Membership: Leader: Loki

Prime Movers: Dr. Doom (Victor von Doom), Kingpin (Wilson Fisk), Magneto (Max Eisenhardt), Mandarin, Red Skull (Johann Shmidt), Wizard (Bentley Wittman)

 

 

 

 

 

Participants/Pawns: Absorbing Man (Carl Creel), Angar the Screamer (David Anger), Arkon, Armadillo (Antonio Rodriguez), Asp (Cleo Nefertiti), Assembly of Evil (Hulk robot, Fenris/Andrea & Andreas Strucker, Hydro-Man/Morrie Bench, Jester/Jody Putt, [Leader/Samuel Sterns], Rock/Samuel LaRoquette, [Typhoid Mary/Mary Walker]), Awesome Android, Baron Brimstone (Walter Theodoric), Beetle (Abner Jenkins), Boomerang (Fred Myers), Brothers Grimm (Barton & Percy Grimes), Chemistro (Calvin Carr), Coachwhip (Beatrix Keener), Constrictor (Frank Payne), Controller (Basil Sandhurst), Dittomaster, Dragon Man, Eel (Edward Lavell), Enchantress (Amora), Executioner (unnamed, pawn of Enchantress), Flying Tiger, Freedom Force (Avalanche/Dominic Petros, Blob/Fred Duke, Pyro/St. John Allerdyce), Gargantua (Edward Cobert), Goliath (Erik Josten), Graviton (Franklin Hall), Grey Gargoyle (Paul Pierre Duval), Griffin (Johnny Horton), Hobgoblin (Jason Macendale), Hulk (aka. Joe Fixit; Bruce Banner), Juggernaut (Cain Marko), Killer Shrike (Simon Maddicks), Klaw (Ulysses Klaw), Lady Mandarin (aka. Psylocke; Betry Braddock), Living Laser (Arthur Parks), Llan the Sorcerer (? see comments), Mad Dog (Robert Baxter), Man-Ape (M'Baku), Mr. Hyde (Calvin Zabo), Mole Man (Harvey Elder), Nekra (Nekra Sinclair), Nitro (Robert Hunter), Orka, Owl (Leland Owlsley), Plantman (Samuel Smithers), Quill (Resistant), Ramrod, Rattler (Gustav Krueger), Red Ghost (Ivan Kragoff), Rhino (Aleksei Sytsevich), Ringer (Keith Kraft), Scarecrow (Ebeneezer Laughton), Scorpion (Mac Gargan), Screaming Mimi (Melissa Gold), Shocker (Herman Schultz), Stilt-Man (Wilbur Day), Super-Adaptoid, Titania (Mary MacPherran), Trapster (Peter Petruski), Tri-Sentinel, Typhoid Mary (Mary Walker), U-Foes (Ironclad/Mike Steel, Vapor/Ann Darnell, Vector/Simon Utrecht, X-Ray/James Darnell), Ulik?, Ultron-13, Vanisher, Venom (Eddie Brock), Voice (Jason Cragg), Vulture (Adrian Toomes), Water Wizard (Peter Van Zante), Whirlwind (David Cannon), Wrecking Crew (Bulldozer/Henry Camp, Piledriver/Brian Calusky, Thunderball/Elliot Franklin, Wrecker/Dirk Garthwaite)

 

Enemies: Avengers, the Vault, super-heroes in general

Base of Operations: Isle of Silence, Asgard

First Appearance: Avengers Spotlight#26 (December, 1989)

History: Loki sought to destroy the Avengers to absolve his guilt over inadvertently creating them, way back when he sent the Hulk after Thor. Posing as an assuming pawn, he duped a group of influential superhuman criminals into acting as his Prime Movers. Loki set up a meeting spot within the Isle of Silence, and established portals to the meeting room in the individual bases of each of the Prime Movers.

As per Loki's "advising," the Prime Movers organized a series of assaults on the super-heroes, involving a basic mix and match, where the villains attacked heroes they didn't usually fight. Not a whole lot (besides three months of off-beat fights) actually came of this, and the Prime Movers themselves began to break apart as a result of their egos and differing goals.

Things fell apart when, after being captured by the Avengers, the Wizard accessed Loki's portal to escape to the meeting room. Furious at what the Wizard had done, Loki correctly realized that Thor would be able to trace his energies and locate their base. Loki revealed himself just before the Avengers burst in. The Prime Movers fled through the portals, which survived the destruction of the room. Thor trapped Loki within a chasm of his own creation, where he remained long enough to produce an ending to the story-line.

COMMENTS: Created by Mark Gruenwald (I think), along with others too numerous to count.

