Venus #12
Trapped in the Land of Terror
In the nation of Cassarobia, Sultan Khorok rules with an iron fist and enjoys his harem of many wives. However, the Sultan soon becomes bored of each new wife and seeks a new one to fill the void and has subsequently married every attractive woman in the region. When he comes across an issue of Beauty Magazine featuring Venus on the cover, Sultan Khorok demands his Prime Minister to go to the United States and bring Venus back to Cassarobia to be his wife.
In the United States, Whitney confides in Venus that he fully trusts her when she goes off on her mysterious absences as she always seems to bring back phenomenal stories for the magazine. This is overheard by Della Mason who once more begins plotting a means to split Whitney and Venus up. When Venus tells Whitney that she will only be gone for a short while she is unaware that she is being followed by Della. Della witnesses as Venus is confronted by Prime Minister Shabor as he offers Venus an opportunity to interview the most beautiful people of his country. However, Venus soon begins to find this offer suspicious but decides to play along with it. Della follows after them and watches as Venus is loaded into a plane that flies off. Seeing this as the perfect opportunity to split Venus and Whitney up, she rushes back to the office and tells Hammond that Venus has broken her promise. While Whitney sees through this ploy and tells Della off, Hammond cannot help but worry what has become of his true love.
Meanwhile, aboard the plane heading toward Cassarobia, Venus learns of that she is about to be forced into marriage to the Sultan. Venus decides to go along with this confident that she can use her godly powers to get herself out of trouble. However, as she thinks of this, Jupiter and the other Olympian gods watch Venus and lament about how a spell prevents them from using their powers in the region of Cassarobia and that once Venus enters the region she will be powerless and on her own.
Venus soon arrives in Cassarobia and is introduced to the Sultan who takes her to his palace in a chariot pulled by his other wives. At the palace, Venus meets Shalomar the woman who Venus will succeed as the primary wife of Sultan Khorok. Venus then is forced to watch a gladiator battle between dissidents and lions. The survivor is a man named Ali Bahr, a former commander of the sultan's guard and Shalomar's former lover who was forced to become a gladiator slave when he protested against the Sultans decree that Shalomar was to marry him.
That night Venus decides to get the help of the gods to help liberate the people of Cassarobia and reunite Shalomar and Ali Bahr. She then transports herself to Olympus and learns about the mystical barrier that prevents Venus from using her powers or getting the help of the gods in the boundaries of Cassarobia. Despite the fact that she will be trapped and powerless, Venus refuses to give up and returns to Earth to try and find a solution that does not require the use of her powers.
The following day Venus is forced to watch another gladiator battle featuring Ali Bahr who is sent into the ring unarmed against lions. As Venus watches on, Jupiter contacts Loki -- the creator of the barrier around Cassarobia -- to drop his barrier out of love for Venus. Loki does so and sends his demons to possess the lions and stop them from attacking Ali Bahr. The lions possessed by demons then try to attack the Sultan, but he has installed flame jets in front of his viewing balcony. Loki is assisted by Thor who lends his powers over the storm to cause a rainstorm that puts the fire out. With his forces routed, Sultan Khorok is shocked when Ali Bahr leads a slave rebellion while Venus simultaneously convinces the locals to rise up against the Sultan as well.
Sultan Khorok is overthrown and tossed in jail while Cassaboria elects Shalomar and Ali Bahr to be their new rulers. With the situation resolved, Venus returns to the United States just as Whitney once more defends Venus's absence and thanks him for having faith in him. Furious Della storms out of the office and Whitney and Venus kiss to make up for lost time.
Recurring Characters
Venus
Whitney Hammond
Della Mason
Loki
Jupiter
Mercury
Apollo
Thor
Continuity Notes
Are these characters the Thor and Loki? That friends is a really complicated story here. Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #6 and 12 and other handbooks state that this is the first appearance of Thor in the Marvel Universe. However, Official Handbook of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Thor goes back and states that the first appearance of Thor is (as far as Marvel is concerned) is Journey into Mystery #82. This was not due to omission, I got the truth straight from someone who helped write that handbook. You can find that thread over at the Chronology Project. Why Marvel chose to double back on it? So is this Thor and Loki? Officially no. As for you reader? It’s a matter of interpretation. I mean there are enough built in ways to explain all the discrepancies between the Thor and Loki seen here and the characters we all know and love. So you could choose to accept that this is the characters or just some other people using their names.
The Lost World!
Whitney Hammond, Venus and Della Mason are aboard the Honolulu Queen covering its maiden voyage on a Pacific cruise for Beauty Magazine. As the ship cruises the oceans they suddenly hit an uncharted land mass and the passengers are horrified when a strange glowing fish-man boards the ship. Whitney attempts to approach the creature but falls down sick and it is soon shot by one of the crew and it falls overboard. The captain of the ship orders everyone below deck while they investigate the strange landmass. Venus has Hammond checked by a doctor and learns that he is in some sort of coma.
Venus then decides to do something about the fish-men and goes out onto the desk. Ignoring the captain's protests, Venus attempts to climb down onto the island. When the crew tries to stop her she instead dives into the ocean and seeks out her fellow god, Neptune, god of the seas to assist her in this investigation. They surface on the island and confront the creatures and learn that they were ordinary fish that were mutated by atomic bomb tests. When the fish men talk of "monsters" invading their island, Venus goes to investigate and finds a number of the ships' crew unconscious at the base of the ship. Checking their bodies she finds that they suffered from the same illness as Whitney, but the telltale burns make her realize that they have died of radiation poisoning. She lifts all the men aboard the ship and then orders the captain to pull away from the island.
As the ship pulls away to resume its normal course, Venus rushes down to Whitney's room where her employer and lover is now recovering. When she presents him the story about the radioactive fish men, Whitney is more happy for this than the fact that Della stood by his side the whole time he was sick.
Recurring Characters
Venus
Whitney Hammond
Della Mason
Neptune
