Avengers Vol 1 123

Avengers Vol 1 #123 May, 1974 Issue Details Pages 32 Original Price 25c US Editor-in-Chief Roy Thomas Cover Artist Ron Wilson John Romita Gaspar Saladino "Vengence in Viet Nam! - or - An Origin for Mantis!" Writer Steve Englehart Penciler Bob Brown Inker Don Heck Colourist Petra Goldberg Letterer John Costanza Editor Roy Thomas Previous Issue Next Issue Avengers #122 Avengers #124

Appearing in "Vengence in Viet Nam! - or - An Origin for Mantis!"

Featured Characters:

• Avengers
  •  Mantis  (Main story and flashback) (Origin revealed)
  •  Iron Man (Tony Stark) 
  •  Thor 
  •  Vision 
  •  Black Panther (T'Challa) 
  •  Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff) 
  •  Swordsman (Jacques Duquesne) 

Supporting Characters:

• Gustav Brandt (Main story and flashback)

Antagonists:

• Zodiac Crime Cartel
  • Taurus
  • Leo
  • Cancer
  • Sagittarius
• Monsieur Khruul (Main story and flashback)
• Star Stalker 

Other Characters:

• Priests of Pama (Main story and flashback)
• Lua aka Lau Brandt (Only appearance; dies)^[1] (Mantis' mother, called "Lua") (Only in flashback)

Locations:

• Zodiac's Headquarters
• New York City
  • Manhattan
    • Avengers Mansion
• Vietnam
  • Outskirts of Saigon

Items:

• Mjolnir
• Iron Man Armor MK IV
• Swordsman's Sword

Vehicles:

• Avengers Quinjet
• Zodiac's Star Cruiser
  
  

Synopsis for "Vengence in Viet Nam! - or - An Origin for Mantis!"

Continued from last issue, the Avengers have just defeated the Zodiac Cartel when Zodiac member Libra reveals that he is the actual father of Mantis. His real name is Gustav Brandt, he admits. (He does not add that he was calling himself by the alias of Lloyd Willoughby while in pursuit of a career as a criminal.) He explains further that he was a US soldier who fought in Vietnam; there, he ended up falling in love with a Vietnamese woman who was the sister of a crime boss called Monsieur Khruul and they had a child together.

When the evil, xenophobic Khruul, who hated "Europeans," learned of this, being enraged by his sister's marriage, he had them all burned alive, and Libra's wife Lua died. However, Libra himself, though blinded, managed to escape with his child and found the ancient city of the Priests of Pama, who took them in and trained his daughter in their ways; they isolated her from him because he was a soldier. They tried to teach him their philosophy as well, but eventually he left. All he gained from them was the ability to "see," presumably psychically, despite his physical blindness.

The Avengers end up having to rush to Vietnam when they learn that Jacques Duquesne, the Swordsman, in an effort to prove himself worthy of Mantis's affections, flew there to take down Monsieur Khruul. Upon their arrival, they find that the Swordsman was himself captured and tortured instead until he revealed the location of the temple of the Priests of Pama.

Arriving there too late, the Avengers find that the evil Khruul and his henchmen have all slaughtered the Priests, but also that Khruul himself has ended his own life by freeing a creature known as the Star Stalker, which was the Priests's captive.

Notes

• Zodiac appears only as a cameo in this issue.

• This issue contains a Series "A" Marvel Value Stamp: #4 - The Thing

• Lau "Lua" Brandt is also Gustav Brandt's wife and Monsieur Khrull's sister as well as Mantis's mother.

• This issue contains two page letters section, Avengers Assemble! Letters are published from David Burcia, Paul Loper, Kim (?), Joe Cicala, and Nan Brower.

• This issue also contains a Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation.

See Also

• Write your own review of this comic!
• Discuss Avengers Vol 1 123 on the forums
• Images from Avengers Vol 1 123
  

Links and References

• The Unofficial Marvel Value Stamps Site [1]

Footnotes