Avengers #185
Yesterday Quest!
The Avengers have just finished their battle with the Absorbing Man when the police arrive on the scene. As Iron Man explains what happened to the officers, Hawkeye is unimpressed with the Falcon as his replacement on the team.[1] He slips away to change out of costume and leaves, making his bitterness over the situation known to the others, even though there was nothing they could do about it.
When the Avengers return home, the Beast takes off to get ready for a date, while Iron Man changes back to Tony Stark to go over the new security systems with Jarvis. Stopping for a coffee break, Tony strikes up a conversation with Ms. Marvel in the kitchen, completely ignoring Jacosta. The female robot decides to pay a visit to the Vision, whom she feels can relate to her situation since he too is an artificial lifeform. When she asks if he is worried about his wife, who is away on a quest to learn more about her past. He tells her that he isn’t worried because a machine is incapable of such feelings.
Meanwhile, in Transia, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch have arrived in a small village with their traveling companion, Django Maximoff. Since it's a stormy night, they check in to a local inn and Wanda can’t help but feel like she’s finally come home. While Wanda gets a room of her own, Pietro bunks with Django in another room. Pietro is restless and can’t sleep and when he looks out to Wundagore Mountain he thinks of the conflicting facts about their parentage. Django has said they are his long-lost children — Mataeo and Anna — and they lived their lives as part of a Romani caravan. Pietro has some dim memories of this, but can’t remember the faces of the people. Always wanting to protect his sister, he didn’t correct her when she spoke of a contradicting past. He recalls he Wanda told him how they were born on Wundagore Mountain and were the children of the Whizzer and Miss America.[2] He also recalls how they have been drawn back to Tansia and Wundagore Mountain when Wanda’s powers have waned in the past, giving credibility to both stories as impossible as that may be.[3]
As Pietro ponders this, Wanda is visited in her bedroom by Modred the Mystic who has come to show her the truth about her past. He manages to convince her to accompany him on a trip to Wundagore Mountain, teleporting the pair to that very spot. Their departure is unseen by anyone except for a woman who works at the inn. There, Modred protects Wanda from one of the left over defenses left behind by the High Evolutionary.[4] He then leads her to the remains of the Citadel of Science where she finds a strange altar with a book floating above it. Modred says this book is the tome of her master before knocking Wanda out with a mystical blast.
The following morning, Pietro and Django go to wake up Wanda and find her room empty. Sensing that something is wrong, he speeds around the village but finds no trace of his sister. That’s when the woman working at the inn tells him about the strange light that went from Wanda’s room to Wundagore Mountain. Seeing a strange glow coming from the top of the mountain, Quicksilver races up the mountain to see what is causing it. He is struck by a blast that sends him falling back down the mountain where he blacks out. When he wakes up he finds himself in the cottage of Bova, the cow woman who tells him that she was the one who helped bring him into this world.
Recurring Characters
Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, the Wasp, Hawkeye, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, the Vision, the Beast, Jacosta, Ms. Marvel, Falcon), Modred the Mystic, Bova, Django Maximoff, Edwin Jarvis, Redwing, (in flashback) the Whizzer, Miss America, Marya Maximoff, Toad, Sir Porga
Continuity Notes
In order for the Avengers to get their security clearance back (since it was revoked in issue #168) they had to pair down to seven members. Henry Gyrich passed over Hawkeye in favor of the Falcon as the government wanted to fill an employment equity quota. See Avengers #181.
The origins of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch are a convoluted mess. Let’s get into the details:
Django told a story of how he is the father of Wanda and Pietro and believes that they are his children Mateo and Ana. He told his account in Avengers #182.
The account where Pietro and Wanda were actually the children of the Whizzer and Miss America was originally told in Giant-Size Avengers #1.
The truth is that they are actually the children of Natalya Maximoff and an unidentified father and Django is actually their father. See Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4 and Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #4-5.
The twins had returned to Transia during periods one or both were losing their powers on two occasions. The first was from Avengers #30 through 37. The flashback where the pair are watching the lights atop Wundagore Mountain is taken from Thor #134, during the creation of the Man-Beast by the High Evolutionary. The second time was following Wanda seemingly losing her powers after a bullet creased her forehead in Avengers #49. They went to Transia to seek out a magical book to restore her powers leading to their encounter with Aarkon in Avengers #75-76. It’s revealed in issue #186-187 that they were being manipulated by the demon Chthon who seeks to take possession of Wanda’s body.
The High Evolutionary had since left Wundagore Mountain by the time of this story, deciding to take his New Men to another world among the stars. See Thor #135.
Topical References
Django’s people are referred to as gypsies in this story. This is a dated term that, to some, is even considered racist. The correct term to use now is Romani, and as such, I have used that term above.
