upon being freed and destroy Mole Man's rotation device from the inside. The Avengers went on to destroy all of the technology in Mole Man's base for good measure, while he and Kragoff escaped incorporeally.[1]

The vengeance of the Maggia

One day, the Avengers were invited to a charity event, the opening of Count Nefaria's castle. The wealthy noble had had his castle moved, stone by stone, from Europe to New Jersey. The heroes went along with Rick Jones and the rest of the Teen Brigade, who were to wait outside until the event began. Each of the Avengers were seen to individual rooms, where they were subtly blasted with "time transcender beams," causing them to perceive time as though it were not moving at all. Count Nefaria was secretly the leader of the Maggia international crime syndicate, and was growing frustrated at the Avengers' repeated bust-ups of the Maggia's relatively small-time schemes. Determined to put an end to the Avengers, Nefaria created lifelike electro-images of the team and had them declare war on the United States. As soon as public opinion was thoroughly against the Avengers, Nefaria released them, and they became subject to virulent American military attacks. The heroes didn't want to fight American soldiers, and escaped to a secret headquarters to regroup.

The five determined that Nefaria must have been responsible for the bizarre situation they found themselves in. They conducted an assault on Nefaria's castle, but an onslaught of potent traps and a legion of Maggia thugs made doing so a perilous task. Captain America managed to breach the castle's walls, and rescued the Teen Brigade from a trap they had sprung trying to find the Avengers. He also saw a Navy destroyer offshore, and signaled to it for help. Soon, the Avengers managed to corner Nefaria, who on his own was no match for them. A Navy general arrived in time for Nefaria's confession, and he took him into custody and pardoned the Avengers. Shockingly, the Wasp was found to be unconscious, having taken a stray bullet in the assault.[2]

Saving the Wasp

The Avengers rushed Wasp to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with a punctured lung and given 48 hours to live. The doctor recommended a Dr. Svenson in Norway, a specialist in lung damage. Thor quickly flew to Svenson's residence and delivered the man there back to the hospital, ignoring his protests. Giant-Man soon discovered that the man was in fact an alien in disguise, who said that Svenson was being held by his people somewhere on Earth. The panicked alien then collapsed and died for reasons not immediately clear. The Avengers pooled their resources to find where these aliens were hiding, and after eight hours deduced that they must be on one of the planet's poles. They searched the North Pole, and found a deep crevasse under the ice that led to a vast city below the surface.

The four heroes were zapped by a paralysis ray and taken to the leader of the alien people, Ogor of the Kallusians. Ogor explained that they had fled their home planet amid a horrible interstellar war, but found that they could not breathe Earth's air. They happened upon Dr. Svenson on an arctic expedition and took him captive, and he developed a filtration system that allowed them to breathe in the city, as well as special masks that allowed them to breathe elsewhere. Thor demanded to know where they were keeping Svenson, but only managed to anger the Kallusians, triggering a battle. Soon, Svenson himself arrived, and explained that he was staying with the aliens because they had weaponry powerful enough to destroy the Earth if he didn't. Moments later, a Kallusian scout reported from above ground that the Kallusians' alien enemies had arrived and begun to attack, triggering the latest battle in their war. Ogor knew that his people would have to devote their attention fully to this threat, and agreed to give up Svenson to the Avengers, even providing a teleport back to the hospital. The Kallusians left the planet to engage their enemy in space, as the Avengers and Svenson returned to Wasp's bedside. Amid much restlessness in the heroes, Svenson operated on her successfully, and declared that she would recover.[3]

Zemo's defeat

One day, Captain America witnessed the Enchantress and Executioner in a car in New York. This alone was enough motivation to call an emergency meeting of the Avengers, but their meeting barely got started before Rick Jones was abducted by a plane's tractor beam just outside of their meeting place. The plane was well-defended, and they were unable to stop it. Iron Man acquired a Stark plane, and the other heroes pursued the enemy craft while Thor followed in flight. Shockingly, the Black Knight arrived to attack them, but Thor fended him off. The Melter also made his presence felt, damaging the Stark plane from below. Iron Man fought with him, and soon four Avengers and four Masters of Evil squared off while Captain America followed the plane all the way to Baron Zemo's South American base. Cap rescued Rick Jones and fought Zemo, indirectly blinding him with a solar reflection off of his shield. Zemo misfired his weapon into a wall of boulders that came down and crushed him, accidentally killing himself. With that, Steve Rogers finally avenged his friend Bucky's death, and went on to personally bury Zemo in the ground.[4]

