Searching the Priests of Pama’s temple for the slayer of Monsieur Khruul, the Avengers, Mantis and Libra eventually find the alien Star-Stalker by means of Mantis’ extrasensory sensitivity. The Star-Stalker explains how the Priests of Pama were founded by his archenemies, a pacifist faction of the alien Kree race, and their protection was the only thing keeping him from destroying Earth, since they knew his sole weakness. After Khruul killed the Priests, an ungrateful Star-Stalker killed Khruul, and the seemingly invulnerable alien now intends to destroy the Earth by cocooning himself so he can transform into a creature of pure ionic combustion that will consume the planet. Mantis cannot remember any of the Priests’ secrets, still insisting Libra’s tale of her childhood with them is untrue, so the alien’s weakness remains secret. Black Panther convinces the Avengers’ recently jailed foe Cornelius Van Lunt to give the team his Star-Blaster to use against the alien. While Scarlet Witch tries to comfort the despairing, self-loathing Swordsman, recently captured and tortured by Khruul, SHIELD brings the Star-Blaster to the Avengers, but the device proves ineffective against the Star-Stalker after the alien emerges from his cocoon. During the ensuing battle, the alien easily beats back all his attackers except Mantis, who deduces that the Star-Stalker is vulnerable to heat and has Vision blast the alien with his solar eyebeams, killing the creature. Vision praises Mantis’ remarkable mind, but Mantis is troubled because emerging clues about her past have begun to make her doubt her memories and her own identity.
The Avengers thwart Zodiac’s attempted mass murder via Star-Blaster (Av #120, ’74). The Avengers battle Zodiac at a warehouse (Av #121, ’74). The warehouse turns out to be a disguised rocket, and Zodiac leader Taurus uses it to fire the Avengers and a rogue Zodiac faction into space (Av #121-122, ’74). Libra uses the Star-Cruiser to rescue everyone from the warehouse (Av #122, ’74). Libra tells the Avengers of his and Mantis’ origins (Av #123, ’74). Khruul and his men kill the Priests of Pama, the Avengers defeat his men, and Khruul himself is slain (Av #123, ’74). Millennia ago, the warlike Kree empire exiles a small group of Kree pacifists to a tiny, dark prison planet. The world-destroying Star-Stalker attacks that planet and the pacifists defeat him by discovering his one weakness. Kree ruler the Supreme Intelligence ignores the pacifists’ warnings of the Star-Stalker menace, so the pacifists relocate in teams of two to all known inhabited worlds, propagating themselves and forming small, isolated groups to defend each world against the Star-Stalker. On Earth, these pacifists become known as the Priests of Pama.
