Early in this arc we are led to believe Mantis is killed.
But Vision saves her in an amazing panel by guest artist John Buscema.
Mantis got the equivalent of an opening timeslot after the Superbowl; first appearing in #112, she quickly became the focal point of the series. She dated Swordsman, then wanted Vision. She was a warrior, with Vietnamese, German, and Kree roots, who respected only power and referred to herself as “this one.”
Reading the series now, in retrospect, it was clear she wasn’t going to be killed off. But at the time, she was still fairly new so her death was plausible.
These issues offer a deep dive into the incredibly complex history of The Mantis. And it’s…Not fascinating.
First off, Libra (of the Zodiac gang) is her daddy. There’s a long soap-opera type story about Libra being a German mercenary in Vietnam and falling in love with a local, having a baby, and then running off with the baby. Being mixed race, Baby Mantis wasn’t well-liked. Then there’s some stuff about how the Kree were in Vietnam too, and Swordsman was involved, it’s extremely confusing.
Also, some kind of cosmic space dragon is involved. I didn’t find it all interesting enough to sort that out.
But The Avengers annoy him.
If that’s not enough Mantis, there’s a budding love triangle.
Vision knows what it is like to have daddy issues–or to not have a daddy to have daddy issues about, so it makes sense Mantis would be into him.
Swordsman gets jealous, and cries on his rival’s gal’s shoulder.
There’s also weird Thor stuff. Like the panel where John, consciously or not, does a great metaphor shot of Thor’s powerful fifth limb.
In addition to my lame dick joke, Thor has a utility belt in this issue. To my knowledge, he never has one again. That counts as a forgotten power set.
And, in outer space, he loses his hammer but Iron Man is able to get it back.
I know it’s space with zero gravity, but is sure looks like he’s lifting Thor’s family.
After shutting the Zodiac down, the team still has some stuff to sort out–using a ship they commandeered from the Zodiac gang–and they crash though a crossover with the Captain Marvel/Thanos story (from Captain Marvel #31).
Thanos acts creepy and wimpy, hiding behind a chimney.
This was really just an attempt to sell Captain Marvel’s comic. Above is all the Thanos you get in this issue–he’s hiding behind a chimney. Way to make him lame, by the way.
But this is how much Thanos we were promised on the cover….
There’s so much going on in these issues, and neither Zodiac nor Mantis are particularly interesting. The material is elevated by good writing and great art.
I get that Englehart really wanted Mantis to be a major player, but this is a swing and a miss for me.