Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Last issue the West Coast Avengers (minus Tigra) defeated new villains Halflife and Quantum (and made Zzzax evaporate again). But Graviton interrupted their success with captive Tigra on a leash.
Now everyone is on Graviton's flying mountain. Iron Man and Wonder Man are pressed to the ground by extreme gravity. Hawkeye and Mockingbird are trapped in a 'gravinet', and any attempt to escape will make them super-heavy too. Tigra is also constrained by gravity - the leash is just for show.
It turns out Halflife and Quantum (and Zzzax) were working for Graviton, who now goes into an origin spiel and an explanation of the current situation.
Frank Hall was a an ordinary lab worker who was single-handedly inventing a teleportation beam (ordinary?!). But it blew up and ported him into a nearby anti-gravity experiment. The result was his power over gravity. He initially kept his power secret but soon realised he was destined to rule over lesser men.
In Av#158-159 he took the name and costume of Graviton and raised the 'research city' he worked in into the sky. The Avengers came after him but he defeated them. He offered to make a colleague Judy his 'queen', but she rejected him by leaping to her death. The Avengers then won (and butler Jarvis saved Judy).
He faced the WCA in #2-4 of their initial mini-series and was defeated again. He now says that he easily escaped from the US Marshals. And after seeing Tigra then he now knows she is the 1 for him.
It also seems that since then he has created this flying mountain base with a science lab and a cadre of costumed guards. He started thinking about the 4 fundamental forces of Physics:- gravity, the force of attraction between massive bodies; electromagnetism that holds an atom together; the strong force that holds an atomic nucleus together; the weak force of attraction between matter and antimatter.
He used his power over gravity to imprint a message on all light waves leaving Earth asking for alien representatives of the other 3 forces to join him. Quantum embodies the strong force. He came from an alien sun and took up residence in ours. Halflife exemplifies the weak force. Each touch takes half your remaining life away, and she wiped out her whole planet. Nobody turned up to symbolise electromagnetism so G resorted to Zzzax. But he never expected much from someone who could be defeated by Hawkeye (Hulk #166).
Gravy sent his allies to distract the WCA while he captured Tigra last issue. He'd been watching her and noticed that she couldn't resist the attentions of men - this time there would be no rejection. Hawkeye suggests that the leash just signifies slavery, not attraction. But the villain kisses Tigra, and as usual she can't help but respond.
Quantum can't speak Earthian but Graviton somehow understands him and vehemently turns down his request. (Maybe he wants a girl like Tigra.) Apparently the 3 of them have a deal to assist each other in their 'projects of evil'. They leave the WCA with guards, but Gravy still has Tigra on a leash.
Mockingbird has a hidden radio with which she tries to contact the (East Coast) Avengers. But Graviton expected that and diverts the message into space.
Meanwhile Henry Pym has taken up the search of occult bookshops started by Firebird in #5, looking for info on Master Pandemonium or the Darkhold book. A bookseller named Carstairs denies any knowledge, but Hank can tell he's lying. He leaves intending to get the WCA to investigate further. But Carstairs appears to be under the control of a female demon who fears Pym might actually be an agent of MP looking for her. So she follows him by walking through the ground beneath his feet.
Graviton takes Tigra's leash off (and presumably his gravitational hold on her) to see what she will do. She can't escape because all exits are gravity-blocked. He's been watching her for a long time and 'knows' that the cat part of her wants to accept his 'love'. He also saw her talk with Balkatar, emissary of the Cat-People, in #9. He knows she needs to kill Pandemonium, and offers to do it for her. She responds by leaping to attack him, but with a wave of his hand she comes crashing down.
He leaves her trapped in a gravity cage. Tigra's 2 souls war within her. The cat does want to accept his offer of a life of pleasure and ruling the world. But Greer Nelson rebels against it. She activates the amulet that gives her back her human body.
A passing guard doesn't realise who she is and passes through the force-field hoping for a 'good time' with this bikini-clad woman. He explains that the guards have boxes that neutralise G's gravity effects. Greer fights him to get that box, but she's no match for his strength. However when they fall near the the cage wall with herself on top she forces her hands through the force-field. Her arms immediately become very heavy and drop to knock the man out.
She strains to pull her arms free despite intense pain. Then she dons the man's uniform and all-important box and sets out the free the other Avengers. She finds Halflife and tells her that Quantum intends to kill her. Then she finds Quantum and tells him similar. (Apparently he can understand English even if he can't speak it.)
Greer Nelson watches as the 2 meet and fight. As we saw last issue even if Graviton and Quantum can communicate the 2 aliens can't talk to each other. As Quantum multiplies his bodies Halflife rapidly ages them, but some of them get in punches. Then Graviton notices the battle and calls his guards to help stop it.
2 remain to watch over the WCA. Greer, still disguised as 1 of them, manages to grab their boxes and they fall to the local gravity. She throws the boxes to Hawkeye and Mockingbird, which allows them to walk out of their cage. And they apply the boxes to Iron Man and Wonder Man so they can rise up from the ground.
Graviton is now trying to pry the 2 aliens apart. Quantum is back to a single body, but the combined power is escalating beyond their ability to control it. Quantum is ejected from the mountain and Halflife runs away smoking. And the flying mountain shoots up towards space. Iron Man's jets aren't strong enough to push it back down.
He gives up and grabs Bobbi and Clint to fly them off the rock. Wonder Man tries to do the same with Graviton and Greer but the villain won't accept help from his enemy. Then both flying heroes offer a lift to any guards who drop their weapons. They all do, and 2 overloaded heroes watch the mountain disappear upwards.
Later the minions are delivered to jail. Hawkeye congratulates Greer, who says she'll turn back to Tigra to continue as an effective Avenger, but her human side will retain more control. But privately she's not so sure she can live up to that.
And back at Avengers Compound the demoness has followed Pym home. But he puts finding Master Pandemonium on the back burner because the team now have to go to Kansas City. And he examines some baseball equipment.