Synopsis
Avengers, The (1963 series) #353 synopsis by
T Vernon
Rating:
The supernaturally powered Grim Reaper has trapped the Avengers in a sinister alien dimension. A vortex has dropped them on the rocky shore of a foul-looking river under a stormy sky while a horde of cloaked ghouls, joined by a chain, desire to feast on them. The heroes (Black Knight, Crystal, Hercules, Sersi, Vision) fight them but the dead creatures keep coming, unafraid of any harm the heroes can do to them. Even when damaged or destroyed they keep coming. Hercules becomes fed up by the monsters so he grabs the chain and hurls them all into the distance. Black Knight picks up a skull which tells him that they are the unquiet dead, slaves to the Grim Reaper and they still crave the flesh—and the thing bites Dane’s thumb and he hurls it away and smashes it with his sword. He notes that his thumb was protected by his glove….
Grim Reaper watches through a flame. He has several men prisoner and he casts a spell to transform them….
Vision notes that the hooded figures are all traveling in the same direction, possibly to Grim Reaper’s lair. Crystal expresses her distaste for the monsters, “They’re not alive.” Vision points out that neither is he. Crystal hastily apologizes but Vision reminds her he is incapable of emotion. Hours of walking along the hills brings them to a sinister grey mansion…
...where the Grim Reaper is watching as the cocoons his victims have become crack open to reveal the Legion of the Unliving, reembodied shades of villains killed in combat with the Avengers, ready for vengeance….
The Avengers pass over a bridge spanning a moat that smells of burnt flesh and through huge metal doors that clang shut behind them. They create torches out of bones and explore the place. They come to a room with six diverging corridors and the Unliving villains leap out to attack them. The heroes are slowly overwhelmed and borne down to the ground. Dane pleads with his uncle, the original Black Knight, reminding him that he renounced evil on his deathbed. But Garrett and the others will have their revenge. Dane again defends his teammates, that the Avengers fought to protect others or in self-defense…and then the last torch goes out, putting them all in darkness….