Avengers 120 to 126

Avengers 120 to 126

Zodiac returns.
A confused Mantis finds Dad.
Vision is harangued.

Black Panther, T'Challa

Captain America; Steve Rogers

Iron Man; Tony Stark

Thor; Don Blake

Scarlet Witch; Wanda Maximoff

Swordsman; Jacques Duquesne

Vision

Featured Ally

Mantis

        Steve Englehart started out this section of issues with a Zodiac mini-epic, revealing more about that organization and its ties to the Avengers team. The death of a former member was shown to not matter to the Zodiac, as they would recruit another crime lord to take over any available spots. Their scheme was still on a grand scale, as they planned to terrorize the city by killing every Gemini and showing no one should dare cross them. The Avengers managed to foil this plan, but more importantly to the series, Libra revealed his identity as Mantis' father, beginning the team's long journey into discovering both her past and her destiny as the Celestial Madonna, a story that would take almost another year to reach its conclusion.

        We also began to see how Mantis was causing some cracks in the team. Swordsman began to become jealous of the relationship between Vision and Mantis, even though it was based on mutual admiration of their abilities and minds and Vision was committed to Scarlet Witch. Wanda also picked up on this rapport and was not pleased, becoming frosty towards both of them. And she had been so happy that Mantis, another woman, would be hanging around the team just a few issues ago. This had been part of Englehart's plan from the beginning, as he envisioned Mantis as a former prostitute who would cause strife with her sexuality among the male members of the team. This was toned down a bit, and she was instead a "bar girl," since comics were still seen as a children's medium at this time. I begin to feel bad for Vision, who just wants to complete the mission they're on, but keeps getting verbally attacked by his teammates because of the tension.

       Although I did not feature them here, as I don't have the stories available to me, the Avengers also were a large part of the Captain Marvel (1968) series during these months and came into conflict with Thanos. He has no face-to-face encounters with the Avengers in this series, but it's the start of setting up his rivalry with them for decades to come. Mantis is a focal point of that Captain Marvel story towards the end, being instrumental in Thanos' defeat. That and the ties to the interstellar Kree showcased in issue 124 were certainly showing that she was destined to have a grand part in the history of universe outside of just Earth. And she still isn't a member of the team!

      This sequence of issues ends with both Captain America and Black Panther leaving the team to deal with their own personal troubles that had been ongoing in their own series. This was probably a good thing, since the series will focus heavily on Vision and Mantis for quite some time. Plus it leaves some room in the roster for good ol' Hawkeye to come back soon.

Avengers 120

Death-Stars of the Zodiac!

February, 1974

Written by Steve Englehart

Art by Bob Brown and Don Heck

Lettered by Art Simek

Colored by George Roussos

Taurus, revealed as Cornelius Van Lunt, frees Gemini from prison to fill all the slots in the Zodiac organization. Gemini, in his identity as police officer Damian Link, goes to Avengers Mansion, claiming to be a police liason with official business. Swordsman catches him looking at secret plans and moves to capture him, but Swordsman's recent wounds overwhelm him when he springs into action. His sword does slash out and reveal the Gemini outfit under the police uniform, so the other Avengers capture him. Mantis takes Swordsman to rest. Taurus is watching events from afar, and he and the rest of the Zodiac attack to rescue Gemini. Taurus' new star-blazer weapon is powerful enough to take out Thor, and the rest of the Avengers are also defeated. Mantis returns from her task and disarms Taurus briefly, but she is overwhelmed by the full force of the Zodiac. The Zodiac leaves a message for the Avengers about their plans to kill every Gemini in the city with their large-scale star-blazer weapon. The Avengers deduce that the weapon must be at high altitude and find the Zodiac atop the World Trade Center. Their initial attack disables the star-blazer's ability to affect the city, but it is still able to shoot Mantis at close range and leave her teetering over the edge of the building. Taurus demands the Zodiac be allowed to escape, or he will blast her again, sending her to her death.

Iron Man: "I'm told the last time Zodiac dropped by, they talked about wanting the world to witness our defeat.

Mantis: "Then--they deliberately ignored an opportunity to kill us?" 

