Avengers #245
Bombshells!
A Dire Wraith, disguised as a NASA scientist and Woodrow Cather, has just blasted off in an rocket using an experimental ion-drive. However, the technology is flawed and should the ion-drive hit critical mass, the resulting explosion will destroy the entire planet Earth. Luckily, the Wasp has stowed away on board and soon Captain Marvel is sent up to intercept the ship in her light form. She finds the Wasp and tries to warn her when she is found by Cather. The Wraith scientist seemingly atomizes her with his blaster weapon. Horrified by this, the Wasp blasts Cather with a bio-sting that causes him to revert back to his true form. Suddenly, the ship begins to violently shake, and the Wraith suddenly realizes what’s going on. He races to the control panel begins making repairs to the ion-drive to prevent it from exploding. However, once Cather is done his work, the Wasp gets the drop on him with his own gun.
Meanwhile, in Transia, Quicksilver and Lockjaw have come to a nearby village. They have come seeking the woman Pietro wants to act as a nanny for his infant daughter, Luna. His despite to find her is urgent, after discovering her cottage on Wundagore Mountain in ruins. This woman is Bova, and she has been seriously wounded following an attack on her home and is now resting in bed. Horrified to see his former caretaker in this state, Pietro asks her what happened. Bova then confirms his greatest fear, she was senselessly attacked by Magneto, the man alleged to be his father.[1]
Back in orbit, the Dire Wraith formally known as Woodrow Cathers explains to the Wasp that he infiltrated NASA so he could reverse engineer the ion-drive so he and his faction, a sect of technologically based Dire Wraiths, could escape Earth and extermination from their mystically inclined counterparts.[2] However, when the Avengers got involved with the security issues at NASA, Cathers decided to abandon his allies — the Wraiths known as the Rocketeers — to escape Earth. However, he warns the Wasp against shooting him now because it would mean the destruction of both his rocket and Earth. Little do either of them know that Captain Marvel survived thanks to her ability to turn into different forms of energy. When she was seemingly atomized earlier, she actually turned into an energy spectrum invisible to the naked eye and sank into the floor. Overhearing all of this, she then beams a radio wave back to Earth to inform the other Avengers of what’s going down on the ship.
Receiving this update, the Vision tells Captain Marvel to remain hidden as their ace-in-the-hole and heads off with Starfox to intercept the rocket and shut it down. Captain America knows that this is the right move but secretly wonders if there is something more to the way the Vision has been leading the team.[3] As he and Starfox recover the Quinjet they hid below the ocean surface, the Vision hopes that he wasn’t too curt with Captain America as his teammate’s support is important to his plans.
While this is happening, Captain America has General William Bridges take him to where they have been keeping the Rocketeers prisoner since their capture. There he is horrified to find two of the mystic faction of the Dire Wraiths murdering the prisoner. As it turns out, Bridges has been replaced with a Dire Wraith as well. When they attempt to kill Cap and steal his identity, he fights back, leading to the Wraith disguised as Bridges to die by the life-robbing tongue probes of one of the other Wraiths.
By this time, the Vision and Starfox have docked the Quinjet on the side of the rocket and try to commandeer the vessel. Not wishing to be captured, the Wraith who posed as Cathers blows the airlock causing the inside of the ship to experience explosive decompression. Luckily, the Wasp is saved by Captain Marvel who comes out of hiding and contains her in a space helmet for her safety. While the other three Avengers are protected against the vacuum of space, the Dire Wraith is sucked out the airlock where it dies in the void. The shuttle is then shut down and its ion-drive rendered safe. With the immediate danger over, the four Avengers board the Quinjet and head back to Earth.
Back on the ground, Captain America is saved from the Dire Wraiths by the Scarlet Witch and in the ensuing battle the alien creatures are slain. The Scarlet Witch is horrified that she took a life, but Captain America assures her that there was no other way. With the situation at NASA under control, the Avengers begin organizing a larger offensive against the Dire Wraith invasion. However, Nick Fury soon arrives and tell them that the threat posed by the alien invaders is over and thanks them for their part in fending off the invasion.[4] The Vision is secretly disappointed that the war is now over, because he intended the Avengers to be the heroes of the conflict to suit his future plans. He vows to avoid any further set-backs to his plans, which also include opening a new Avengers branch on the west coast. At that moment, in California, Clint Barton and his wife, