Avengers #158: Jim Shooter, Writer - Sal Buscema, Artist - Pablo Marcos, Inks - Joe Rosen, Letters - Don Warfield, Colors - Archie Goodwin, Editor
Roster: Iron Man (chair), Captain America, Beast, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Yellowjacket, Wasp, Wonder Man
Vision is standing over the crumbling remains of “The Ghost of Stone, an animated statue of the Black Knight imbued with the personality of the time-lost Black Knight. He is again having an identity crisis. He feels that he too is nothing more than a ghost. “A being of synthetic flesh animated by science and imbued with the brain patterns of the once lost Wonder Man”. Wanda staggers into the door assisted by Wonder Man. “"Lean on me Wanda..."” The Vision goes berserk! “"You push me too far HUMAN! I’ve already relinquished my foolish delusions of humanity-- and since a machine has no right to a woman of flesh and blood, I will soon relinquish this, my wife!"” Wonder Man tries to call him down, "“Look friend,...”" at which point the Vision sends Wonder Man flying across the room with a mean right. “"I AM NOT YOUR FRIEND!"” The fight has begun in earnest!
Wonder Man gets buried under a crumbling wall, but manages to rise. "“Guess I’m getting my strength back!" He lunges at Vision who avoids him by turning intangible, then Vision increases his density but Wonder Man strikes the floor (a la Hulk) and sends the Vision flying. I believe this is the first time that Wonder Man says “"You may be strong Vizh, but I’m in a class only Thor can touch!"” This will become his mantra throughout most of his Avengers career.
Iron Man finally regains consciousness from last issue and thinks that the Stone Knight must still be in the building because he hears the sounds of battle. Wanda is pleading with both Vision and Simon to stop fighting, but they won’t listen. Vision then sticks his immaterial hand through Simon to disrupt him. Simon screams, but fights back and lands a mean punch to the Vision’s face. "“Impossible! No human can resist disrup-- UHH!”" The rest of the team arrives in the lab and Wanda pleads “"Someone-- Help me stop them before they KILL each other!"” (Since when did Wanda get so helpless that she can’t stop a fight?) Iron man prefers to let them fight it out amongst themselves.
Both Vision and Wonder Man are staggering, but still going at it. Finally, they are both swaying on their feet when Iron Man finally steps in. He reminds Simon that he is a guest in the mansion and then tells Vision that if he doesn’t stop acting like an emotional kid, he’ll be forced to suspend him. Just then, Jarvis walks in and explains that there was a call for help which he turned away because the Avengers were involved in "private matters". Iron Man is livid and realizes that something needs to be done.
We cut to a scene in an isolated research facility in the Canadian Rockies where we are introduced to Frank Hall. A man named Joseph is taking a tongue lashing from Frank for trying to contact the Avengers. “"They thought I was a crackpot and refused to come!" Frank decides to truly isolate the facility by raising it and a sizable chunk of Canadian real estate into the air. Frank then downs Joseph while Joe’s girlfriend Judy sobs. Frank then orders his men to take Joseph away to be locked up.
Later on, Judy delivers a package to Frank’s suite. He takes the time to explain what happened to him. Apparently, he was working on creating a teleport beam. The experiment was failing, so he decided to double the power. The resultant surge fused the device’s circuits and caused the beam to grab Frank. The beam also seized an experimental anti-gravity element that was being bombarded with atomic rays elsewhere in the complex. The beam then scrambled Frank’s molecules with the radioactive anti-gravity element. Frank then realized he had power. As other people started to realize it, they started to fear Frank. Frank went on a power trip and seized control of the research city.
As he finishes his flashback, "But such petty things are behind me now! No longer am I Frank Hall, now and evermore, I am ... GRAVITON! And soon the world will fear that name!"” He keeps talking, but Judy seems distracted, she tries to stall him but a woman named Raquel bursts into the room telling Graviton that “"The Avengers are right behind you!”" Sure enough! The crew bursts through the window. AVENGERS ATTACK!
The Vision is the first to feel the might of Graviton as his intangible form is hurtled to the floor. With one gesture, Graviton then sends Cap, Iron Man, Beast, Scarlet Witch, Wasp, and Yellowjacket flying! The Vision tries a new tack by increasing his mass/density to it’s ultimate. Graviton then sends the Vision flying straight up through the ceiling. Cap then tries to throw his shield, but Graviton increases its weight causing the shield to fall on Cap crushing him. Wonder Man tries valiantly to remove the shield.
