AVENGERS BATTLE THE EARTH-WRECKER "Chapter Eleven: Underground Duel"

Art by John Buscema & Vince Colletta

Read the Previous Chapter HERE

Chapter 11: Underground Duel

So was the Wasp ready. That was all she was waiting for—to know about those deadly buttons. That was what Goliath had previously whispered to her: “After I inveigle Karzz to spill the beans, keeping his attention on me, you do your stuff as the girl with the swinging stinger.”

And now, diving down from her perch like a miniature hawk, the Wasp aimed her sting-ray at the alien’s hand, poised over his fatal push button. But what was Karzz saying...?

“Your petite lady friend thinks I'm unaware of her,” and he looked at what seemed to be a wristwatch on his other hand. “But my wrist-monitor, which magnifies microscopic objects, has been following her all the time. And now she’ll have company.”

Karzz flipped a switch. A panel opened in his control board. Out flew a bug that made a peculiar metallic buzz, which rose in an ominous crescendo.

In mid-air the Wasp came to a halt, startled at what she saw coming. “A mechanical bug,” she gasped.

It was twice her size, and was made of gleaming metal, its wings operating from some tiny internal motor. In shape, it was like no one species of insect, but was a hybrid mixture of all types, with six jointed saw-edged legs. It had two huge mandibles that clanged as they opened and shut, and a long steel stinger like a knight’s lance. It was a formidable machine-powered robot insect against which frail Wasp had no chance.

As the entomological Frankenstein came buzzing toward her like a ferocious praying mantis, the Wasp frantically began twisting and looping in the air, hoping to elude it.

“She will. never escape that bug bloodhound,” promised Karzz, watching his miniature monitor. “It has target-seeking sensors like a guided missile, attuned to the Wasp’s human heartbeat. The pounding of her pulse is all the robot bug needs to hang on her trail and duplicate every maneuver she makes.”

And now- a deadly dogfight—between two pseudo-insects—took place.

No matter which way the Wasp darted, the miniature metallic monster followed relentlessly. When she tried a straightaway flight at top speed, the robot bug quickly began putting on steam and overtaking her.

An idea struck her. She flew toward the cave wall and darted into a crack in the stone. “It’s too narrow for him to squeeze in,” she breathed thankfully.

But outside the crack, the tiny tin. terror began extending a steel-spring “proboscis,” further and further. At its end were barbs, and Karzz’s jeering voice drifted to the Wasp’s ears as he watched all this on his wrist-monitor:

“Those barbs are poisoned, ma cheri, One touch and you shrivel into a miniature mummy.”

Wasp was forced to slip aside before the barbed nemesis could reach her, then work her way out of the crack. But now she was in the open again, at the mercy of the pursuing robot insect. Was there no escape for her?

“Coward!” said Karzz mockingly to Goliath, who stood helplessly. “Why don’t you aid your girl friend? Surely a great giant like you could defeat a mere mechanical bug.”

But of course, that’s just what Goliath couldn’t.. do—not as Goliath. As Karzz gloatingly glued his eyes on his wrist-monitor screen, he did not notice Goliath shrinking rapidly, and vanishing.

A moment later, the Ant-Man sprang into action, scuttling across the floor to the Vulcan Machine and swiftly climbing it, with many handholds available to him in his tiny size. When he was perched somewhere near the top, on a huge pipe, he cupped his lips and called: “Wasp! It’s me, Ant-Man. Lead that tin bug over this way.”

Hearing the shrill shout, Wasp swung up toward the pipe, the mechanical bug pursuing as he was programmed to do. Ant-Man’s shout was no warning to its one-track tape-operated computer mind.

So it was that Ant-Man was able to time a long desperate leap—and land squarely on the robot bug’s back. The force of the impact drove the artificial creature down to the floor with a metallic clank.

 “Hide, Wasp!” the Ant-Man shouted. “Don’t fly. He’s only programmed to follow your flying form. If he sees nothing like that, he will stay here and slug it out with me, whether he likes it or not.”

And with that, Ant-Man unwound a terrific blow.

“Right at your chin, if any,” he barked.

But the blow that had stunned a tiger beetle, and might have knocked other bugs cold, had no more effect on the heavy metallic bug than a love pat would.

Meanwhile Karzz started, and stared closely at his wrist-monitor. “So, Goliath assumed a tiny form to tackle my robot Wasp-killer, eh? Well, a twist of the remote controls, here beside the monitor, and he’ll turn into an invincible Ant-Man killer.”

The robot bug, indifferent to Ant-Man before, now turned toward him, its heady eye-sensors focusing on its new prey, according to the instructions impulsed from its alien master.

With a prodigious leap, it pounced on the Ant-Man before he could scramble back. It’s saw-edged legs raked across Ant-Man’s back painfully, and two vise-like mandibles clamped shut, barely missing biting off his arm.

Then Ant-Man wrenched free and swung around, crouching, and wondering what next to expect from his formidable foe. He did not have long to wait. The robot bug buzzed into the air and came down, stinger first, ready to impale Ant-Man through and through.

With trigger-touch reflexes inherent to his size, Ant-Man sprang back. But now, as he tried to run for hiding, the buzzing mechanical creature darted down time after time with its stinger.

“And if you try changing back to your Goliath size,” Warned Karzz, “I’ll sic -the killer--bug back -on the Wasp.” He hardly needed to add that it the Wasp took on human size, Karzz could instantly seize the helpless girl.

It was a deadly trap, no matter how Ant-Man looked at it. He kept running from the flying robot bug and its steel stinger.  before Ant-Man stretched the barren floor that to him was a mile long. Panting, he found it harder each time to avoid that aerial rapier, for his muscles were tiring.

Watching his wrist-monitor, like some Roman emperor at the arena while gladiators fought to -the death, Karzz used his fingernail to touch. a small switch that sent a new command to the robot bug.

“The coup de grâce,” spoke Karzz aloud. “Here it comes, Ant-Man. Don’t forget my mechanical flyer is really an attack plane in miniaturized bug-like form, so...”

And now, to Ant-Man's horror, a flap opened in the side of the flying robot and a snout poked out. A miniature machine gun began spraying tiny bullets at Ant-Man, kicking up dust at his heels.

But Ant-Man’s hair, sensitive to subtle vibrations and forces, like an insect’s antennae—an attribute that automatically came with his bug size—detected something nearby. He swung that way, toward a bluish stone lying on the cave floor.

