To The Death!

Capping the year 1973 was an event closer that, while formally beginning in September of that year, can be traced all the way back to January, and this climactic scene from a battle of gods:

The following month, Dane Whitman, the Black Knight, was having his own encounter with an Asgardian--one which had its upside, yet most definitely a downside.

As for Loki, he's recovered in mid-plummet by the dread Dormammu, who proposes an alliance between them in order to recover and reassemble a device which would mean the end for the Earth as we know it.

Yet when Loki realizes that Asgard, as well, would be destroyed with that of Earth's dimension*, he does what he can to foil Dormammu's plans for the Defenders--by involving the Avengers to counter them.

*Still not too clear on that. Isn't Asgard in its own dimension? Sometimes it's hard to tell.


And so the Avengers move against the Defenders' efforts to recover the Evil Eye, though the latter group is successful for the most part. Finally, reason prevails between two war veterans from the opposing sides--and the Sub-Mariner leads Captain America and the rest of the Avengers back to the sanctum of Dr. Strange, where all parties (save two) finally compare notes.

After recovering Thor and the Hulk on the battlefield, the pieces of the Evil Eye are collected and made ready to be rejoined--but Dormammu makes his move first, sending one of his servants to swiftly swoop in and recover them before any of the stunned super-beings can prevent it. And almost immediately, Dormammu begins using the power of the now-complete Eye** to merge Earth's dimension with his own. Chaos reigns, unchecked--but not unopposed.

**Since Dormammu's alliance with Loki was predicated on his need of the Asgardian's power to help reassemble the Eye, by rights Dormammu's plan should have ended in failure, given that Loki had already earlier decided to work against him.


And now, pieces put in place throughout a year's worth of stories culminate with an assemblage of heroes who are committed to bringing the fight to Dormammu at last. Of course, given that the Avengers' book has won the coin toss as far as carrying the ball for this conflict's climax...

...some of the heroes being used to promote this issue will end up being sidelined.

The challenge to all of these heroes caught up in the hell playing out around them isn't simply limited to a shifting of environments and the widescale destruction--as we can see, they also have to contend with the population being changed into creatures that conform to the new surroundings of Dormammu's Dark Dimension. Only Dr. Strange's quick thinking--and an uncanny ability to come up with a rhyme for any occasion--prevents himself and his comrades from being affected, as well.

Yet despite the fact that the correct course of action is to take this battle to its source in order to put a stop to the ongoing devastation, Captain America feels a responsibility to those innocents who will meet their end if there is no intervention on their behalf. It seems an odd position for any of the Avengers to take, under the circumstances--even Cap, who in wartime was no doubt faced repeatedly with the need to leave others to fend for themselves in order to complete the mission. In addition, considering that what they see is happening on a worldwide scale, whatever the Avengers do to take out the creatures surrounding them is like a fish trying to make headway against a tidal wave: How does their small group safeguard everyone on the planet? Or simply the population of, say, the U.S. east coast? One state? This city?

For the here and now, though, Cap and the others get a reprieve from others attempting to stave off the end of the world.

Though with Nick Fury's forces beginning to shift to monsters themselves, it's clear that Strange and the others face a race against time.

Meanwhile, the architect of this plan revels in his seeming victory, though his "ally" who bears witness to it the best he can finds his deceit finally exposed, and is contained accordingly.

As for the Defenders and the Avengers, they come up against the Dark Dimension's resident bruisers, the Mindless Ones, who attack on sight and thrive on the resistance of their victims.

Back on Earth, resistance of another kind is being offered by others who haven't yet succumed to the Eye's power and who strive to meet a crisis that has seemingly erupted from nowhere, in a limited but welcome series of panels by writer Steve Englehart and artist Bob Brown (who certainly has his hands full with this issue).

At this point in time, the FF have just disbanded following their battle in the Negative Zone, though as in other instances where guest-stars have appeared it's easy enough to assume they show up to do their part in the emergency sometime before the events of that issue (though not as easy to explain Medusa protecting herself with a force field). And while Englehart embraces an overall theme of defiant characters striving on, wherever they are, the whole point from what we've seen is that, contrary to Englehart's narrative, the threat isn't being held, by Thanos or anyone else; rather, it's a losing battle that now depends solely on the Avengers and their allies to win.  And the clock is running out.

And speaking of those allies, what's the title on this issue's masthead again?

Regrettably, despite a rallying cry that, at best, amuses their foe, the Avengers face a power unlike any other they've prevailed against--and on his home ground, where only Strange has challenged him. All too soon, the forces of the Avengers are whittled down, until even the last one standing is forced to see all hope vanish.

But, unexpectedly, there's a fighter left in this struggle, one who makes good use of the element of surprise--and thanks to Dormammu's prior spell apparently only being capable of creating watered-down glue, his intended victim instead snatches victory from defeat, with only minutes to spare.

With the Defenders regaining consciousness, it remains only for the Watcher--who, to the amazement of us all, actually kept his oath of noninterference this time--to supply an explanation as to what happened to both Dormammu and Loki.

It makes reasonable sense that, given the power we know Dormammu wields, even a god whose mind is well versed in sorcery would be overwhelmed by such an inrush of force. At the same time, because we're talking about a god who's spent literally ages practicing the art of sorcery, the door is left open for Loki to regain his faculties--only with Dormammu's energy, he'll have quite an edge the next time he battles Thor.

For now, however, it falls to the Watcher to provide one of those contemplative codas that's the hallmark of events such as this. (Confidentially, I think what it accomplishes the most is to help the reader give a slow, satisfying turn of that last page that drives home the feeling they've read something exceptional. All things considered, this seven-issue saga may indeed fall into that category.)

As for the fate of the Black Knight--the character whose condition was the crux of this story--a prior post should answer that question and then some. To sum it up for you: it will take another nine years of stories to, er, chip away at that stone carcass of his and resolve his situation. But on a positive note, that'll add up to a lot of happy pigeons.

The Avengers #118 Script: Steve Englehart Pencils: Bob Brown Inks: Mike Esposito and Frank Giacoia Letterer: Tom Orzechowski