To read Avengerous Tales 2.12, go here!
Diggin’ the new
title font, but why is Namor naked?
Eager to get out into space and save their comrades, the Avengers (and Rick Jones) borrow a rocketship from SHIELD (Nick Fury is still on their side) and take off in a page that I’m pretty sure Neal Adams drew specifically to remind us that he’s the best artist The Avengers have had to date.*
The Avengers
take the opportunity to attack.
Our heroes storm
the commandant’s ship and demand the release of Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and
Captain Marvel. Just as the commandant
(his name is Klaxor, apparently) is about to give them a piece of his mind, the
Emperor butts in via telecommunicator to show off his captives—including
Mar-Vell, who is busily creating the omni-wave per the Skrulls’ command. Interesting how he’s been working on it for
the past several issues, yet the first time we heard about it in Avengers #93, he completed it in
three pages.
Yes, there’s
definitely something fishy going on here…
Turns out the
omni-wave thing can also project images, which Captain Marvel uses to beat up
some Skrulls AND free the twins.
Needless to say,
the Emperor cuts off communication pretty quick after that, but not before
ordering Klaxor to execute “plan delta.”
Want to know what that is? The
Vision does too… probably a bit more than you do, though.
By the time the
others get him to stop, the Skrull agrees to talk: Plan Delta involves sending
a ship with a nuclear warhead on it to obliterate the Earth. Our puny planet’s only hope is now Goliath,
who was still in the quinjet, and Cap orders him to stop the Skrull ship at any
cost.
Now you would think Goliath could take on the crew of a small Skrull ship with ease,
but that’s because I glossed over this little subplot: Goliath chucked the rest
of his growth serum and is now stuck as a regular-sized dude with no weapons
and an exposing costume.
(Actually, it’s
a little unclear whether he threw out
the serum or just plain doesn’t have anymore.
A few issues ago, he was complaining how he only had one dose left, and
that would make sense, since Hank Pym isn’t around to whip up more growth serum
whenever Goliath needs it. However, as
he prepares to confront the Skrulls solo, he thinks “Tossin’ away Hank’s
giant-juice might’ve seemed like a good idea a couple’a days back…” But why
would that ever sound like a good idea when you’re about to go on an
intergalactic rescue mission???)
Anyway, let’s
see what Rick Jones has been up to all this time.
Ronan takes Rick
out to see the massive army he’s putting together to squish Earth. Rick rightfully points out that, if the Kree
and the Skrull both see humans as so primitive, why are they so eager to
destroy Earth? It turns out that Earth
just happens to be smack dab between the Kree and Skrull galaxies, making it a
strategically important site in their eternal war. Lucky us.
Rick tries to
escape and gets thrown in a cell for his trouble. The same cell that the deposed Kree ruler the
Intelligence Supreme is locked in. GREAT
THINKING, RONAN.
The Intelligence
Supreme confesses that he’s been behind a lot of the recent plot points—H.
Warren Craddock’s witch hunt, Rick’s dream in the courtroom, and even Rick’s kidnapping—all
as part of a plan to stop Ronan. The
next step involves throwing Rick back into the Negative Zone to face off
against Annihilus alone.
Confused? Don’t worry—the next issue is the last in
this extended epic, so hopefully we’ll get some answers real soon! Unfortunately, Neal Adams will not be coming
with us on that journey; Issue Ninety-Six is his last, at least for now, so Sal
Buscema will be wrapping things up for us.
No, actually,
that’s a mental beam from Rick’s mind, but he has no more idea of how he’s
doing it than we do. He does hurl
Annihilus far enough away that he won’t bother him any time soon, but he’s
still stuck in the Negative Zone, so I’d still say that’s a net loss.
Meanwhile,
Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch are trying to fend off the Skrulls while
Captain Marvel (and the omni-wave) remain semi-safely ensconced in an energy
sphere. We now learn that Marvel is actually the
one who (accidentally) sent Rick to the Negative Zone in an ill-fated attempt to
contact him. I’m guessing the
Intelligence Supreme is responsible for that, too.
Now convinced
once again that he can’t let the omni-wave fall into Skrull hands, Captain
Marvel destroys it just like he did the one at the farmhouse.
