Avengers #157
A Ghost of Stone!
Iron Man, Yellowjacket, and the Beast are working in the lab when someone comes crashing in through the wall. The Avengers try to stop the mystery attacker but he shrugs off all of their attacks and knocks them out by knocking over a heavy computer bank on the trio. The attacker in question is the animated statue of the Black Knight.
Feeling that the Avengers had abandoned him, the statue of the Knight has come to get revenge. He thinks back to how he came back to this situation. Since his physical form had been turned to stone, the Black Knight’s body had been stored — seemingly forgotten — in the basement of Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum.[1] That was until some a mysterious hand reached out to the statue through a portal and gave him renewed life.[2]
With the security system in the mansion disabled, the statue of the Black Knight goes looking for other Avengers to attack. In the kitchen, Captain America amusedly watches the Wasp and Jarvis bicker over the ingredients to put into her plum pudding. They are ambushed by the statue, who quickly knocks out both Captain America and the Wasp. His mind drifts back again, to the end of the Avengers/Defenders War, when the two teams defeated both Dormammu and Loki. He remembers how they learned how they were manipulated into fighting each other and that the Black Knight’s soul was still in the past. He believes that his former allies left him in that era and vows to kill them all for abandoning him.
Elsewhere in the city, Wonder Man and the Scarlet Witch are out shopping. Simon is glad she invited him out so he can get used to how much New York has changed since he was “dead”.[3] Wanda takes the time to talk about how her husband, the Vision, has been distant since Simon came back and how it frightens her.[4] Their conversation is interrupted by an out-of-control bus. While Wanda uses her hex powers to disburse the crowd, Simon uses his titanic strength to stop the bus with his bare hands. When a crowd of fans begins to surround them, the pair flee into a taxi cab and head back to the mansion. When they arrive at the mansion, Jarvis tries to warn them of the danger but they are ambushed by the Black Knight statue. Despite Simon’s best efforts, the statue proves too powerful and knocks them both out.
Taking Simon and Wanda into the lab where he has been keeping the others, the Black Knight then waits for the Vision to return home. When the android does, the Vision questions to the validity of the statute’s claims, pointing out how the Defenders found the real Dane Whitman alive and well in the 12th Century. Having his identity called into question, the statue attacks the Vision. However, the android is prepared and has increased his density so that he is as hard as a diamond. Even though his first blows shatter his arms, the Black Knight continues his attacks until he rams into the Vision, shattering him to rubble. Although he was not physically harmed, the Vision was once again left questioning his own humanity when the statue referred to him as a being of synthetic flesh.
Recurring Characters
Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Yellowjacket, the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, the Vision, the Beast, Wonder Man), Black Knight (statue), Ultron (unidentified), Edwin Jarvis, (in flashback) Defenders (Doctor Strange, Sub-Mariner, Silver Surfer, Valkyrie), Avengers (Hawkeye, Black Panther, Swordsman, Mantis)
Continuity Notes
The Black Knight was turned into stone by the Enchantress in Defenders #4. Following the Avengers/Defenders War (Avengers #115-118 and Defenders #8-11) it was stored in Doctor Strange’s basement. Dane Whitman’s soul was discovered to be existing in the 12th Century living in the body of his ancestor.
The identity of the being who animated the Black Knight statue is unrevealed here. The Black Knight profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #1 reveals that it was Ultron.
Wonder Man seemingly died in Avengers #9 due to a side effect of the process that gave him his powers. However, he turned up alive in Avengers #151. It’s later explained in issue #164 that he actually entered a death-like metamorphosis as his body changed into a being of pure ionic energy.
The Vision’s brain patterns were based on Simon Williams. See Avengers #57-58 and 134-135.
Topical References
This story is stated as happening on Christmas Eve 1976. However, per the Sliding Timescale, this could not be possible. How one could reconcile this fact is anyone’s guess.
Wonder Man mentions all of the things he missed while he was “dead”. He said it was “years”, but per the Sliding Timescale, he had been “dead” for roughly 4 years. All of the things he references are, of course, topical:
He mentions “the riots”: He is probably referring to various race riots that took place in New York City in 1967 and 1968, the latter in protest to the assassination of Martin Luther King.
“Student protests”: Is likely a reference to the Columbia University protests of 1968 against both the Vietnam draft and segregation.
The “money crisis” is in reference to the fact that in 1975, New York City was bankrupt.
