To Aid The Avengers!

Reed, Sue, Ben and the Black Panther return to the Baxter Building as an army of Atlantean beasts attack the US coast to find that the Watcher is waiting for them. Reed realizes that the coming battle will be of cosmic significance and begins working right away. As they witness the whale-creature known as Giganto descend upon the city they witness as the Avengers arrive on the scene. Knowing that Giganto is too much even for the Avengers to handle, Black Panther suggests they compromise the fact that Doom thinks they are dead to assist their comrades in the coming battle. Agreeing, the Fantastic Four and the Panther board the Fantasti-Car and head toward the battle.

In Attilan, Johnny and Crystal join the Inhuman royal family in trying to find a means of finding the Helix of Randac, a much-needed component to utilize the Terrigen Mists. Black Bolt gives Johnny his Agon-Sequencer, a device that will be able to locate the Helix wherever it may be hidden. Just then they get a distress call from Reed calling Johnny and Crystal back to New York. Needing to get there right away, the young couple is teleported away by Crystal's dog Lockjaw.

In New York, the Avengers are busy battling the various sea creatures sieging the city when they are joined by the Fantastic Four. They are soon shocked when they spot Namor commanding the creatures using the Horn of Proteus. As Avengers and the Fantastic Four begin fighting the Sub-Mariner directly and are confused when he doesn't seem to recognize most of the assembled heroes and mistakes the Human Torch for the android hero of the same name from World War II. Ultimately, Namor is knocked out by the Thing who uses Captain America's shield to strengthen his blow.

As Reed begins to examine Namor to learn why he has had a lapse in memory, the other heroes focus their attention on Giganto who continues to terrorize the city. Mister Fantastic eventually finds the cause of Namor's sudden attack, a mind control device implanted in his ear. As the battle rages on, one of Doom's devices flies onto the battlefield and blasts Thor in the back before fleeing the scene. At that very moment, Reed has rigged a device to Iron Man's armor that allows him to utilize the Horn of Proteus to command the creatures back into the sea. With the battle over, the heroes begin to recover and when the Avengers debate on if they should attack Doom, Richards interjects telling Earth's Mightiest Heroes that his group will deal with him.

While back at Doom's castle, Doom prepares for his next acquisition of power, using the Cosmic Cube to open a portal into the Negative Zone.

Recurring Characters

Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Girl, Human Torch, Thing), Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Goliath, Black Panther), Doctor Doom, Sub-Mariner, Watcher, Inhumans (Black Bolt, Medusa, Triton, Lockjaw), Giganto

Continuity Notes

• The Thing erroneously refers to Giganto as Monstro a giant octopus that first appeared in Tales of Suspense #8.

• This is not the original Giganto, that beast was slain at the end of Fantastic Four #4. Giganto was not the only of its kind, as multiple other similar creatures have since been seen. Fantastic Four Vol 5 #3 shows an entire thriving race. It has been explained that the Gigantos were created by the Deviants as seen in Marvel Universe #7.

• The Sub-Mariner confuses Johnny Storm for the original android Human Torch from World War II. Namor and the original Torch spent much of the 1940s and 1950s as both enemies and allies after they first met in Marvel Mystery Comics #8. At this point in time, the Human Torch was believed to be dead following the events of Fantastic Four Annual #4 when the Mad Thinker briefly revived him to destroy the Fantastic Four. However the time traveler known as Immortus created a chronal duplicate of the Torch in Avengers: Forever #8. One was buried in a cemetery in Sub-Mariner #15 and released years later Avengers: West Coast #50. The other was taken by the robot Ultron and rebuilt into the Vision as seen in Avengers #135.

• Reed Richards refers to the time that the Avengers battled Doctor Doom. At this point in their continuity, the Avengers had clashed with Doctor Doom twice as a group. Once in Avengers #1.5 and again in Avengers #25.

• The Thing referring to Giganto as "Monstro" is a nod to the fact that Monstro was one of the many creatures created by Jack Kirby back in the days when many Atlas Comics anthology stories were about giant monsters.

• The Agon-Sequencer resembles and makes a similar "Ping Ping" sound like a Mother Box. The Mother Box was a device regularly seen in the DC Comics Universe and first depicted in Forever People #1 one of the many series that Jack Kirby created for DC Comics in the 1970s as part of his classic Fourth World Saga.

• Billboard in this story features an advertisement for Chamber of Darkness, a horror anthology series published by Marvel from 1969 to 1970. During that period of time, it was not uncommon for Marvel to slip in plugs for their other books on billboards and other places in and around the Marvel Universe. Chamber of Darkness was likely selected because it was in publication had this storyline been originally published between Fantastic Four #100 and 101.

• This issue marks the 2000th time that the Thing has uttered the phrase "It's Clobberin' Time".

• A building on page 20 panel 4 has the name "Roz" on the sign. Roz is the name of Jack Kirby's wife.