A Blast From the Past

Hawkeye has caught a bunch of crooks and rounds them up with the police. One of the arriving officers, not knowing that Hawkeye had quit the team, tells him how the Avengers were just attacked by Kang, who is trying to trigger a world war.[1] Concerned for the safety of his former teammates, Hawkeye races to Avengers Mansion and discovers a strange star glowing overhead.[2] Inside he finds the mansion deserted and before he can use the communicator to call help he is found by Jarvis. The Avengers’ butler quickly catches Hawkeye up with what happened, saying the Avengers were kidnapped by Kang and taken to Egypt and that the only one left free was the Swordsman who went by himself to try and rescue them. As it turned out, Kang had come to claim the so-called Celestial Madonna, a woman fated to give birth to a powerful being. He wanted to be the sire of that child, but historical records from his future was sparse and he was unsure if the Madonna is to be Mantis, the Scarlet Witch, or Agatha Harkness.

That’s when the Swordsman arrives with his new ally, Rama-Tut. Hawkeye points out that Rama-Tut is what Kang called himself when he ruled Egypt prior to reinventing himself.[3] However, Hawkeye quickly realizes that they have no choice but to ally themselves with Rama-Tut since the other Avengers are still captive.

In Egypt, Kang has placed Iron Man, Thor, and the Vision inside his Macrobots. He intends to use them as power batteries and sending the robots to attack the United States, Russia, and China in order to trigger a world war by killing key politicians. As he details this plot to the captive woman, they have nothing to say.

The first Macrobot, carrying the Vision, is distpatched to the United Nations in New York to slay the American Secretary of State. However, Hawkeye and the Swordsman are quickly teleported there by Rama-Tut. While the two try to fight the Macrobot, they discover that it has the same powers as the vision. Kang watches the battle from his monitors and wonders who the mystery man assisting the two Avengers is as Rama-Tut has disguised himself in a trenchcoat, hat, and scarf, in order to conceal his identity.

As the battle rages, Rama-Tut’s mind reflects back on his life. As it turns out, this Rama-Tut is actually an older version of Kang the Conqueror. Having grown tired from the centuries of conquest, he decided to go back to simpler times. He returned to ancient Egypt where he resumed his rule as Rama-Tut where he was welcomed back by his former subjects. There he ruled with a newfound compassion, however he could not stop thinking of the past.

Rama-Tut’s recollection abruptly ends when he suddenly comes up with a solution to stop the Macrobot attacking the UN. He reminds the two Avengers that it draws its power from the Vision’s solar gem. This inspires Hawkeye to fire an ink filled arrow at the Macrobot’s head, blocking its ability to collect solar energy. The robot goes berserk until it completely depletes its energy reserves and collapses to the ground. Furious over this defeat, Kang teleports to his next location. Meanwhile, the three heros free the Vision from the Macrobot and trail after Kang.

As they travel, Rama-Tut’s recollection of the past continues. Remembering the conflict over the Celestial Madonna, Rama-Tut decided to convince his past self to give up his mad quest. Having destroyed his time machine upon arrival in ancient Egypt, Rama-Tut worked on a means of putting himself in suspended animation for the duration of years until the the moment when the Swordsman entered the old pyramid looking for his teammates, thus ensuring Rama-Tut would wake up in this era.

Unaware that he is dealing with his future self, Kan decides to change his original plan and arrives in China to unleash the Macrobot powered by Iron Man. He is infuriated when Hawkeye, the Vision, the Swordsman and their mysterious benefactor were about to still follow him. As they battle this new Macrobot, Mantis cheers for the Vision who she refers to as “her man”, angering the Scarlet Witch. The two bickering women get on Kang’s nerves and he orders them to be silent.

On the ground, the battle rages on. The Vision quickly discovers that his phasing powers can’t be used to free Iron Man because he is protected by a force field. However, he quickly incapaciates the robot by phasing his cape inside the robot and making it solidify. Although this frees Iron Man, his power cells are greatly drained. Kang then decides to abandon his plans and unleashes the final Macrobot — the one containing Thor — upon the remaining Avengers. Iron Man allows himself to be grabbed by the robot and when it tries to fry him with Thor’s ability to summon lightning, it instead recharges Iron Man’s armor to full power. While Kang is distracted, the Vision phased onboard his ship and frees the captive women. They all join the battle below and with their combined might they manage to take down the last Macrobot and free Thor.

