On a beach of Red China, a pleasant woman leads a detachment
of soldiers to where the Inhumans (Medusa, Karnak, Gorgon, and Triton) lie
unconscious with their wrecked sky-sled. As the soldiers move in for a closer
look, the Inhumans awaken and fight them; Triton leaps into the sea and throws
an underwater switch that opens the cliff to reveal a spaceship installed there
long before. The heroes leap aboard and take off….
At the San Francisco docks, an elegantly dressed man with a
strange gun for a right hand introduces himself to the amnesiac Black Bolt and
Joey as Mister Dibbs. Joey informs him that his dad told him never to trust
someone who has to talk with a gun; Dibbs apologizes, folds up his gun, and
puts a realistic prosthetic hand over it. He ushers them into his limo where
they find Joey’s uncle Roscoe—then they are gassed and put into a deep sleep.
Dibbs thanks Roscoe for bringing Black Bolt’s discarded suit to his attention,
leading to his ambitious plan….
The Inhumans’ ship has traced Black Bolt to Southern California
where they land on a beach; it is a private beach used by bodybuilder and they
resent the invasion. When they see the Inhumans, the muscle guys attack and
there is a brief scuffle that ends with Triton leading the bodybuilders away
while the other three go their way. They don regular clothing filched from the
locker room and, hearing on the radio of a disturbance on Johnson Street, take
a cab to that location. There they find a band of armed Black militants in a
standoff with the National Guard. The militants are demanding that a
neighborhood of dangerously dilapidated tenements be torn down. The group’s
leader is Lionel Dibbs and he is backed up by a tank—and Black Bolt….
“The Sting of the Widow!” 3.5/5
Writer: Gerry Conway. Pencils: Don Heck. Inks: Bill Everett.
Colors: ? Letters: Bob Golden.
Synopsis: Black Widow paces the cables of a New York bridge,
brooding over her recent failures and wondering if she is a jinx, bringing
death to all around her. She realizes the one she most worries about is
Ivan Petrovich, the man who saved her life as an infant. She goes to Avengers
Mansion, hoping the familiar surroundings will put her mind at ease. Entering
surreptitiously, she discovers the only one there is her ex-lover Clint Barton,
the new Goliath, and she departs as quietly as she came; Clint feels someone
was behind him, someone he used to know….
She returns to her penthouse in Mammon Towers and goes to
her room, not answering Ivan’s invitations to work out or go out on the town. Later,
Ivan is near the police station when the Astrologer’s henchman delivers the
ransom demand. Ivan nabs him on the way out and “persuades” him to reveals his
employer’s location. Ivan calls Natasha with the news and she heads out.
Meanwhile, Ivan follows the Astrologer’s truck as they move to a new location.
The baddies see him following and shoot through his windshield, causing him to
crash. Black Widow catches up and rides the top of their truck to their
destination at the docks. She takes down all of the gang but the Astrologer
holds her at bay by holding a gun to Dr. Lichenstein’s head. Natasha makes to surrender but fires her bite at
the planks under the bad guy’s feet, knocking him off balance. She jumps
him and they both go into the river; Ivan arrives and rescues Natasha. She
considers the Astrologer as another victim of her curse….