Strangers on an Astral Plane

In an empty dimension the Olympian death god Pluto just happens to run into Loki, the Asgardian god of mischief. As both have been banished for past transgressions, the pair decide to swap enemies.[1] While Pluto works on slaying Thor, Loki will work on eliminating Hercules. This way, they will be able to vanquish their enemies while maintaining plausible deniability.

Meanwhile, in New York City, where Hercules is testing his strength by juggling a full sized Giant-Man with one hand while Thunderstrike practices with his new hammer. The group all notices that Captain America is looking run down but he refuses to talk about what’s wrong with him.[2] Depressed by seeing such a noble being suffer in silence, Hercules decides to go out and drown all memory of it out at a bar.

As this is happening, Loki heads to the realm of Tartarus where he recruits Typhon, a harpies, Arges the cyclops, a Centimanes named Kottus the Furious, and a yellow-crested Titan in his scheme to destroy Hercules for Pluto.[3] Typhon is more than eager to be free as it gives him an opportunity to crush the son of Zeus once and for all.

Back on Earth, Hercules has arrived at a fancy restaurant with two female companions because his love, Taylor Madison, is unavailable that evening.[4] As they sit down at their table, Hercules offers to tell his two companions about his twelve labors. When one of the women asks why he had to do those jobs, he explains that it was in punishment for slaying his wife and children.[5] He then takes offense when that same woman tries to make a joke about Herc being single. The dinner is then interrupted by a paparazzi who wants to get Hercules’ picture. However, as his flash goes off, Typhon teleports into the room and begins attacking the demigod. As the patrons flee the building Arges, Kottus, the harpy, and the yellow-crested Titan come crashing through the wall. They quickly swarm Hercules and overpower him, with Arges landing the knock out blow with a bolt of lightening.

However, as Hercules collapses to the ground, he lands on his Avengers ID card, triggering the distress call. The Avengers — Captain America, Giant-Man, the Vision, Thunderstrike, and Crystal — all arrive moments later to rescue their comrade. However, rather than continue the fight, Typhon decides to abscond back to Hades with Hercules as his prisoner so he can conspire against Zeus himself. Observing this from his hellish prison, Loki curses Typhon for going against the agreed upon plan and has good mind to recruit others to hold up his end of the deal with Pluto, but decides to see where things go from here. The Avengers are unable to stop Typhon and his allies from escaping as they need to help innocent people escape the now collapsing restaurant. Once they have finished this task, Thunderstrike whirls his hammer to open a portal for the Avengers to follow after their foe.

In Tartarus, Typhon and his allies force Hercules to drink from River Lethe, causing Hercules to forget most of his past. This allows Typhon to convince the demigod to help him launch an attack against Olympus. Since Herc’s only memory of the past is of the time he was almost forced to rule over Hades, Hercules agrees to accompany Typhon on his mission.[6] Just as he had done during his previous attack on Olympus, Typhon succeeds in snuffing out the Promethean Flame, causing everyone on Olympus to be shunted off to the land of shades. From the extinguished brazier, Typhon is able to recover his enchanted axe.

Soon, the Avengers arrive and another battle breaks out but the battle is evenly matched. Things are made all the more difficult because Hercules is fighting on the side of Typhon. Realizing that Herc is under some kind of mind control, Captain America leads him on a chase through the stables of Olympus and openly mocks him over the indignity of having to clean out the Aegean Stables centuries earlier.[7] This angers Hercules who shatters an aqueduct causing the area to be flooded by a nearby river. The raging waters sweep Captain America way and Hercules, deciding that no foe deserves such an ignoble death, leaps in to rescue him. This washes away the effects of the River Lethe, allowing Hercules to full remember who he is. He and the other Avengers then pile onto Typhon and wrest his mystical axe away. Dropping it back into the brazier, they reignite the Promethean Flame, restoring the Olympians.

With the Avengers having tied Typhon up, they deliver him to Zeus for punishment. Suspecting Pluto had a hand in this, Zeus contacts him in Hades. However, Pluto insists that he was not part of this attack and has his lover Persephone corroborate his story.[8] Despite the fact he does not know who freed Typhon and his confederates, Zeus banishes them all back to Tartarus and sends the Avengers home. With Loki’s plan foiled, Pluto then goes about following through on his plan to kill Thor…

… This story is continued in Thor Annual #19.