Back with Rick,
who just used his newfound mental powers to escape the Negative Zone…
He’s not lying,
though—Ronan the Accuser has noticed the energy surges coming from the
Intelligence Supreme’s prison, and he sends his men to do away with both him
and Rick permanently. At the
Intelligence Supreme’s urging, Rick uses his powers to conjure up some
superheroes to save them all; specifically, the superheroes he used to read
about as a kid. We got Captain America;
Namor the Sub-Mariner; the Patriot; the Human Torch (not that one); the Vision
(not that one either); Blazing Skull, who looks like Ghost Rider in spandex but
is not Ghost Rider in spandex; the Fin; and the Angel (also not that one).
But Rick’s
powers aren’t strong enough to keep this up for long, and the heroes start to
fade. In desperation, he turns his
mental beams toward the Andromeda Galaxy—where the Skrulls are and, if you
remember, it is all the way on the opposite side of Earth from the Kree Galaxy—and
causes everyone in both galaxies to freeze in place. The only ones left unaffected are the
Avengers, Rick, and the Intelligence Supreme.
You might have
guessed that the Intelligence Supreme is the one behind Rick’s sudden mental
powers, and you’d be right. He (it?)
promises to explain everything to Rick…
The Intelligence
Supreme shows him H. Warren Craddock, who’s back on Earth giving a speech
before a fiery crowd. One of Rick’s
energy beams hits Craddock and reveals him to be a Skrull, who was using
hypnosis to turn the crowd against aliens and the Avengers. So of course, when Craddock himself is revealed to be an alien, the
crowd goes wild, even KILLING HIM and then just wandering off. That is some EC-level stuff right there, let
me tell you.
Rick, obviously,
is not real thrilled with (albeit indirectly) killing someone else and once
again demands an explanation from the Intelligence Supreme.
Apparently,
humanity is destined to all become telepathic, telekinetic superbeings who will
overtake the Kree and the Skrull evolution-wise, which is subconsciously why
both species hate Earth. Or
something. Rick passes out from the
strain of all this and the Intelligence Supreme, now that his power has been
restored thanks to Ronan being frozen, zaps all the Avengers and Captain Marvel
(but minus Goliath, which we’ll discuss in a second) over to his presence.
The only way to
save Rick is for Captain Marvel to merge with him, granting his own life-force
to the dying Rick. Marvel, while not happy,
agrees, and Rick Jones lives again. The
rest of the issue is mostly wrap-up—we learn from Nick Fury that the real H.
Warren Craddock has been tied up in a basement for the past few weeks and had
nothing to do with the anti-Avenger witch hunt the Skrull started—but Goliath
is still missing, and the Avengers can only assume the worst… until next time,
anyway.
So ends the
longest Avengers storyline to
date. How’d they do?
Setting aside
the frankly pointless Inhumans subplot, I have to say, this was pretty nicely
done. There was a lot going on, but it
tied together well, the art was fantastic and, for all that I’ve never been a
fan of Rick Jones, he really took a level in badass this time around. Combined with lots of good action scenes of
the Avengers working together and being amazing AND Vision’s lingering feelings
for Wanda, there was plenty to chew on here.
I am kind of wondering why the
Intelligence Supreme had to goad the fake Craddock into railing against the
Avengers. He was a Skrull, for crying
out loud. Skrulls already hate humanity,
so wouldn’t the Skrull have already been out there, using his influence to
bring down the Kree and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes? Or are they saying the Intelligence Supreme
gave the Skrull the idea to impersonate Craddock in the first place? That still doesn’t make sense, since if the
Intelligence could influence a Skrull, surely he could influence one measly
human congressman, so why convince the Skrull to take Craddock’s place instead
of just manipulating Craddock?
Also, this plan
is interesting, but it seems a little convoluted if all the Intelligence Supreme
really needed was one human to trigger psychic powers in.
I don’t know. In any event, this storyline really impressed
me, and I hope we see more of this level of intrigue in the future.
To read Avengerous Tales 2.14, go here!
Images from Avengers #96 and Avengers #97
*I love me some
Jack Kirby, and there is pretty much no possible way to overstate the King’s
contributions to Marvel and comics in general.
He is a comic book god; even Marvel admitted as much in Fantastic Four #511. Even Rob Liefeld, in his own talent-deprived
way, has tried to pay tribute. If anyone
tells me Kirby “wasn’t that great,” I will commission an artist to paint a mural
of me chasing them into a volcano with a herd of velociraptors.
But Kirby’s
style, while interesting and distinctive, is too blocky for me to honestly be
able to say he’s the best Avengers
artist ever. The simple fact is that I
much prefer Adams’s style to Kirby’s, even if Kirby’s legacy is much greater
than Adams’s—or, indeed, anyone else’s.
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