File:Avengers Vol 1 178 001.JPG

Description
On a rainswept street, the Beast is pondering his life when he is confronted by a scarred, haggard figure bearing a staff, who seems to personify his self-doubts and who is abruptly struck by a bolt of light and vanishes. Throughout the next few days, the Beast remains distracted as he wrestles inwardly with the meaning of this seeming vision. Then an acquaintance inveigles him into recovering a certain supposedly stolen item, and he finds himself a caged captive of the costumed Manipulator and his criminal employers. The Manipulator reduces the Beast to a puppet under his command, but when the crimelords pay him for his work, he immobilizes them and turns them over to two government agents. The Beast regains his senses to find the police on their way and all but the ganglords long gone. Even as he bounds into the night, having come to terms with his bizarre experience, the two agents are themselves confronted by the eerie staff-bearing figure.