EVIL EYE

Classification: Magical power item

Creator: The alchemists of Avalon

User/Possessors: alchemists of Avalon, Amergin, Black Knight (Dane Whitman in the body of Eobar Garrington), Dormammu, Grandmaster, Krona, Morgan le Fay, Prester John

Aliases: Eye of Avalon

First Appearance: Fantastic Four I#54 (September, 1966)

Powers/Abilities/Functions: Forged of an unknown metal, the Evil Eye is virtually indestructible and can manipulate matter at the molecular level, fire concussive force blasts, disintegrate matter, nullify other energy sources, and create or destroy force fields. The Evil Eye also has dimensional/time travel powers. It apparently had a "safety" button that charged it, but if the button was left in the on position, the power would rapidly grow too high until it exploded. When it exploded, the Eye would be split into six similar parts that would be driven through the planet, not stopping until they reached sunlight once again.

History:
(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#15) - The Evil Eye was forged by the alchemists of Avalon.

(Defenders I#9 (fb) - BTS) - To prevent its misuse, they set the device to split into six parts and scatter across the planet if it were ever used at full power.

(Avengers I#226 / Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#15) - Amergin, last of the alchemists of Avalon, revealed the Evil Eye was intended as a weapon against the Fomor, but never used as it was lacking a power source. He revealed that he had summoned the Avengers to the past to lead the Fomor to unleash Balor against them, so he could be used to empower the Eye. Balor arrived and attacked Amergin, who drained his power into the Eye until Amergin was struck down from behind by the Fomor leader Elathan. Seeking to restore the power it had drained from him, Balor picked up the Eye and touched it to his own eye, resulting in an energy backlash that destroyed Balor, draining his entire life force into the Eye. As Amergin lay dying, he instructed the Black Knight (Whitman in the body of Eobar Garrington) how to use the Eye to defeat the Fomor, but also told him that the Eye now contained too much power and whoever used it would be destroyed. Using the Eye, the Black Knight drove the Fomor from Avalon, while the Avengers were returned to their own time, and Whitman's spirit was sent back to the future as well, restoring and reanimating his body which had been turned to stone in the modern era.
    The Eye was left by the corpse of Eobar Garrington.

(Fantastic Four I#54 (fb)) - In the 12th century, the wanderer Prester John entered Avalon, where he obtained the Evil Eye.

(Thor Annual#17 (fb)) - Prester John used the Evil Eye against the time traveling Kang the Conqueror who sought to coerce him into joining him in an alliance to conquer the 20th century. During the struggle, John was displaced to 911 A.D., where he used his power to manipulate Charles the Simple, a Frankish king, and Rollo Hrolfson the Walker, leader of the Vikings.

(Thor Annual#17) - Prester John used the Evil Eye to defeat the time traveling Thor (Eric Masterson), after which he began to use the Evil Eye to replicate the splendors of Avalon--a "sea" of sand, a waterless river of stones, a wall fire with a giant salamander. However, Thor recovered and during the subsequent battle, the Evil Eye became overloaded with energies from Mjolnir's thunderbolts and was somehow returned with Prester John to 12th century Avalon.

(Fantastic Four I#54 (fb) / Thor Annual#17 - BTS) - John returned to Avalon upon the Seat of Survival and was placed into suspended animation.

 

(Fantastic Four I#54) - In the modern era, the Human Torch and Wyatt Wingfoot stumbled upon Avalon and inadvertently revived Prester John, who attacked them with the Evil Eye, firing energy blasts and then encasing them in an impenetrable shield. Prester John freed them when they began choking, but then the Torch stole the Eye and fled, intending to use it to free the Inhumans from the Great Barrier/negative zone that encased Attilan. However, John had not had a chance to press its safety button, and the Eye began to rapidly overload. Learning of its threat from Prester John, Wyatt knocked the Eye out of Johnny's hands, saving him from its devastating explosion.

(Avengers I#116 (fb)) - The Evil Eye split into six parts that were driven through the planet, arriving in Osaka, Japan; Ft. Wayne, Indiana; Los Angeles, California; a volcano in Rurutu, French Polynesia; Monterrey, Mexico; and Sucre, Bolivia.

(Defenders I#9 (fb) - BTS) - The Monterrey, Mexico fragment burst from the ground near the mountains, where it was found and brought to Martin Figueras at the Instituto Tecnolico.

(Defenders I#8 - BTS) - Seeking the power of the Evil Eye, Dormammu (allied with Loki) altered a psychic communication from the Black Knight--whose spirit had been disembodied after he had been turned to stone by the Enchantress--causing it to tell Dr. Strange that only the power of the Evil Eye could return him to normal.

