Avengers #163

Issue Details

Synopsis

"The Demi-God Must Die!" As the story opens, three members of the Los Angeles-based superhero team the Champions (Hercules, Black Widow and Iceman specifically) have been summoned by a distress call from the Avengers. But en route to the NYC mansion, the three heroes are inexplicably attacked by Iron-Man! The golden Avenger concentrates on subduing Hercules. The Widow and Iceman leap to their teammate’s defense but are quickly overpowered. Hercules recovers faster than Iron-Man anticipates and the two engage in extensive melee in the streets of Manhattan, prompting civilians to scatter. During their fight, Iron-Man thinks to himself how he wished Thor had been on duty when Hercules’ old foe Typhon attacked them earlier. The story segues into a flashback showing Iron-Man and the Beast (the only two Avengers on duty at that moment) taken by surprise when Typhon appears out of nowhere. The Titan has been dispatched by the villainous Olympian Pluto to kill Hercules. Mistakenly believing him to still be an Avenger, Typhon has sought him out at the mansion. He takes the Beast hostage, and forces Iron-Man to lure him to the mansion. But as hours passed while the Champions were on their way, Typhon lost his nerve and ordered Iron-Man to attack the approaching trio before they reached the mansion, softening them up enough so that Typhon could easily finish them off. Flashing forward once more, Iron-Man thinks to himself that he’d hoped to secretly alert the Black Widow to Typhon’s gambit but was unsuccessful and is now stuck slugging it out with Hercules. Iron-Man does manage to maneuver Hercules so that they approach the mansion on foot, then ducks in the front door. Using high-voltage wiring in the mansion’s walls, he manages to stun the lion of Olympus, but exhausts all his own reserves at the same time. Typhon emerges from hiding intent on finishing Hercules off. However the Black Widow and Iceman have recovered, followed after their allies, and now confront the Titan. The Beast has also managed to free himself from the ropes Typhon left him bound up in and joins in the ruckus as well. After several minutes more of combat, Hercules and Iron-Man both revive and join the heroes’s side. Typhon is dismayed to realize that Pluto has been watching from afar and deemed that he is unable to take on all five heroes at once. The Titan is thus unceremoniously teleported back to imprisonment in the depths of Tartarus. After learning how Typhon intended to ambush him, Hercules quickly absolves Iron-Man of any blame. The Beast however silently broods over what he considers his ineffectiveness as an Avenger.