Avengers #69
Let the Games Begin
The Avengers have arrived at the hospital where Tony Stark has been taken following his collapse. They are allowed past the SHIELD security detail, the group is allowed to see Stark, who is hanging on by a thread. The wonder why Iron Man wasn’t there to protect his employer.[1] Moments later, Thor and Captain America arrive with Doctor Santini, a specialist who is needed to save Tony Stark’s life.
As the Avengers prepare to the leave the room, the Wasp notices a strange glowing doll under a table. When it stops glowing, she dismisses it as a toy and tosses it into a nearby garbage pale. However, this is one of Kang’s Growing Men and it starts to grow and climb out of the trash. It fights its way through the SHIELD guards and grabs Tony Stark. The Avengers are drawn back by the commotion and try attacking the creature. Having encountered a Growing Man before, Thor warns the Avengers that their blows will only make it grow even larger.[2]
Continuing to increase in size, the Growing Man smashes out of the hospital with Tony Stark in his grasp. Goliath tries matching the creature’s height, but his sudden size change disorientates him. The Growing Man and Stark are then caught in a tractor beam that pulls them up into the sky as it restored Growing Man to average human height. The Avengers race into the tractor beam and are pulled up into the sky along with the Growing Man. They are pulled into a sphere that transports them across time and space to the year 4000 AD in the throne room of Kang the Conqueror.[3] There, they notice that Kang is keeping his lover Ravonna in a state of suspended animation as she was fatally wounded during their last encounter.[4]
Kang tells them that he has brought the Avengers to his era so they will serve him. Thor refuses to be a slave to anyone and the Avengers defeat Kang’s minions in battle. They are then ordered to stop by the Black Panther, who was brought to this era separately from Africa. He tells them that Kang needs their aid to save the Earth and leaves it to Kang to explain. Kang tells them that about a year ago, Kang was approached by a cosmic entity calling himself the Grandmaster. The Grandmaster challenged Kang to a contest — if Kang won he would be given the power of life and death so he can cure Ravonna. However, if the Grandmaster wins, he will destroy Kang and the entire Earth. Wanting to revive Ravonna, Kang accepts the terms and agrees to wait for the Grandmaster’s return one year later.
Since the Earth is in danger, the Avengers agree to be Kang’s champions. That’s when the Grandmaster returns and tells them that there will be two matches between the champions of Kang and those the Grandmaster has selected. Told a fourth combatant will join them, three of the Avengers — Captain America, Goliath and Thor — are transported back to modern day Earth. There they are confronted by their opponents: Doctor Spectrum who gets his power from the Power Prism, the titanic Hyperion, the highly trained Nighthawk, and the super-fast Whizzer. This group introduces themselves as the Squadron Sinister.[5][6]
Recurring Characters
Avengers (Captain America, Thor, Yellowjacket, Wasp, Goliath, Black Panther, Vision), Kang, Grandmaster, Growing Man, Squadron Sinister (Hyperion, Doctor Spectrum, Nighthawk, Whizzer), Tony Stark, Ravonna, Jose Santini, SHIELD
Continuity Notes
At the time of this story, none of the Avengers know that Tony Stark and Iron Man are the same person. This story takes place simultaneously with the events of Iron Man #19, which sees Tony Stark get a heart transplant to save him from the shrapnel that has been threatening his life since Tales of Suspense #39.
Thor previously fought Kang and his Growing Man in Thor #140.
Per Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005, this future exists in an alternate timeline designated Earth-6311.
The Avengers last clashed with Kang in Avengers #23-24. They then helped Kang protect Ravonna’s kingdom from his own warriors. Although they won, Ravonna was fatally shot.
If it isn’t obvious enough for you, the Squadron Sinister are a pastiche of DC Comics’ Justice League of America, which each member of the Squadron being based on a different DC hero. Hyperon is patterned after Superman, Nighthawk after Batman, Doctor Spectrum after the Green Lantern, and the Whizzer after the Flash.
This story is expanded upon in Thor Annual #17 and Avengers Forever #9.
Topical References
Any reference to the Avengers coming from the 20th Century should be considered topical. Per the Sliding Timescale, the Modern Age has pushed forward enough that it does not begin until the 21st Century.
