Acts of Vengeance was a Marvel Comics Crisis Crossover event in 1990 involving numerous titles.
Still smarting over the fact that his actions lead to the creation of The Avengers, Loki decided to initiate a grand plan: recruiting some of Marvel's dangerous foes, they would set other villains against the heroes, especially those they're not used to. All of this would lead to, hopefully, heroes getting defeated.
This series is noted for numerous events outside of just "heroes fighting foes they never fought before". In the Spider-Man titles, Spidey was gifted the powers of Captain Universe and would spend time with phenomenal cosmic power. Over in Uncanny X-Men, Psylocke would have her mind transferred into Kwannon's body, becoming the psychic ninja popular with fans for thirty years. And over in The Mighty Thor, cult classic hero team The New Warriors would make their debut.
Acts of Vengeance provides examples of:
- Bullying the Dragon: Over in X-Factor, Loki tries to recruit Apocalypse. When Apocalypse refuses, Loki attempts to attack Apocalypse in revenge. Apocalypse easily drives him away and vows to kill him if he crosses his path again.
- Career Not Taken: When Doctor Doom learns that Typhoid Mary targeted the Power Pack and almost killed their father, he's beside himself with fury at the thought that she'd almost robbed a group of young, impressionable children of their father. He himself muses that had his own father lived, Doom might've followed in his footsteps and become a medical doctor whose skills would've been used for good as opposed to the dictator and would-be world conqueror he is now. Typhoid Mary expresses amusement at this uncharacteristic melancholy, mocking Doom for being a softy at heart (but wisely leaving before Doom shakes himself out of his fugue and atomises her for her insolence).
- Cross Through: Not every title that bore an "Acts of Vengeance" banner was involved with the story.
- David vs. Goliath: This is Loki's plan in a nutshell — pit heroes against foes they're not used to. Sometimes it works out, such as pitting Daredevil against Ultron, sometimes it didn't, such as pitting a group of second-rate villains against the Fantastic Four.
- Didn't Think This Through: Seriously, Loki — recruiting Magneto and the Red Skull together?!
- Et Tu, Brute?: Peter's reaction when Mary Jane, his own wife, states that she can understand why the people think he's a menace with Captain Universe's powers, which an outraged Peter interprets as MJ agreeing with them.
- Fate Worse than Death: What Magneto does to the Red Skull — leaving him trapped in an inescapable bunker in the dark with only a few jugs of water, intending him to suffer before he dies.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: Psylocke and Kwannon swapping bodies.
- Fusion Dance:
- As a result of the plan failing, Loki hijacks three Shaw Industries-type Sentinels and merges them into the Tri-Sentinel.
- Doctor Doom builds a new Ultron, Ultron-13, using the body of Ultron-11, the head of Ultron-12 and the combined personalities of Ultrons 1-12. This ended up creating an Ultron tortured by his imperfections.
- Go Mad from the Isolation: After being locked in a bunker by Magneto, the Red Skull slowly starts losing his mind from the isolation. He starts hallucinating his abusive father as well as Hitler, the latter deriding him as an unworthy successor. Red Skull becomes driven to the point of insanity that he actually starts repenting for the crimes that he has done. That is, until Crossbones rescues him.
- Hated by All: As usual, the Red Skull is this among the "Prime Movers". Everyone hates his guts because of his Nazi roots. In fact, this is also the story where Magneto, a Holocaust survivor, buries the Red Skull alive for his role in it.
- How Do I Shot Web?: Thanks to the transfer getting interrupted, Spidey has a difficult time dealing with the Captain Universe powers.
- Implacable Man: The Red Skull throws everything he's got as Magneto as he tries to run for it. It does nothing.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: When Loki, fed up with his allies constantly screwing up or backstabbing one another, reveals himself and vents his anger on them. Kingpin, unlike the others, simply hightails it out of there knowing they stand no chance.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: Loki's the villain. This was an element of suspense when the crossover originally came out, since he'd ditched his usual green-yellow Asgardian outfit and horned helmet for a white business suit.