The bullet-spewing bug now slowed down to set its sights carefully for the killing salvo. But suddenly, the robot was yanked through the air by another force, and was tumbling out of control.

Karzz stared at his -tiny monitor “Caramba! What happened? Why doesn’t it respond to my controls?’

“Because,” shouted the tiny Ant-Man, watching the killer-bug sailing at mounting speed, “that blue stone I ran toward is a lodestone, a natural magnet. And your mechanical bug, of course, has a steel body.”

Drawn inexorably to the lodestone, the robot bug crashed into it at high speed and burst apart into wires, wheels, and metallic debris.

Muttering what must have been imprecations in his native tongue, the alien poised his fingernail over a red button on the wrist-monitor. “There’s still one thing I can do...I can press the destruction button. Though the robot bug has already burst apart, within its head is a charge of radioisotopic explosive, enough. to blow you to eternity, Ant-Man.”

“No . . . no!” cried the Wasp. But she was waiting for this—if Karzz made the wrong move. Like a tiny dive-bomber, she zoomed down at his hand, aiming her sting beam.

She jabbed deep into flesh . . . but nothing. happened.

Momentarily diverted, Karzz saw the buzzing Wasp and grinned ghoulishly. “Why didn’t I yell in pain, my dear? Can you guess?”

“You’re an android,” gasped the girl, in realization. She couldn’t sting this insensitive carbon copy of Karzz and produce pain. But there was something else she could do....

The Wasp’s next dive aimed her sting-beam at the android’s wrist-monitor. All the drilling power struck home, shattering the screen to bits and scattering microminiature components underneath.

“My robot bug’s remote controls—Wrecked!” cried Karzz.

“Right,” sang back the Wasp. “You can’t set off the destruction button. now. Ant-Man is safe.”

Karzz the android—himself guided by remote controls and a monitor into which the real Karzz was staring, elsewhere on earth—seized an ordinary fly-swatter from a hook on the wall. “I’ll swat you myself. . . .”

Swinging the swatter, Karzz suddenly turned and stopped abruptly, seeing the giant man towering before him. “Ant-Man...back in Goliath form!”

“Yes, and my anger is as big as I am.” Suddenly his arms went around Karzz, force-field and all. “After all,” rumbled Goliath, “even with that invisible shield, it’s only ten feet around.”

Yanking the Karzz android and his energy bubble off the floor, Goliath hurled them straight at the Vulcan Machine with titanic force, aiming for electronic devices within. its heart.

A gigantic spark leaped forth, piercing the energy bubble and electrocuting the android into a blackened mass, It could hardly be called a corpse, since it had never been truly alive.

“Get out of the cave, Wasp!” roared Goliath now. As she ran into a side passage through which they had entered before, Goliath strode to Where two limestone columns in the middle of the big cavern extended from floor to roof.

By some freak of geological processes, through eons of time, two giant stalagmites from the floor and two stalactites from the ceiling had met and merged.

Crooking an elbow around each of these natural. pillars, Goliath strained mightily, knotting every muscle in his massive body. Stone creaked and groaned.

Suddenly, like a cannon-shot, both limestone pillars snapped. A ceiling weakened by ages of seeping waters now began to collapse, as Goliath had surmised would happen.

With a resounding roar louder than a hundred thunder-claps, the entire cavern collapsed. inward. Untold tons of rock crashed down on the Vulcan Machine, flattening it into a hissing, smoking ruin. Nothing man-made, or alien-made, could withstand that crushing force. Nor anything alive....

“Wasp,” Karzz spoke calmly at his unknown retreat far away, tuning his monitor screen to her. “Goliath didn’t accomplish anything. When the robot bug chased you away from my control board, I immediately pressed the final push button, sending the ultrasonic broadcast of trigger Waves down into the wor1d’s crust. Such sonic vibrations, as you know, follow rock strata everywhere. Thus, the destruction of my Vulcan Machine now was a futile gesture.”

Karzz’s voice rang triumphantly. “In nine days, along with earth dooms one and two, volcanic catastrophe number three will also happen, right on schedule.”

His frosty eyes stared straight at the Wasp now, and there was a curl on his lips. “But I think the end of the World, for you, has already happened—Goliath, of course, could never come out of the wrecked cavern alive.”

“You’re right,” murmured the Wasp. “Absolutely right, Karzz.”

She smiled and lifted up her palm, on which stood a tiny form. “But the Ant-Man could! No matter how many broken stones tell and piled up, there was plenty of space between then for an insect-sized man to huddle in safety, and then crawl out to freedom.”

Karzz cursed, eloquently, as he watched the Ant-Man shoot up and assume his human form, alongside the Wasp. “But l’m glad,” he said then, with a malicious grin. “It means that you will be around to die with the rest of the human race, nine days from now, when the world comes to an end. Now . . . aloha.”

His floating image faded away, as a last harsh laugh rippled mockingly through the air.

“That’s true,” whispered the Wasp. “We won against the Karzz android, but lost to Karzz himself.”

“Well, at least one thing we know,” muttered Henry Pym, “is that the real Karzz, who was neither at Antarctica, nor here in the South Seas, must he in the Sahara. Here’s hoping Captain America can settle that inhuman monster’s hash there.”

“Let’s get back to Avenger headquarters fast,” said the Wasp, “and rejoin Iron Man and Hawkeye there. They must be on the way back. Then we can all go to Cap’s aid in the Sahara. It looks as if the big showdown will be there.”

But Captain America is already engaged in combat with Karzz, as we'll see tomorrow at Atomic Kommie Comics in the chapter writer Otto Binder just had to call...
"Desert Danger"!
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AVENGERS BATTLE THE EARTH-WRECKER "Chapter Ten: Doom Machine"

Art by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers

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Chapter 10: Doom Machine

Yet Karzz was still in Antarctica! And still driving his monstrous tractor tank at the fleeing figure of Hawkeye, dashing madly but hopelessly across the smooth snowfields with no slightest haven in sight.

And the Golden Avenger, diving at meteoric speed, had no chance to reach his doomed companion—at least not in person.

But from his right arm’s hollow metal sleeve shot forth a steel spring that uncoiled to its full length of a hundred feet. At its end was a hook that caught expertly in Hawkeye’s belt. The archer was yanked upward just as an enormous spiked tread rolled crunchingly over the spot he had vacated.

