Avengers (vol. 3) #3
Fata Morgana
Morgan le Fay has successfully combined the magic of the Scarlet Witch and the Asgardian Twilight Sword to shape reality to her whims. The island of Tintagel Head, off the coast of Cornwall, has now been transformed into the capital city of her medieval rule of the planet. The Avengers have also been transformed into her loyal guard, the Queen’s Vengeance.[1] However, thanks to the Scarlet Witch, a group of Avengers led by Captain America have been able to remember who they really are. On the run from the Queen’s Vengeance, the heroes have fled to a nearby forest as they plan and prepare their next move. Cap runs the team through a training session so they are in good form in the coming battle, knowing that sooner or later, Morgan is going to slip up and give them an opening to restore everything to normal.
At the royal castle, Morgan le Fay explodes into a fit of rage after learning that the Scarlet Witch has somehow escaped from her dungeon.[2] When the guard can’t give her any answers, Morgan kills him. This is when Mordred interrupts to introduce Ambassador Kro from Lemuria who has arrived to discuss matters of state. Finding this beneath her, le Fay uses her magic to kill Kro is well, much to the horror of Mordred. When he points out that this will greatly hurt diplomatic relations, Morgan reminds her nephew that she can alter reality as she fits and Kro’s death means nothing. She then decides to deal with the Avengers, ordering the Priestess (Moondragon) to use her mental powers to location Captain America and the others. When they have been located, Morgan le Fay sends out an astral projection and offers the renegades an ultimatum: Surrender to her and rejoin the Queen’s Vengeance and surrender the Scarlet Witch within 24 hours, or be hunted down and destroyed.
The Avengers are shocked to learn that the Scarlet Witch has gotten free because, so far as they knew, she was a prisoner in Morgan’s dungeon. This makes them wonder how Wanda got free. Little do they know, the Scarlet Witch was able to get free from Morgan’s dungeon by using her hex powers to summon the energy form of Wonder Man. Having sought refuge on a nearby beach, Simon brings firewood for Wanda to start a fire. She takes this opportunity to ask him how he is here, since Simon had died some time ago.[3] Wonder Man tells her that he was able to hang onto the threshold between life and death and was able to pull himself back to the land of the living when Wanda called out. When she asks how this can be possible to hold on like that, Simon says it is unimportant. Wanda still wants to talk about that and as she tries to figure out their next move, Simon suddenly disappears the moment she takes her eyes away from him.
Meanwhile, Captain America and his team — consisting of Hawkeye, Thor, the Wasp, Photo, Quasar, and Justice — attempt to sneak back into the castle disguised as monks. While this works to get them past the front gates, Queen’s Vengeance spots them immediately and attacks. As the battle rages, Morgan appears in giant-form and revels in the carnage, gloating over her victory over them once more. When Mordred comes out and tells his aunt to stop toying with them she becomes annoyed by his constant whining and strikes him down.
That’s when the Scarlet Witch arrive sand pits her magic against Morgan. When le Fay tries to block Wanda’s hex bolts with the Twilight Sword, she uses her power to summon Wonder Man into battle. His energy form then grows to giant size and he begins to struggle with Morgan over possession of the sword. As the two titans clash, more and more of the Avengers begin shaking off the effects of Morgan’s reality warp and join their comrades in fending off the others who are still under her control. Soon, the Avengers all rush to Wanda’s side and offer their own energies to boost her mystical power. This increases Wonder Man’s strength and soon, all of the Avengers are standing by the Scarlet Witch’s side.
There is a brief moment when Morgan pushes back, showering bolts of magic her eyes that rain down on the Avengers. One bolt strikes the Vision, snapping him in half. Despite this, the Avengers stand their ground and the Scarlet Witch pushes one final time giving Wonder Man the power he needs to overpower Morgan. With the sword ripped from her hands, the reality warp comes to an end and everything is snapped back to normal. However, despite everything being back to normal, the Vision is still in critical condition. Wanda and Sersi then rush to his side to triage his wounds until they can get him back to the mansion for repairs. When the Vision asks who the energy form that saved them was, she tells him that it was Wonder Man. However, when she turns to look at their savior, Simon Williams has disappeared again.
With the battle now over, the Avengers are preparing to home when the Beast points out their next conundrum: What are they going to do with 39 Avengers?
Recurring Characters
Avengers (Captain America, Thor, Wasp, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Wonder Man, Photon, Quasar, Justice), Morgan le Fay, Mordred, Queen’s Vengeance (Beast, Binary, Black Knight, Black Panther, Black Widow, Crystal, Darkhawk, D-Man, Falcon, Firebird, Firestar, Giant-Man, Hercules, Iron Man, Living Lightning, Machine Man, Magdeline, Moondragon, Quicksilver, Rage, Sandman, Sersi, She-Hulk, Spider-Woman, Starfox, Stingray, Swordsman, Sub-Mariner, Tigra, US Agent, Vision)
Continuity Notes
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #2 states that Morgan’s world is an alternate reality which has been designated Earth-398. In this case, Morgan’s spell caused Reality-398 to temporarily overlay itself with Earth-616, merging the count parts of both worlds. Such reality warps have also been seen in Uncanny X-Men #190-191, X-Men (vol. 2) #41/X-Men: Omega #1, House of M #1-8, and Heroes Reborn (vol. 2) #1-7, among other examples.
Morgan le Fay does a huge dump of exposition regarding her recent exploits:
She boasts about escaping the rebirth of Attilan: She is referring to the events of the Atlantis Rising event wherein she attempted to raise Atlantis from the ocean floor that resulted in the Inhuman city of Attilan being moved from the Moon to Earth. See Fantastic Four: Atlantis Rising #1-2, Fantastic Force #8-9, and Fantastic Four #401-402.
How she stole the Twilight Sword, which she stole from Asgard in Journey into Mystery #513. Although this issue incorrectly attributes it to issue #514.
She also boasts about collecting the Norn Stones. This would have been after Spider-Man lost them in Marvel Team-Up (vol. 2) #4.
Lastly, she crows about using the sword and the stones and Scarlet Witch’s magic to reshape reality. This happened over the last two issues.
Wonder Man was killed in a battle against the Kree in Force Works #1. As it will be explained in Avengers (vol. 3) #11, Simon was able to straddle himself between life and death due to his love for the Scarlet Witch.
