Ok, big finish! What could possibly make this any weirder than the previous 3 issues? The title of this one is “DEATH IN THE YEAR BEFORE YESTERDAY,” so strap in, I guess. It’s a stormy night in Manhattan. Yeah, man, Manhattan, we do not rejoin out heroes in the past. Moondragon, one of the stranger additions to The Avengers over the years, is outside Avengers Mansion watching the storm as Iron Man comes out to ask her if she’s looking for something…
Moondragon says her dreams “manifest themselves as pain” in her mind, and she’s driven by said pain to a room in Avengers Mansion where a big red ball of light is just hanging out. the same ball that Wanda disappeared into several issues back, I guess.
Moondragon finds herself sent back in time, where she finds a crazy scene. Some time has passed, er, in the past, since last issue. Vision, Scarlet Witch and Spider-man are laid out on some kind of machine, which is in turn attached by some electrified wire to a bubble containing Dr. Doom, which is attached by more wires to the hand of The Dark Rider. It’s very convoluted.
Ya got that right, Marv (Wolfman, editor and future Spider-Man writer)! Like I said before, I read this issue first, and boy, was that something. so they’re pinning the entirety of the Salem Witchtrials on The Dark Rider? This is some weird business. Cotton Mather is about to stab Scarlet Witch with the whatever when Moondragon speaks up.
Did she just try to say her name is Moondragon because she has brain-hurty powers? What sense does that make? Aaaaanyway, Spider-Man recaps the previous 3 issues real quick, and then he, Wanda and Vision set about trying to figure out how to free Doom. Meanwhile, Moondragon and The Dark Rider have a big ol’ psychic fight, which results in them both being trapped in a “mind lock” as she lives his history, which is some truly ridiculous space sword & sorcery stuff. He’s the last survivor or a race of wizards that banished a bunch of demons at “the dawn of man?” What? Meanwhile…
Wanda buys Spidey & Vision time to succeed in freeing Doom. As Vision jumps into the fray with his wife, Spider-Man realizes the only thing they haven’t tried so far is to all attack him at once, so he rouses Doom to get him in on the battle.
The combined powers of all the assembled heroes and Doom is enough to take down The Rider, with Moondragon making the final zap. And she seems to turn their foe to a pile of ash? And everyone’s cool with that? Uh. ok.
Well… that’s a lot to unpack. Spidey was the one talking about not being able to change the past earlier, and now he’s… sad he couldn’t change the past. I mean, I get it, but… Yeah. Also, “Awhile back?” That was almost 150 issues ago! Well, at any rate, there you have it. A 4-issue bizarre bonanza, right? Wrong! This nonsense isn’t over yet!
This issue’s Marvel Value Stamp is intact, by the way. Safe’n’sound. This one also features my favorite Hostess ad yet. They’re usually quite absurd, but this one may take the (cup)cake:
Every panel is solid gold. Spidey defeating a villain in one panel, the cops yelling “We don’t understand you!”, MJ getting off the most savage burn in the history of Spider-Man comics… incredible.