Los Vengadores #7

"Un Origen para Mantis" in Los Vengadores #7 (1975) offers a deeply personal look at the mysterious hero’s past, told through Libra’s own account. Written by Steve Englehart and Bob Brown, with inks by Don Heck, this story reveals how Libra, once a French mercenary in Vietnam, lost his wife Lua and his sight in a brutal attack by her brother, Monsieur Khruul, the mafia boss. After escaping with their daughter Mantis, he raised her in the jungle, where she was trained by the Sacerdotes de Pama in the arts of heightened perception and martial discipline—before she would eventually be left behind to forge her own path. The cover, by López Espí, captures the haunting, mythic tone of the tale.