 Reeling in the steel spring, Iron Man said, “My timer shows that was just -three-tenths of a second before contact between you and the treads.”

“A closer shave,” said Hawkeye, only the slightest tremor in his voice betraying how shaken up he was, “was never claimed even by a TV razor advertiser.” He took a deep breath. “Sorry, Iron Head, for gypping you out of collecting my insurance.”

“What .insurance?” retorted the Golden Avenger. “You know quite well no insurance company would be idiotic enough to insure any of. us. The Avengers live the most dangerous lives on Earth. Even Lloyds of London reneged.”

Iron Man was just chatting to allow Hawkeye to regain his shattered composure. It was not easy for a man to be snatched from the jaws of. death. by a split hairline of time. But then he saw the bowman’s lip curling in his usual devil-may-care smirk.

“Thanks for the assist, Rusty Joints,” Hawkeye said. “I’ll let you hand me my arrows some time when I’m firing with my unfailing skill.” A black frown swept over his face. “Which reminds me, I’m going to get that outer-space thug right now. Ever hear of the old soft underbelly deal?”

“You mean . . . ?”

“Yeah. While I was being hounded by that coffee-grinder, I looked back and saw that where the drive-shaft for the treads extends up inside to the engines there’s a hole with an inch clearance. An inch is all an arrow needs to get through.”

“But if you stand below in front oft the machine again,” said Iron Man, “he’ll grind you into human hamburger.”

“He won’t see me,” said. Hawkeye mysteriously. “Just fly me a mile away and you’ll see.”

When Iron Man put the archer down, a mile off, Hawkeye first pulled something from his belt and attached it to his bow.

“My telescopic sights,” he said.

 Then he withdrew a thick—shafted arrow and notched it. Carefully he squinted through his sights until the cross-hairs were on that hole he had seen which was visible from any ground-level position.

When Hawkeye let fly, Iron Man was startled to see the back end of the arrow burst forth with fire. He had never taken stock of Hawkeye’s full repertory of amazing arrows.

“My rocket arrow,” crowed. the archer, as it sped at ever-increasing speed through the ice-cold air.

Watching through his telescopic sights, Hawk-eye suddenly exclaimed: “Bull’s-eye! But then, aren’t all my shots‘? There it goes up into the soft underbelly of the machine, up into the inner works, where—”

There was a muted boom from the distant machine and smoke squirted from its seams

“I gave Karzz a hot tip,” said Hawkeye, grinning. “An arrow tip armed with superthermite that makes steel burn like paper. He’s probably yelling for the fire department right now. Let’s go watch the fun.”

No less eager than Hawkeye to see the results, iron Man hauled his companion through the air for a mile, to land near the Infrared Beamer. It now ground to a stop and started wheeling crazily in a circle. Muffled explosions sounded inside, and a hole melted in the hull from the inside out. From the hole shot a lurid red glow, as of a dozen forest fires burning fiercely.

“It looks as if my thermite arrow was like a fuse, setting off various flammables,” chortled the bowman. “And here comes the cornered rat himself  out of his tinder box.”

Soot-streaked, Karzz came scuttling out of a hatchway down a ladder that suddenly burned off at the top, tumbling him the rest of the way into the snow. He stood up dazedly, staggering away from the huge pyre that his machine had now become.

But then he shrugged, facing the two men with his usual aplomb.

“You think you’ve won, eh? But before you destroyed my Infrared Beamer, I shot a boring rocket down through the ice, to come to rest a mile below. In that rocket is the heat-current radiator I told you of.”

He leered at them.

“In nine days, its temperature charge will have built up to where the entire Antarctic ice cap melts, flooding the world. It will happen the same day that the giant comet arrives from space, to deal earth another shattering blow. Two of my Earth dooms have been launched, and no power on earth can stop them.”

It was true, Iron Man knew. No digging machine on Earth had the capability of penetrating the massive ice sheet covering Antarctica, to reach and destroy the deadly device buried a mile down.

Karzz had won round two, after all.

“But at least you’ll die,” pronounced Iron Man, bringing up his right-hand gauntlet, “from a blast of my kill-ray.”

“Je suis sans souci,” said Karzz evenly. At Hawkeye's blank look, he translated: “I am without worry. Iron Man fails to remember that all his puny rays were stopped before by an invisible force-shield, which surrounds me now.”

“But since then,” hissed the Golden Avenger, remembering those hours in Anthony Stark’s superbly equipped lab, “I analyzed your force-shield’s likely structure and devised a way to break through. it with this Z-ray . . .”

And, as a poisonous blue ray sprang from Iron Man’s transistorized finger projector, there was a puff of smoke.

Then…nothing.

“Holy Jumping Hannah!” shrieked Hawkeye, eyes wide in disbelief. .“I thought you were kidding. But you did it...you destroyed Karzz!” His elation died quickly and a haunted look came into his eyes. “Of course, we still have two earth dooms to face, but maybe a team of the world’s best scientists can prevent them. Anyway, we won’t have two other earth dooms to contend with . . .”

“Oui, you will, mon ami,” came a familiar voice.

“Karzz‘?” choked Hawkeye, aghast. “But-but if he’s dead…?”

They looked up. Floating down in thin air was an image of Karzz, shimmering as if cast from a distance. The image spoke: 

“All you destroyed was my android double.”

“Android double?” echoed Iron Man.

“Namely, a biological robot made of synthetic flesh-and-blood. Naturally, I could not set off three earth dooms simultaneously by myself. So I called for teleportation of my waiting android. doubles from my aides in the future.”

Hawkeye still thought it was a bad dream. “You mean that android could think, talk, and act like you?”

“Down to the last tiny item,” gloated the Karzz-image. “As for me, I’m somewhere else on earth, utterly safe. I'm. projecting my long-distance image and voice electronically to you from thousands of miles away.”

“Then you’re either in the South Seas or in the Sahara,” conjectured Iron Man.

“Brilliant,” mocked Karzz. “Now that you two have failed to halt earth doom number two, may I turn my full attention to the other two dooms, s’il vous plait?”

“That guy burns me,” exploded Hawkeye, “with his foreign phrase-dropping! If he’d only talk straight Americanese.”

“All right,” leered the image, fading out slowly like the Cheshire Cat with a last grin. “You Avengers are called champs. Is that spelled c-h-u-m-p-s?”

Almost foaming at the mouth in fury, Hawkeye ripped an arrow from his quiver and shot straight at the image just as it blinked out.

