—Colonel LingI would like to believe that you are again devoted to our cause! Yet, you were sent to America to destroy the accursed Avengers -- and they still live!
Appearing in "Let Sleeping Dragons Lie!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Zeus (Referenced)
- Apollo (Mentioned)
- Hermes (Mentioned)
- Captain America (Steve Rogers) (Mentioned)
- S.H.I.E.L.D. (Only in flashback)
- ⏴ Black Widow (Natasha) ⏵ (Only in flashback)
- Colonel Ling ⏵ (First appearance) (Only in flashback)
- ⏴ Dr. Yen ⏵ (Only in flashback)
- Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards) (Only in recap)
- Human Torch (Johnny Storm) (Only in recap)
- Numerous unnamed New Yorkers
- Speedy Gonzales (Mentioned) (Topical Reference)
- ⏴ Bill Foster ⏵
Races and Species:
- Humans (Main story and flashback)
- Human-Olympian Hybrids
- Cows (Invoked)
- Gods (Mentioned)
- Robots (Main story and recap)
- Olympians (Referenced)
- Mules (Mentioned)
- Gargoyles (Mentioned)
Locations:
- Earth (Main story and flashback)
- United States (Main story and recap)
- New York (Main story and recap)
- New York City (Main story and recap)
- Manhattan
- Pym Laboratories
- Dayton Building
- Hegeman (Only in recap)
- State University (Only in recap)
- New York City (Main story and recap)
- New York (Main story and recap)
- Far East (Only in flashback)
- Unnamed Eastern power (Only in flashback)
- Secret Base (Only in flashback)
- Unnamed Eastern power (Only in flashback)
- United States (Main story and recap)
- Olympus (Mentioned)
Items:
- Hawkeye's Bow and Trick Arrows
- Black Widow's Gauntlets (Only in flashback)
- Psychotron (First appearance) (Only in flashback)
- Fantastic Four Uniforms (Only in recap)
- Bio-Synthetic Wings
- Dyna-disk
- Auric-Ray weapon
Vehicles:
- Chariot of Hermes
- American planes
- X-76 Verti-Jet (Only in flashback)
Synopsis for "Let Sleeping Dragons Lie!"
The Black Widow reaches the East with the stolen plane and meets Colonel Ying and Dr. Yen. He shows her his new invention, the Psychotron, which tortures its subjects with their greatest fears. They trap the Black Widow in it, suspecting (correctly) that she is still working for western forces.
Meanwhile, Goliath and Bill Foster are asked to examine the android body Dragon Man. Diablo lures the Avengers away from Dragon Man long enough for him to reactivate his creation. The Avengers battle Diablo and Dragon-Man and eventually beat them, but they nevertheless escape with an unconscious Goliath and the Wasp as their prisoners.
Notes
- John Buscema's significant run as artist for this title begins with this issue. He will be the regular Avengers artist through Avengers #62 (cover only on Avengers #45) and will return as the artist from Avengers Vol 1 74-85. He also drew several other issues of Avengers since that time, including another tenure with writer Roger Stern in the 1980s.
- References: Fantastic Four #35 and Fantastic Four #47
- Alter Ego Vol 1 9, pg 42 prints John Buscema's unpublished character sketches for the 5 active male Avengers. Notes indicate that the Avengers were being compared/rendered as several prominent actors of the day: