When Titans Clash!

High above the Arctic Sea in northern Canada, the Sub-Mariner flies, looking for the realms of the undersea barbarian lords. Yesterday, hundreds of refugees from these lands came to a northern Atlantean outpost, seeking sanctuary from a mysterious event that has left their waters unlivable. Namor dives into the waters and investigates, only to find his wrist bands dissolving. Namor himself is quickly overcome and sinks unconscious to the ocean floor.

In the ruins of a Queens supermarket, Tyros continues his fight against Ben and Johnny. He is halted by Sue, who arrives on the scene and attempts to subdue Tyros. However, she quickly realizes that the three of them are still outmatched by the former herald, and she uses her signal flare to summon Reed.

Back in his airship, Doctor Doom surveys the battle, calculating that Tyros will have defeated the three heroes, then be consumed by the power cosmic he wields, just in time for Reed to arrive for Doom's coup de grace. However, as time runs on, Doom realizes that Reed is not responding to the summons. Deciding that the battle is pointless unless Richards can suffer in person, Doom himself disembarks and orders Tyros to halt. However, Tyros reacts furiously at this attempt to deny his own vengeance and attacks Doom. Tyros uses his power to fuse Doom's armor, leaving the monarch trapped and immobile.

Suddenly, before Tyros can return his attention to the Fantastic Four, the Silver Surfer charges into the fray, hurling his full might against the remnant of Tyros's stolen power. As they battle, they unleash unimaginable energy, blasting into the sky as a fireball. At the heart of the fire, the Surfer gasps in shock — what was Tyros is no more than a corpse, animated by the living remnants of the power cosmic.

On the ground, Doom rues his error in confronting Tyros himself; with his armor fused, he is unable to activate one of its escape mechanisms. He must try another trick, one he has not attempted for many years...

In the group of spectators to the battle, a man named Norman MacArthur shudders, then suddenly drops his groceries and leaves...

The fireball created by the battling Silver Surfer and the remains of Tyros plunges to Earth, landing on the frozen figure of Doctor Doom with a tremendous, seemingly-living explosion. The man in the armor screams...

A crater of bubbling, molten debris lies at the fireball's impact point. Slowly, the form of the Silver Surfer struggles up, the victor and apparent only survivor of the battle. Sue finds Doctor Doom's battered mask near the crater; with no other sign of him around, she concludes that their greatest foe is dead at last.

Sue helps the Surfer to the Baxter Building's infirmary and looks for Reed. However, she realizes that there is no sign that he ever returned from Avengers Mansion that morning. Before she can call the Avengers, she is interrupted by Namor, who is greatly weakened and begs for her help.

Recurring Characters

Fantastic Four (Invisible Girl, Human Torch, Thing), Silver Surfer, Sub-Mariner, Doctor Doom, Terrax the Tamer, May Parker, Norman McArthur

Continuity Notes

• The danger that Namor goes to investigate in this story is the work of the so-called Master of the World as revealed in Alpha Flight #3-4.

• Although the Fantastic Four try to signal their leader Mister Fantastic in this story, they are unaware that he has been kidnapped by unseen forces in Fantastic Four #257 while working at Avengers Mansion. His kidnappers are revealed to be aliens who have survived Galactus as revealed next issue.

• Tyros mentions how the Fantastic Four "betrayed him", this is a rather subjective point of view of the events of Fantastic Four #242-244 when -- as Terrax -- he tried to force the Fantastic Four into stopping his master Galactus. Granted the Fantastic Four would have tried to stop Galactus anyway -- since he was trying to consume Earth at the time -- but Terrax was foiled by his own ambitions and stripped of his powers by Galactus for betraying him.

• Although Doctor Doom seems to perish here, he actually uses the Ovoid mind-swapping technique he learned in Fantastic Four #10 to transfer minds with Norman MacArthur, who is seen in the crowd but not named here. This is all explained in Fantastic Four #288. Doom (in the body of Norman MacArthur) resurfaces in Fantastic Four #287.

• Slain here, Tyros/Terrax next appears as one of the undead warriors used against the East and West Coast Avengers in Avengers Annual #16 when they are used in a contest between Grandmaster and Death. Tyros' death proves not to last very long either as he is resurrected in the pages of New Warriors #1.

• Doom's mask is later stored in a secret room within the Baxter Building where the team keeps various dangerous artifacts, as seen later in Fantastic Four #268.