• Steve Englehart had more than a passing interest in the actual zodiac. According to a later Bullpen Bulletins page, he prepared horoscopes professionally.
• One member of the Zodiac, Gemini, had appeared in his own adventure in Astonishing Tales (1970) 8 and then in issue 17 of that series in a Ka-Zar story.
• In a change of leadership, Taurus is now the new head of the Zodiac organization.
• The positions of Scorpio and Aries have been filled by new people since the team's last appearance. The previous Aries, Marcus Lassiter, died at the end of Avengers 82 and has been replaced by Grover Raymond. Scorpio is no longer Jake Fury, but Jacques LaPoint.
• Aries appears as a white man on the cover, but he is a black man in the interior story. They were probably using the previous Aries' color guide on the cover.
• Captain America appears on the cover, but not in the issue itself. At the time of the story, he was in jail for the murder of villain the Tumbler, which he was framed for in his own series. Gemini uses these events as a cover for why he is visiting the Avengers at the mansion.
• Cornelius Van Lunt changes his speech when dressed as Taurus by "roughing up his talking."
• The narration reminds us that the World Trade Center is now the tallest building in the world. It didn't last long. The Sears Tower beat it out in 1974 by being 82 feet taller.
• The proper definition of "decimate" is to reduce a number of things by exactly 10%. Since the plot will kill roughly 1/12 of the population, narration says it will "duodecimate" the city.
• The Zodiac's power source of "stellar energy" is radiation from stars, but it's unknown how it would in any way be superior to simple solar energy, except in its appeal to a team based on star symbology.
• Mantis is affected by the star-blazer weapon even though she isn't a Gemini, because she feels everyone's pain due to her empathy. The Avengers determined that none of their members were Geminis before attacking the star-blazer, just in case.
• This story precedes the Star Blazers cartoon by several years, and the term "Death-Stars" in the issue title also precedes its use in Star Wars.

Avengers 121
Houses Divided Cannot Stand!
March, 1974
Written by Steve Englehart
Art by John Buscema and Don Heck
Lettered by John Costanza
Colored by Petra Goldberg
Vision bluffs that the Avengers don't care what happens to Mantis, as she is not a member, simply a hanger-on. Scarlet Witch uses the distraction to hex the weapon, destroying it. Battle is rejoined between the teams, and Captain America arrives on the scene to help the Avengers. Aries does throw Mantis over the side of the building anyway. Vision slows her fall, but the structure of the building is damaged during the rescue, and the Avengers must turn their efforts to stopping the building from collapsing. The Zodiac pile into their ship and escape to plot their next move. Mantis is taken to recover from her injuries, and Swordsman, also recovering, tells the team about how he met Mantis. At the Zodiac's hideout, Aries and Taurus confront each other, but Taurus overpowers the new Aries. The disgruntled Aries recruits Pisces, Cancer, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Leo, and Aquarius to overthrow Taurus. Libra is present, but he decides to remain neutral. For financing, Aries calls Cornelius Van Lunt, not realizing he is speaking to Taurus out of costume. Van Lunt sets a meeting at a warehouse in New Jersey. While on patrol, Thor spies the Zodiac craft going to the meeting and summons the rest of the Avengers. They attack the meeting, and Van Lunt slips away. Over a television, he reveals himself as Taurus and activates mechanisms that transform the warehouse into a rocket ship and send it into the sky with the renegade Zodiac and Avengers aboard.
Cornelius Van Lunt: "Yes, you deluded fools! The aging financier you thought would bankroll your revolt--is Taurus!"
• Scarlet Witch hexing the Star Slayer causes a "Foom!" sound effect, as does the Zodiac member Cancer slamming against the floor. Join yet?
• Mantis heals herself by putting herself in a trance. Martial arts are awesome in comics, eh?
• The team allows Captain America to go prove he was framed, even though he had just escaped from jail. In Captain America's own book this month, Iron Man visits Falcon and tells Falcon to bring Captain America in before the Avengers are forced to get further involved. That scene seems to take place after this issue.
• Black Panther returns to the team after the battle. He had just met with Falcon in Captain America also, but before this issue. Black Panther constructed the first set of wings Falcon uses to fly.
• Swordman was working for a crimelord, Monsieur Khruul in Vietnam when he met Mantis. She helped him recover after he was shot in the course of his job and helped him sober up. This is Khruul's first appearance, and he will later appear as an antagonist.
• The Bullpen Bulletins mentions Steve Englehart's move to San Francisco. He will later set his Ultraverse series, Night Man and The Strangers, in San Francisco.
• If you arrange the initials of all the renegade Zodiac members, you could get AP CLASS or also ASS CLAP.