(Avengers I#116) - Dormammu cast a spell about Dr. Strange's Sanctum so that when the Avengers went there to check on the petrified Black Knight they were all cast away from the building. Meanwhile, Loki, feeling manipulated by Dormammu, convinced the Avengers that they had to stop the Defenders from obtaining the Evil Eye or they would use it to threaten the universe. In Rurutu, French Polynesia, the Silver Surfer obtained the Evil Eye fragment, despite the efforts of the Vision and Scarlet Witch.

(Defenders I#9) - The Silver Surfer gave the Evil Eye fragment to Dr. Strange, who then sensed Loki's influence on the Avengers and assumed them to be the villains in this conflict. In Monterrey, Iron Man retrieved the Eye fragment, only to have it stolen by Hawkeye, who escaped with it.
    Dr. Strange located the Eye fragment in a cornfield in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, and resisted the efforts of the Black Panther and Mantis to take it from him.

(Avengers I#117) - In a castle in Sucre, Bolivia, the Swordsman (Jacques DuQuesne) battled the Valkyrie (Brunnhilde) over the Evil Eye fragment, and the Valkyrie claimed it after the Swordsman was incapacitated by a blast from a Nazi agent.
   In Osaka, Japan, Captain America struggled against Namor for the Eye fragment, which was nearly stolen by the mutant Sunfire. Ultimately, Captain America decided to trust Namor, giving him the Eye and deciding to end the struggle between the the Avengers and Defenders.

(Defenders I#10 (fb)) - The Avengers and Defenders met, discovered that they were each being manipulated, and combined their winnings.

(Defenders I#10) - In Los Angeles, California, the Hulk and Thor reached a stalemate while battling for the Eye, until the combined Avengers and Defenders arrived, ending the fight. However, when they lined up the six pieces of the Eye, they were gobbled up by Asti the All-Seeing, who re-merged them into the Evil Eye, which it transported to Dormammu. The Dreaded One then appeared to the combined heroes, threatening to conquer Earth.

(Avengers I#118) - Dormammu used the Evil Eye to merge the Earth dimension with his realm, the Dark Dimension. When Loki complained that Dormammu had not restored his vision as promised, Dormammu trapped him in a magical cage. Dormammu used the the Eye to form a shield to prevent the Mindless Ones from reaching him, but Dr. Strange pierced the barrier and led the Defenders against them. Dormammu used the Eye to incapacitate the Defenders, and then to defeat the Avengers when they approached him, as well. Loki turned into an insect to escape his cell and then ambushed Dormammu from behind. As the two struggled, the Scarlet Witch turned the Eye upon the two villains, draining the living power that was Dormammu and then blasting Loki with it, restoring his vision at the cost of his sanity.
   Dr. Strange collected the Eye and vowed to use it to help the Black Knight.

(Defenders I#11) - The power of the Eye transported the Defenders back to the 12th century, where they encountered the Black Knight, possessing the body of his ancestor Eobar Garrington, as well as Mordred the Evil, Chandu the Alchemist, and others during the Crusades. Ultimately, Prince John and Mordred attempted to usurp the Evil Eye, but it was instead claimed by Prester John, who had sensed its reformation and traveled back in time to reclaim it. Prester John used the Eye to incapacitate Prince John and Mordred, and while the Black Knight elected to remain in the 12th century, Prester John used the Eye to send the Defenders back to the modern era.

(Black Knight I#3) - Somehow obtaining the Evil Eye, Morgan le Fay used it to re-form Balor, sending him to battle the Black Knight (Sir Percy possessing the body of Dane Whitman) and Dr. Strange. Fighting off Morgan's attacks with the aid of the Valkyrie (Victoria Bentley possessed and transformed by the body of Brunnhilde), the Black Knight used the Ebony Blade to shatter the Evil Eye, banishing Balor back into non-existence.

(JLA/Avengers#1) - The Evil Eye was one of twelve items of power that the Grandmaster convinced the Avengers and the Justice League that they must compete for or countless billions would die.

(JLA/Avengers#2) - On Earth-Mainstream-DC's Paradise Island, the Flash tore the Evil Eye from Quicksilver's hands, claiming it for the Justice League. As the items were progressively assembled, Captain America and Batman partially discovered their manipulation, realizing that the Avengers were fighting for Krona, who threatened all reality. Captain America then allowed the Justice League to win, though Krona refused to honor his defeat and assaulted the Grandmaster and then Galactus in an effort to learn the universe's origins. However, the Grandmaster then accessed the full power of all twelve items and warped reality.