The new lineup

Back in New York, the Avengers and Masters were oblivious to the events in South America. Realizing that a full-blown conflict in the streets would jeopardize innocent lives, Thor instead used his hammer to create a space warp and, just as he had done to the Masters many months ago, attempted to teleport both teams to a distant planet. The Asgardians saw this coming and managed to escape, but Melter and Black Knight bore the brunt of the portal, along with the Avengers. There, the Avengers handily defeated and restrained the outnumbered villains, returned to Earth, and brought them back to police custody while Enchantress and Executioner escaped. Thor left to take care of urgent Asgardian business, leaving Iron Man, Giant-Man, and Wasp to discuss matters. The three of them discussed the possibility of disbanding or taking a leave of absence, each worn out from constant fighting. Before they could pursue this line of thought further, they were approached by the archer Hawkeye, who was looking to make amends for his villainous doings by joining the Avengers. The heroes were interested in his proposal, and soon decided that they should all take a leave of absence while replacing themselves with new heroes. Meanwhile, Cap and Rick got hung up in South America, and spent some time gaining passage back to the States. Iron Man, Giant-Man, and Wasp, having a democratic majority to make decisions, sent out a call for applications to the new team. The mutant twins Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch (Pietro and Wanda Maximoff) responded, having been living peacefully in a Swiss chalet after defecting from the side of the evil Magneto. The Maximoffs and Hawkeye were accepted into the team, and Iron Man officially announced to the public that he, Giant-Man, and Wasp were taking a leave of absence. Captain America, who arrived back in New York, was surprised at this news: while he was sad to see his allies go, he welcomed the new team with open arms, and told the originals that the door was open for their return at any time. Thor was effectively phased out of the team, as he was caught up in long-term Asgardian affairs. Captain America became the leader and spokesman of the new Avengers, taking the three reformed villains under his wing. Iron Man recognized that this new team lacked the raw power of Thor and Giant-Man, and suggested seeking out another original member, the Hulk, to fill in that gap.[5] Thor didn't learn of the change in the lineup until he returned to New York and hastily sought the Avengers' assistance following Jane Foster's apparent disappearance: he was thoroughly unimpressed with the brashness of the team's new members.[6]

Intercepted by the Mole Man

The Avengers made good on Iron Man's suggestion, and officially announced that they were seeking the Hulk with the aim of having him join the team. First though, Captain America showed the new recruits the Avengers' "play room," their training facility beneath Tony Stark's mansion. Each of them showed some amount of disrespect toward Cap's authority, especially Hawkeye, but Rogers was nonetheless firm in his resolve to lead the team. After a few brief exercises, the training was interrupted by a large robot breaking through the wall, simultaneously attacking the heroes and claiming to have news on the Hulk. The Avengers took the machine down with their combined skills as it mentioned "the desert" with its last "breaths." Captain America recognized that this could be a trap, but was compelled to follow it anyway. The team took their jet-stream cruiser airplane to the spot in the southwest where Hulk had helped the Avengers fight the Lava Men so long ago, in an attempt to narrow the search. Quicksilver used his speed to search the area in moments, but found nothing. In truth, the Avengers were incredibly close to the secret mesa of the villainous Leader, who had captured the Hulk mere moments ago.

Instead, they wandered onto another hidden mesa base, this one operated by the Mole Man, who had set the anticipated trap with his giant robot. Mole Man pulled a lever and caused the team to fall down a large hole. Exploring the cave below, the Avengers were terrified to find a colossal minotaur the half-man half-bull creature from Greek myth. The team fought it for a time, but soon realized that it was too powerful, and fled. A rock slide separated Quicksilver from the others: the Mole Man's Moloids soon attacked, but Pietro's speed left them helpless. He soon found Mole Man himself sitting in his throne room of sorts, where the Moloids at last overpowered him and restrained him. Briefly trapped by the rockslide, the others managed to defeat the minotaur when Scarlet Witch hexed its horns deeply into the shale, leaving it stuck. Wanda further hexed the rocks out of the way, and the three reached Mole Man's chambers and freed Pietro. The assembled Avengers easily forced the Mole Man into retreat, as he lured them onto a platform and elevated them out of his lair. The Avengers returned to New York, deciding that they didn't need the Hulk after all: with their combined wits and courage, the four of them could handle any foe.[7]