“Wait’ll we meet next time!” he raged. “I’ll crown him champ chump if it’s the last thing I do.”

“Simmer down, Hawkeye,” admonished Iron Man. “Your shouts are scaring half the penguins in Antarctica. Come on, I'll fly you back to Avenger headquarters. l just hope Goliath and the Wasp have their situation well in hand in the South Seas.”

Down in the cavern on a South Seas island, at sight of Karzz and his rumbling Vulcan Machine, Goliath shot himself up to his ten-foot stature, while the Wasp swiftly shrank to insect size—their fighting forms.

As the tiny winged girl flitted near his face, Goliath rapidly whispered a plan to her. “Got it,” she murmured, darting away.

Stealthily, Goliath picked up a huge boulder among several. that lay scattered about. Karzz still stood before a huge control board next to the machine, as if oblivious.

Flexing all his muscles in one mighty heave, Goliath flung the boulder at the control board.

Karzz turned smilingly. “Rather futile gesture, Tall One,” he said, touching a stud on his belt. A hissing dis-ray accurately struck the boulder in mid-flight, and all that was seen of it was vagrant smoke.

“I knew you were here all the time,” came the mocking tones of the alien. “You and your female companion were monitored the moment you entered the caves. What now, Big Oaf?”

Goliath was already rushing forward with another huge boulder, sprinting at a speed surprising for his bulk. When Karzz shot forth his dis-ray, Goliath dodged with trigger-tense agility.

Then he was upon Karzz, the boulder upraised in his hands, bringing it down with shattering force on his head.

Goliath was startled. He had expected Karzz to have his personal force-shield around him protectively, yet the boulder did not bounce away. Goliath was even more stunned to see the body of Karzz. turn transparent under the blow and then. fade from sight. 

“That was amusing,” chortled a voice behind Goliath. Whirling, he saw Karzz, alive and unharmed, coming around the corner of the giant machine. “It was a little game I purposely played, planting my three-dimensional image out in the open, exposed. It quickly exposed your presence, eh, big one with the little brain?”

Goliath lunged and drove his fist at the second Karzz, but this time his blow bounced back from an invisible shell.

“Naturally, I’m protected,” gloated Karzz. “Now listen to another amusing story of how Iron Man and Hawkeye killed me down in Antarctica.”

Karzz related the details of that episode. “And so you see,” he finished, “it was only my android double they destroyed.”

Goliath squinted his eyes, looking Karzz over from head to foot. “What about you now? Are you another android—or the real thing?”

“Quien sabe?” leered Karzz. “We’ll leave that as a tantalizing mystery. I. enjoy feeling like the proverbial cat playing with the mouse—a gigantic mouse named Goliath.”

“All right, the joke’s on me,” growled Goliath, exasperated. at these ingenious tricks. .

“And the punch line is that I could ray you down. on the spot,” came the grim rejoinder from Karzz, his fingers straying toward his belt.

“Maybe so,” admitted Goliath, fine beads of sweat on his brow. “But tell me one thing first—I’m asking out of curiosity. Did your Vulcan Machine start off that string of eruptions of long-dead volcanoes?”

Android or not, Karzz’s face shone with. sudden pride. “Yes, Goliath. And I grant you reprieve until you hear the full story of Earth doom number three, being launched here in this cave.”

Perched nearby in a crevice in the wall, the tiny Wasp smiled to herself. It was exactly what she and Goliath had planned, getting Karzz to boast of his accomplishment. It gave him sadistic satisfaction to have his Avenger opponents know, before they died, what coup he had pulled.

“The Vulcan Machine,” began Karzz, “is a generator of seismic waves. That is, it creates ground vibrations which travel down through the Earth’s crust to the molten magma, lying some twenty-five miles below.”

Goliath nodded in understanding. As scientist Henry Pym, he was well-acquainted with geological data about the earth’s structure.

“Now, earthquakes, as you know,” resumed Karzz, almost as if he were lecturing a class, “send forth seismic waves as their calling card. The seismographs of your scientists can pick them up and pinpoint where any earthquake occurs. But what is the cause of earthquakes?”

He paused, and Goliath took" the cue. “They are caused by deep-seated slips of gigantic masses of rock inside the crust, which in turn are caused by leakage of molten magma through. huge cracks.”

“Da, da,” nodded Karzz, “earthquakes are often the prelude to volcano eruptions, allowing a stream of molten rock to work its way up through. an ancient weakness in the so-called solid ground.”

He waved at his rumbling machine.

“So the Vulcan Machine simply sends down high-powered seismic waves to rupture the crust at key spots. A boiling river of molten lava. rushes up from below and snakes its way to the surface, there to erupt into the air violently. I touched off the island chain of dead volcanoes. You saw the result.”

“And your aim,” guessed Goliath grimly, “is to set off more volcanoes, all around Earth?”

“It’s just a matter of broadcasting the seismic triggers,” agreed Karzz. “I’m using the shotgun method, scattering the vibratory ‘fuses’ in all directions, downward. through your planet. Eventually, all the volcanoes on earth, dead or alive, will erupt without let-up—a world-wide salvo that will devastate civilization.”

“When?” breathed Goliath, shaken at the mental picture of tens of thousands of Vesuviuses blowing their tops all over the world.

“Nine days from now,” gloated Karzz, “the giant comet my Mount Everest ultramagnet pulled down will smash into Earth when the Antarctic floods of the melting ice cap reach their peak. At that time, the worldwide volcano barrage will also open up, and three earth-wrecking holocausts in combination will start to render earth kaput.”

Karzz turned and poised his finger near his control board. “When I press that final red push button, the seismic broadcast will speed down through the crust, setting off that geological chain reaction. The Vulcan Machine has been warming up to its full ultrasonic power. Now it is ready. . . .”

To Be Continued Monday with "Underground Duel"!

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AVENGERS BATTLE THE EARTH-WRECKER "Chapter Seven: Four Earth Dooms"

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Chapter Seven: Four Earth Dooms

“Da,” said Karzz, like a Russian, in an intense voice. “It was your own Earth. of the seventieth century, five thousand years from now, that did—or will—smash my drive for galactic domination.” He glared. at them with infinite hatred. “You are the ancestors of the future Earthians who are destined to be my stumbling block. It is the human race alone that could stand in my way.”

