Avengers #134
The Times That Bind!
With a Synchro-Staff provided by Immortus, the Avengers journey through time and space to learn the mysterious origin of Mantis. They have just been shown the beginning of the millennia-long Kree/Skrull war. As they ponder what this has to do with Mantis, the Synchro-Staff pushes them to another period of time.[1]
They are brought to the year 476 in the Kree calendar. By this time, the Kree had evolved into a highly advanced warrior race after they reverse-engineered Skrull technology. However, while most of the Kree were warriors a sect of pacifists soon emerged. They were second-class citizens in this society. While discriminated by their warmongering brethren, the pacifist Kree worked on developing their minds. They also developed a method of martial arts to use strictly for defense.[2]
Eventually, the pacifists developed the means to communicate telepathically. It was then that a strange voice called out to their minds. It brought them some old ruins where they discovered members of the Cotati that had not been exterminated by their ancestors over 400 years earlier. By this time, the Cotati had sacrificed their mobility to further evolve their minds. Soon an alliance was forged between the pacifists and the Cotati. In exchange for defense and care, the pacifist Kree would learn the Cotati’s secrets of the mind.
Elsewhere in time and space, the Vision continues his own quest to learn his connection to the original android Human Torch who was created in the 1940s. After seeing the Torch’s origins in 1939, his Synchro-Staff has jumped him ahead a decade in time. It was in November of that year that the Human Torch and his sidekick Toro ran afoul of mobsters who were receiving financial backing from the USSR.[3] Sprayed with a chemical formula that knocked the Torch out, the mobsters then buried the Torch in the Nevada Desert. There he remained until 1953 when the nuclear fallout from an atomic bomb test revived the Torch.[4] Reunited with Toro, the Human Torch renewed his crime-fighting career until he abruptly broke ties and disappeared in 1955.[5] What he didn’t tell Toro was that the radiation that revived him years earlier was causing his body to burn himself out. He then returned to the Nevada Desert where he went out in a nova burst of intensity.[6] Seeing all this causes the Vision to experience instant recall of these events and is told that there is still more to the story.
Back with the other Avengers, they continue to learn about the Kree pacifists. Over the years they continued to care for the Cotati and kept their continued existence a secret. However, Kree society soon grew tired of their pacifist ways and they were all rounded up and brought to the Supreme Intelligence for punishment. The Kree super-computer decreed that the pacifists be sent to a barren world to live out their lives in exile. Although they were separated from the Cotati by light-years, they were still able to communicate telepathically. This is when, as the Avengers already know, that the Star-Stalker came to that world to destroy it. Thanks to their connection to the Cotati, the pacifists learned that the Star-Stalker was vulnerable to heat. When the creature tried to consume their world, they shattered the upper crust opening up channels of lava. The heat from the molten magma was enough to drive the Star-Stalker away.
Meanwhile, on present-day Earth, Moondragon has landed her ship on the roof of Avengers Mansion to find out why the group was summoning her ally, Captain Marvel. The only person there to greet her is Jarvis. He tries to use the communicators to contact the team to find out when they will be home but can’t reach them. He then tells her that the only member of the team present is the Scarlet Witch, who has been sequestered while she undergoes witchcraft training with Agatha Harkness. When Wanda and Agatha come downstairs, the Witch speaks to them in a strange voice and tells them not to disturb her.[7] Sensing trouble, Moondragon tries to take down Wanda with her mental powers.[8] However, the Scarlet Witch is able to subdue the visitor with her hex powers. Agatha tells Jarvis that their work is almost done and asks that they not be interrupted until then.
At that same time, the Vision’s journey continues on. He is brought to a few years into the recent past where the inert body of the Human Torch was recovered by the Mad Thinker.[9] Using his technological skills, the Thinker revived the Human Torch and used him against the Fantastic Four and their own Human Torch, Johnny Storm. However, the Thinker’s scheme failed when his sentient computer — Quasimodo — seemingly slew the Torch. After the Thinker escaped, the Fantastic Four then dealt with the Human Torch’s body. Mister Fantastic decided to leave it in the Thinker’s lab, finding it a fitting place to inter the android. It is here that the Synchro-Staff offhandedly mentions how a memorial service was held, which the Mad Thinker used to capture Toro.[10] However, this is none of their concern, as what happened next far more relevant as Ultron — the robot that created the Vision — later found the lab where the Torch’s body was stored.