- Legacy Character: The Moon Knight tie-in sees the debut of the new version of C-List Fodder villain the Ringer, who teams up with Killer Shrike and Coachwhip of the Serpent Society to take on the titular hero.
- Mistaken for Destitute: The Grey Hulk was hired to take out Spider-Man. After the first fight, and the Hulk turns back into Bruce Banner, Bruce was afraid that the policeman would arrest him for vagrancy, due to being shirtless and having ragged pants due to having been the Hulk.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: This is what kicks off the premise of this event. Loki, being inadvertently responsible for The Avengers' formation, tries to undo this mistake by manipulating events and other villains to wipe them out once and for all.
- For a more conventional example, Wizard, one of the "Prime Movers" of this conspiracy, gets captured by The Avengers. To avoid being questioned, he uses the teleporter that Loki gave him to escape to their hideout. But this ends up being their undoing. As Loki points out, the Avengers can trace the teleporter's energy signature back to him and discover his own involvement. And sure enough, they do.
- No-Sell: The Red Skull tries luring Loki into his office and having the Controller stick one of his control disks on Loki. It doesn't work.
- "Not So Different" Remark: The Red Skull, an unrepentant Nazi, delivers one of these to Magneto, a Holocaust survivor. Magneto takes it about as well as could be expected.
- Only Sane Man: In a team of egomaniacs like Doom or psychopaths like the Red Skull, Kingpin is this among the prime movers. He even makes this clear in a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to them. Also, when Loki reveals his involvement, rather than try and fight a god like the remaining villains, he promptly bails.
- Outside-Context Problem: Loki hoped to defeat the heroes by having them fight villains they had no experience with and wouldn't know how to deal with.
- Pretender Diss: The Red Skull dismisses the Mandarin as a "poor man's Fu Manchu" (at the time, Marvel had the rights to use him for Shang-Chi).
- Politically Incorrect Villain: As usual, literal Nazi Red Skull. In fact, it was during the events of this story when Magneto, a known Holocaust survivor, famously buried the Skull alive for his war crimes.
- Red Skies Crossover: Some of the crossovers labelled "Acts of Vengeance" are more tangential than others, such as the Uncanny X-Men tie-in, which is Psylocke being brainwashed into becoming the Mandarin's agent.
- Refusal of the Call: Not every villain goes along with Loki's plan - Apocalypse and Namor because they don't see themselves as villains, Cobra because he sees himself more as a mercenary, and the Mad Thinker because he doesn't think it will work.
- Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Basically the core story arc is the heroes being subjected to a short-term version of this, as they are pitted against villains they've often never encountered before. Examples include Gravitron attacking Spider-Man, Daredevil forced to face Ultron-13, the Absorbing Man battles Quasar, or the U-Foes attacking the West Coast Avengers.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: This arc is the closest Spider-Man has come to deciding this. Having gained the power of Captain Universe with no idea how to control it, the New Yorkers are more scared of him than ever. The fact that super-villains were attacking him for no seemingly reason at all (something that was happening to the entire hero community during the crisis) only made him angrier. It all climaxes during his fight with the T.E.S.S. One, where people just keep insulting and badgering him even as he tries to help them; finally pushed to his Rage Breaking Point, Spidey loses his cool and scares everyone present, including himself, by blasting T.E.S.S. One to bits. He manages to calm himself down and attempt a "Just Joking" Justification shortly after, but it's too late, and the people flee in fear.Spider-Man: That's it! I've had it! No matter what I do, people think I'm a menace, including my own woman! Okay, fine! They want a menace?! I've got your menace RIGHT HERE!!
- Trespassing to Talk: Loki appears in the Red Skull's office to invite him to the team-up. Skull sets his security measures on Loki, and they do squat.
- Where It All Began: The Avengers track Loki to his hideout which is revealed to be the Isle of Silence, the place where Loki and Thor had their battle that led to the formation of The Avengers.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: All three issues of the Fantastic Four part of the event have the Thing ask on the cover "You're kidding, right?" in some variation when the cover lists they're going up against "the deadliest villains in the universe"