Avengers 122
Trapped in Outer Space!
April, 1974
Written by Steve Englehart
Art by Bob Brown and Mike Esposito
Lettered by John Costanza
Colored by George Roussos


The Avengers and renegade Zodiac members are trapped in orbit. Thor throws Mjolnir through the force field surrounding the warehouse rocket, but it doesn't have enough force to do so on the return trip to his hand afterward. Without his hammer, he reverts to his Don Blake persona just as he takes cover under a handy tarp. The Zodiac members attack, but after a skirmish, an unsteady truce is made so they can all return to Earth. At the headquarters of Taurus, the loyal Zodiac members meet. When Libra and Gemini are alone, Libra turns on Gemini and knocks him out. He enlists the "good" twin to take Gemini's place, and Libra steals Taurus' ship. In space, Iron Man passes through a Scarlet Witch hex placed on the force field, and he is able to exit. He attempts to get Thor's hammer back, but when he begins to push the warehouse back into the atmosphere, the hammer's enchantment pins Iron Man, and the whole structure starts to burn up in reentry. Libra shows up with the Star-Cruiser and manages to get everyone back to Earth. The Avengers and rebel Zodiac members move to take on Taurus' loyal group, but Taurus persuades the rebels to return to the team and take down the Avengers together. Even at nearly full strength, the Zodiac are unable to win the battle. When Thor questions Libra, Libra expresses regret for saving them from space. He claims he only did so because he is Mantis' father, and he thought she was in space with the rest of the team.
Vision: "Men so devoid of logic are incredible to me--yet experience has shown me many such!"
• The page that the Avengers are bursting from on the cover is not from this issue.
• Taurus' trap captures 5 Avengers and 7 rebel Zodiac members, making it an even dozen.
• It's seems that Tony Stark does still know about Thor's Don Blake identity, even after the Doctor Strange mind-wipe spell in issue 118.
• Black Panther states "Houses divided against themselves cannot stand." He's paraphrasing the title of the previous issue.
• When Libra is slammed into a wall, he makes the "Foom!" sound.
• Iron Man is able to move Thor's hammer in space, but once they reach atmosphere, it pushes him and the entire warehouse back to Earth. On a recent Big Bang Theory episode, "The Bakersfield Expedition," Penny and Bernadette had a debate about Thor's hammer and wondered if it could be moved in space by someone other than Thor. Here's an answer!
• Swordsman begins to become jealous of Vision's appeal to Mantis. When Mantis recovers, she first calls for Vision, even though it's Swordsman who's present.
• During the last battle, Scarlet Witch forgoes using her power and gives Virgo an overhead double-handed Captain-Kirk-style smash to the head.
• Vision freezes up when attempting to go into water, another clue about Vision's forgotten past as the Human Torch. He simply thinks his computer brain is malfunctioning.
• The letters page features a complimentary letter from Rick Hoberg. He would go on to work as an artist with Steve Englehart on The Strangers in 1993.

Avengers 123

Vengeance in Viet Nam! or -- an Origin for Mantis!
May, 1974

Written by Steve Englehart

Art by Bob Brown and Don Heck

Lettered by John Costanza

Colored by Petra Goldberg

The team disbelieves Libra's admission that he is Mantis' father. They don't even believe he is truly blind, but his damaged eye sockets convince them of the latter. Libra tells the story of how he had been a German mercenary in French-occupied Vietnam. There, he met Mantis' mother Lua, and they were married. Lua's brother was the crime boss, Monsieur Khruul, who was unhappy with the marriage and tried to kill both of them. While the couple was on the run, Mantis was born. During an attack on the fugitives, a fire killed Lua and blinded Libra. Libra and baby Mantis took shelter with the Priests of Pama and stayed there for many years while they both trained in martial arts. Mantis, thinking this story to be lies, moves to attack Libra and battles through most of the Avengers. Libra restrains her with a powerful use of leverage, pinning her to the ground. The team then discovers that Swordsman has stolen a Quinjet and plans to get revenge on Khruul. With his head start, Swordsman manages to battle through some of Khruul's warriors before the rest of the team can follow him, but he is still wounded and outnumbered, so he is captured. By the time the Avengers arrive, Swordsman has been tortured to find out the story of Mantis and the Priests of Pama, and Khruul has gone to destroy the priests for helping Libra and Mantis all those years ago. Libra leads them to the temple, where the Avengers defeat Khruul's warriors, but tragically, all the Priests have been slaughtered. The team finds Khruul lying near death on an altar. The death of the Priests has allowed the Star Stalker to come to Earth, and it lurks nearby.

