The Call of the Mountain Thing!

The Avengers are racing to Tansia on a Quinjet to rescue Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch from some unknown threat. However, the trip is hardly smooth as they encounter a powerful storm as they enter the country. With the Quinjey losing control, Wonder Man stays behind to try and make a crash landing while the rest of the team bails out.

Ms. Marvel and the Wasp can fly under their own power, while Captain America is carried to the ground by the Falcon. The Beast protests Wonder Man piloting the plane alone, but Simon attaches his rocket belt to the furry mutant and sends him flying away.

On the ground, the other Avengers are ambushed by Modred the Mystic who has come to capture them for his master, Chthon. Falcon tries to prove his worth to the team by attacking the sorcerer head on but finds himself swarmed by animated leaves.

Meanwhile, the Beast crash lands on Wundagore Mountain where he comes upon a grisly discovery, the frozen corpse of one of the High Evolutionary’s New Men. While the other Avengers continue fighting Modred, Wonder Man manages to land the Quinjet. However, no sooner is he on the ground, he is he ambushed by the Scarlet Witch, who is possessed by Chthon. Before he can react, Chthon captures Simon in a stasis spell. By this time, Modred has taken down all the Avengers except for the Wasp who uses her insect size to sneak up on the mystic and knock him out with one of her bio-stings. Unfortunately, Janet falls prey to the possessed Witch who then takes the incapacitated Avengers up to Wundagore Mountain and places them in a mystical circle as part of a sacrificial spell.

Gloating over his victory, Chthon thinks back to the events that have led to this moment. He recalls how eons ago when he and the elder gods were destroyed or banished with the rise of new gods, he scrawled the original pages to the Book of Darkhold before going into hiding and biding his time to take over the world. It took centuries until the sorceress known as Morgan le Fay and her Darkholders used the book in the hopes of controlling the power of Chthon. However, they quickly discovered that the demon could not be controlled and narrowly succeeded in trapping his essence inside Wundagore Mountain. From there, a rogue sorcerer named Magnus hid the book in an enchanted tower that prevented anyone with evil intent from entering. However, this didn’t stop people from seeking the Darkhold’s power. Modred the Mystic sought it for good intentions only to lose his immortal soul. It was later removed from the tower by St. Brendan and passed through many hands including Cogliostro, and Taboo. It eventually ended up in the possession of Gregor Russoff who ended up cursing his bloodline with lycanthropy.

Russof would later sell his part of Wundagore Mountain to a team of scientists who found uranium on the land. One of them became the High Evolutionary and he built his Citadel of Science on Wundagore to create his race of New Men. Chthon hoped to use the New Men as his pawns, but Magnus had taken possession of the High Evolutionary’s colleague, Jonathan Drew, and together they combined science and technology to fight back Chthon when he attacked them as the Other. However, from defeat came the seeds of victory when Pietro and Wanda were born at the Citadel. Chthon imbued Wanda with latent magical abilities on top of her science spawned powers. Whenever Wanda’s science-born abilities faltered she sought mystical means to supplement her talents molding her into a pawn for Chthon to possess. He then enlisted the aid of Modred the Mystic to trick Magnus into being half a world away while he finalized his plans to take control of Wanda’s body.[1]

Chthon’s exposition is interrupted by the arrival of the Beast, who arrives wearing the armor of one of the Knights of Wundagore and astride one of their atomic steeds. When he stabs his javelin through the Darkhold, it frees the other Avengers who begin fighting the demonically possessed Scarlet Witch and Mordred.

Watching all of this is Django Maximoff who wonders where Wanda’s soul went after her body was possessed by Chthon. Reaching into his pocket he pulls out the wooden doll he carved of Wanda and discovers her soul has been trapped inside it once again.[2] With his heart giving out on him, Django hands over the doll to Quicksilver before collapsing to the ground. Pietro then points the doll at his sister’s body and tries to will his sister’s soul back into it. He is joined by the other Avengers and their combined power causes Wanda’s soul to trade places with Chthon, trapping the Elder God within the wooden doll. Quicksilver then tosses it at the base of Wundagore Mountain and Wanda uses her hex powers to cause an avalanche to bury it under tons of rock.

