Avengers 147

After a two issue detour, Avengers returns to the Squadron Supreme Saga in Issue 147.  The story picks up with both teams transported to the Squadron's world.  The two teams face off and Patsy Walker who found the discarded costume of the Cat faces off with Hyperion.  The Vision takes on Lady Lark.  The Golden Archer ends up with Captain America.  The Scarlet Witch faces Dr. Spectrum and we have a battle royal. 

Vision notices that while they are fighting, Army helicopters, tanks and troops surround them.  They are back on the alternative Earth and the out of the last chopper comes President Nelson Rockefeller wearing the Serpent Crown on his head.  The Serpent Crown contains an ancient evil intelligence.  The Vision decides it is best to disappear and then he reappears to snatch the crown off the head of the President and toss it to the Scarlet Witch.

We then learn that the Secret of the Serpent Crown. "It and its twin on our Earth, and all the others scattered throughout the myriad realms of reality - are all mere infestations of a single serpentine nethermind, older than antiquity!  The are numberless, and they are one - and each and every human being who places one on his head becomes its slave for forever, in contact with all the others."  President Rockefeller contacts Hugh Jones who wore the crown on our Earth.  In the meantime, the Avengers are hiding out on the alternative world and the Scarlet Witch somehow has been exploring the crown without wearing it and discovers that all the heads of the major conglomerates on the alternative Earth have worn the helmet.  The effort exhausts her and she collapses.

Next we meet Thor, Hawkeye, Moondragon and Two-Gun Kid who has time-traveled 100 years to meet the Avengers in the Arizona desert.  I am not sure if they were legal or illegal aliens, but it is 1976, so it doesn't matter.  Hawkeye leaves the Avengers (to be seen again with Two-Gun Kid in Marvel Spotlight) to go with Two-Gun to hunt wild broncos.

The story returns to the alternative world where the Scarlet Witch has been taken over by the Serpent Crown and attacks her husband, the Vision.  The Vision chases after her after she decides to return the crown to the President.  The Scarlet Witch runs into the Squadron Supreme and is grabbed by Hyperion.  The Vision yells "Unhand her, Hyperion - Now!!"  Hyperion refuses and the Vision starts to kick some Squadron Supreme tail.   First he BWAMs Hyperion.  Then the Golden Archer shoots a Detonation Arrow at Vision which passes through him.  Then Lady Lark tries her Larksong but the Vision blasts her with solar energy forn his eyes which must have singed a few feathers.  The Golden Archer fires a Ultra Sonic Siren Arrow at the Vision and Hyperion "Crumps" him with a light pole.  Meanwhile, unnoticed, the Scarlet Witch is doing battle with the Crown.  Finally, the Vision takes out Hyperion and just when Lady Lark is about to take out Vision, Lady Lark is silenced by the ... Scarlet Witch.  Apparently the Scarlet Witch's mutant soul was able to overcome the horrible mental onslaught of the Serpent Crown or maybe it was her love for the Vision. 

Anyway, the Vision takes the Crown thinking that it won't be able to attack his Computer Mind and if he is mistaken, he too will be saved by love.  If I am Nelson Rockefeller, I think I would be a little upset that I didn't have enough love to overcome the power of the Serpent Crown.

CGC has only certified nine copies of this price variant issue.  The condition census is one 9.4, three 9.0s and two 8.5s.  The last 9.0 sold in August of 2008 for $150.