Karnak and Gorgon have released Maximus the Mad from his
metal and glass prison and learned why they should not have. Max unleashes his
newfound ability of mind control to cause their attacks on him to fail and then
he has Gorgon beat up Karnak. Having tricked Karnak into ringing the Gong of
Sovereignty, Max waits for the populace to arrive so he can proclaim himself
king. Then Medusa shows up….
In San Francisco, Roscoe awakens and discovers Black Bolt’s
discarded suit; he soon comes upon Joey and the now amnesiac BB at the docks.
As he watches, Joey asks his rescuer to say a few words. Black Bolt mutters,
“I…” and a huge ship is blown to bits, kicking up a tidal wave that overwhelms
the docks. Joey hustles his pal away before the authorities arrive….
While Gorgon is beating Karnak, Medusa seizes Max with her
hair—and Max promptly causes it all to hang limp. He reveals that for now he
can only affect one person at a time. The three Inhumans start to form a plan
but then the populace arrives, hailing Maximus as their king. Max commands them
to kill the three Inhumans but Triton swoops down on a royal sky-sled and
rescues his cousins and zooms out of there, with Gorgon hanging onto the bottom.
They fly over the Himalayas and approach a beach but Gorgon’s position throws their
weight off and they crash into a bluff and land, unconscious, on the sand amid
the wreckage of the sky-sled….
At the docks, Joey and Black Bolt are hiding from the police
when a man with a strange gun for a right hand grabs the boy….
“Blood Will Tell!” 4/5
Writer: Roy Thomas. Pencils: Don Heck. Inks: Sal Buscema.
Colors: ? Letters: Jean Simek.
Synopsis: Black Widow walks along a late night New York
street and is approached from behind by a sinister figure; she grabs the man
and hurls him over her shoulder. Ivan Petrovich comes to her side and suddenly
a large number of police officers also arrive. Her “assailant” was a police
detective; explanations are made though the cops don’t appear to have any great
affection for Natasha, despite her being the one who called them. They are busy
guarding the hospital with the city’s main supply of O-negative blood from the Astrologer’s
threat to steal it and hold it for ransom….
Meanwhile, the Astrologer and his youthful minions hijack an
ambulance and enter the hospital by passing the Astrologer off as an elderly
patient. Natasha and Ivan Petrovich see this and are suspicious: why does one
patient need so many attendants? Nat wants to investigate and Ivan has
conveniently brought along a case with her jumpsuit; she dashes off into a
storeroom to change while brooding over whether she is cursed to bring death to
those around her, like the young man in the previous issue….
But the baddies have adjusted their plans: instead of
stealing the blood, they kidnap Dr.
Lichenstein, a scientist working on a blood substitute. Black Widow and Ivan
Petrovich come to his rescue and fight the Astrologer’s thugs. Ivan is thumped
on the head and Natasha is grabbed by the Astrologer who presses a
chemical-impregnated cloth to her face, knocking her out and he hurls her
through the window. The cool air revives her and she catches onto a flagpole
and swings herself up to the roof. There, the baddies have seized the
hospital’s helicopter and taken off, leaving a smoke bomb booby trap for the
pursuing police. As Natasha arrives, she sees one
of the gang is hanging onto the outside of the copter. She aims her gauntlet at
the man but her fear that shooting her line to nab him will cause him to fall
to his death in the street makes her deliberately miss. The police captain
rebukes her for this and she flees. As Ivan drives her away, she broods about
her decision….
Characters: Black Widow, Ivan Petrovich