By this time, Rama-Tut has also boarded Kang’s time-ship and confronts his past self. Blasting away Rama’s disguise, time suddenly twists all around everyone as Kang becomes aware of the fact that he has been fighting his future self.[4] This also reveals to everyone which one of them is destined to become the Celestial Madonna, it turns out to be Mantis. As everyone is in shock over this revelation, Rama-Tut tries to convince Kang to end his evil ways, saying that he is destined to become the benevolent Rama-Tut eventually. Disgusted by his future self, Kang refuses to do so and decides that if he can’t have the Celestial Madonna, nobody will. Rama-Tut hesitates allowing Kang to pull and gun and try to shoot Mantis. However, the Swordsman shoves her out of the way and takes the full brunt of the energy blast. Attacking his past self, Rama-Tut knocks himself and Kang into the ship’s time controls, causing a malfunction that shunts them out of the time stream.

Mantis rushes to the Swordsman’s, finally realizes that she does love him after all, particularly after his selfless act. Tragically, it is too late as the Swordsman is dying. He chalks this up as the final in a life full of failures, thinking his death just proves he was nothing but a loser, just like Kang said he was. However, once the Swordsman has died the entire team mourns him for the hero he really is.

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Iron Man, Thor, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Swordsman, the Vision, Mantis), Agatha Harkness, Rama-Tut, Kang the Conqueror, Edwin Jarvis

Continuity Notes

1. Hawkeye quit the team in Avengers #109, partially because he was cock-blocked by the Vision.

2. The narration here mentions that Hawkeye recently teamed up with another Avenger, Captain America, as seen in Captain America #179.

3. Rama-Tut was indeed a past incarnation of Kang, first seen in Fantastic Four #19. Following an encounter with Doctor Doom in Fantastic Four Annual #2, Rama-Tut was inspired to reinvent himself and eventually became Kang, first seen in Avengers #8. It’s far more complicated than that, but I’ll fill you in as we move along…

4. In the “time-twist” there is a lot of Avengers history on display:

   • The first image is that of Doctor Doom, who inspired Nathaniel Richards to reinvent himself ater his failed outing as Rama-Tut, see Fantastic Four Annual #2.

   • The next is the Scarlet Centurion, which was the identity Nathaniel took before becoming Kang. This identity was first seen in Avengers Annual #2.

   • The third panel shows three Avengers: the Black Panther, Quicksilver, and Goliath. Quicksilver has been absent from the team since Avengers #108, the Black Panther recently left in Avengers #126. This version of Goliath is Clint Barton who briefly abandoned his Hawkeye identity from Avengers #63 to 98.

   • The panel under Doctor Doom shows various models of Iron Man’s armor. There is his first suit of armor (first seen in Tales of Suspense #39) in its gold painting (which it was painted in Tales of Suspense #40), the rest are variants of the Mark III armor (from Tales of Suspense #66): The first model with the flip down mask, the round “bullet head” helmet (Avengers #6) and the most recent modification which ridiculously has a nose (Iron Man #68)

   • On the opposite side of the page is the Grandmaster holding his weird scale device from when Kang challenged him in the so-called Game of Galaxies that lasted from Avengers #69-71.

   • The next row starts with an image of the Hulk, who was briefly an Avenger from issues #1 to 2.

   • This is followed by all the different identities that Hank Pym has taken on over the years: Ant-Man (Tales to Astonish #35), Giant-Man (Tales to Astonish #49), Goliath (Avengers #28), and Yellowjacket (Avengers #59).

   • The woman at the bottom of the page is Kang’s unrequited lover Ravonna, first seen in Avengers #23-24. At the time of this story she is believed to be in a coma following those stories. What nobody knows is that the Grandmaster revived her and replaced her with a duplicate, per Avengers Annual #21.

Topical References

• The Modern Age is stated as happening in the 20th Century in this story. This should be considered a topical reference per the Sliding Timescale. It has pushed the Modern Age forward so that it now does not begin until the 21st Century.

• Hawkeye is depicted summoning the authorities by using a police call box. This should be considered a topical reference as these have long since been replaced with advances in radio technology.

• Hawkeye states that he left the Avengers over a year ago. This should be considered a topical reference as it denotes the length of time between publications and not in-universe. Per the Sliding Timecale, he has been gone for four months as 16 months divided by 4 = 4 months.

• Russia is referred to as the Soviet Union here. This is another topical reference as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and the country has simply been referred to as Russia ever since.