Avengers Annual, The (1967 series) #21

Story continues from FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #25.

Arriving in Chronopolis, the Avengers and the Fantastic Four find themselves facing the Anachronauts, mighty warriors chosen by Kang out of history to comprise a superior fighting force. Reed seeks to delay the inevitable battle, hoping that the team members can rest up but Hercules utters a challenge that sparks an immediate melee. Invisible Woman surrounds the heroes with a force shield while Reed suggests they surrender to their foes so that they will be taken to face Kang, their objective. Sue drops the shield and there is a skirmish. Wildrun (the first Red Wolf) fires arrows at Reed, Torch fights the Trojan Tyndar, Crystal takes on the reptilian Ssith, Black Knight duels with Sir Raston the second Black Knight and both are armed with the Ebony Sword, Thing battles the futuristic warrior Deathunt 9000, Hercules goes after Apocryphus, the last of the Eternals, and Dr. Druid is overcome by the prehistoric warrior Raa, forcing the good guys to surrender. They are marched through a temportal and encased in a hypercube, rendering them helpless as they are brought before Kang. Kang announces that he has declared himself a citizen of all centuries and he intends to conquer them all. He laid the seeds for conquering the 20th century when he founded Timely in 1901, which made him the chief fomenter of the century’s tech revolution, laying the groundwork for conquering the 21st century. He restores Captain America, Vision, and Thor, and informs them that the hypercube is slowly shrinking and it will soon crush them to death unless they escape. But Kang-Nebula leaps out of hiding and stabs him to death with a vibra-knife—and then she is captured by a force field wielded by the real Kang who reveals that he allowed the Avengers into his citadel merely for them to bring her to him as she has caused him much trouble. But then he unmasks her and is shocked to find she is his lost love Ravonna. After her death saving his life, she was put is stasis; Grandmaster offered Kang the power over life and death; Kang chose death for the Avengers over life for Ravonna. When the Grandmaster told Ravonna this, she vowed to kill Kang and here we are. But Kang likes this Ravonna much better than the original so he offers to fight: if she wins, he dies and if he wins she joins him. She dons her armor, renames herself Terminatrix, and the fight begins. The prehistoric warrior Raa frees the heroes and while Kang and Ravonna duel, the Avengers and FF take on the Anachronauts. In the battle, Raa is revealed to be Sersi in disguise and she ends up battling Apocryphus, the last of the Eternals; as he goes down in defeat he calls her “mother,” rattling Sersi. Cap looks for a way to stop both Kang and Ravonna; Thor offers Mjolnir as the way to pierce the force bubble surrounding the antagonists. He hurls the hammer and Kang pushes Ravonna out of the way and is struck in the head. A distraught Ravonna carries his body away; moments later no trace of them is found. Reed and Dr. Druid arrive with the Quinjet and the time-sled. The heroes return home while Ravonna places Kang’s body in a stasis tube while vowing to find a way to revive him so she can kill him properly. 

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Story #2

The Avengers’ Top Ten Villains

Writer: George Caragonne. Penciler/Inker: Karl Altstaetter. Colorist: Nel Yomtov. Letterer: Dave Sharpe.

Synopsis

For a training exercise, Black Knight must battle a robot duplicate of one of the Avengers’ greatest enemies. The files list (counting down): Zodiac, Arkon, Grim Reaper, Space Phantom, the Collector, the Masters of Evil, Immortus, Kang, Ultron, and Thanos. Captain America selects all ten and joins Black Knight in the training simulator.

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Story #3

Secrets of the Avengers’ Communicard

Writer: Mark Gruenwald. Penciler/Inker: Eliot R Brown. Colorist: Gina Going. Letterer: Typeset.

Synopsis

A look inside the high-tech identification/communication device carried by all members of the team.

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Story #4

Boys’ Night Out

Writer: Scott Benson. Penciler/Inker: Dan Panosian. Colorist: Scott Marshall. Letterer: Steve Dutro.

Synopsis

Dane “Black Knight” Whitman supervises as Hercules smashes his way through several training robots at the Mansion. Dane is frustrated that Herc only seems to solve problems with brute strength. Dane invites Herc out to a bar where he tries to explain strategy, attempting to solve problems without resorting to violence. And then the waitress is harassed by a group of men who have just entered. Dane jumps up to go to her rescue and is surprised that Herc remains seated, wishing to see how he handles the matter with strategy. Dane puts a guy in an armlock and demands that they leave. The men, not wishing to escalate the matter, depart. But the waitress is annoyed with Dane as she knows how to take care of herself, which Hercules acknowledges. She is flattered by Herc’s respect and they go off together with Dane left behind, feeling he has been tricked.

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Story #5

The Puzzle

Writer: Peter Sanderson. Penciler/Inker: Rich Yanizeski. Colorist: Scott Marshall. Letterer: Dave Sharpe.

Synopsis

With Kang in stasis between life and death, Ravonna, now calling herself Terminatrix, reviews Kang’s recordings, seeking answers to the puzzle that was Kang. She sees him forming the Council of Cross-Time Kangs, his battles with Kang-Nebula (who was Terminatrix), battles with the Fantastic Four and Avengers, his founding of Timely, Wisconsin, and his career as Victor Timely, creating technology that would define the 20th century, his alliance with Dr. Doom during the Infinity War. None of this truly explains Kang so she sinks into despair. But she is being watched from afar by Immortus and (original) Ravonna and he notes that everyone is ultimately a mystery to others and to himself….