Avengers #313 — Nick Peron

Apr 16

Apr 16 Avengers #313

Thieves Honor

Following a battle between the Avengers and rogue members of Freedom Force, a mob of angry people have gathered outside Avengers Park to protest the team’s presence in the city.[1] This is observed by Edwin Jarvis from the monitor room located in the abandoned sub-basement below the park.[2] He relays this information to the Avengers and asks if there is anything that can be done about the protest. Captain America, Hank Pym, Hawkeye and Mockingbird find public relations out of their scope and ask Jarvis to keep them in touch on developments.[3]

Moments later, the Mandarin arrives on the scene to assess the damage done to the park. When police try to subdue him, he lashes back with his ten power rings. This is observed by Doctor Doom, who is at the secret meeting place of the Acts of Vengeance conspirators. He is furious that the Mandarin is acting independently of the rest of the group, potentially putting their plans at risk. This results in the Red Skull insulting Doctor Doom for his recent setbacks, such as losing his kingdom.[4][5] The pair come to blows until the Kingpin mocks them both for having no real grasp of what true power is like.

Meanwhile, Captain America and Wonder Man have ventured to the bottom of the Atlantic to assess the damage done to Avengers Mansion following the sinking of Hydrobase. That’s when they receive a distress call from Jarvis alerting them of the Mandarin’s attack on the park. As Wonder Man flies ahead with his jet belt, he is joined by the Vision. Also arriving on the scene is the Wizard, who slipped away while his other co-conspirators were bickering. He ends up running into Wonder Man and the Vision, however with the power of his Wonder Gloves, the Wizard is far from defenseless.

While across the country at Avengers Compound, Agatha Harkness keeps vigil over the Scarlet Witch, who is in a catatonic state following the dismantling and reconstruction of her husband the Vision and the death of her children. In order to force Wanda to get over her trauma, the elderly witch has made it so she no longer remembers having children. Since Wanda doesn’t need any immediate care, Agatha decides to go outside and get some fresh air, confident that the security systems on the compound will keep Wanda safe while she is out. However, moments after Harkness walks outside, some powerful force rips the Scarlet Witch’s bungalow out of its foundation and carries it high into the air. This was done by Magneto, who is pleased to see his daughter once more.[6]

By this time, Captain America has arrived at the scene of Avengers Park alongside Avengers reservists the Black Widow and Hellcat. The Wizard tries to lend the Mandarin a hand, but has his hands full with Wonder Man and the Vision. Then Thor arrives and begins pounding on the Mandarin with his enchanted hammer, Mjolnir. With the tide of battle quickly turning, the Mandarin uses his black light ring to cover his escape, leaving the Wizard to get captured. The Avenges take the Wizard downstairs to their temporary headquarters and begin questioning him. They finally learn that all of the super-villain attacks were caused by a secret cabal of villains, which he insists that he was in charge of.

Observing this from his hideout is the mysterious man who brought the conspirators together and the Wizard’s assertion amuses him, as he has manipulated the Wizard and the others into thinking they were in charge of things, unaware that they were merely pawns of a much larger game.[7] The mystery man then decides to check on the others in the next room and finds them all bickering again. This time they are chastising the Mandarin for jeopardizing their goals and allowing the Wizard to get captured. During this argument, the Kingpin notices that Doctor Doom hasn’t said much of anything. When he asks why Doom is so silent, the exiled Latverian monarch suddenly explodes, revealing that this was actually one of his Doombots. This leaves the group to wonder how long the robot has been acting in Doom’s place.[8]

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Black Widow, Captain America, Thor, Vision), Avengers West Coast (Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Hank Pym, Wonder Man, Scarlet Witch), Hellcat, Mandarin, Wizard, Doctor Doom, Magneto, “Red Skull”, Loki, Kingpin, Edwin Jarvis, Agatha Harkness, Ebony

Continuity Notes

The Avengers fought Freedom Force last issue.
Mention is made here how the Avengers previous headquarters on Hydrobase had sunk. This happened in Avengers #311. Avengers Park was created following the Masters of Evil’s siege on Avengers Mansion in Avengers #273-277. The mansion was moved to Hydrobase in Avengers #278. Avengers Park opened to the public in X-Factor #23. As a side note, Jarvis is wearing an eye patch here because his eye was injured during the Masters of Evil’s siege on the mansion. He will continue wearing the patch regularly until Avengers #317.
Hawkeye and Mockingbird offer the assistance of the Great Lakes Avengers. A team of midwestern superheroes that they have been mentoring since West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #46.
At the time of this story, Doctor Doom is in exile from his native Latveria. It’s a bit of a long story. Doctor Doom seemingly died fighting Tyros in Fantastic Four #260. He had set up a contingency plan that saw his heir, Kristoff Vernard, transformed into his successor, complete with a copy of Doom’s memories so the boy thought of himself as the real Doctor Doom, as seen in Fantastic Four #278. After Doom was restored to his original body in Fantastic Four #288, he attempted to reclaim his throne in Fantastic Four Annual #20 and it didn’t go so well. Doom will ultimately regain his throne in Fantastic Four #350.
It should be noted that this isn’t the real Red Skull, but a robotic duplicate. The real Skull was left in a bunker to die by Magneto — a Holocaust survivor — for the Skull’s time as a Nazi in Captain America #367. Since Nazis are harder to kill than cockroaches, the Skull is eventually freed in Captain America #370.
There is a lot going on with the Scarlet Witch here that isn’t fully explained. The details:
- At the time of this story, the Vision had recently been dismantled and put back together by an organization called Vigilance, who were afraid the android might take over the world’s computers a second time. This process bleached the Vision completely white as well as removed his emotional connections. See West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #42-45.
- The Vision and the Scarlet Witch had also recently had twin children, Billy and Tommy, in Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #12. The boys were later revealed to be products of Wanda’s powers and imagination in Avengers West Coast #51-52. When they were uncreated, Agatha Harkness erased Wanda’s memories of their existence. This will have many grave repercussions years later as seen in Avengers #500-503.
- Here, the Scarlet Witch is referred to as a mutant. This will be proven incorrect many years later in Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4-5. In that story it is revealed that Wanda was experimented upon by the High Evolutionary as a child. In order to cover up his work he made it so she registered as a mutant by anyone testing her genetics.
- Magneto refers to the Scarlet Witch as his daughter. Another falsehood that is uncovered later. Magneto and Wanda were led to believe that they were family in Vision and the Scarlet Witch #4. It’s later revealed over the course of Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #3-11 that Wanda is actually the daughter of Natayla Maximoff and an unidentified father.
- This scene is a lead-up to the Darker Than Scarlet where the Scarlet Witch is made evil in and all part of a grander manipulation by Immortus to tap her power as a nexus being. See Avengers West Coast #56-57 and 60-62.
This mysterious benefactor is later revealed to be Loki in Avengers West Coast #55.
Avengers Annual #19 posits that Loki encountered the real Doctor Doom and that Doom later had one of his Doombots take his place. When exactly this happened is unclear, not that it really matters since most texts cite that while a Doombot was employed, Doom was directly involved in Acts of Vengence if only remotely.

Topical References

The original twin towers of the World Trade Center are depicted as part of the New York City skyline. This should be considered a topical reference as these buildings were destroyed in a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 and subsequently replaced with the Freedom Tower.