Ain't no party like an Avengers party...which is probably just as well, if we're honest.

We're so close to today's line-up in Marvel Legends! Maybe. If you squint. From 1990, Avengers #325, "Party Games!" Written by Mark Gruenwald, pencils by Rik Levins, inks by Fred Fredericks and "D.Hands." (As in, whoever was nearby that could hold a brush or pen!) 

I absolutely know I read the previous six issues, the bi-weekly "the Crossing Line" and have absolutely no recollection of it or the back-up features! As Avengers Captain America, Vision, Quasar, and Sersi return to their rebuilt headquarters, after a bit of housekeeping and logging, Sersi lays down the law: she's having a party this weekend, and everybody is going. The guys, the staff, the visiting Wakanadan design group, everybody. Couple of problems, though: the Vision, currently white and robotic, wonders if the invitation was meant for synthezoids. And, their headquarters was bugged up the wazoo and the staff hypnotized, courtesy of the Red Skull!...'s support staff, Mother Night and Machinesmith! That's somewhat less dramatic, but still bad for the Avengers.

Passing through a wall and a bug, the Vision traces back Machinesmith's signal, and confronts him, apparently without telling anyone. Machinesmith attempts to take over Vision and fails, but his failsafes paralyze Vision when he attempts to disrupt the villain's robot shell. Machinesmith is forced back in the computer, or cyberspace, but the Vision is apparently out: lacking a lot of imagination, Mother Night and crew dump the bodies in the river: it counts as one less Avenger, so that's probably enough of a win for them. They are dealt a reversal the next day, though, when young security consultant Wendall Vaughn--aka Quasar in a pair of glasses, which everyone supposes means they should pretend they don't recognize him--demonstrates an anti-eavesdropping device, that destroys Machinesmith's bugs. Furious, Mother Night refuses to go down without a fight: she could still force the hypnotized staffers to kill themselves...and there is a party coming up.

It's a little clearer on the John Byrne cover: Mother Night infiltrates the catering staff, to get guns to her hypnotized victims, making them see their enemies or fears. Jarvis sees his girlfriend turn into the Crimson Cowl, John Jameson sees the Man-Wolf, Peggy Carter sees the flaming corpse of her sister Sharon...wow, that is a mess. When the shooting starts, the Avengers move quickly to disarm them, but the Vision has taken care of most of the problem already: once he repaired himself, he had burned their bullets down to blanks, but had to let the situation play out to see who all was hypnotized. He captures Mother Night and her dimwitted brother, and a seething Sersi says she can make them un-hypnotize everyone, since otherwise she'll turn them into furniture. (Is the below where She-Hulk met John Jameson? She nearly married him like 15 years later.)

This is a slight one, but Gruenwald seems to be having fun tying into his Quasar and Captain America runs: Diamondback makes an appearance as Cap's date! The next issue was more substantial, with the debut of Rage.