Judy is trying to sneak away from the fight, but Raquel catches up to her and knocks her out from behind. Wanda and Iron Man then try a coordinated attack using repulsors and hex power. Graviton simply causes a piece of the floor to rise, blocking the attack. He then rearranges the pieces of the floor into a solid mass which he compresses into an ultra-hard solid ball which he sends hurtling to knock out Iron Man and Wanda. Yellowjacket and Wasp try to sneak up on Graviton, but are discovered and knocked out by a pencil which Graviton has increased the weight of. Beast and Wonder man are then felled by a slab of the ceiling. Graviton stands triumphant! “"I DID it! It’s over! I BEAT THE AVENGERS!"
Avengers #159: “Siege by Stealth and Storm” Jim Shooter - Writer, Sal Buscema & Pablo Marcus - Art, Denise Wohl - Letters, Doc Martin - Colors, Archie Goodwin - Editor
Roster: Iron Man (chair), Captain America, Wasp, Yellowjacket, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Beast, Wonder Man, Black Panther, Thor
The Avengers lie battered and unconscious. Graviton raises them in the air while boasting. “"Did you see how easily I beat them?" He turns to speak to Judy, but Judy has been knocked out by Raquel. Graviton smacks Raquel who protests that she was the only one who remained loyal. Shots ring out and Graviton turns to see that the former employees of Research City have escaped from their guards and are now armed. Joe (Judy’s husband) is leading them. They open fire on Graviton who creates an intensified gravity field around his body to deflect the bullets. Graviton states that he has no further use for them and sends them flying over the edge of the flying city! Judy revives just then and tells Graviton that she’ll do anything he says as long as he spares Joe. Graviton then sends Raquel flying over the edge to join the rest of the employees. Judy screams, but Graviton assures her that they will simply float to the earth unharmed.
Hours later, a strange shadow starts to cover New York City. Graviton has taken his flying island city to America and he is hovering over New York. An interceptor squad of Airforce Fighters tries in vain to blast through the force field surrounding the floating chunk of Canadian real estate, but to no avail! Jarvis is watching the news on the television. Graviton has demanded that world power be surrendered to him or he will destroy the great cities of the world one by one starting with New York. The news also states that the eight Avengers who attacked Graviton have not been heard from. Jarvis raises a toast to the fallen heroes when the Black Panther asks him if he truly believes they are dead. T’Challa decides that he will fly up to the island using one of the Avengers’ one-man sky sleds. He is not sure about how he will penetrate the force field, but then Thor appears and offers his help. The two then streak off towards the island. Jarvis once again stands alone.
Back on the island, we see that Graviton has immobilized the Avengers and pinned them to a slab of concrete. Judy is now decked out in the queenly garments that Graviton gave her. She stands there in complete emotional agony while Graviton continues boasting. "The UN won’t dare defy me! I expect their answer any moment." “"Turn and face thy ‘answer,’ villain!"” Thor has arrived! He slams into Graviton, but the force field holds and Thor is knocked back. He then summons the lightning with his hammer but Graviton is still standing! Thor can’t believe it! Graviton throws a building at Thor, but Thor knocks it to pieces with his hammer. He sends an energy bolt from his hammer, but Graviton manages to send it back to Thor, thus stunning him.
On the slab, Iron Man is trying to use the power of his jet boots combined with his repulsor rays to break free. Once past the artificial gravitation field, he is able to step down. He is not sure whether he should help Thor on his own, or try to release the rest of the heroes. Black Panther then shows up and tells Iron Man to go help Thor, because he has a device from Stark’s lab which (he hopes) will free the rest of the group. Iron man flies off and tries to knock Graviton over by impacting the ground at the edge of the gravity field. He then lands a mean left that actually dents the field. Unfortunately, it is not enough and Iron Man is sent reeling again. Once again Graviton stands triumphant!
The rest of the Avengers have now been released, and are on the attack. Graviton however, merely gestures to encase them in another sphere of gravitic energy. He turns to see what Judy thinks of his power. Judy is nowhere to be seen, but Graviton spies the tiara he had given her and then follows a trail of discarded jewelry to the edge of the island. Judy has jumped off! Graviton blames the Avengers and goes wild! He decides to release ALL of his power at once in order to blast the Avengers into atoms. Graviton’s power goes haywire and chunks of the island start breaking off and flying towards Graviton. Captain America states "Everything is being pulled toward Graviton... as if he’s become a living black hole!" The Avengers decide they had better leave the island while they still can!
The island continues to compact until it is a small, incredibly dense sphere which falls to Earth. Thor, Vision, Iron Man, and Wonder Man catch the falling sphere and toss it into the ocean. The city has been saved! They return to Avengers mansion where they are saddened by the death of Judy which, more than anything else, caused the defeat of Graviton. They are surprised to find her sitting in the mansion taking tea with Jarvis! He confesses that he only wanted to help, and took the liberty of borrowing one of the sky sleds to see if he could at least create a diversion. He explains that as he approached the island, Judy fell out of the sky and Jarvis was able to save her. Well done Jarvis!