Their Darkest Hour!

The Avengers are having a hearing over Iron Man ignoring a recent summons.[1] When pressed for answers, Iron Man has none to give, and Thor — who is the chairman of the group that week — decrees that Iron Man shall be suspended from the group for a week.

At that same moment, Thor’s father — the great Odin — is having a hearing of his own. Following their failed attempt to attack Thor, the Enchantress and the Executioner are ordered banished from Asgard.[2] Their powers are weakened and the Executioner is stripped of his magical helmet and ax before they are sent to Earth along the Bifrost Bridge. Watching from the sidelines is Loki, who views this banishment as a victory, as they will continue to attack Thor. When the Executioner and Enchantress materialize in the middle of a New York street they come across a newspaper with a front-page story about the Avengers recent battle with Baron Zemo.[3] They see Zemo as a potential ally and decide to seek him out.

Meanwhile, Captain America has paid a gym full of wrestlers to attack him all at once. Although the wrestlers think they have the advantage of numbers, Captain America is able to defeat them all in combat due to his superior fighting skills. When he returns home, Captain America can’t help by mourning his former partner, Bucky, who he was unable to save despite his skills.[4] That’s when Rick Jones enters the room wearing Bucky’s old costume and suggests that he start wearing it when they go into action together. However, seeing Rick in his partner’s old costume deeply upsets Captain America who orders Rick to never wear the outfit again. He reminds Rick that he cannot move on from Bucky’s death until he brings his killer, Baron Zemo, to justice.

In South America, Baron Zemo is furious over his continued losses against the Avengers. He takes out his anger on the indigenous population he has enslaved and demands that they start paying him even higher taxes. It is when he is going over his privte gold reserves that he is visited by the projected images of the Enchantress and the Executioner. They tell the Baron how they wish to destroy Thor and suggest they work together to eliminate their mutual foes in the Avengers. Since the rest of the Masters of Evil are still in prison, Zemo accepts the newcomers and soon they begin plotting against their foes.

Sometime later, Giant-Man, the Wasp, and Thor all part company to return to their own private affairs. Once they are gone, Captain America and Rick Jones are visited by a man calling himself Hans Grubervelt, who used to be the second in command in Baron Zemo’s army. He says that he has changed his ways and tells Captain America where he can find Baron Zemo. Captain America takes the bait and races off to find a plane to take him to South America. Once they are gone, “Hans Grubervelt” removes his life-like mask, revealing that he is actually the Executioner in disguise. Meanwhile, Thor is called to a penthouse apartment by the Enchantress. She then uses her powers to enthrall the thunder god. She then makes him drink a potion that makes him have a realistic nightmare about the other Avengers terrorizing the world.[5] When Thor awakes, the Enchantress convinces him that the dream was real and that his teammates are now evil.

By this time, Captain America is being air-dropped in the section of South America that is Baron Zemo’s domain. He fights his way through knock-out gas and armed warriors until he falls into a pit that has been dug out to trap him. Back in America, Thor has intercepted the helicopter carrying Giant-Man and the Wasp and attacks them. The news of the battle spreads quickly and Tony Stark hears about it while at home charging his chest plate. Since Giant-Man and Wasp are in deep trouble, Tony changes into Iron Man and flies to their rescue. While Iron Man joins the battle, both the Enchantress and the Executioner are pleased and assume that the Avengers will destroy each other. Using her magic to see how things are going in South America, the Enchantress is not impressed that Baron Zemo has left Captain America trapped in a pit. She uses a spell to cause a cave-in, forcing Captain America to climb out. Captain America continues to fight his way through Baron Zemo’s forces. Fearing the Star-Spangled Avenger, Baron Zemo then flees to his ship and tries to escape, unaware that Captain America has hitched a ride.

In New York, Iron Man realizes that Thor is in some kind of trance. Reflecting light off his hand in a strobe-like pattern, Iron Man manages to snap Thor out of it. That’s when Baron Zemo arrives in his ship and begins trying to blast the Avengers with its onboard stun-ray. That’s when Captain America smashes the windshield and tries to get at his foe. In a panic, Zemo lands the ship on the penthouse where the Enchantress and Executioner have been watching the fight. The Executioner knocks out Captain America and tosses him out of the ship. The Masters of Evil then try to escape but Thor creates a space warp by twirling Mjolnir at great speed. This vortex banishes the Masters of Evil somewhere in time and space. When Captain America asks where Zemo is, Thor apologetically tells him that there is no way of knowing where the space warp would have sent them. Despite this, Captain America vows to never stop hunting Baron Zemo until he is brought to justice.

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Giant-Man, Wasp), Rick Jones, Masters of Evil (Baron Zemo, Enchantress, Executioner), Odin, Loki

Continuity Notes

1. This happened in Tales of Suspense #56. At the time, Tony Stark had grown tired of being Iron Man and decided to quit. He changed his mind when his friends were terrorized by the Unicorn.

2. The Executioner and Enchantress previously attacked Thor in Journey into Mystery #103.

3. Baron Zemo and his Masters of Evil fought with the Avengers last issue. Everyone but Zemo was caught at the end of the story.

4. At the time of this story, Captain America believed that Bucky died in 1945 while trying to disarm a bomb on a drone plane, as revealed in Avengers #4. However, years later, Cap will learn that Bucky survived and was brainwashed into becoming the assassin called Winter Soldier. See Captain America (vol. 5) #14.

5. Although this is just a dream. According to the Enchantress profile in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #4, this is also an alternate universe designated Earth-64087.

Topical References

• Tony Stark is depicted watching television on a black-and-white television.