Hey, it's the secret origin of...that thing!

The second chapter of this two-parter has two goals: get the Black Knight back to the 20th century, and continue the secret origin of the Evil Eye!...look, it's Marvel, you know somebody had to be clamoring for it. From 1982, Avengers #226, "An Eye for an Eye" Written by Steven Grant, pencils by Greg LaRocque, inks by Chic Stone.

Previously, Dr. Druid had sent several Avengers back to the dark ages and the other-dimensional Avalon, and he was in a trance at Avengers Mansion, along with the hypnotized Iron Man. One of the Fomor, Bres, was going to kill them, but is stopped by the sudden appearance of Thor and She-Hulk: they had seemingly been disintegrated by the Fomor giant Balor, but actually the spell keeping them in the past was just disrupted; She-Hulk throws Iron Man at Bres to take him out. (Double-checking: we don't see Iron Man regain consciousness--or at all!--the rest of this issue.) Meanwhile, in the past, the Avengers are down to Captain America, the Wasp, and Hawkeye against Balor; so the Black Knight charges into battle on his bat-winged steed (I'm guessing Valinor--Aragon was white with fluffy feathers) against the advice of druid Amergin.

After the Avengers and the Fomor regroup, Amergin almost has time to tell them Thor and She-Hulk weren't dead, when he's interrupted by the next attack and teleports to face Balor alone. It's not as foolhardy as it sounds, though: Amergin plans on sucking Balor's power--and possibly his literal eye, it's tough to say--to power up the Evil Eye, a mystic weapon/doohickus first seen way back in Fantastic Four #54 or so. (Somewhat disturbingly, Balor pleads that he'll be good, if Amergin will let him go.) In the fight, Balor is turned into energy and stored in the Eye, Amergin is mortally wounded, the Fomor are trying to escape to earth and the Avengers are in pursuit, and the Knight ends up sacrificing himself by using the Eye to seal Avalon off. Cap and the others are returned to Avengers Mansion, where Dr. Druid gives them no apology whatsoever for shanghaiing them for this mission, but they're all dismayed by the mystic vision of the Black Knight's corpse.

The vision then shifts to Garrett Castle, though; where the stone remains of the Knight's body reform, Amergin's final gift to him. Even sent him Valinor, too! Hawkeye immediately wants to give the Knight a call, but Druid suggests maybe just let him know you were alive, and hold off on anything else. Presumably leaving it open, if readers demanded it, for the Knight to join the team. Did readers demand it? He would eventually, but is that because they received a ton of mail, or because a couple years later Roger Stern was like, eh, why not? I'm also not certain if the Fomor were destroyed, or just stuck somewhere; and what happened to Bres? Was he sent back to the 12th century or whatever, or 20th century jail? So many questions, most of which can be written off with, "magic," so let it go.
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You might guess the artist, but the title might be tougher.

We saw Marvel's take on Celtic mythology back in Avengers, but this might be closer to the source material: from 2018, the Brave and the Bold: Batman and Wonder Woman #5, "Chapter Five: The Return of the Kings" Story and art by Liam Sharp.

Huh, I didn't think this was from that long ago. I think I have maybe one more issue of this, a six-issue limited, with Batman and Wonder Woman on the case of a murder--within the Celtic pantheon, in the mythical land of Tir Na Nog! Batman has realized something about the victim--he may not have been a local!--but perhaps too late to stop an attempted breakout to earth, that Balor of the Evil Eye and his forces are also interested in.

...I feel like Batman should be able to find that suspect for questioning. Read more!

I remember this issue's cover from a house ad, but I don't think I had a copy until now: from 1982, Avengers #225, "The Fall of Avalon" Written by Steven Grant, pencils by Greg LaRocque, inks by Chic Stone.

This was a lot odder than I thought it was going to be, since I knew some of the story from old Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe entries. Today's Avengers meeting has an inauspicious start, as Thor gets zapped by a new security system; more troublingly, they don't notice a mysterious cloaked figure entering the mansion behind them. It's Doctor Druid, who's there to give the team "a most urgent and perilous mission," and he doesn't have time to ask nice or take no for an answer, so he hypnotizes the lot and sends them to Avalon! (With the exception of Iron Man, as Druid notes his iron cancels his magic, even though we all know there's probably not that much iron in there.)

The Avengers aren't happy, but are quickly placated by their old teammate, the Black Knight! Hawkeye recaps BK's history for new member She-Hulk, namely that he had been turned to stone by the Enchantress, then his soul had been drawn back in time to his 12th century ancestor, and he had been fighting in the Crusades for the last five years. (It varies from interpretation, but here it seems like BK spent that time fighting monsters defending Avalon, as opposed to fighting in the actual, bloodier Crusades.) Hawkeye also has to be the one to tell him, oh yeah, your stone body was destroyed...

Avalon's leader, Amergin, explains briefly how he used his own ancestor, Dr. Druid, to get the Avengers for help, against the monstrous Fomor. If the Fomor took Avalon, earth would be next, and Thor agrees for the team to fight them.

The Fomor, or Fomorians are based on Celtic mythology, about which I know just about nothing, because Thor got a comic and Leir didn't! If you don't know anything about them, they might as well be the Salem's Seven, though. While the Avengers fight them, Amergin holds the Black Knight in reserve, since they needed to steal the power for their weapon, which I recognized as Prester John's Evil Eye, a device that may have made more appearances than its owner. (I remember its OHOTMU listing too!)

Once the Avengers pull the traditional change of sparring partners, they take down the Fomor fairly quickly; leaving the Fomor to call in their big gun: the giant Balor! Thor and She-Hulk figure they can take him, but are seemingly disintegrated by his giant eye. Meanwhile, in the present, the precognitive Fomor Bres has arrived, ditching his brethren. Druid appeared to be in a trance, and Iron Man still hypnotized, and this was to be continued. Pretty sure Black Knight would be back in the present after the next one, but it would still be like two years before he'd become a regular member, and I think a little longer for Dr. Druid.
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