Loki attempted to recruit a few others, who refused to participate. These included Apocalypse (En Sabah Nur), Cobra (Klaus Voorhees), and the Mad Thinker (who guessed his true identity).

I'm not organized enough to have any way to search for this info, other than memory and checking my hard copies. Let me know everyone and everything I'm missing, and I'll add it in.

This story crossed over with Spider-Man's temporary gaining of the Enigma Force/Captain Universe power, enabling him to tangle with the likes of Goliath, Graviton, the Hulk, Magneto, etc.

The Fantastic Four story involved a weapon of Dr. Doom's summoning "lame" villain after "lame" villain to attack them while they spoke before a congressional hearing on super-powers (see Dr. Doom's Emotion Charger).

The Alpha Flight story, although part of the Acts of Vengeance story-line, in fact had the villains summoned by Llan the Sorcerer. Perhaps Loki met with him behind the scenes to arrange this.

The appearances are obviously in alphabetical rather than chronological order. Check out the Marvel Chronology Project to arrange them properly.

A couple of the pawns were in multiple issues, nearly simultaneously. They include the Hydro-Man, Klaw, Owl, Shocker, Thunderball, the Wrecker.

As an interesting follow-up, Magneto kidnapped the Red Skull and imprisoned him in an underground cell, leaving him enough water to keep him alive while he starved to death. This was done in retribution for the Skull's part in the Holocaust of World War II. The Red Skull did nearly die, and began to see the wrong of his life, but was saved by Crossbones and soon went back to his old ways. It's really hard to believe the Red Skull would not have sought vengeance on Magneto for this, or that Magneto would not have followed up after learning the Skull survived.

If the Prime Movers really would have wanted to slay the super-heroes, they would have used a little bit of strategy, rather than random matchings, and sent groups of villains to ambush and slay the heroes. More realistic, but less pragmatic, as then there wouldn't be any heroes to have comics about.

The Wizard entry in OHotMU 2006#12 indicates that he did not know it was Loki before the latter revealed himself towards the end of Acts of Vengeance, but in an interview in Marvel Review 1989, the Wizard stated that he had already deduced the truth before Loki revealed himself.
--Per Degaton
 
I'm sure that after the fact all the egotistical masterminds claimed they had known it was Loki all along.
--Loki

The Acts of Vengeance received an entry in the All-New OHotMU Update#3.

CLARIFICATIONS:
  The "Acts of Vengeance" affair has no known connection to:

images: (without ads)
Captain America I#366, cross-over (logo) (the same logo with the same background appeared on a few other issues as well)
Avengers West Coast#55, p5, pan1 (Prime Movers - Wizard, Kingpin, Red Skull, Mandarin; Loki [background])