“So you have come back in time merely for revenge against us?” said Cap, shaking his head. “Because our far-future descendants licked you, you’ve come to give us a bad. time.”

“Nein,” Karzz came back sharply. “It would hardly be that trivial in my aims. Don’t you understand"? If I destroy Earth of the twentieth century, it will never exist in the seventieth century. Its powerful warfleet and titanic superweapons won’t be there to oppose me. So, when I return. to the future, my conquest of the galaxy will succeed, Where it failed before.”

The Avengers stood stunned at the enormity of the concept. .

“But that’s changing history,” protested Cap. “How can you tamper with inexorable fate that way? If Earth did exist in the future and did defeat you, how can that event be wiped out? Once a thing has happened, it can’t . . . Well, it can’t unhappen.”

Karzz sneered, as though he were talking to children. “Of course your primitive minds know nothing of science to come, and future discoveries about branching time. Let try to explain as I would to bambinos.”

“He drew a breath and went on. “At any crossroads in history, such as the outcome of a war, two different acts of destiny can occur, naturally. If the war is won by one side, their ‘real’ world goes on. The other outcome, where the war is lost, is merely a branch of destiny that never really occurs. Nitcht wahr?”

“An ‘if’ world,” nodded Cap, “or a ‘parallel’ world.”

“But if you travel back in time,” pursued Karzz, “and alter the outcome of that war, the so-called real world becomes the if world, while the if world then becomes the real one.”

“That’s double-talk, you time creep,” piped up Hawkeye. “You’re just juggling paradoxes around and coming up zero. How can something that is already real suddenly change and become unreal?”

“By the great chrono-conversion equation,” returned Karzz imperturbably, “Which will be formulated—-let’s see in your earth year of 1975. It is similar to Einstein’s famous equation of converting matter into energy, and vice versa. And just as matter and energy are interchangeable, so are the ‘real’ and the ‘parallel’ worlds.”

Cap digested that staggering thought. “You mean that if you succeeded in destroying Earth and wiping out the human race, here in the twentieth century, all the future events in which they took part will simply disappear out of history, as you knew it in the seventieth century?”

“Why not?” said Karzz blandly. “The parallel universe, in which Earth is destroyed before its prime, then becomes the real universe.”

Shrugging, he went on impatiently, “But tempus fugit. Whether you understand or care to believe is no concern of mine. The truth is that by wiping out Earth today I will insure myself becoming the emperor of the Milky Way galaxy in the seventieth century.”    

“Easier said than done, though,” retorted Cap. “A giant comet smashing into Earth might wreck most of civilization and annihilate many millions of the human race, but there will be survivors to carry on—and to become strong again in the seventieth century.”

“The giant comet,” Karzz informed them in ominous tones, “is only the first of four world-doom catastrophes which I shall cause on Earth. All four superdisasters combined will make sure that not one human being remains alive on your world. Verstehen?”

“Four dooms!” gasped the Wasp. “You heartless beast! Willing to kill—to murder—three billion people! I should sting you until you cry for mercy!”

Karzz winced and stepped. back a pace, but Cap said, “Forget it, Wasp. That wouldn’t stop him. The question is”—he turned to Karzz—“what are the other three dooms you plan?”

Karzz grinned maliciously, cunningly. “I would indeed be an idiot to tip my hand. And besides, it will be more agonizing for you Avengers to face unknown holocausts. However, I’ll tell you this much. The other three world-wrecking forces I’ve planned will involve fire, water, and air. Guess the rest it you can. Now I will leave Mount Everest and waft myself elsewhere on Earth, to launch doom number two. Adios, amigos.”

He pressed a stud on his belt and a plastic bubble materialized out of thin air and surrounded him. Lightly as a soap bubble, it then rose in the air and gathered speed.

“Follow him, Wasp,” whispered. Cap. “Let us know where he goes next and what deviltry he cooks up.”

“Right, Cap,” piped Wasp, buzzing away after the receding plastic vehicle and the leering alien.

“Well, we’ve got our work cut out for us, Avengers,” said Cap, looking at his three male companions grimly.

“We save worlds every morning before breakfast,” said Hawkeye flippantly, to hide the gnawing horror within him.

“But this is even greater,” added Goliath thoughtfully. “Not only saving the world today but also saving the whole galaxy and twenty thousand other worlds in the future.”

They stared solemnly at each other, and even Hawkeye couldn’t think of a wisecrack for that.

Following the plastic bubble, the Wasp expected a long journey ahead but, surprisingly, Karzz turned downward and landed in a valley. Stepping out, he unhooked a small microphone from his belt and spoke into it.

“Calling the future,” he said casually, as it putting through a phone call. But the Wasp, overhearing, realized he was not merely calling someone thousands of miles away but thousands of years away.

“Attention, my faithful aides,” continued Karzz. “You sent me the ultramagnet, which did. its work nobly. Now I want you to send the three other machines to the twentieth century, launching three more earth dooms simultaneously.”

He paused to unroll a map that had been folded in his belt, then resumed. “Send the Infrared Beamer to the Antarctic, on your map of ancient Earth, at the spot marked X. Have the Vulcan Machine materialize on that marked island in the South Pacific.”

Wasp wondered suddenly, why an alien should be using an earthly language instead of his own native tongue. But then she realized, listening carefully, that there was no voice at all. He was in reality beaming telepathic waves into his future-phone. Thought-words, of course, were universal, understood by any intelligent mind. That was why the Wasp could eavesdrop on the alien.

“Last,” Karzz was saying, “transport the Storm Satellite Launcher to the Sahara Desert location marked on your map.”

Grim curiosity tantalized the listening insect-girl.

Infrared Beamer…Vulcan Machine…Storm Satellite!

How would those three superscience devices from the future create havoc en earth? Would it be something even more devastating than the ultramagnet pulling down a giant comet to strike earth? 

Sitting inside a buttercup flower near Karzz, the Wasp waited to hear more. “As you know,” came from the alien, “the lnfrared Beamer will be used to—”

But his words were drowned out by a large buzz and a huge bumblebee came searing straight toward the flower, evidently seeking its sweet nectar. The Wasp didn't want to tangle with an insect much bigger than she was and she flew away to light on the next flower. But the angry bumblebee zoomed after her, obviously considering this patch of blossoms his private territory, from which to drive out all other poaching creatures.

As the buzzing bully put on speed in chasing her, the Wasp realized she couldn’t escape his enormous stinger, which would sooner or later jab her through and through like a spear.

