Scorched Earth

The Avengers have been divided in order to deal with two threats simultaneously. In the nation of Slorenia a team consisting of Captain America, Iron Man, the Scarlet Witch, Wonder Man, and Photon, are trying to stop Bloodwraith, who has somehow grew to titanic size. Iron Man has built a weapon to try and disrupt the energies powering the massive foe. Unfortunately, it does not work as the villain is powered by mystical energies unknown to science.

While in New York the rest of the team — the Wasp, Vision, Warbird, Triathlon, and Jack of Hearts — clash with Lord Templar and Pagan, after they launched an unprovoked attack on Avengers Mansion. When part of the mansion is collapsed, Triathlon uses his body to shield the diminutive Wasp from the debris. As they make a tactical retreat, the Wasp wonders why Hank Pym — aka Goliath — hasn’t answered their distress call.[1]

Back in Slorenia, Bloodwraith slowly makes his way to the country’s border. When Photon and Wonder Man try to stop him from advancing further, he swats them away with his ebony blade. They manage to survive these attacks because they are in their energy forms, but contact with the cursed weapon causes them to feel deathly cold. Following from behind are the rest of the team. Along the way, the Scarlet Witch asks how things got like this. Captain America explains that after Sean Dolan last encountered the Avengers, he decided to make amends for his past misdeeds by assisting SHIELD with the relief effort in Slorenia, following Ultron’s genocide in the region.[2] Along with him, Sean Dolan had brought his Ebony Blade, however despite his assurances to the Avengers, he still had yet to gain mastery over the enchanted weapon’s blood curse. Not long after his arrival in Slorenia, Sean was compelled to draw the sword from its scabbard. Upon doing so the unresting spirits in the region begin flowing into the weapon. This increased the power and the curse of the Ebony Blade exponentially, not only causing Sean to become Bloodwraith, but grow massive in size.[3]

Captain America hopes that the Scarlet Witch’s hex powers might be enough to break the connection between the Ebony Blades and the Slorenian souls. Wanda explains that while her powers channel chaos magic, it is difficult to tailor her hexes to perform specific stunts and doesn’t know if she can accomplish what he asks of her. Cap can only say one word in response: Try.

In New York, the battle between the Avengers, Pagan, and Lord Templar has spilled into Central Park. There, Lord Templar unleashes his Avatars — duplicates of himself all having a different unique super-human ability. While the Avengers are busy with this new threat, Lord Templar then addresses a news crew that has arrived on the scene explain his motivations. Saying that he is bringing humanity universal peace, law, and order, claiming that the Avengers pose a threat to these ideals. This battle is observed on live television by Jonathan Tremont and his council at the Triune Understanding’s Texas headquarters. Tremont is pleased, but his followers don’t understand how this will convince more people to join their faith. Paying particular attention to Triathlon — a Triune follower himself — Tremont tells his minions to watch. Moments later, Goliath finally arrives on the scene and tosses Pagan far away from the battle. Janet is relieved that Hank has finally showed up, little knowing that this isn’t the Hank Pym she knew, but a mystically created duplicate bent on taking over his life.

In Slorenia, the Scarlet Witch sits in the center of the country and begins channeling her magical power in the hopes of separating the souls from the Ebony Blade. While she concentrates, the other Avengers try to keep Bloodwraith from crossing Slorenia’s borders and putting more innocent people in danger. Suddenly, Bloodwraith feels the tug of Wanda’s spell and turns back to try and stop her. That’s when Cap gets a call from Goliath who insists that he send Photon back to New York as they’ll need her power to win the fight there. After Pym explains his plans, Cap agrees to send her back.

Photon races back to New York in a matter of seconds and stuns Pagan by passing through him in her energy form. While the man-monster is disorientated, Jack of Hearts charges his the zero energies in his body and strikes Pagan with enough force to knock him out. Seeing Pagan defeated, Lord Templar orders his Avatars to keep the Avengers busy while he makes his retreat. However, Triathlon refuses to let him get away so easily and leaps through the Avatars to attack Templar directly. Amazingly, Triathlon takes Lord Avatar down with a single kick. While the crowd cheers him on, the young hero wonders how he was able to knock out Templar with a single blow when the other Avengers couldn’t even slow him down. While nobody is looking, the two villains suddenly fade away as though they were never there. When the Avengers notice this they decide to let Triathlon bask in the adulation of the crowd before telling him what happened. That’s when Hank asks if anyone wants any gum.[4]

In Slorenia, the Scarlet Witch discovers that she doesn’t have the skill to purge the souls from Bloodwraith’s sword. Coming up with a back-up plan, Wanda tells everyone to flee to the outside borders of Slorenia. When the spell is completed, a mystical barrier has been placed around Slorenia, preventing Bloodwraith from leaving. Wanda explains that this will have to do until someone more skilled then she can come up with a better solution.[5]

When the two teams meet up back in New York and compare notes, Captain America grows angry. He is furious because none of this would have happened if the team wasn’t always on the defensive. The Wasp agrees, and thinks that they can fix this problem, and says that its time for Captain America to return to the Avengers.[6]

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Goliath, Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Wonder Man, Warbird, Triathlon), Jack of Hearts, Bloodwraith, Pagan, Lord Templar, Jonathan Tremont, SHIELD

Continuity Notes

1. What Janet doesn’t know is that since Avengers (vol. 3) #28, a magic spell has split Hank into two individuals. The intellectual Goliath, and the emotional Yellowjacket. Last issue, Yellowjacket knocked Goliath out intending to take his place. The pair will remain separate entities until their failing health forces them to merge together once more, as seen in Avengers Annual 2001.

2. Slorenia was wiped out by Ultron who planned to use it as his staging ground for a plot to replace humanity with robots. See Avengers (vol. 3) #19-22.

3. Sean Dolan was the Black Knight’s squire starting in Black Knight (vol. 2) #4. Later, he was transformed into Bloodwraith after touching the cursed Ebony Blade in Avengers Annual #22. He was freed from the curse thanks to the Avengers in Avengers Unplugged #6 when he sought to claim the Ebony Blade used by Proctor, a Black Knight from another reality. Once cured, Dolan promised the Avengers that he would master the cursed weapon’s power. For some reason (mostly bad writing) the Avengers let him go without much protest.

4. This is a call back to the fact that when he first became Yellowjacket (circa Avengers #59-60), Hank developed a habit of chewing bubble gum.

5. Bloodwraith has not been seen since this story, and is presumably still trapped in Slorenia as of this writing in January, 2023. The Ebony Blade on the other hand, is seen again in Excalibur (vol. 2) #1, back in the possession of Dane Whitman. It is unclear if this is the blade wielded by Bloodwraith or if this is sword previously wielded by Proctor, which was last seen in the tunnels beneath Attilan in Quicksilver #6. It is probably the former since everyone refers to the Ebony Blade seen henceforth as though it is the one native to Earth-616. Next issue, we see the Black Knight in Slorenia trying to figure out a way to separate Sean from the Ebony Blade, perhaps he devised a means of taking the weapon back.

6. Recently, the Avengers were combating negative press that was being manipulated by the Triune Understanding starting in Avengers (vol. 3) #15. Things got so bad, that Captain America decided to step down as chairman of the team so they could be led by someone better suited with handling their public relations, as seen in Avengers (vol. 3) #26.

Topical References

• The camera crew recording the Avengers fight in Central Park are depicted using TV cameras that use video tape to record footage. This should be considered a topical reference as digital media formats have long since pushed tape into obsolescence.