Defenders 3... Avengers 0! Jeez!

Once the opening round of the 1973 Avengers Defenders conflict was underway, there was really no stopping their "war" from escalating, with both sides having been deceived by the machinations of the Dread Dormammu and Loki in order to retrieve the six separate components of the Evil Eye--a weapon of great power which Dormammu would use to absorb our dimension into his own. For the sake of this cro$$over $tory which would play out in two titles for three months, neither the Avengers nor the Defenders are allowed to give more than cursory thought to the whys and wherefores of what they've been led to believe; for instance, after hearing Loki describe them, the Avengers never stop to ask themselves why a group that's named themselves "the Defenders" would pose a threat to the universe (a point which Loki quickly glosses over)--while Dr. Strange, who has had prior dealings with the Avengers as an ally, is willing to assume the worst about them and leave it at that after the Silver Surfer informs him of their plans to stop the Defenders' recovery of the Eye.

It doesn't occur to Strange that the Defenders now includes Hawkeye, a man who's had his own history as a criminal, while the Sub-Mariner has attempted conquest more than once; nor does he consider that his Orb has shown him Loki's essence, but not his reason for having visited Avengers Mansion. Instead, he jumps to a hasty conclusion, which even the Surfer cautions is not necessarily the truth.

And so this fight will escalate, with both Strange and the Vision alerting their respective comrades to their belief of the hostile intent of the ones who oppose them. In this particular issue, Hawkeye will face off against Iron Man, a battle that can be seen elsewhere in the PPC as part of a profile of the two characters. And while that clash is obviously the focus of this issue's cover, Strange will have his own problems when two Avengers track him in the corn fields of Indiana.