Avengers (UK) Vol 1 91

Picking up where last issue left off, we find the Avengers, Hawkeye, Vision, Black Panther and their associate the Black Knight stranded in the Antarctic. Black Panther summons a vessel and flies his friends with him to Wakanda. There, they are greeted by an army of Wakandan troops who attack the other Avengers with guns until Black Panther stops them. When asking them who authorized them to carry such weapons, they tell the Panther that it was his chosen stand in -- M'Baku -- who made the order.

Angered, Black Panther calls M'Baku to answer to him. Having dinner, M'Baku explains that he ordered the troops to carry weapons because he had heard reports that Klaw was back in Wakanda. During their meal, Black Panther, and his comrades are knocked out because M'Baku had drugged their meals in hopes of taking over the nation of Wakanda.

Waking up from his drugging, the Black Panther finds himself in costume, faced with M'Baku who is dressed in the garb of a white gorilla -- such an outfit being forbidden in Wakanda. Calling himself the Man-Ape, M'Baku explains that he will kill T'Challa and take over the kingdom and have everyone worship the white gorilla instead of the panther god.

A battle wages on through the village of Wakanda, taking them to the atomic fire pits that power the small nation. There the Man-Ape almost falls into the pit, but Black Panther grabs him and as he is pulling up his foe, the Man-Ape attacks and knocks him out.

Later, the Panther regains consciousness to find himself strapped to an alter beneath the statue of the Panther god. Man-Ape then attempts to knock the statue onto the Black Panther in an effort to kill him and destroy the idol. Meanwhile, the other Avengers come too and break out of their prison cell thanks to Vision's density powers enabling him to smash the walls. While outside, the Man-Ape's plan backfires, as his efforts to knock down the statue cause it to crumble and fall on top of him while the Avengers free T'Challa from his restraints.

With T'Challa free, and the Man-Ape apparently deceased, the battle is declared over.

Shang-Chi knocks over a television antenna and uses it to reach the roof of Fu Manchu's headquarters. He then pulls a rope from a flagpole, ties it to the antenna, and climbs down it. Why? He was walking through Times Square when a man in a robe stopped him and tried to give him a religious tract. A dagger flew out of an alley and hit the man in the back, killing him instantly. Shang-Chi recognized the dragon dagger as a Si-Fan weapon.

He smashes through a window and makes his way down through the building. In the bottom of an elevator shaft, he kicks through the wall. Fu tells his Council of Seven that his daughter Fah Lo Suee has found the ruby eyes of Seth-Amon; using their hypnotic power, she has begun to recruit Si-Fan assassins to her own service. A dragon dagger slams into the table. Shang-Chi will hold his father accountable for the death of an innocent man. The seven Si-Fan, of course, attack.

Shang-Chi levers the first one into the second and third. He leaps to a beam, breaks it, and lets the beam knock down the fourth and fifth, while he lands on the sixth. The seventh rushes at him and gets flipped onto the table.

Fu takes Shang-Chi to his laboratory. He says that the betrayal of his son (Shang-Chi) and then his daughter (Fah Lo Suee) has made him lonely. He says that Fah Lo Suee has weakened his control over the Si-Fan and that she was responsible for the recent attempt on his life. He says that a war is coming, but Shang-Chi can prevent that war by killing him. Shang-Chi cannot bring himself to do it. Fu says, "Nothing has changed between us. Nothing." Later, Shang-Chi thinks, "I carry his last words into the cold night, and I walk long in their echo ... until I decide, at last, that once again ... my father has lied to me."

Bruce Banner's unconscious body is picked up by a cult led by Van Nyborg in order to be a vessel they send into another dimension to free their masters the Undying Ones. Although Banner refuses to do so, the cultists use their magic to change him into the Hulk and send him into the realm of the Night-Crawler, a being who rules over a universe that is next to the realm of the Undying Ones.

When member Barbara Norriss has second thoughts about what they are doing, she too is tossed into the universe with the Hulk. The Hulk is confronted by the Night-Crawler. In the ensuing battle, the Hulk's thunderclap sends back the Night-Crawler's sonic beams, destroying the entire universe. The Night-Crawler transports himself, Hulk and Barbara into the universe of the Undying Ones. Battling the Nameless One and its minions, the Hulk and Barbara find that Dr. Strange has been holding back the forces of the Undying Ones with a spell that required a human host to stay in said realm.

Strange helps fight back the forces, but during the fight, Barbara -- feeling guilt over what the members of her cult had done -- takes Strange's place to keep the Undying Ones in their realm, fulfilling Van Nyborg's plan to make her a sacrifice, but not in the way he had in mind. Strange and Hulk are then returned to New York City. Strange gives Banner a new set of clothes, and both leave Dr. Strange's sanctum. Strange has decided that he needs time away to be Stephen Strange again, and the two go their separate ways.