(JLA/Avengers#3 (fb) - BTS) - The Grandmaster used the power of the artifacts to bind the two Earth dimensions together and trap Krona at the juncture point.

(JLA/Avengers#3 - BTS) - However, the realities proved too fundamentally different, causing them to overload each other, building towards critical mass. Krona managed to hasten the process in an effort to cause their annihilation and generate a new Big Bang that he could experience. The Grandmaster then passed away, exhausted by the experience.

(JLA/Avengers#4) - Krona used the artifacts to summon countless villains from out of time on both worlds, but ultimately the Flash distracted Krona and Hawkeye shattered the globe containing the artifacts, causing them to be cast into an interdimensional vortex as the two realities separated once again.

Comments: Created by Stan "The Man" Lee, Jack "King" Kirby, and "Jovial" Joe Sinnott.

Questions by Donald Campbell, half@$$ answers by Snood:
Since the Eye was last seen (in Defenders #11) in the possession of Prester John, how did Morgan Le Fey get her hands on it?
--uh...magic?
Second, if the Eye was destroyed in BK #3, how did it turn up (intact) in the JLA/Avengers LS?
--uh...magic?

Further comments by Donald:

  1. The Prester John who appeared to reclaim the Evil Eye from Prince John had a mustache that was white instead of red. While this is almost certainly just a coloring error, it's also possible that this Prester John is a much older version of the red-haired PJ who awoke in FF #54. Other possible explanations are that the colour change was a result of whatever unspecified method PJ used to travel back in time...or even that it may not have been the real Prester John at all.
    --OK
  2. There are small discrepancies between what Prester John tells Johnny and Wyatt in FF #54 and what he tells "Thor" in Thor Annual #17. In FF #54, Prester John states (twice) that "the men of Avalon placed (him) in the Chair or Survival" so that he would live on after "the final Day of Doom had slain them all" and that Avalon was destroyed by the same natural forces of the universe which had been harnessed by mighty machines created by the wizards of Avalon. Compare this to Thor Annual #17, in which PJ states that "after a plague, (he) became (Avalon's) last living inhabitant" and that he had been about to take his place upon the Seat of Survival when Kang interrupted. Granted, the differences are minor but it's curious that there were any differences at all.
    --Artistic license or just a mis-remembering of facts...either by Prester John or the writer, unless something supports a real difference.
  3. The "wizards" of Avalon are described as men who "created mighty machines which harnessed the natural forces of the universe." Upon reading this, I immediately thought that that was how a medieval man like Prester John would have perceived modern technology. And the accompanying illustration of Avalon seems to support this conclusion since it shows two people flying high in the air in a rocket-sled and approaching a large mechanical/technological apparatus. Furthermore, the fact that the Evil Eye had a "safety button" makes it seem more technological than mystical, as did the fact that when it exploded it create a mushroom cloud like an A-bomb would. These references gave me the idea that the "wizards" were meant to be scientists whose works seemed like magic to those medieval people who encountered them.
    --OK.
  4. In the modern era, the Human Torch and Wyatt Wingfoot did not "stumble upon Avalon and see Prester John." In actuality, they were traveling across an African desert north of Wakanda when the sand gave way beneath them and they fell for minutes down a VERY deep hidden shaft. Upon reaching the bottom, they found themselves in a deep underground crypt where they soon found Prester John sitting in the Chair of Survival. As far as I know, it's never been explained exactly how Prester John ended up in that crypt.
    --That was indeed an error in the profile. Thanks for catching/correcting it.
  5. When Prester John was told that it was currently the Twentieth century, he mentioned that seven hundred years had passed since the men of Avalon had placed him in the Chair of Survival. Considering how extensively he had traveled around the world since leaving King Richard's service, it seems likely that he didn't find Avalon until sometime in the early Thirteenth Century (and not the Twelfth).
    --True.
  6. I remain firmly convinced that Prester John's Avalon and Amergin's Avalon are NOT the same place. This is partly because I believe that PJ's "wizards of Avalon" were actually meant to be scientists while Amergin's Avalon was clearly inhabited by druids with magical powers. However, I feel that the history of Evil Eye itself supports my opinion. FANTASTIC FOUR #54 established that Prester John received the Evil Eye from the wizards of Avalon and that he kept it with him throughout his 700-year-long sleep. Obviously, this means that the Evil Eye must have been created (powered) prior to PJ's visit to (his) Avalon. AVENGERS #225-226 established that the Eye was in Amergin's Avalon in 1196 AD and was powerless until Amergin managed to steal Balor's energy for it. It was soon after that the Eye was used to seal off the gateway to Earth, a act which left Avalon "cut off forever from the Earth" while the Eye and Eobar Garrington's skeletal remains ended up lying (somewhere) on 12th Century Earth. If the Eye ended up on Earth in 1196 and Amergin's Avalon was cut off forever from Earth by that time, it follows that the Avalon where Prester John later received the Evil Eye was located either somewhere on Earth OR in some other-dimensional world which was NOT Amergin's Avalon. Either way, Amergin's Avalon and Prester John's Avalon would appear to be two different places which share the same name.
        From my point of view the main problem with the "one Avalon" theory is that it doesn't explain how, once Amergin's Avalon was "cut off FOREVER from the Earth" at the end of Avengers #226, it was still possible for there to be interaction with Earth. Specifically, how did the Evil Eye get from where it was left lying on Earth back to Avalon?
            --Are you serious? How many times has Ben Grimm been forever trapped as the Thing. How many times have people been trapped on other worlds for all eternity?...only to have this reversed in the next storyline. I consider this an easy dismissal.
  7. Maybe Prester John's Avalon on Earth was founded by refugees from Amergin's other-dimensional Avalon? Maybe, once the Fomor began threatening Amergin's Avalon, some of its people chose the better part of valor and fled through the gateway to Earth. Once there, they used their magical machines to create the "hidden realm" of Avalon somewhere on Earth (perhaps in northern Africa). Knowing of the Fomor threat, they would have been careful to keep on the lookout for any signs of a Fomor invasion and that would presumably have included monitoring the Avalon-Earth gateway. Thus they would have learned of the gateway's destruction and, upon investigating further (not that it was safe), would have found the Evil Eye and taken it for safekeeping.
    --Could be, but this it total conjecture with nothing to back it up, and it is in conflict with established/published info.
  8. As for how the Eye ended up in Prester John's Avalon, I can only assume that there might have been some communication between the two Avalons. Perhaps once Amergin's Avalon was sealed off from Earth, people from Prester John's Avalon traveled to the Earthly location of the portal to find out what had happened. However, when they arrived and discovered that the portal had been destroyed, they also found the Evil Eye just lying there on the ground so they took it into their custody for safekeeping and brought it back to their Avalon where it later was entrusted to Prester John.
    --See above.
  9. How was Prester John able to find and enter Avalon?
    --Unrevealed. He traveled the world, possibly following the Ley Lines that Vortigen and Captain Britain followed.
  10. And how did Prester John and the Evil Eye end up in a crypt deep beneath a desert in northern African?
    --Unrevealed. Magic or technology likely.
  11. My "second Avalon" theory (and that's all it is, just a theory of mine) explains away these questions. If Prester John's Avalon existed on Earth, then there is no need for the Evil Eye and Prester John to travel to another dimension which could no longer be reached from Earth. Let me stress that this is just my attempt to explain (to my own satisfaction) certain inconsistencies that I've observed in Marvel stories with feature Prester John and the isle of Avalon. I am not trying to force these views on anybody else, I'm just putting them out there to see what other people think of them.
    --Fine, it's out there now...but it is in conflict with existing published material.