In the aftermath of the battle, Wanda and Pietro mourn the loss of Django, who raised them as children and bury him in the forest that he always loved. With Modred’s mind reduced to an infantile state following Chthon’s defeat, the Avengers leave him in the care of Bova and head for home.

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Captain America, the Wasp, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, the Beast, Wonder Man, Ms. Marvel, Falcon), Modred, Chthon, Bova, Django Maximoff, (in flashback) Gaea, Morgan le Fay, St. Brendan, Taboo, Cagliostro, Gregor Russoff, High Evolutionary, Jonathan Drew, Miriam Drew, Jessica Drew, Magnus

Continuity Notes

1. Holy shit is there a lot going on here as well. There are a lot of facts being dropped during Chthon’s exposition as well as various contradictions and untruths. Let’s get down to them:

• First, the facts, as they were understood when this story was first published:

  • The origins of Chthon as one of the Elder Gods is explored in more detail in Thor Annual #10, Silver Surfer Annual #2, and Marvel Tarot.

  • Morgan le Fay’s and her cult of Darkholders use of Chthon’s power are explored in more detail in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #22.

  • The time when the Darkhold was held in a mystical tower and then later recovered by Modred was detailed in Marvel Chillers #1-2.

  • St. Brendan taking the Darkhold is later explored in more detail in Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #11.

  • The foundation of the Citadel of Science, Chthon’s observation of the New Men, and the possession of Jonathan Drew by Magnus is detailed in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #22.

  • Gregor Russoff being cursed with lycanthropy was also explored in greater detail later in Uncanny X-Men Annual #12. It also expanded upon the battle between the Knights of Wundagore and Chthon.

  • The birth of Wanda and Pietro depicted here is the story that was detailed last issue, which suggests that Magda Lehnshire is their mother. Vision and the Scarlet Witch #4 will also go further by saying that their father was Magneto. For more on that keep reading.

  • In terms of the times that Wanda’s powers were waning. This happened twice. First in Avengers #30 when she and Pietro believed their powers were fading because they had been away from their homeland for too long. This lasted until issue #37. The next happened when Wanda seemingly lost her powers when a bullet creased her brow in Avengers #49. Her powers remained lost until they were restored by mystical means in Avengers #75-76.

  • Wanda was later trained in witchcraft in by Agatha Harkness from Avengers #127 until Giant-Size Avengers #4.

  • The distraction created for Magnus is likely referring to his helping Spider-Woman find her missing father from Spider-Woman #2 through 7

• As stated above, certain facts are untrue or misrepresented in this story. They are:

  • The High Evolutionary working with the Drew family has been called into question in Spider-Woman: Origin #1-5, which provides a contradictary account, saying the Drews worked exclusively for Hydra. Spider-Man (vol. 7) #1-10 suggests that both stories hold some truth, but there has yet to be a solid explanation provided. See here for more details on that.

  • As stated above, this story and Vision and the Scarlet Witch #4 leave readers to believe that Magda and Magneto are Wanda and Pietro’s parents. However, this is later revealed to have been a deception. Per Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4-5 and Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #4 reveal that their real mother was Natalya Maximoff and an as yet unidentified father (as of April 2021)

  • The reason for this deception is detailed in the above-mentioned issues of Uncanny Avengers and Scarlet Witch series. It turns out that neither Pietro nor Wanda is actual mutants. They were experimented upon by the High Evolutionary and made it so they registered as mutants whenever their genetics have been tested. This leaves the question of what involvement Magda had in this affair unanswered for the time being. See here for more.

• Django trapped the Maximoff twins in wooden statues in Avengers #181-182.