While the Avengers grant a missing Iron Man a leave of absence, Kang plots their destruction in the year 3000. Wanting acompletely loyal operative for the job, he resolves to create a robot. He considers sending a group of robotic duplicates of leading super villains, but decides against that since they might fight among themselves. Instead he creates a robotic duplicate of the super hero Spider-Man and sends him back in time to destroy the Avengers. After helping Captain America capture a gang of hoodlums (actually more of Kang’s robots), “Spider-Man” applies for Avengers membership, claiming he can lead them to the missing Iron Man, supposedly abducted by the Masters of Evil. The robot instead leads the Avengers into a series of ambushes at the Temple of Tirod, where he defeats them one by one. The real Spider-Man comes to the rescue, having spotted his double back in New York and followed him, deactivating the robot and saving the Avengers. The team soon deduces Kang was responsible for their attacker, making the villain’s frustration in defeat even greater.
Wonder Man betrays the Masters of Evil after aiding them against Avengers (Av #9, ’64).
This issue includes “A Marvel Masterwork Pin-Up” of “Kang! Truly, one of the most unusual arch-foes of all time!” (a full-page drawing of Kang with the faces of his alternate self Rama-Tut and his inspiration Dr. Doom visible on nearby monitors), by Don Heck (pencils & inks) and Sam Rosen & Art Simek (letters). Though he is absent in this issue, Iron Man is mistakenly pictured on the cover. Based on Rick Jones’ status in this issue, honorary Avengers members can attend meetings but apparently have no voting privileges. An instinctive wasp-spider enmity stoked animosity between Wasp and Spider-Man during several of their early meetings, as seen first in TTA #57, ’64. Cap tries a different team rallying cry (“Avengers...Awaaay!”) in this issue.