Iron Man: "Being an Avenger is like living in a madhouse!"

• This issue starts the new pricing of 25 cents for 18 pages. That equates to $1.18 in 2013.
• Thor claims Mantis is the "newest Avenger" on the cover, but she is not yet a member and won't be for some time. (Unless he's referring to the absent Swordsman by association.)
• This is the first appearance of the Priests of Pama. They are not much used past this storyline, showing up in a Fantastic Four written by Englehart and recently during Marvel's Annihilation event. Pama is the name of the star system they are from, not a deity or religion.
• The Avengers are stuck without a Quinjet when Swordsman steals one and a second one had been left in New Jersey. During the Avengers/Defenders War, they had several smaller versions of the Quinjet they fail to use here.
• This is the first appearance of the Star Stalker.
• This issue shows Iron Man understands some Vietnamese. The original Iron Man origin story and kidnapping took place there, so we know he spent some time there.
• It may seem odd that Khruul is able to find the temple within a mere hour just from Swordsman's secondhand retelling of Libra's story, which mentioned nothing of where the temple was. Since Khruul knows where the fire happened that killed his sister and has presumably searched that area before in years past, we must presume this was the last piece of information he needed for the temple's location to become clear to him.
• This month is also the first appearance of future Avenger Iron Fist in Marvel Premiere 15.

Avengers 124

Beware the Star-Stalker!
June, 1974

Written by Steve Englehart

Art by John Buscema and Dave Cockrum

Lettered by John Costanza

Colored by George Roussos

The Avengers wonder what Khruul meant by the name of the Star Stalker. Mantis feels a spiritual chill, and the creature appears. It is able to withstand all the Avengers' attacks and tells them it is invincible. It relates how in centuries past, it was only defeated by the Kree Priests of Pama. It survived, but when the Priests scattered to most of the inhabited worlds to serve as guardians against the Star Stalker, it feared facing them again and avoided any of those planets. The Priests on Earth had kept the secret of defeating the Star Stalker, but Khruul's men killed them all, leaving the Earth vulnerable. Having no fear, the Star Stalker spins a cocoon around itself, threatening that it will emerge and devour the Earth's energy. Libra believes that Mantis has been taught the secret, but she cannot remember it. Black Panther deduces that the Star Blaster used by the Zodiac may be of use, so he has it delivered to Vietnam by SHIELD and convinces Taurus over the phone to share its secrets in the interests of Earth. Despite this preparation, the Star Blaster does not defeat the Star Stalker in his new form. All the Avengers fall in battle except Mantis. She directs a recovering Vision to use his solar rays on the Stalker, which turns out to be the key to its defeat, as it is killed by the rays.

Black Panther: "Well, what then? Some 'monster of the hidden temple'?'"

Vision: "Your skepticism ill befits a man who stands next to an android and a god, T'Challa."

Mantis: "This one is not what even she thinks she is--and that makes her very, very afraid."

• The Star Stalker exclaims, "Quantu!" in what must be an alien language, though I'm not sure what that means.
• The original Priests of Pama were sentenced to exile because of their pacifist teachings being deemed dangerous to the Kree mainstream's warlike tendencies. Their prison had no sunlight, vegetation, or minerals. However, they were encouraged to later leave their prison planet as long as they left Kree space, so it was a lax, if harsh imprisonment.
• The Kree leader, the Supreme Intelligence, was told long ago about the Star Stalker and presumably its weakness, but it ignored the Priests due to their outcast status.
• Upon coming out of its cocoon, the Star Stalker undergoes "pure ionic combustion." It's unknown whether this process is similar to that undergone by Wonder Man in his years-long hibernation and subsequent transfer into his ionically energized forms.
• Originally the Star Blaster was calibrated to kill only people born under one sign of the Zodiac. Since the Zodiac is based on Earth's calendar and constellations, it's unknown how or if it would affect an alien such as the Star Stalker born in another galaxy. It doesn't work here.
• Mantis claims she used logic to figure out the Star Stalker's weakness. She saw how it waited for night to exit the temple. She recalled how it attacked the Priests on a planet without sunlight. She also points to its ignorance of Galactus as implying its isolation, including that as part of the puzzle, but that seems tenuous. Since her full memories do eventually surface, she may have been helped in her reasoning by actually knowing the secret subconsciously.
• The Priests' secret to defeating the Star Stalker was to focus their body's energy to bring magma to the surface of the Earth, which would weaken the Star Stalker.
• Although it is against Avengers rules to kill their enemies, the death of the Star Stalker does not seem to bother any of the team.