The communist Commissar of Sin-Cong

One day, the Avengers received a radio message from an underground movement in the central Asian nation of Sin-Cong requesting assistance against the communist forces in the country. In truth, this message was a trap initiated by the communists themselves, led by the boisterous Commissar. Captain America was growing restless living under Tony Stark's mansion, and was trying to ally himself with Nick Fury's mysterious agency—he believed a mission of this scope was just the thing to help him achieve that goal. The Avengers took their jet to Sin-Cong, where upon landing they were escorted to the Commissar. Upon reaching his palace, the team were locked in and attacked by communist forces, but the team's increasingly cooperative efforts easily took down the armed soldiers. Moments later, Wanda fell through a trap in the floor that sealed her underground. Searching the palace, the men found Wanda beneath a grate in the floor, bound and blindfolded to prevent her from using her magic. As they tried to free her, they were suddenly overcome by a gas seeping through the ventilation system. When they awoke, they were confronted by the massive Commissar and his normal-sized associate. Nearby, Wanda stood in an "unbreakable" glass container. Commissar challenged the Avengers to consecutive one-on-one combat, or else Wanda would be killed. A crowd of people stood in a nearby viewing gallery, as the Commissar intended to achieve a propaganda victory by defeating the Avengers on behalf of communism. The powerful, bulky Commissar defeated each of the men in turn, and agreed to release and fight Wanda. Inspecting the surrounding area, she found a control panel behind a curtain and destroyed it, short-circuiting the Commissar and revealing that he was a robot. The locals celebrated Wanda's victory, and the Avengers returned home.[8]

Wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm

Full article: Wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm

The Avengers attended the wedding of the Fantastic Four's Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Girl along with a number of other renowned heroes. Doctor Doom attempted to sabotage the wedding by using his "emotion machine" to encourage (or coerce) a veritable army of other villains to attack the Baxter Building. The Avengers and their myriad allies fought hard to hold off the fiends: of note, Quicksilver proved his speedy superiority to the similarly agile Human Top, and Captain America and Hawkeye squared off with the reemerging Enchantress and Executioner. In the end, Reed Richards used a device provided by Uatu to transport all of the villains back slightly in time and wipe their memories of these events. Reed and Sue Storm were thus successfully and peacefully married.[9]

Coup of the Swordsman

While the Maximoffs looked over Avengers HQ one day, the facility was trespassed by a costumed swordfighter appropriately calling himself the Swordsman. The Swordsman fought Wanda and Pietro, but after a few minutes called his attack off. He said that he in fact wanted to join the Avengers, and was merely testing their ability. Wanda was unsatisfied with this explanation, and sensed evil and dishonor in his demeanor. She knocked him out with a telekinetic pipe to the head as Captain America arrived on the scene. Scarlet Witch explained the situation to him, and he checked their records for any information on the Swordsman. Cap found that he was infamous across Europe as a "dangerous adventurer," and he had "been exiled from a dozen countries." As Cap and the twins talked things over, the Swordsman recovered, cut the lights, and escaped. Later, as Cap trained, he remained upset that Nick Fury hadn't returned his letter of interest in joining his covert agency. Hawkeye showed up, and upon hearing that the Swordsman had attacked the Maximoffs, he explained the history he'd had with him. Swordsman had been his mentor as a child and teenager in the carnival, using his uncanny technique to hone the young Clint's passion with a bow. However, the Swordsman had simply groomed Hawkeye to be his criminal apprentice. After stealing a great deal of money from the circus, he tried to coerce Clint into being his accomplice. Clint refused, and narrowly escaped Swordsman's ensuing attack.

