There is a Fire Down Below

The Sub-Mariner is returning to the sea after a meeting with the Avengers to discuss a reorganization of the team. He is soon joined by some dolphins who inform him that the Lava Men are attacking Hydrobase, the Avengers headquarters. Swimming back to the island, he discovers that it has been suspended out of the ocean by a massive column of molten rock. As he approaches, Lava Men begin to emerge all around him.

Distracted by a sinking sphere of rock, Namor is swarmed by Lava Men who then begin merging with the sphere. Inside are the rest of the Avengers - Captain America, Thor, Gilgamesh, Quasar, She-Hulk, and the Black Panther — who are trying to smash their way out. However, whenever they begin breaking through the rock lava flows in an solidifies immediately. That’s when Namor is pushed through the rock into the prison with them. The Atlantean is greatly dehydrated thanks to the searing heat and has been rendered unconscious. Thor tries to force his way through the gap left by Namor, but it quickly seals. Their prison then begins to start rolling again, taking them below the surface of the ocean floor.

Meanwhile, Hydrobase is balance precariously on the mound of molten rock. With the main team missing in action, Jarvis sends out a distress call to all other active Avengers.[1] This is received by the West Coast Avengers who are flying back to California following their meeting with the eastern team and they promptly turn around to help. By this time, the stone pillar suspending Hydrobase begins to crumble, causing the entire island to begin teetering on the brink.

At that moment, the eastern team is still trapped in molten rock. When their prison stops moving they begin trying to get free again. Fed up with their situation, Thor uses Mjolnir to summon a powerful vortex that succeeds in breaking them free. Once out of their prison, the Avengers discover that they are trapped deep below the surface of the Earth.

Back on the surface, a scientist realizes that he has lost track of time and heads into his basement before his new invention, an energy inverter, can overhead. He reminds himself to be more careful as he could have turned the entire town into a massive crater.[2]

Below the surface, Thor revives the Sub-Mariner by summoning rain to rehydrate the Atlantean’s body. They are then confronted by Jinku, the witchdoctor of the Lava Men who invites them back to his kingdom to explain why he has attacked them. There he shows them an alter of

a winged demon named Cha’sa’dra. He explains that the Lava Men used to be a race of underground dwellers named the Gortokians and they worships Cha’sa’dra as a god. One day, in answer to their prayers, Cha’sa’dra appeared before them and transformed the Gortokians into the first Lava Men. The demon then disappeared one day without explanation, but the Lava Men continued to worship the creature. More recently, when the demon N’Astirh came to Earth from Limbo during the Inferno crisis, Cha’sa’dra returned and join the demonic hordes. It was there that their god encountered and was slain by the Avengers.[3] The effect on the Lava Men was almost instantaneous with many of them reverting back to human form and rapidly aging to dust. Jinku and some of the most faithful retained their lava forms but they begin solidifying into solid rock. Eventually, the last of the Lava Men became inert, leaving Jinku the last of his race still left standing. Blaming the Avengers for this, Jinku then used his magic to create a new race of Lava Men, the mindless creatures that he sent against the heroes.

When the Avengers try to explain that Cha’sa’dra was not a god but a demon that was a threat to all life on Earth, Jinku refuses to listen. Instead he summons his latest creation a giant lava monster called the Avenging Avatar of Cha’sa’dra and orders it to slay the Avengers.

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Captain America, Thor, Black Panther, She-Hulk, Sub-Mariner, Gilgamesh, Quasar), Lava Men (Jink, Akor, Avatar of Cha’sa’dra), Avengers West Coast (Wasp, Hank Pym, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Wonder Man, Tigra), Paul Harker, (unidentified) Mister Fantastic, Gortokians, Cha’sa’dra (flashback)

Continuity Notes

1. Jarvis is depicted wearing an eye patch here. This is because he suffered optic nerve damage after being beaten by Mister Hyde in Avengers #275. He will continue to wear the patch until his vision is full healed circa Avengers #318.

2. The scientist is unnamed here. His invention is identified as a new source of abundant energy in Avengers #308, which identifies him merely as Professor Harker. His first name is revealed to be Paul in the Nebula profile of Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #8.

3. During Inferno, demons attempted to merge Earth with Limbo. The majority of the tale was told in Uncanny X-Men #239-243 and X-Factor #36-39. The Avengers were involved in this conflict from issue #298-300 of their own series, the last issue of that arc being the one where Cha’sa’dra was killed.

Errors

• The Vision is colored red and green in this story. This is a coloring error as, at the time of this story, the Vision’s body was rebuilt and turned completely white in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #45.