Avengers #157

Issue Details

Synopsis

"A Ghost of Stone!" Iron Man, Yellowjacket, and the Beast are in the control room of Avengers Mansion when the wall is smashed by the stone statue of the Black Knight. The three heroes are subdued before they learn who their attacker is. The statue of the Black Knight explains that after months of being inert in the basement of Dr. Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum a strange being reanimated him, and since then he has gone on a mission to get revenge on those he believes responsible for his current condition: The Avengers. Going to the upper level of the mansion, it finds and defeats both Captain America and Wasp in battle. After the fight, it has a sudden recollection following the last encounter between the Avengers and the Defenders wherein the Black Knight was turned into stone, in that the group deduced that they were tricked into fighting each other by Loki the god of mischief. The Black Knight statue would soon consider the idea that the Avengers had abandoned him. Elsewhere, the Scarlet Witch is out with Wonder Man Christmas shopping. During their walk back to Avengers Mansion, Wonder Man prevents an out-of-control bus from crashing. They arrive at the mansion to find a ravaged Jarvis, who warns them of the Black Knight statue. It defeats both Wanda and Simon in battle. The Vision then shows up, and the Black Knight statue cannot hurt him due to the Vision's density powers. It forces the statue to remember the events wherein Dane Whitman sacrificed himself to save the Defenders from being trapped in the past, and that his soul had left its body and now inhabits the body of his 12th-century ancestor. Unable to accept this, the furious statue attacks the Vision once more. However, since the Vision had converted his body into the density of diamonds, the statue only succeeds in destroying itself, ending its threat.