“I’ll fix you,” she thought, willing herself to grow. Seconds later, back to normal size, she swung the flat of her hand and knocked the surprised. bumblebee back into some prickly weeds. “That for you, bumblebug,” she thought triumphantly.

She had been intent on this insect-world skirmish, but suddenly she noticed two frosty blue eyes turning her way, startled at this abrupt appearance of a full-grown woman out of thin air. She was now exposed to Karzz!

“The Wasp girl of the Avengers,” he hissed. “How much have you heard? Well, you won’t hear any more…” He was already pressing his belt-stud. to release a killing ray.

Desperately the Wasp threw herself full length among tall Weeds. Karzz raked the green patch with his ray, converting it into blackened ashes. But no human body was there, only a tiny insect that had flitted away unnoticed.

“Whew,” thought the Wasp, “I shrank down again just in time. I’d better not hang around here any more. Karzz will be on the Watch for any insect coming near him. I'll make a bee line back to Avenger headquarters and report what I did hear.”

But it was a long way back to America for a pseudo-insect that could only fly at forty miles an hour, top speed. The Wasp darted high in the air and looked in all directions.

“Ah, an airport to the south, probably in northern India. I’ll hitch a ride there.”

And so it was that an Air India jetliner carried a tiny stowaway to Paris. From there, the Wasp transferred to an overseas plane bound for New York.

“Being an insect has its advantages,” she said to herself. “No fare to pay, and all kinds of seats—on the ceiling.”

At Avenger headquarters, to which the men had meanwhile returned via their rocketplane, they were waiting impatiently.

“If she doesn’t come back…” groaned Goliath. for the tenth time, but they all forgave him. Suddenly, all of them turned in unison, as an insect buzzed through. a window purposely left open, and began enlarging in mid-air, to land on her feet as a full-sized girl.

“Nice two-point landing, eh?” she said with a smile.

“Skip the p-l-a-n-e talk,” said Hawkeye, “and give us p-l-a-i-n talk. Did you overhear any plans of Karzz the Conqueror?”

“Yes, some,” the Wasp answered, and she recited her story. When she was through, Captain. America banged his fist against the wall, cracking off plaster.

“Easy, Winghead,” admonished Iron Man. “Our good friend Anthony Stark donated this hangout to the Avengers, and it costs him. for repairs. Go punch Hawkeye if you have to let off steam.”

“Oh, thanks,” grunted Hawkeye. “That won't cost Stark anything—it’ll probably just cost me a handful of loose teeth.” He glowered at Iron Man, then at Cap. “What’s eating you?”

“It’s just not knowing Karzz’s full plot,” explained Cap. “All we know is that Earth disasters involving water, fire and air will occur. But how will those three machines he’s...uh...importing from the future do it?”

“Worse yet,” spoke up Goliath, “we only know vaguely where each machine will operate—in the Antarctic, in the South Seas, and in the Sahara. All of those are big places if you don’t know the exact spot.”

“And for that reason,” said Cap, “we can’t turn this job over to the authorities or the military. You can’t send cops or soldiers halfway across the world to an indefinite place. This calls for specialized skills and training. Therefore, it’s a job for the Avengers only.”

“You’re not just beating your gums, Leader Man,” agreed Hawkeye. “But which of the three Earth menaces do we tackle first?”

“That brings up the most significant thing,” said Iron Man thoughtfully: “that Karzz, according to the Wasp, will launch his other three Earth-Wreckers simultaneously.”

“Right,” nodded Cap. “And that means we have to split up and try to stop all three at the same time, as soon as possible. Let’s see, we’ll pair oil like this: Iron Man and Hawkeye to the Antarctic, Goliath and Wasp to the South Seas, and...”

“And. you alone for the Sahara?” put in Hawkeye. “Come oft it, Dad. Are you trying to pretend you’re as good as any two of us?”

“No, I’m also pairing off,” Cap said with a grin, “With Steve Rogers.”

“Hoo Boy,” groaned Hawkeye. “Alter-ego jokes yet.”

“Well, somebody .has to go it solo,” Cap reminded him.

“But look, if any of you others finish your job soon enough, you can rush and give me a hand. Okay?”

They all nodded agreement.

“Since time is of the essence,” Cap went on, “I’ll deliver you all by Quinjet first, then I’ll head for the Sahara.” His face went grim. “But we’d better be in top condition for the most important mission in Avenger history. Takeoff will be in six hours. That gives us all time for some sleep, a shower, a hot meal, and checkout of individual equipment. We’ll all take survival kits along, of course. We may be on the job for long hours, if not for days.”

He paused, his eyes going bleak.

“The giant comet that was pulled toward Earth will arrive in ten days, Karzz revealed. His other three Earth dooms must be timed to occur, or reach their peak, at that same date. In short, if we fail, the end of the world will come before this month is over.”

They all winced.

“The deadline of doom,” murmured Iron Man, “is what we Avengers are racing against this time.”

“And not only doom for twentieth-century Earth,” Goliath reminded them, “but for all the thousands of galactic worlds in the future.”

“If we fail,” added the Wasp with a tremor in her voice, “we lose the world and Karzz wins the universe.”

“It’ll serve him right,” drawled Hawkeye. “If all the people on those twenty thousand other worlds are ornery jackasses like humans on Earth, then poor Karzz will have some mess to rule over. I’d let him get away with it except for one thing...”

He paused to strike a pose. “I don’t want history to be robbed of my lifelong exploits and fabulous feats of archery. But how can I perform them in the years ahead if Earth ends this month? So, between Karzz and me, Karzz has to go. I have spoken.”

“Good boy,” commended Cap. “Your banter lightened the moment, Hawkeye.”

“Banter?” The astonished bowman glared at him. “I was never more serious in my life.”

“You know,” muttered Goliath to Cap, “Sometimes I don’t know if that guy is ribbing us or not.”

To Be Continued Tomorrow with "Ice Menace" at Atomic Kommie Comics!

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Avengers Battle the Earth-Wrecker

by Otto Binder

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AVENGERS BATTLE THE EARTH-WRECKER "Chapter Four: Earth Death!"

Art by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers

Read the Previous Chapter HERE

Chapter Four: Earth Death!

In the bleak iciness at Mount Everest’s peak, Karzz, the alien, conqueror of a host of worlds, spoke again. “No, I came not to conquer Earth but to destroy it. I will wreck your world and annihilate " all humans on Earth, every last one.”