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Captain America, Giant-Man, Hercules, Vision, Thunderstrike, Crystal), Typhon, Loki, Pluto, Zeus, Persephone, Hera, Kratos, Bia

Continuity Notes

1. Pluto was ordered to never leave Hades again in Thor #467 while Loki has been imprisoned in Mephisto realm since Thor #455. Loki will ultimately get free in Thor #482.

2. Captain America’s fatigue here is a symptom of a large health issue. In Captain America #373 he was caught in a meth lab explosion that reacted dangerously with the Super Soldier Serum in his veins forcing him to eventually purge it from his body in issue #384. By issue #425 of that series, Cap’s health begins to go into decline. Cap will eventually be cured of this condition in issue #445 of Captain America.

3. Here it is mentioned that Typhon has been banished to Tartarus after his last defeated at the hands of Hercules during a failed take over of Olympus. This happened way back in Avengers #49-50. While this was when he was banished, he did briefly escape to torment Hercules again in Avengers #163 before being banished once more.

4. That’s putting it lightly. Hercules met and fell in love with Taylor Madison while visiting a hospital for sick children in Avengers #349. At the time of this story, she had told Hercules that she couldn’t see him anymore in Avengers #367. This is because Taylor believes that she is terminally ill, which is only partially right. See, Hera was trying to get Hercules to fall in love with a terminally ill woman in an effort to break his heart. However, Madison was actually a mystical construct created by Zeus to catch Hera in the act and her “terminal illness” was merely just the magic that brought her into existence beginning to wear off. See Avengers #384 for all the convoluted details.

5. This is part of Greek mythology, but it was also so in the Marvel Universe. Hercules was put into a rage by Hera and he killed his wife Megara and their three children. See Hercules (vol. 3) #5 and Incredible Hercules #115.

6. Hercules was tricked into signing a contract that would have put him in charge of Hades in place of Pluto. However, Thor was able to fight for his freedom and nullified the contract. See Thor #129.

7. It’s odd that Hercules claims that he cleaned out the Aegean Stables, as he admitted in Thor #291 that this was actually done by the Eternal named Gilgamesh. The Hercules entry in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #5 clarifies. While Hercules set about shoveling the shit out the stables Gilgamesh happened by and washed them out by diverting a river. The locals mistook Gilgamesh for Hercules at that time, hence the confusion. It still doesn’t explain how Hercules could mix up that story. One could assume that what he remembered was clouded by the effects of the River Lethe.

Topical References

• The waiter at the restaurant confuses Hercules for Arnold Schwarzenegger. Which is not too far off since Schwarzenegger did play the role of Hercules in the 1970 film Hercules in New York. That said, this reference should be considered topical since (as of this writing) Arnold is 74.

• The paparazzi who tries to take Hercules’ picture does so with a camera that uses physical film and a flash cube. This should be considered topical as these are obsolete technologies.

Master of His Own Destiny

At Avengers Mansion,[1] the Vision and Giant-Man have just wrapped up a training session. To pass the time until their next session by virtually exploring the internet. His exploration of the web happens just as an artificial intelligence calling itself the Glitch becomes self-aware. It decides to conquer the world but in order to do so needs to take control of a physical body in order to accomplish this task.

Detecting the Vision’s connection, Glitch uses the pathway to hack into the android’s mind. In order to infiltrate clandestinely, Glitch programs a virus that will cause the Vision’s memory to decrease whenever he lowers his density which will eventually lead the Vision defenseless to take over by Glitch. This all seems to work out in Glitch’s favor as the Vision’s next training session with Giant-Man is one that involves using his density powers defensively against an attacker. Although the Glitch manages to take control of the Vision’s body for a brief moment, his plans for conquest are quickly quashed when using the Vision’s phasing powers affects his own intelligence in the same way. With no mind in control of the Vision, an automatic reboot is conducted that purges Glitch’s control of his system, snuffing out the artificial intelligence in the process.

Recurring Characters

Vision, Giant-Man

Continuity Notes

1. This story depicts Avengers Headquarters and not Avengers Mansion and shows the building in ruins, damage caused to the building by Sersi in Avengers #373. That makes this story chronologically impossible since Avengers Headquarters was later replaced with a replica of the original mansion in Avengers #375, with no time for Giant-Man and Vision to have the training sessions in between that time. This is more apparent when you consider the fact that the Vision left on a mission with Deathcry, Magdalene, and Swordsman in Avengers #372. As such, it is my opinion that this story either has to take place before issue #372 or after issue #379, when Vision and co. return from their mission. Whatever the case, the appearance of a ruined Avengers Headquarters should be considered an error.