The other Avengers, meanwhile, continue learning more about the Kree pacifists. Although the Star-Stalker was only a minor threat to the world, the pacifists managed to parlay this threat into another audience with the Supreme Intelligence. Although the Kree ruler hardly considered the Star-Stalker a threat, he allowed the pacifist Kree to disseminate to inhabited worlds across the universe to warn them of the danger. This allowed the pacifists access to the Cotati again and they used this new exile to transplant Cotati all over the universe. Two of their number arrived on Earth where they founded the temple of the Priests of Pama in what would become modern-day Vietnam. There they planted the members of the Cotati that were left in their charge. Resembling ordinary trees, these Cotati continued to grow and flourish on Earth. It’s here that Mantis realizes that they buried the Swordsman’s body at the base of the largest of these trees.[11]
With that, they are all teleported back to present-day Earth on the site of the Temple of Pama. There, they find Libra and the green-glowing apparition of the Swordsman. The entity tells them that now that they have learned the history of the Kree universe, Mantis is now ready to learn about the coming of the Celestial Madonna.[12]
Recurring Characters
Avengers (Iron Man, Thor, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, the Vision, Mantis), Moondragon, Edwin Jarvis, Agatha Harkness, Libra, Swordsman (Cotati), Space Phantoms (unidentified), (in flashback) Priests of Pama, Supreme Intelligence, Human Torch (Hammond), Toro, Mad Thinker, Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, Thing), Wyatt Wingfoot, Ultron
Continuity Notes
What the Avengers don’t know is that Immortus is showing them the origins of Mantis and the Vision as part of a complex scheme to manipulate the destiny of the Avengers. What they don’t know is that these Synchro-Staffs are actually Space Phantoms in disguise. See Avengers Forever #9.
The Avengers recall hearing about the pacifist Kree during the battle with the Star-Stalker in Avengers #124.
The Torch’s origins were originally told in Marvel Comics #1. He started crime-fighting with Toro pretty early on in his career. The youth would join the Torch in Human Torch Comics #2.
The Torch’s defeat and revival in the 1950s was detailed in Young Men #24. It was later expanded upon in Saga of the Original Human Torch #3.
This was originally covered in Sub-Mariner #14.
The Torch’s seeming demise in the mid-50s is detailed in more detail Saga of the Original Human Torch #4
Unrevealed here, the Scarlet Witch is enthralled by Dormammu as we’ll learn in Giant-Size Avengers #4.
Moondragon recalls how she met the Scarlet Witch during the so-called Thanos War. This took place in Captain Marvel #25-33, Marvel Feature #12, and Avengers #125.
The Mad Thinker used the original Human Torch against the Fantastic Four in Fantastic Four Annual #4.
What is not revealed here is that the Torch was left in the Thinker’s lab and was buried after the mock funeral held by the Thinker. This was all part of Immmortus’ plans. As detailed in Avengers Forever #8-9, he created a chronal duplicate of the Human Torch’s body. One was buried in the cemetery following its funeral in Sub-Mariner #14. The other remained in the Mad Thinker’s lab where it was found and turned into the Vision, as detailed next issue. The buried duplicate of the Torch is later revived in Avengers West Coast #50, all part of a plot to manipulate the Scarlet Witch and the Avengers.
The Swordsman sacrificed his life to save Mantis from Kang in Giant-Size Avengers #2.
This glowing entity is not the Swordsman but a mental projection from of one of the Cotati, as we’ll learn in Giant-Size Avengers #4.
Topical References
This story states that the Mad Thinker’s plot against the Fantastic Four took place in 1966. This story pre-dates the advent of the Sliding Timecsale and should be considered a topical reference as it denotes the length of time between publications. Per the Timescale those events take place during “year two” of the Modern Age, making this flashback happening roughly two years prior to the present day in this story.