The next day, Captain America received a return letter ostensibly from Nick Fury. In truth, the letter had been intercepted by the evil Hydra terrorist group, who had then disposed of it. It then wound up in the hands of a small-time criminal, who handed it off to the Swordsman, who wrote a fake letter in Fury's name accepting Cap into the agency. Cap told the others that he would still be an Avenger, but on a part-time basis, available on call. The others were annoyed at this decision, but essentially had no choice but to accept. Later, Hawkeye apprehended a pair of small-time criminals, and one of them openly confessed that he had helped Swordsman fake the letter. Hawkeye returned to HQ to tell the Maximoffs, while Cap arrived at the meetup location mentioned in the letter: an abandoned warehouse. Swordsman attacked him there, and the two fought. They proved an appropriate match for each other, as Captain America's shield matched up against the Swordsman's sword. The other Avengers used some of Tony Stark's technology to track that shield and narrow down Cap's location. Swordsman got the better of Cap, using the crumbling boxes and infrastructure around them to his advantage. He bound the unconscious Cap up and took him to an adjacent building, leaving his shield behind. The Avengers arrived and searched the warehouse, but arrived on the roof and found nothing. They saw Swordsman in the adjacent building, a high-rise under construction, poking a helpless but conscious Cap at the end of a plank. He threatened to push him off to his death unless the others made him the leader of the Avengers. Cap told the team not to accept the deal and to let him fall. Hawkeye and the Maximoffs hesitated, so Cap hurled himself from the plank.[10]

As Captain America fell through the air, his teammates used their combined powers to get him to land safely on a girder in the construction site. Quicksilver returned Cap's shield to him, and the team finally confronted the Swordsman at their full power, but Cap insisted on fighting him himself. However, before the fight could truly commence, the Swordsman suddenly faded away—looking apparently as confused as the Avengers were. Hawkeye and Quicksilver were both annoyed at what they saw as Cap's selfish desire for glory. The team returned to base, where Rogers and Barton had a full-fledged argument. Pietro interjected himself, suggesting that Hawkeye would hardly make a better leader. This conflict calmed down over time. Later, the team received what appeared to be a holographic message from Iron Man. Cap knew that Iron Man was currently in Alberia fighting Titanium Man,[note 1] but he explained that he was communicating in between rounds of the fight due to the urgency of his message. Cap further noticed that Iron Man's voice sounded different, but this was explained away by the distance the message had to travel. The Avengers believed this story, and listened to the hologram with great interest.

In truth, the image was a fake concocted by the Mandarin, Iron Man's nemesis. Mandarin was responsible for warping the Swordsman away earlier, and the two were now conspiring against the Avengers. The fake Iron Man claimed to have personally sent Swordsman to join the team, and chastised the team for not giving him more of a chance. Hawkeye took issue with this, but "Iron Man" in turn reminded Barton that his own reputation was not so spotless prior to joining the Avengers. The hologram vouched for Swordsman one last time before switching off. Hawkeye was still annoyed that someone who wasn't even on the team anymore had any sway in their decision-making; Cap decisively overruled him, irritating Hawkeye further. Swordsman arrived soon after, and Cap officially welcomed him into the Avengers. Over the next several days, Swordsman became acquainted with the team, but he was slow to gain their trust. One night, they spotted him apparently planting a bomb in their control panel. In truth, he had already planted the bomb on Mandarin's orders, and was now trying to remove it after having second thoughts. Nonetheless, the Avengers attacked, and Swordsman fled with the bomb. He ran outside and it detonated harmlessly in the air, but the team couldn't tell if he had been caught in the explosion or not. Thus ended the Swordsman's brief stay with the Avengers.[11]

Enchantress and Power Man's smear campaign

The infighting among the Avengers continued, with Hawkeye criticizing Captain America's leadership and Scarlet Witch criticizing him for his supposed jealousy. The team answered an alert from the Teen Brigade regarding a "monster" rampaging through the streets. Arriving on the scene, they indeed found a large, strange, furry, horned beast. The team attacked it, but found that their attacks were going straight through it. The police soon arrived and the beast disappeared into thin air. The police said that they were answering complaints of the Avengers tearing up the city—and that none of these complaints had mentioned any kind of monster. The next day, the Avengers picked up a radio report that some subway tracks were being tampered with, and they went to investigate. Quicksilver naturally arrived on the scene first, and he found that the tracks had indeed been utterly bent out of shape. Before he could do anything about it, he was attacked from behind and knocked out by a mystery assailant. As Quicksilver lay unconscious on the tracks, the other Avengers soon arrived as a train came from the other direction. Scarlet Witch noticed that the train was empty, and Hawkeye used a blast arrow to stop the train in its tracks. The authorities arrived soon after, and they again accused the Avengers of simply wreaking havoc. Tony Stark agreed to pay for the damages, but the Avengers grew upset that someone was apparently out to discredit them.

