The sorcerer Dr. Strange requests the Avengers’ aid in saving the world. He leads them to the captured Sons of Satannish cultist Marduk and the fallen Black Knight, who sacrificed himself to shield Strange from Marduk. Using the Avengers’ rejuvenator machine and his surgical skills, Strange saves the Knight’s life and revives him. Meanwhile, the Avengers receive reports of volcanoes erupting in Antarctica and ice covering Wakanda’s jungles, symptoms of the Spell of Fire and Ice cast by Sons of Satannish leader Asmodeus, which has brought the elemental Asgardian giants Surtur and Ymir to Earth and sent them on destructive rampages. While Strange strives to master the mystic Crystal of Conquest confiscated from Marduk, the Black Knight and Hawkeye battle Surtur in Antarctica while the Black Panther and Vision fight Ymir in Wakanda. The two seemingly indestructible giants are so overwhelmingly powerful that the heroes can do little more than distract or delay their foes, until Strange uses the Crystal to transport Surtur and Ymir into each other’s presence just as the two giants are about to smite their attackers. The two giants strike each other instead, sparking a mystic implosion that hurls them back to their own dimensions.
Having freed the Sons of Satannish from Tiboro’s realm with the Black Knight’s assistance, seeking the Sons’ aid in thwarting the Spell of Fire and Ice cast by the Sons’ leader Asmodeus, Dr. Strange has wiped most of the Sons’ minds except for that of Marduk, who has promised to help; however, Marduk attacks them with a Crystal of Conquest, gravely injuring the Black Knight before Strange subdues and interrogates a terrified Marduk (p).
This issue introduces the Quinjet, which in various forms has become the Avengers’ primary mode of long-range transportation ever since. The Av:EMH series later establishes that the Avengers were experimenting with a prototype Quinjet as early as Av:EMH #3, ’05 (between Av #5-6, ’64) and using Quinjets in the field as early as Av:EMH #3, ’07 (between Av #58-59, ’68). Richard Pini, later co-creator of Elfquest, has a LOC printed in this issue. This issue’s title is an excerpt from Robert Frost’s 1920 poem “Fire and Ice.”
