Avengers #268
The Kang Dynasty!
The Wasp, Black Knight, and Hercules have gone missing in the tunnel being dug to link Avengers Mansion with Hydrobase. When Jarvis notices they are missing he calls in Captain America, Captain Marvel, and the Sub-Mariner to investigate the site for clues. With scanning equipment they pick up traces of chronal displacement waves, and Captain America deduces that their teammates were kidnapped by Kang the Conqueror. Which raises the question: Where did Kang take them, and why?
The three missing Avengers have found themselves trapped in Limbo, a timeless realm outside normal time and space. After destroying a robot of Kang they are trying to figure out their next move. That’s when Iron Man — displaced to Limbo during a battle with the Space Phantom years earlier — suddenly disappears and is replaced with the Phantom himself.[1] When the Wasp tries to interrogate the Space Phantom he is suddenly shot in the back by Kang.[2] The master of time tells the three Avengers that the only way they can get home is by following his orders and invites them to find him before vanishing again.
From his fortress in the middle of Limbo, Kang gloats to Ravonna about how easy it is to manipulate these Avengers. He intends to trick them into killing the last of his multiversal counterparts so that he will be the only Kang left in the timestream. After showing her his robotics operation — where he builds robotic duplicates of himself to replace the counterparts he has killed — he then takes her to the corpse of the second last Kang. He explains to Ravonna that he intends to have the Avengers find the body just as the final counterpart arrives in the hopes of convincing his duplicate that the Avengers were responsible for the death and engage the heroes in battle.
Meanwhile, unaware of Kang’s plans for them, the three Avengers wade through the unending fog of Limbo searching for their captor. This timeless realm makes it hard to judge how long they have been walking or if they are making any kind of progress. Suddenly, they are ambushed by the many Dire Wraiths that have been banished to Limbo by Rom the Spaceknight.[3] The Dire Wraiths then begin attacking the Avengers, not to defeat them, but in the hopes that the three heroes will kill them and end their eternal torment in Limbo.
Back on Earth, things outside continue to get tense outside Avengers Mansion. It has been the site of protests since the news that the Sub-Mariner had joined the teams ranks. However, counter-protestors have arrived to support Namor’s inclusion of the team and the two sides begin arguing with one another. Inside the mansion, Captain America and the other Avengers are working on repairing the Leader’s Time Platform so they can go searching for their missing friends.[4] The process is frustrating for Namor, but he is quickly calmed down by Captain America. The outburst raises concerns from both Captain Marvel and Jarvis, who have also questioned allowing Namor onto the team.
In Limbo, the three Avengers are horrified to discover that the Dire Wraiths want to kill themselves and are forced to eliminate their foes in order to survive themselves. When only one Dire Wraith remains standing, Hercules demands it reveal the location of Kang’s base of operations. The Wraith agrees to do so, only if Hercules promises to end its life afterwards. Soon, the Avengers arrive outside Kang’s hideout, where the Wasp has to put in an effort to compose herself after the senseless slaughter of the Dire Wraiths. She then infiltrates the massive fortress, taking out the defenses so that Hercules and the Knight can join her. Searching the facility, they come across the dead body of the Prime Kang’s counterpart just as the final alternate Kang arrives. Things go according to plans when this alternate Kang accuses the three Avengers of killing his counterpart and begins attacking them. In order to even the odds, this Kang activates one of his Growing Man stimuloids to help in the battle.
By this time, the Avengers on Earth have finished putting together the time platform and use it to track their missing teammates. When they arrive in Limbo, the time machine begins to overload and they have to run for cover before it explodes. The three newcomers now find themselves trying to find their bearings in Limbo so they can search for their missing teammates. Luckily, they are pointed in the right direction when Hercules punches the Growing Man with enough force to send him flying out of Kang’s fortress where he lands in front of Captain America and the others. The first to arrive is Captain Marvel, who uses her energy powers to short out Kang’s power harness. When the Avengers try to get answers from Kang, he realizes that his counterpart is plotting against him. He and the Avengers are then knocked out by a massive stun blast that fills the room.
When they wake up the Avengers and the Kang counterpart find themselves trapped in stasis beams. When the Prime Kang arrives with Ravonna he tells the Avengers that they are going to watch as he kills their final counterpart before destroying them all.[5]
Recurring Characters
Avengers (Captain America, Wasp, Black Knight, Hercules, Captain Marvel, Sub-Mariner) Council of Kangs (Kang) Ravonna, Space Phantom, Growing Man, Dire Wraiths, Iron Man
Continuity Notes
This would have been during the Avengers first battle with the Space Phantom way back in Avengers #2. Last issue the Wasp stated that those events happened “years ago”. According to the Sliding Timescale, those events happened about seven years prior to this story.
It’s not really clear what happens to the Space Phantom here after he is blasted from behind, but he does survive as his next chronological appearance is in Avengers #10.
Since the beginning of his own series, Rom had used a Neutralizer to banish the Dire Wraiths on Earth to Limbo. He ultimately completed this mission by Rom #66.
The Avengers confiscated this device after the Leader used it to scatter the Avengers through time in Incredible Hulk #284-285.
Captain America is shocked to see Ravonna up and walking around, as the last time he saw her she was nearly dead. That was in Avengers #71. Ravonna’s body had been in stasis after being mortally wounded saving Kang’s life in Avengers #23-24. This Ravonna, as explained next issue, is an alternate that was pulled out of time moments before she was shot.