Captain America was drawn to an office building in Westchester by some sort of strange impulse—in truth, it was a light persuasion spell cast by the returning Enchantress. She had allied with a new superhuman named Power Man, who had attacked Quicksilver on the subway tracks, and was now attacking what looked to be a pair of security officers carrying important papers. Cap attacked Power Man, but Enchantress's secret assistance from the bushes nearby allowed Power Man to defeat him. The officers were in fact thieves in disguise—when businesspeople arrived from inside, they saw that Power Man had stopped the thieves in spite of Cap's interference. Ensuing newspaper reports (through Enchantress's unseen influence) mentioned Power Man's address, and Hawkeye took it upon himself to travel to the mansion there. Power Man was indeed there, and the two fought. Enchantress continued to provide support from the shadows, and Power Man easily overpowered the Avenger. Quicksilver arrived soon after, but met the same fate. Power Man called the police, who arrested Clint and Pietro for trespassing. Scarlet Witch soon came and was similarly arrested. The next day, the New York city council declared the Avengers a public menace and issued a court order demanding their dissolution. Captain America blamed himself for this new lineup's quick failure, but Hawkeye said that all of them shared the blame.[12]

Captain America was unwilling to accept that this was the end of the Avengers, even as his teammates tried to convince him that the fight was over. He and Quicksilver came to blows, but Hawkeye separated them. The team parted, leaving Rogers alone and humiliated at his failure as leader. Over the following month, the other ex-Avengers sought various jobs in entertainment, to no success. They were contacted by the Circus of Crime led by the Ringmaster, recently released from prison. Unfortunately, the three had no knowledge of the Circus's checkered past, and they eagerly agreed to work together. Ringmaster tried to hypnotize them into robbing customers for him, but they fought back before he could succeed. The three easily trounced Ringmaster's cronies, but he called the police in the meantime, accusing the ex-Avengers of trying to rob him. The police arrived, and the heroes fled, prompting a state-wide manhunt for the trio. Many in the public began to wish that the old Avengers would return—but Iron Man and Thor were busy with personal matters, and Giant-Man and Wasp hadn't been seen for some time.

Meanwhile, Captain America had a hunch that Power Man couldn't have framed the Avengers alone. He devised a plan to figure out who was backing Power Man and out both of them as the real culprits in this situation. Cap disguised himself as a representative of sorts, with a tape recorder in a briefcase, and went to the apartment where Power Man was staying with the Enchantress. Steve-in-disguise suggested to them that they should start a "new" Avengers team, and bragged about having taken the Avengers down himself. Power Man took exception to this and confessed that he and Enchantress were responsible. She figured out what was going on, and Power Man attacked. Captain America ripped off his disguise and pocketed the tape, and the two fought. A wire in Cap's technologically advanced shield got unwittingly cut as he reached to pick up the tape, shorting its transceiver and sending a still-active emergency signal to the other Avengers. Enchantress stayed back, curious to see how Power Man could handle a fight on his own. As they battled, Cap noticed a similarity to Wonder Man, and correctly deduced that Enchantress had given Power Man his same abilities. Cap's skill and wits proved formidable, but Power Man got the better of him after a while. The other Avengers arrived, and Hawkeye incapacitated Enchantress with a sleep arrow. The three fought Power Man while Cap handed off the recording to the police nearby. He returned and told Power Man that his time was up. Enchantress recovered and cut all ties with Power Man, expressing her disappointment in his failure and warping away. Power Man was distraught and aimless without her guidance, and posed no threat to the Avengers. With the proper evidence provided, all charges were dropped against the Avengers, and they were allowed to resume fighting together again. Princess Python of the Circus of Crime also confessed to the district attorney that the Avengers hadn't actually tried to rob them. Power Man wasn't charged, as he hadn't actually committed any provable crimes. All seemed to be back to normal, but Captain America remained frustrated having to keep his teammates straight all the time, and told them he was quitting.[13]

With and against Kang the Conqueror

Steve took a job in upstate New York as the sparring partner for a boxing champion, but he remained tormented with his abandoned responsibility to the Avengers. One night, an alarm at Avengers HQ alerted the team to trouble on the roof. As they went upstairs, they strangely found that a new floor had appeared in Tony Stark's mansion. Suddenly, they were trapped in this strange room, and passed out after the oxygen was drained from it. The room was in fact a time machine, piloted by none other than Kang. Kang used his time machine to take the Avengers to his home timeline, the year 3000 in Earth-6311. When they awoke, the Avengers were each in large, seemingly unbreakable glass jars. Despite the strength of the glass, Scarlet Witch was able to break through it with her hex powers. The effort drained her energy a great deal, but she was able to release Pietro and Clint with a lever nearby. The three were soon confronted by Kang's followers, and began fighting their way through them and Kang's various futuristic technological marvels.

