Issue(s): Avengers #30, Avengers #31
Cover Date: Jul-Aug 66
Title: "Frenzy in a far-off land!" / "Never bug a giant!"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
Don Heck - Penciler
Frank Giacoia - Inker

Review/plot:
While Quicksilver messes around with Hank Pym's old cybernetic helmet, the Scarlet Witch reveals that her powers are weakening.

Quicksilver also notes that he's been getting slower, and they reason that they may not be mutants but instead that there is some element in their homeland that provides them with their powers. It's quite a logical leap (which, decades later, will basically turn out to be true) but Captain America seems quite OK to have them off the team (now that Hank and Janet are back? Er, actually he only mentions Hank.), so off they go.

When they arrive in their homeland, we see a mountain in the background that could be Wundagore, but neither it nor the name of the fictional country (Transia) are named.

Meanwhile Goliath is still feeling mopey...

...but in the newspaper (it's like a stroke of fate! Or cheap plotting!) he reads about his old college professor Dr. Anton, who is working on artificial growth of body cells in South America. He heads off alone, leaving a worried Jan behind.

Meanwhile the Swordsman and Power Man are fighting over the Black Widow, who doesn't stop them, considering it training.

While the other Avengers search for the Widow's team, Goliath arrives in South America and fights a group of gaudily dressed warriors from a hidden land who have captured Dr. Anton.

They've got a living flame which is powered by cobalt.

Hawkeye defeats Power Man and the Swordsman with the help of the Black Widow, whose brainwashing was overcome by her love.

Hawkeye returns home to find the the Wasp and Cap have located Goliath. There's an odd sequence at the beginning of issue #31 where Jan says to Hawkeye, "Unless -- you don't want to join us?". Cap tells her she's out of line and Hawkeye attributes it to the fact that she knows he loves the Black Widow, not because he's got a reputation for being a dick.

Goliath helps some of the ancient warriors in a revolution against the other ancient warriors...

...and then the other Avengers show up to help finish things off. In the process they destroy the living flame and then all the ancient warriors lose interest in fighting each other.

The Living Flame business will return to figure into the resolution to a long running plot involving a mysterious group called "They".

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - first Living Flame

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Giant-Size Marvel Triple Action #1, Marvel Triple Action #24

The Wasp's headpiece looks a lot like the Golden Age Miss America's, but that's probably just a coincidence.

Forgot ID again!

The lost city was El Dorado.

Whatever happened with black widow and hawkeye? They just totally forget to tell us in issue #31