Appearances:
Avengers Spotlight#26 (December, 1989) - Dwayne McDuffie (writer), Dwayne Turner (pencils), Chris Ivy (inks), Mark Gruenwald (editor)
Alpha Flight I#79-80 (December, 1989 - January, 1990) - James Hudnall (writer), John Calimee (pencils), Mike Manley (inks), Carl Potts (#79), Marcus McLaurin (#80) & Danny Fingeroth (editor)
Amazing Spider-Man I#326-329 (December, 1989 - February, 1990) - David Michelinie (writer), Colleen Doran (#326), Erik Larsen (#327, #329) & Todd McFarlane (#328) (pencils), Andy Mushynsky (#326, #329), Al Gordon (#327) & Todd McFarlane (#328) (inks), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Avengers I#311-313 (December, 1989 - January, 1990) - John Byrne (writer), Paul Ryan (pencils), Tom Palmer (inks), Howard Mackie (editor)
Avengers Spotlight#27-28 (December, 1989 - January, 1990) - Howard Mackie (#27/1, 28/1), Dwayne McDuffie (#27/2, 28/2) (writer), Al Milgrom (27/1, 28/1), Dwayne Turner (27/2, 28/2), Don Heck (#27/1, 28/1), Chris Ivy (27/2, 28/2), Mark Gruenwald & Gregory Wright (editor)
Avengers Spotlight#29 (February, 1990) - Howard Mackie & James Brock (#29/1), Dwayne McDuffie (#29/2) (writer), James Brock (29/1), Dwayne Turner (29/2), Roy Richardson (#29/1), Chris Ivy (29/2), Mark Gruenwald & Gregory Wright (editor)
Avengers West Coast#53-55 (December, 1989 - February, 1990) - John Byrne (writer/pencils), Keith Williams (#53), Paul Ryan (#54, #55) (inks), Howard Mackie (editor)
Captain America I#365-367 (December, 1989 - February, 1990) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Kieron Dwyer (#365/1, 367/1), Mark Bright (#365/2), Ron Lim (#366/1), Mark Bagley (#366/2, 367/2) (pencils), Danny Bulanadi (#365/1-367/2), Don Hudson (#365/2-367/2), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Cloak and Dagger III#9 (December, 1989) - Terry Austin (writer), Mike Vosburg (pencils), Don Cameron (inks), Danny Fingeroth (editor)
Damage Control II#1-4 (December, 1989 - February, 1990) - Dwayne McDuffie (writer), Ernie Colon (pencils/inks), Stan Drake (#4) & Marie Severine (#4) (inks), Sid Jacobson (editor)
Daredevil I#275-276 (December, 1989 - January, 1990) - Ann Nocenti (writer), John Romita Jr. (pencils), Al Williamson (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Dr.Strange III#11-13 (December, 1989 - January, 1990) - Roy & Dann Thomas (writer), Jackson Guice (pencils/inks), Ralph Macchio, Mike Rockwitz & Tom DeFalco (editor)
Fantastic Four I#334-336 (December, 1989 - January, 1990) - Walter Simonson (writer), Rich Buckler (#334-335) & Ron Lim (#336) (pencils), Romeo Tanhal (#334-335) & Mike DeCarlo (#336) (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Incredible Hulk II#363 (December, 1989) - Peter David (writer), Jeff Purves (pencils), Marie Severin (inks), Bobbie Chase (editor)
Iron Man I#250 (December, 1989) - David Michelinie & Bob Layton (writer), Bob Layton (pencils/inks), Howard Mackie (editor)
Iron Man I#251-252 (December, 1989 - January, 1990) - Dwayne McDuffie (writer), Herb Trimpe (pencils), Al Milgrom (inks), Howard Mackie (editor)
Moon Knight III#8-10 (December, 1989 - January, 1990) - Chuck Dixon (writer), Sal Velluto (pencils), Tom Palmer (#8-9) & Keith Williams (#10) (inks), Danny Fingeroth (editor)
New Mutants I#84-86 (December, 1989 - February, 1990) - Louise Simonson (writer), Terry Shoemaker (#84), Geoff Isherwood (#85) & Rob Liefeld (#86) (pencils), Al Milgrom (#84), Bret Blevins (#85) & Bob Wiacek (#86) (inks), Bob Harras & Tom DeFalco (editor)
Power Pack I#53 (January, 1990) - Terry Austin (writer), Ernie Colon (pencils/inks), Daniel Chichester (editor)
Punisher II#28-29 (December, 1989 - January, 1990) - Mike Baron (writer), Bill Reinhold (pencils), Mark Farmer (inks), Don Daley (editor)
Punisher War Journal#12-13 (December, 1989) - Carl Potts (writer), Jim Lee (#12) & David Ross (#13) (pencils), Don Hudson (#12), Al Milgrom (#12) & Russ Heath (#13) (inks), Rob Tokar & Don Daley (editor)
Quasar#5-6 (December, 1989 - January, 1990) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Paul Ryan (pencils), Danny Bulanadi (inks), Howard Mackie (editor)
Spectacular Spider-Man II#158-160 (December, 1989 - January, 1990) - Gerry Conway (writer), Sal Buscema & Mike Esposito (#158-159) (pencils), Mike Esposito & Sal Buscema (#160) (inks), Tom DeFalco, Jim Salicrup & Glenn Herdling (#159-160) (editor)
Thor I#411-412 (December, 1989) - Ron Frenz & Tom DeFalco (writer), Ron Frenz (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Web of Spider-Man#59-61 (December, 1989 - February, 1990) - Gerry Conway (writer), Alex Saviuk (pencils), Keith Williams (inks), Tom DeFalco, Jim Salicrup & Glenn Herdling (#60) (editor)
Uncanny X-Men#256-258 (December, 1989 - February, 1990) - Chris Claremont (writer), Jim Lee (pencils), Scott Williams (#256, #258), Joe Rubinstein (#257-258) (inks), Daryl Edelman & Bob Harras (editor)
Wolverine II#19-20 (December, 1989 - January, 1990) - Archie Goodwin (writer), John Byrne (pencils/inks), Klaus Janson (#20) (inks), Daryl Edelman & Bob Harras (editor)
X-Factor I#50 (January, 1990) - Louise Simonson (writer), Terry Shoemaker (pencils), Hilary Barta (inks), Daryl Edelman & Bob Harras (editor)

First Posted: 01/05/2002
Last updated: 10/27/2023

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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