"The Doom That Went On Forever!"

 

The enigmatic and often hostile being known only as the Stranger has had run-ins or otherwise crossed paths with a number of notable and powerful Marvel characters and super-groups and, for the most part, had little difficulty dealing with them despite their laudable efforts to confront him. A few such instances which the PPC has featured include:

• the Silver Surfer;
  
• the X-Men;
  
• the mighty Thor;
  
• the incredible Hulk;
  
• the Fantastic Four;
  
• the pseudo-Stranger, Jakar;
  
• the Avengers (heh, sort of);
  
• Captain Marvel;
  
• the Over-Mind

Almost always, these conflicts occur in the course of the Stranger conducting his own affairs--which also happens to be the case when he returns to Earth to deal with the threat of a null-life bomb he once introduced to destroy the human race but has since been re-armed and fallen into the hands of a thief whose girlfriend is being pursued by...

...well, gosh, we'll let Black Goliath give us the 411 on the situation:

The woman in question is Reggie Clayborne, who has absconded with the box her boyfriend Jerry made off with from Bill Foster's lab and headed to the H.Q. of the Champions to ask for their help. But as Foster has mentioned, they're all going to have bigger things to worry about, when the Stranger crashes this party!

As for Black Goliath, whose short-lived solo series is unfortunately one issue away from cancellation (and numbering only five issues, we're talking short-lived, folks), he's raring to face the Stilt-Man again, who escaped from him earlier but now must wade through the Champions as well to obtain what he's come for.

But since everyone has at one time or another underestimated the Stilt-Man, the villain is able to outmaneuver everybody and make his escape--leading Goliath to claim dibs on him in a battle which would be resolved in his own book.

Meanwhile, Reggie tells her story to the Champions--but guess what other towering figure arrives and makes his entrance?

Naturally, the Champions intervene in what appears to be a threat to Reggie's life. That said, if you're expecting the Champions to rally and somehow make headway against the Stranger when they struck out against the Stilt-Man, I wouldn't mind sampling whatever it is you're smoking. Fortunately, the Stranger does no serious harm to our heroes, whose interference, it turns out, has kept him from dealing with the null-life bomb--now growing beyond control and encompassing everything around it, including the Stranger!

If nothing else, however, the Stranger realizes that the Champions may at the very least make passable errand boys--and in a last-ditch attempt to salvage the situation, he sends them to obtain an item which can alter the null-life bomb's programming and effectively render it harmless. Though upon arrival at their destination, Hercules realizes that the Stranger may have doomed the Earth himself by acting too rashly.

The story of Kamo Tharnn, and this battle's outcome, have already been explored in a previous post. Meanwhile, Goliath, having won his battle against the Stilt-Man, has returned to Champions H.Q. to find all hell--and all bomb--breaking loose!

In attempting to reach the bomb, Goliath finds he's unable to breach its defenses--yet he finds that Darkstar has been able to use her power to return to Earth and retrieve the staff of Kamo Tharnn from its true location, thereby giving the Stranger the means to nullify the null-life bomb (in what appears to be a typically self-serving act on the part of the Stranger).

Nevertheless, the Stranger departs with gratitude toward Darkstar, who in her assistance has demonstrated to him the human trait of courage--while, in his wake, the rest of the Champions materialize in his place.

With their own series also approaching its end, the Champions would be joining Black Goliath in the unemployment line--though eventually, their story is wrapped up when they disband for good. As you might imagine, neither of those developments would likely elicit more than a shrug from the Stranger, if that--perhaps by this point the one thing he might have in common with readers.