This Star Stalker's name is later revealed to be Varanus. He has a son, Biawak, who will also take on the Star Stalker name. They are supposedly mutants of the Vorm race of extraterrestials.
Varanus will not appear again until Avengers 353 as part of a Legion of the Unliving, a group of dead foes.

Avengers 125

The Power of Babel!
July, 1974

Written by Steve Englehart

Art by John Buscema and Dave Cockrum

Lettered by Tom Orzechowski

Colored by Petra Goldberg

Libra is taken into custody in New York, leaving Mantis confused and unable to reconcile her memories with what she has been told. Rick Jones' girlfriend Lou-Ann Savannah shows up at the mansion to get the Avengers help and collapses. After some other adventures are summarized, an observatory notices a massive space fleet approaching Earth, which the Avengers know has been sent by Thanos. They head into space to battle the fleet. They notice a sector of space that is obscured behind a globe of darkness, and one team of Avengers splits off to investigate it. Vision, Scarlet Witch, Swordsman, and Mantis enter the field of darkness using a hex sphere to penetrate it. They discover a lone ship and enter it. After fighting through the alien defenders, they discover the ship is a huge machine that is being used by the fleet to translate everyone's language. Once it is destroyed, the many alien races that make up the fleet are unable to understand each other and start to fight amongst themselves, crippling the fleet. The Avengers return home, but Thanos himself is lurking atop the mansion.

Swordsman: "You tell me you admire Mantis' mind--but we both know what you really mean, don't we?"

Vision: "I won't even dignify that with a reply, Avenger.

Mantis: "What is he saying, Vision? Have you praised this one to him, also?"

Vision: "Enough! This is no time to divide our concentration! We have a mission to complete--a war to win!"

• The letters page notes that Dave Cockrum has been inking from rough breakdowns, rather than the usual finished pencil art lately.
• Captain America returns to the team this issue after clearing his name and learning about government corruption in his own series. Also, although his memory of it has been removed, it's likely he has also just gone through the events of the Avengers Forever series and just finished traveling through time and returning.
• In the middle of this issue, one page tells the story of the Avengers' involvement in Captain Marvel 27, 28, 31 and 32, which is said to take place over two days. The rest of the issue takes place between Captain Marvel 32 and 33.
• The Avengers continue to use the Zodiac's Star Cruiser, this time for the space battle.
• Thanos' fleet is made up of many alien races, including the Aakon and Skrull.
• The sound of Thor's hammer punching through a spacecraft's hull is "Foom!" They will take your membership order from space.
• Thor demands the fleet leave the quadrant. A "quadrant" is a quarter of a circle or one of the four parts of a Cartesian graph. I'm not sure how Marvel space is divided into four or if Thor even knows it himself. (What with his "Nine Worlds" upbringing.)
• An alien makes an oath to "Yggthion on high." Yggthion was a character in the science-fiction play Warp!, which debuted in 1971. It was directed by Stuart Gordon, who would go on to direct several H.P. Lovecraft films, including Re-Animator. The play also featured actor Keith Szarabajka, who would do voice-over work for several Marvel video games and cartoons, including as Ronan the Accuser in Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. The play moved to Broadway in 1973, and the art director there was former Avengers artist Neal Adams.
• Another alien oath is "Tuareg." On Earth, these are a tribe of Berber peoples who live in North Africa.
• When debris is falling on Earth, a scene shows people in front of a theater marquee that probably says the film Deep Throat is playing there. A man's arm in the foreground blocks part of the lettering, so it could also be Deer Throat or Deep Thrombosis or something less likely. It's also possible it is Deep Throat Part II, which was released in February of 1974 and had only an R rating and could be showing in a mainstream theater.
• Captain Marvel 27 features the same scenes with Lou-Ann arriving at Avengers Mansion and Captain Marvel seeking her out. That issue was published in July of 1973, a full year before this issue. That's why keeping track of continuity can be hard, people!
• Captain Marvel 33 explains that this whole space adventure was a ruse to get the Avengers off Earth. Thanos used the Cosmic Cube to move Earth slightly into a different space-time so that when the Avengers returned, they could not interact with him and stop his plan. Mantis, with her full-body control, was able to partially counteract that effect and appear as an image to advise Captain Marvel. Even with the power of a Cosmic Cube, Thanos is defeated in Captain Marvel 33, and the story is not picked up again in this series.

