Avengers #82
Hostage!
In the early dawn, the island of Manhattan is suddenly under siege by a high-tech army. The police quickly fall under clouds of knock-out gas, and the bridges and tunnels on and off the island are destroyed. At Gracie Mansion the mayor of New York is taken prisoner. Average citizens are then ordered off the streets. The situation quickly reaches the President of the United States. As he puzzles what to do about the situation, Aries of the Zodiac cartel hijacks the television airwaves to announce that he is holding the island of Manhattan for ransom. To demonstrate how futile it is to stop him, Aries shows footage of a failed attempt to drop paratroopers on the island as well as four of the Avengers — Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and Quicksilver — are prisoners in suspended animation.
Watching this from a New Jersey shop window are Goliath, the Scarlet Witch, and the Vision, who was trying to return to the city after assisting Red Wolf in the mid-west. They have not been able to get into New York since Aries erected a force field around the island. They are not the only people unable to act as the three male members of the Fantastic Four are just returning home after dropping the Invisible Girl off at Whisper Hill.[1] Also watching the news coverage is Peter Parker. He is about to get up and go into action as Spider-Man, but when his Aunt May enters the room he decides against it and tries to keep the invasion a secret due to May’s weak heart.[2]
What nobody knows is that there is still an Avenger on the loose as the Black Panther was away on personal business. He goes to the home of Matt Murdock and helps him fight off Aries men, as he just recently learned the blind lawyer is also secretly Daredevil.[3] With the armed men defeated, Murdock changes into Daredevil and the pair track down Aries to his hideout and attack. However, the leader of the Zodiac cartel anticipated such an attack and had the captive Avengers placed somewhere else while awaiting their public execution. When they try to attack Aries, he is able to fend them off with the power of the Zodiac Key. With the Black Panther knocked out in the blast, Daredevil has no choice but to grab his friend and flee so they can come up with a better plan.
Furious that the Panther and Daredevil have escaped, Aries orders his men for force people into Madison Square Gardens to witness the execution of Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and Quicksilver. Having changed into his civilian clothes, Matt Murdock tries to convince the people to fight back against their captors.[4] Overpowered and dragged on stage, Matt uses the opportunity to fire a wireline from his cane that shuts off the stasis device keeping Captain America and the others in stasis. While the Avengers deal with the armed guards, Aries tries to escape in a ship. Thor easily catches up with the craft and is horrified to see that Aries is retracting the force field and reducing the air supply on the island. Horrified that Aries is willing to kill the entire population of Manhattan to make his getaway, Thor summons a bolt of lightning that blows Aries’ ship out of the sky.[5] With their leader dead, Aries militia surrenders as the military arrives on the island.
In the aftermath of the battle, the Avengers are all reunited back at the mansion. Comparing notes they discover that even though they went off on separate missions they were all somehow tied into the operations of the Zodiac Cartel. Before departing, Daredevil makes a quip about three blind men trying to describe an elephant by different parts of its body and how they wouldn’t know what they were dealing with until they compare notes. The rest of the Avengers are confused, but the Black Panther knows exactly what the Man Without Fear means and assures Cap and the others that they wouldn’t believe the truth if he told them.
Recurring Characters
Avengers (Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Goliath, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Black Panther, the Vision), Daredevil, Aries, Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Human Torch, Thing), Peter Parker, Aunt May
Continuity Notes
Whisper Hill is home of Agatha Harkness. At the time of this story, Harkness was the babysitter for Franklin Richards, the son of Reed and Sue Richards since Fantastic Four #94.
At the time of this story, Peter has been walking around eggshells over Aunt May’s heart, particularly after the old bird suffered a heart attack in Amazing Spider-Man #17.
The Black Panther and Daredevil recently worked together to break up the Thunderbolt gang. See Daredevil #69.
Murdock tries to disguise himself by wearing sunglasses from his days as Mike Murdock. In order to protect his secret identity, Matt created the identity of Mike Murdock, his alleged twin brother who was actually Daredevil. This became more complicated than it first appeared and Matt staged Mike’s “death” leaving the world to believe that Daredevil was succeeded by someone else. The Mike Murdock ruse lasted from Daredevil #25 through 41.
Aries, aka Marcus Lassiter (per Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #12), does not survive the destruction of his craft. The role of Aries is taken over by Grover Raymond starting in Avengers #120.
Topical References
The opening narrative of this story states that New York had a population of 1.6 million people according to 1960s census data. You can’t really fault them for have 10-year-old census data in the days before the internet. This should be considered topical since the data available at the time of this writing (March 2021) New York now has a population of about 8.4 million people in 2019.
The Garbage Database would have you think that the mayor of New York City depicted here is John Lindsay. While Lindsay was the mayor of New York from 1966 until 1973, the person depicted here cannot be clearly identified given the fact that he’s only seen from behind. Nor is he identified by name or by any distinguishing characteristics. It’s just a white guy in a purple suit that you see from behind.
The same can’t be said about who they intend the President of the United States is in this story. Although he’s only seen in shadow and not mentioned by name, the silhouette is clearly that of Richard Nixon who was POTUS from 1969 to 1974. This is obviously a topical reference since Nixon has been out of the office and very dead since 1994.
Aries wants to ransom the island of Manhattan for a billion dollars, which was a lot of money in 1970. Adjusting for inflation, that would be about 6 billion in 2021 money, also not a lot of money to ransom one of the largest most expensive cities in America with a GDP in the trillions. The dollar value asked is, obviously, a topical reference.
