None So Bold…

Wonder Man has come to Leona, New Jersey, to visit his “brother” the Vision, his “sister-in-law” the Scarlet Witch, and their new born sons Tommy and Billy.[1] After his visit, Wonder Man heads back for California in his Quinjet. Along the way, his ship is attacked by insect-like robots. The creatures overpower him and take him, but not before he activates the distress signal.

Wonder Man is taken to an alien ship operated by members of the Sligs, a warlike race that seeks to become a force to be reconned with in the universe. Learning of the troubles the Kree and the Skrull have had trying to conquer Earth, the Sligs have decided to take a shot at it. To this end, they intend to test the planet’s most powerful entities to come up with a countermeasure.

As the Avengers arrive in another Quinjet, the Sligs teleport the ships to another dimension. Imprisoning the other Avengers, the Sligs then pit them against their most powerful robot one after another to get the measure of their abilities. The first to be tested is Wonder Man, then Tigra, Mockingbird,[2] Hawkeye, Iron Man, Hank Pym, and lastly Moon Knight. Each time, the hero manages to overpower and defeat the robot, prompting the Slig leader to order order an increase in the robot’s power with each combatant. During Moon Knight’s fight, he briefly struggles to keep his multiple personalities in check.[3] However, the spirit of Khonshu — the Egyptian god of the moon and the source of Moon Knight’s power — tells him that he will guide his mind.

Ultimately, the battle causes the alien ship to overload and shunt everyone back to their proper dimension. The Avengers then retreat back to their Quinjets. On the way back, Wonder Man figures that the energy surge will have scrambled the data the aliens gathered on them. It turns out he is right as when the Sligs get the data back from their probe, it shows them that the Earth is defended by a powerful being that is a composite of all the Avengers. Fearing such a powerful entity, the Slig high command orders the invasion plan to be canceled.

Recurring Characters

West Coast Avengers (Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Iron Man, Hank Pym, Wonder Man, Tigra, Moon Knight), Vision, Scarlet Witch, Billy Maximoff, Tommy Maximoff

Continuity Notes

1. Wanda had used magic to get pregnant in Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #3. She gave birth to the twins in issue #12 of that series.

2. Mockingbird decides to use the lessons she learned from fighting Captain America. The pair sparred against one another in West Coast Avengers Annual #1.

3. Marc Spector suffers from dissociative personality disorder since childhood, as seen in Moon Knight (vol. 9) #9-10. More recently, Marc used the three identities as part of his early crime fighting career since Marvel Spotlight #28. Going mad trying to keep these identities in check, Marc stopped using them following the events of Moon Knight #37-38.