The Evil Eye has a small entry in Mystic Arcana: The Book of Marvel Magic.

 

Profile by Snood.

Clarifications:

images:
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#15: Evil Eye entry (main picture and firing the Eye into the air)
Thor Annual#17 (Prester John vs Kang)

Defenders I#8-11 (September-December, 1973) - Steve Englehart (writer), Sal Buscema (pencils), Frank McLaughlin (#8-9) & Frank Bolle (#10-11) (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Avengers I#116-118 (October-December, 1973) - Steve Englehart (writer), Bob Brown (pencils), Mike Esposito, Frank McLaughlin (#117) & Frank Giacoia (#118) (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Avengers I#226 (December, 1982) - Steven Grant (writer), Greg LaRoque (pencils), Chic Stone (inks), Mark Gruenwald (editor)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#15 (May, 1984)
Black Knight I#3 (August, 1990) - Roy & Dann Thomas (writers), Rich Buckler (pencils), Diverse Hands (inks), Mark Gruenwald (editor)
Thor Annual#17 (1992) - Roy Thomas (writer), Geof Isherwood (pencils), Fred Fredricks (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
JLA/Avengers#1-4 (September 2003 - December 2003) - Kurt Busiek (writer), George Perez (artist), Tom Brevoort & Dan Raspler (editors)

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Last Updated: 02/05/05

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