Iron Man was stunned by Karzz’s threat and by the venom of his words. “But why? What has Earth done to you or your faraway future world?”

“That is too long a tale to explain right now,” responded Karzz abruptly. “I am wasting time. I must set the co-ordinates of my ultramagnet and keep it centered on its target.”

“Just what is your ultramagnet aimed at, out in space?”

“I have no time for frivolous explanations,” Karzz answered sharply. “It is part of my plan to destroy Earth, that’s all you need to know before you...die!”

With that he pressed a stud on his belt. A livid ray sprang forth and a rock next to Iron Man turned to dust. The next ray struck Iron Man squarely in the chest.

“Good-bye, Iron Man,” said Karzz, starting to turn away. He swung his head back, in a perfect movie double-take. “You’re still standing there!” he gasped.

“Sure,” said Iron Man cheerfully. Whatever your gizmo was supposed to do it failed against my steel suit. Which, by the way, has withstood a dozen assorted types of rays, bullets, shells, rockets—you name it—hurled at me by my enemies.”

Respect shone in Karzz’s eyes for the first time. “I see you are a very special earthling, equipped to battle super-forces.”

“You’re right on the nose,” iron Man came back. “And it so happens that as an Avenger, l’m an unofficial guardian of all earth. Now I'm ordering you off our world...you and your contraption both.... Or else!”

“Or else you will drive me off?” Karzz said with a scornful laugh. “All right, do so.”

“You asked for it, Frankenstein.” iron Man was already rheostating up his suit’s power, getting ready for action. He charged forward suddenly. “I'm going to knock you halfway to Aldebaran,” he grated between clenched teeth.

Iron Man wondered why Karzz didn’t move, why he didn’t show the slightest fear. Except for his belt, he seemed unarmed helpless. iron Man touched a push button on his power-pack, sending a surge of more than human power into his mechanized right arm. Then he swung his fist, ready to knock all the fight out of the alien right from the start.

Klang!

Iron Man’s balled fist struck some invisible barrier before it reached Karzz. Iron Man reeled back himself, seeing now the glowing indigo aura that surrounded Karzz protectively.

“I should have known,” the Avenger chided himself, “that you would have the same force-field shield around you as around your ultramagnet. But don’t worry, I'm not through. I’ve got a dozen other fighting tactics to try.”

Tensing himself and clicking over transistor power relays, Iron Man prepared for all-out battle against a super-scientific foe.

On the podium at the Avengers’ gathering, the Wasp pressed the stud that swung the spotlight on Captain America beside her.

“Last, but the furthest from least you can get,” she said, “is the Avengers’ leader, whom I hardly need name. He’s known not only to the younger people of today, but to all of you of the previous generation some twenty years ago. Captain America is unique among us he’s had two glorious careers as a fighting hero upholding American ideals!”

Cap’s face was dreamy, as his own ‘thoughts flew back to those former days....

“It’s a strange story,” resumed the Wasp. “At the start of World War II, a young Mr. A—for anonymous—was rejected by the army as being too puny and in poor health. But it so happened. some scientists were looking for just such a 4-F specimen of manhood, to use the last term loosely. Mr. A was then given a special hormone injection, and before their eyes he changed like a Jekyll-Hyde into a big, brawny, powerful man—the ideal soldier—and more.”

Cap glowed, reliving that grand and glorious moment of his transformation from the proverbial “90-pound weakling” of the ads into a 190-pound mass of fighting flesh.

“Mr. A now passed the army tests with flying colors; and soon after, he ran into Nazi saboteurs and laid the whole gang low with his pile-driving fists. He then. adopted his colorful uniform in order to work as a mysterious champion. against democracy’s foes. The fame of Captain America became a byword to the world all during the War years, as he and his young pal, Bucky, smashed spy and saboteur rings right and left.”

At the name “Bucky,” Cap’s eyes had gone bleak with painful memories.

“Unfortunately,” added the Wasp, and her tone went down sympathetically, “Bucky one day gave his life to stop a Nazi plot involving a high-flying drone. Cap seemingly fell to his death too, landing at sea and sinking never to come up again. They finally gave up the search and pronounced Captain America dead.”

The Wasp paused dramatically.

“They were dead wrong. By an amazing twist of fate, Cap sank and was frozen in suspended animation for twenty years. A block of ice holding his preserved body finally drifted ashore and was worshiped by Eskimos as some kind of ‘ice god.’ But one day the ice block was broken, probably during a violent storm*. Later, as the ice melted, we Avengers, traveling in our submarine, found a figure in a spangled. costume coming to life. Captain America lived again!”

Cap looked bewildered, in memory of that utterly unbelievable moment when he had opened his eyes to find out he had not met his end . . . but faced a whole new life ahead.

“Amazingly,” continued the Wasp, “a physical examination showed that despite his twenty-year frozen sleep, Captain America retained his full physical powers and his same youthful vigors. He had not aged a day in those twenty years. Time had stood still for him. So, although he was an ‘old-timer’ chronologically, he soon proved he was far from an ‘old man’ ready to be retired. He froze at sea at the peak of his lighting career—and he was revived at the peak of his powers to resume his fighting career. After a ‘rude interruption’ of twenty years, We might say.”

Everybody smiled, except Cap himself. The Wasp intuitively knew what he was thinking.

“But don’t think it was all glory for the two-time hero. Behind him, lost forever, lay the world and the times he knew . . . the people he loved…and Bucky. He was in a new and strange world, almost terrifyingly different at first. And though Captain America was invited into the Avengers and quickly gave ample proof that his fighting prowess was undiminished, there at times came nagging thoughts—would his age suddenly catch up with him? Would he slip sometime and endanger all the Avengers during a crucial moment? Could a man from the past really live up to his role as the world’s greatest fighting man...twice in a row? Yes, doubts gnawed at him constantly.

Cap tried to smile, or at least to look blank before the pitiless TV camera’s eye, but he knew that his eyes were haunted from those inner agonies he had gone through.

The Wasp drew herself up and her voice rang out once more.

“But all that is by the board now. If Captain America was a has-been who could never make the grade, why did we Avengers unanimously elect him our leader? Here’s why—for his great experience, double that of any of us, due to his two careers. For his unquenchable courage, undimmed by a twenty-year hibernation. For his cool level head, and his ability to weigh and judge matters of life and death in battling cunning enemies, and last.... But let us demonstrate this final quality. Cap, go to it.”