Meanwhile, Captain America heard over the radio that the Avengers were missing, and that foul play was suspected. He hurried back to headquarters and used Tony Stark's "recreator" to discover what had happened to his erstwhile allies. A screen in Kang's time-travel room gave Cap a direct line to Kang himself, and Steve boldly taunted him, so Kang transported him through time as well. Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch were knocked out by Kang's strength-draining beams, but Quicksilver managed to evade them long enough to reunite with Captain America when he arrived. The two fought off more of Kang's guards and made their way to his control room to confront him in person. Unbeknownst to the Avengers, much of what Kang was doing was to impress Ravonna Renslayer, princess of this world, and to win her hand. Ravonna detested Kang, but her disapproval seemed to only motivate him. Kang used his superior technology to defeat Cap and Quicksilver as Ravonna and her father looked on from a balcony above. Kang claimed to have earned the right to marry her, but she insisted that the other Avengers would challenge him soon as well. He rejected this notion, and claimed that he could conquer her father's kingdom any time he wished, if not for his mercy he'd shown Ravonna. He gave her an ultimatum, to marry him or be destroyed by his army surrounding the city. Before she could respond, Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch returned, and Cap and Quicksilver recovered. Kang angrily ordered his army to attack, and the Avengers prepared to defend the city.[14]

Kang fled to command his army in person while the Avengers rallied the city's forces. Ravonna's chief of staff believed that they should surrender to Kang, but the Avengers' valor in the face of a seemingly impossible threat, to defend a city in which they had no stake, inspired him and the rest of Ravonna's warriors. The Avengers and their allies fought valiantly, but Kang soon lived up to his moniker and conquered the city. Quicksilver was knocked unconscious saving a woman and her baby from an incoming blast, while the others were all taken captive and marched to Kang's new throne room. Kang demanded that Ravonna become his new queen. However, his loyal commanders led by Baltag insisted that he should kill her instead, in keeping with his custom of killing the monarchs he conquers across time and space. Baltag and the others threatened to abandon Kang if he were to show such an act of mercy as to marry Ravonna. Kang blew them off, but remained wary of their dissent. Later, a group of Baltag's assassins attacked Kang, but he managed to fend them off. Baltag and the others took control of the city, and Kang knew that they would be coming for Ravonna next. Kang came to the Avengers and vowed to return them home safely if they helped him protect Ravonna and defeat Baltag's forces. They agreed, albeit cautiously.

The Avengers and Kang rallied the similarly hesitant citizens behind them and took the fight to Kang's former followers. Meanwhile, Quicksilver was nursed to health by the woman he had saved, and he returned to the fight to capture Baltag and his closest allies. With the commanding traitors defeated, Kang was sure that his army would return to him. In spite of all he had done previously, Ravonna was impressed that Kang had risked everything to protect her. Kang stood to his word and returned the Avengers back to their 20th century. As they left, Baltag broke free and shot Ravonna as she was about to confess her love for Kang. Baltag was then shot down by Kang's men, and the Avengers were warped back to their own time before they could witness anything further.[15]

Under the dome

The Avengers returned home, where they quickly resumed their infighting. Scarlet Witch fostered a secret romantic desire for Captain America, though she was unsure if she simply felt pity for him or if she was attracted to his "hidden sorrow." For his part, Hawkeye noticed the way Wanda looked at Cap, and found himself feeling jealous, exacerbating his already detestful feelings for Rogers. Steve remained tormented over his commitment to the Avengers and his greater place in the world, displaced twenty years in time. Wanda received a letter from Latveria claiming to be from a long-lost aunt wanting to get in touch. Wanda and Pietro were overjoyed, hoping that she might provide information on their equally long-lost parents. They arranged with Cap a trip to Latveria, and Wanda cabled her aunt to let her know they were coming. They went to Europe and took a train into the heart of the small nation of Latveria, where they were quickly arrested. The Avengers went calmly into a jail cell, where Rogers suddenly realized that the leader of Latveria was the nefarious Doctor Doom: clearly, this entire pretense was a ruse, and now they were prisoners to his unjust rule.

