A feminist superhuman called the Valkyrie gathers the Black Widow, Medusa, the Scarlet Witch and Wasp at Avengers Mansion. She convinces them to go on a mission as the Liberators to demand respect from the male Avengers, who are attending a Halloween parade in Rutland, Vermont. The Masters of Evil attack the parade to kidnap TW Erwin, inventor of the Parallel-Time Projector. The villains gain the upper hand in a battle with the Black Panther, Goliath, Quicksilver and the Vision, but the Liberators arrive and defeat the Masters of Evil. The Liberators unexpectedly strike down the male Avengers and take them to Erwin’s lab. Upon seeing Erwin’s invention, Valkyrie changes form to reveal the Enchantress. The villainess, banished from Asgard, stripped of half her power, and spurned by the Executioner, explains that she manipulated the women to get control of the Parallel-Time Projector to restore her to power and status. The Scarlet Witch hurls a hex at her and the Enchantress disappears in a mystical blast.
Yellowjacket and the Wasp battle a gunman (1). Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch battle Maggia hoodlums (2). Odin banishes the Enchantress and the Executioner to a barren netherworld, whose ruler Casiolena woos the Executioner away from the Enchantress (3).
The Liberators exist as a group only for this issue and are called the Lady Liberators on the cover only, though a new Lady Liberators will form in Hulk #7, ’08. Valkyrie’s real name is revealed in Def #66, ’78. Valkyrie’s account of her origin is revealed as the Enchantress’ lie. The Avengers revisit the Rutland Halloween Parade in Av #119, ’74. Miskatonic University’s name comes from HP Lovecraft’s horror stories of the 1920s & 30s. Next issue reveals that the blast at the end of this story transported Enchantress to Polemachus.
