AVENGERS #378

"ECHOES OF HISTORY"
Writer: Bob Harras | Penciler: Stewart Johnson | Inker: Tom Palmer
Letterer: Bill Oakley | Colorist: John Kalisz
Editor: Ralph Macchio | Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

The Plot: Vision, Deathcry, Swordsman, and Magdalene arrive at the Avengers tracking station on the Isle of Crail off the coast of Scotland. There, Vision finds the station has been sabotaged. As soon he says so, the group is shot at by the station's caretaker, who abruptly dies when Vision tries to question him. Deathcry discovers a Shi'ar spaceship crashed nearby, and a legendary Shi'ar warrior named T'kyll Alabar reveals himself to the group. Meanwhile, in the nearby village of Ailsa, a young man reports to an alien warrior that the Avengers have arrived, with a Shi'ar among them. The mystery alien kills his informant.

Back at the crash site, Deathcry explains the story of Admiral Alabar to the rest of the group -- twelve hundred years earlier, he was a hero of the Shi'ar war against the Mephisitoids. When the Shi'ar captured their leader, a man known to the Shi'ar only as the Butcher, they exiled him into deep space aboard a stasis ship, with Alabar in stasis as well to guard him. At Avengers Mansion, the rest of the team tries to make contact with Vision's group, but is unable to do so. On the Isle of Crail, the Butcher arrives with the entire town in his thrall, and then takes control of Swordsman and Magdalene as well. Vision is defeated, while Alabar takes Deathcry and retreats. He reveals to her that some force brought the stasis ship to Earth, and says that he and Deathcry must learn who wanted the Butcher to live again.