Scarlet Witch easily hexed the lock of their cell off, and the Avengers attempted to escape. Suddenly, a massive, clear, glass-like plastithene dome extended over the entire country. Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch tried to penetrate it, to no avail. Captain America knew that their only way out would be to confront Doctor Doom himself. The natives in the nearby town had been fed anti-Avenger propaganda by Doom's monarchy, and the team avoided them on their way to Doom's castle. Doom was indeed there when they entered, and he explained the reasoning behind their capture. Doom was in fact interested in his nemeses the Fantastic Four, and he had taken the Avengers in order to bait the Four into attempting to rescue them. The Avengers fought back, and Doom's counteractive technology proved formidable, but he was soon forced to retreat. The dome remained over Latveria, and the Avengers still had no way to escape. For that matter, the citizens of Latveria remained trapped, and some were in dire need of passage across the border. The Avengers tracked Doom to the heart of his castle, destroying the panel that controlled the dome and incapacitating him long enough to make good their escape. For their part, the Fantastic Four heard of the Avengers' capture and meant to intervene, but were prevented from doing so by American diplomats, wary of causing an international incident.[16]

Lineup changes

  • The lineup at the start of the year consisted of Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Giant-Man, and Wasp.
  • Iron Man, Giant-Man, and Wasp take a leave of absence, replacing themselves with Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and Scarlet Witch. While not present for this decision, Thor is also effectively phased out due to being preoccupied with Asgardian affairs. As a result, none of the original Avengers remain on the team. Captain America takes on a firm leadership role.[5]
  • The Swordsman joined the team under false pretenses before being kicked out a few days later.[11]

Notes

See also

References

  1. The Avengers #12: "This Hostage Earth!" (January 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Heck, Don (w), Ayers, Dick (i), Rosen, Sam (let).
  2. The Avengers #13: "The Castle of Count Nefaria!" (February 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Heck, Don (p), Ayers, Dick (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  3. The Avengers #14: "Even Avengers Can Die!" (March 1965) Ivie, Larry, Larry Lieber, and Stan Lee (w), Kirby, Jack (art), Heck, Don (p), Stone, Chic (i), Rosen, Sam (let), Lee, Stan (ed).
  4. The Avengers #15: "Now, by My Hand, Shall Die a Villain!" (April 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (art), Heck, Don (p), Demeo, Mickey (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  5. 5.0 5.1 The Avengers #16: "The Old Order Changeth!" (May 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Ayers, Dick (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  6. Journey into Mystery #120a: "With My Hammer in Hand...!" (September 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Colletta, Vince (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  7. The Avengers #17: "Four Against the Minotaur!" (June 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Heck, Don (p), Ayers, Dick (i), Rosen, Sam (let).
  8. The Avengers #18: "When the Commissar Commands!" (July 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Heck, Don (p), Ayers, Dick (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  9. Fantastic Four Annual #3a: "Bedlam at the Baxter Building!" (October 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Colletta, Vince (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  10. The Avengers #19: "The Coming of...the Swordsman!" (August 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Heck, Don (p), Ayers, Dick (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  11. 11.0 11.1 The Avengers #20: "Vengeance Is Ours!" (September 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Heck, Don (p), Wood, Wallace (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  12. The Avengers #21: "The Bitter Taste of Defeat!" (October 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Heck, Don (p), Wood, Wallace (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  13. The Avengers #22: "The Road Back." (November 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Heck, Don (p), Wood, Wallace (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  14. The Avengers #23: "Once an Avenger..." (December 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Heck, Don (p), Romita, John (i), Holloway, Ray (let).
  15. The Avengers #24: "From the Ashes of Defeat--!" (January 1966) Lee, Stan (w), Heck, Don (p), Ayers, Dick (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  16. The Avengers #25: "Enter...Dr. Doom!" (February 1966) Lee, Stan (w), Heck, Don (p), Ayers, Dick (i), Rosen, Sam (let).