Avengers 126
All the Sounds and Sights of Death!
August, 1974
Written by Steve Englehart
Art by Bob Brown and Dave Cockrum
Lettered by John Costanza
Colored by Petra Goldberg
Ambassador Pershing of Rudyarda comes to the Avengers Mansion for help. He claims that the staff of his embassy has received death threats and a gardener there has been murdered. Despite Black Panther's enmity with Rudyarda, the Avengers agree to investigate. Black Panther, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Mantis, and Swordsman leave the mansion. Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man are in conference when they feel an explosion outside. When they go out to investigate, the Avengers and Pershing are trapped in a globe of sound, and the villains Solarr and Klaw are menacing them. Klaw turns out to be merely a projection of sound. He demands he be made Dictator of Wakanda, or Solarr will start to burn the trapped hostages with his heat powers. Pershing is attacked by Solarr to show the seriousness of the threat, but Scarlet Witch focuses her power to revive him. The Avengers on the outside of the globe are advised by Black Panther that Klaw's power limits his projections to a 20-block radius, so they search for Klaw, but are unable to find him. At the news of this failure, Black Panther figures out that "Ambassador Pershing" is really Klaw in disguise. He evades both villains' blasts and destroys the portable power source that Klaw had hidden in his briefcase, ending the threat. He then announces he must take a leave of absence to turn to his affairs back in Wakanda.
Scarlet Witch: "You do feel emotions--you've felt them with me--so why not again, with Mantis? Isn't she your type?"
Vision: "Wanda, emotion is still a rare thing for me, and love is the rarest of all. I have hardly experienced enough to 'type' women."
Scarlet Witch: "But maybe you'd like to! That is something human males do--and you do wish you were human!"

• Artist Dave Cockrum apparently put himself as a bystander in the foreground of the double-page splash that shows the Avengers and the villains.
• Iron Man's armor has a nose starting with this issue. It's the Mark IV armor upgrade. He'll be using it in Avengers until issue 149.

 





• Solaar only had an appearance in Captain America before this issue. He was created by Englehart in that series. After a few turns as a villain, he will be killed while in custody in Power Man and Iron Fist (1978) 113.
• Scarlet Witch has a framed picture of Vision in her room. It's signed "To Wanda" in cursive.
• Captain America is thinking of quitting being Captain America during this issue. He does just that in his own series this very month. Although he does not announce it here, he also leaves the Avengers team before next issue.
• Black Panther says, "By the First Lion," as an oath.
• Rudyarda is one of the seven countries that border Wakanda. Its government believes in white supremacy and has jailed Black Panther before in Fantastic Four (1961) 119. To be fair, it also jailed Klaw, who is now red, but was a white man.
• Black Panther activates a "blue summons," which alerts half the team only.
• Narration tells the fans that they can come up with how Klaw and Solarr got together for this team-up. Letter writer Chuck Mabry's version was chosen. He said Klaw read about Solarr's battle with Captain America while in prison and had an accomplice see to Solarr's release. Solarr then in turn freed Klaw from his prison, and they teamed up. Since the recent revelation of the Intelligencia super-villain team, it might be safe to assume they are the "accomplice" mentioned in this fan-made tale. The Intelligencia did verbally single out Klaw as someone they helped on many occasions. 
• Scarlet Witch has not used her hex power to heal someone before. Since Klaw was only feigning injury, she didn't here either.
• The letters page has a letter from Ralph Macchio, future Avengers editor.
• Klaw uses his power to create objects to create red panthers, possibly a nod to his arch-foe Black Panther.
• The sound of Klaw's sonic blast into the ground is "Foom!" Soon after, Black Panther's fist to Klaw's face makes the unlikely sound of "Socko!"