Avengers, The (1963 series) #375

The Avengers head out to confront Proctor who is waiting for them with his new team of Gatherers and a huge energy vortex containing Sersi and Ute the Watcher. Hercules leaps into action, punching out Proctor who responds by drawing energy from the vortex, transforming the World Trade Center into an alien design. He is drawing on the power of the two captives to collapse realities. The two teams clash, Thunderstrike uses his mallet to create a vortex of his own, pushing bystanders out of the danger zone, until he is clobbered by enemy Jocasta. Hercules attacks her until Proctor takes him down. Then comes the big confrontation between Black Knight and Proctor, now that the former knows they are the same man. Proctor points out two big differences between them: one, that this Dane did not love Sersi but was forced into the Gann Josin against his will. Two, that Proctor embraced the power of the Ebony Blade which he used to kill his Sersi and many, many others. And now he attacks Dane with the sword that Dane rejected. Dane draws his plasma sword and defends himself….

Thena and Sprite arrive, having failed to contact the Eternals for help, the vortex field being too strong. More intense beams are being emitted by the vortex transforming buildings into other-dimensional versions. Inside the vortex, Ute the Watcher contacts Sersi to tell her they must work together to escape the trap, encouraging her to fight the madness threatening to overwhelm her….

Proctor and Black Knight fight, the former mocking the latter for his habit of escaping his conflicts, finally overcomes him. As he stands over him, Proctor prepares to deliver the killing blow, hoping that finally, gathering the original into himself, Sersi will love him. Quicksilver stands, hesitating, then he zooms forward and bowls Proctor over. But Proctor recovers quickly and threatens Pietro so Crystal calls to Thunderstrike to summon a bolt of lightning which she directs right at the enemy. This bursts the vortex, freeing Sersi and Ute and felling the other Gatherers, who were mentally linked to Proctor. An enraged Sersi then picks up the Ebony Blade and takes Proctor’s head off. She tells Dane it was the sight of him being absorbed by Proctor that allowed her to escape the vortex. She also says that the damage wrought in her psyche has gone too far to reverse. And Eternal laws require them to destroy any Eternal afflicted with this madness. But the dying Watcher Ute uses his powers to restore everything to its original condition, including the Brooklyn Bridge and Avengers Mansion. Ute dies, opening a portal to a pocket universe where Sersi can be whole again and Dane offers to go with her to help her through her trauma. They step through, the portal closes and the crying Crystal tells them that for a good man like Dane, there was no other way….

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Story #2

A Bigger Man Than I…

Writer: Ben Raab.
Penciler: Yancey Labat.
Inker: Maria Beccari.
Colorist: Mike Marts.
Letterer: Ken Lopez.

Synopsis

Hank Pym has designed a new psycho-analysis machine and he decides to test it on himself, despite the warnings of Black Widow who will be monitoring the machine. The machine goes on and Hank feels himself being shrunk and disappearing into an anthill where he is captured by humanoid ants dressed in his Ant-Man and Goliath costumes. He is dragged before a judge, a human-ant version of his first wife Maria who tells him he is on trial for “conspiracy to disrupt the insect community and treason against his own mind.” Various witnesses testify how Pym manipulated ants into joining dangerous situations on behalf of the Avengers and the prosecutor says it was to hide his incompetence as a hero. But a human-ant version of Wasp claims that it was all to impress her as an ant version of Yellowjacket attacks him repeatedly. As the experience is growing more dangerous, Natasha suggests he abort the test. Hank starts to break down and the prosecutor enters a plea of insanity. The machine reaches 100% and Natasha can’t shut it down….because Hank designed it so that only he could stop it. He is found guilty but grows larger defeating the human-ants, insisting he is a hero. He leaves the machine and insists he is all right….