The spotlight broadened to take in a machine gun that came out of a recess in the Wall, with the dummy of an old-time Nazi behind it.

“That machine gun will be fired by automatic devices. The dummy is just window dressing, to bring back a scene of the past when Captain America faced such dangers and had to smash through. Watch!”

Crouching like a track star ready for the hundred yard dash, Captain America waited until the loud staccato of the gun crashed through the silence. At almost the "same second he leaped forward, his shield in front of him, as if deflecting a hail of death.

Like a tiger he sprang forward, leaping in great bounds, powered by the strongest leg muscles on earth." He had spent countless hours in the toughest training camp ever known—the rugged Commandos of World War ll. And today he spent more endless hours between duties‘ in the Avengers’ superb gym, practicing the gymnastics that made his body a smooth human machine with speed, power, and quickness of reflexes never achieved before by any human being on earth.

Where Goliath could rely on his giant form, Hawkeye on his amazing arrows, and Iron Man on his steel suit, Captain America had nothing to depend on except his own original self—plus his shield.

Running straight into the barrage of hot lead, warding it off with his shield, the spangled fighter then made an incredible flying leap the rest of the way—a leap that would have broken the world’s Olympic record. While landing head foremost, his mighty rock-hard fist swung against the dummy’s chin, knocking his enemy twenty feet away. The machine gun was stilled and Captain America stood up, a momentary triumph lighting his face as if he were reliving an actual episode in the long-gone past.

“Great, Winghead!” yelled Hawkeye, leaping to his feet, as all the TV audience must be doing. “Anybody says we ought to send you to the old man’s home will get my arrows zinging at his heels, the whole quiver full!”

“Why, Hawkeye!” rumbled Goliath, half accusingly. “You said something good about Cap for once.”

Hawkeye flushed guiltily.

“Amazing!” muttered Goliath, shaking his head as if to clear it. “Don't let it happen again, Hawkeye, or we’ll begin to think that down underneath it all you’re a right guy.”

The Wasp had a shock—two shocks—for the audience.

“That dummy wasn’t stuffed with light straw. It weighed two hundred and fifty pounds. And those bullets he waded into—they were real. Captain America insisted on it—he doesn’t believe in fakery.

All over America this brought down the house, figuratively speaking. They hardly had to be told the conclusion spoken by the Wasp: “And so, the primary quality that won this peerless battler our Avenger leadership is his one-man-army fighting ability."

The red-white-and-blue champion was flattered...but also worried. It would have been the turn next of Iron Man, the missing member. His absence was now definitely alarming.

Across the world on Mount Everest, Iron Man tried a new tactic against Karzz the Conqueror. From the index finger of his right glove, fed by transistorized power, shot a laser-beam, a thin ray of intense light that ate down into rock as if it were cheese. A tunnel swiftly formed into which Iron Man plunged, disintegrating rock ahead of him a-t the rate. of twenty feet a second.

In essence, he was “diving” through the solid stone. Hidden from his enemy’s eyes, Iron Man tunneled down, then arched upward, finally popping up right behind Karzz, who was taken by surprise.

An iron fist lashed out and caught the alien in the small of the back, sending him sprawling ignominiously.

“I thought so,” grated Iron Man. “Your force-shield only protects you from the front, not from the back. It’s not a curving shield all around you but a fiat barrier that can protect you -only on one side.”

“Clever deduction, Earthling,” snarled Karzz, leaping to his feet. “But it will gain you nothing. And now let us see if you can withstand the lightning-blast ray.”

He touched another stud. on his belt and a lightning flash sprang forth to strike Iron Man. It had such staggering power that it hurled him back a dozen feet as dazzling sparks flew off his armor. But Stark had‘ felt none of the unbelievable voltage inside his metallic shell, and quickly recovered his balance.

“No good playing Zeus,” mocked Iron Man. “I'm fully insulated against all electrical forces. And now...”

Iron Man’s jets propelled him into the air in a blur-swift arch, to come down directly behind Karzz. An iron leg swung before the alien could turn.

“Owwww!” It was a very human-sounding yelp from Karzz as an iron boot connected with the proper part of his anatomy in back.

“A kick in the pants is only the first of the punishment you’re going to take,” Iron Man vowed grimly darting away as the infuriated alien whirled and shot forth another ray, which missed.

A strange duel began then. Again and again, Iron Man twisted through the air in swift flight, circling to come up behind Karzz and deliver blows at his unprotected back. Angrily, Karzz shot forth a variety of rays, all of which spanged off Iron Man’s armor without doing any harm.

“You’ll be a mass of bruises from the back of your head down to your heels,” promised iron Man relentlessly, delivering another blow from the rear.

“Donnerrvetter!” cursed Karzz. Iron Man was startled at the German word, until he realized the space master-mind was a world linguist knowing all tongues. “It is not you,” said the alien, “but your iron suit that l am fighting.”

He suddenly touched another stud on his belt. The ray that struck Iron Man seemed to do nothing at all. He felt no blow, no force... But with a gasp he noticed the trail of red dust left in the air as he jetted in a loop.

“Yes, iron oxide,” gloated Karzz. “That was the Rust-ray, with the ability to oxidize iron instantly. Keep coming until I can turn your whole suit into crumbling dust.”

Iron Man tried to twist and loop in the air, but Karzz made an adjustment on his belt and the rust-ray expanded into a wide cone constantly bathing its target. Stark could sense his iron suit crumbling away, layer by layer.

It was a losing game. If all his protective armor turned into rust, he would not be Iron Man any more. Then only frail Anthony Stark -would face Karzz and his frightful superscience weaponry.

Rheostating full power into his jets, Iron Man spun away from the peak of Mount Everest as fast as he could.

“Round one goes to you, Karzz,” he called back. “But I’ll return...with the other Avengers.”

“You will be doing me a favor,” came back the challenge. “I want to prove how futile it is for any Earthlings to match wits and weapons with me. Nothing can stop me from fulfilling my mission—earth’s destruction. N’est ce pas?”

That incongruous French phrase, coming from the lips of the non-earthly being, made his threat all the more horrifying. It was a sign of the multiple-IQ mind they were pitted against.

To Be Continued Tomorrow with "A Job for The Avengers" at Atomic Kommie Comics!
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Avengers Battle the Earth-Wrecker
by Otto Binder
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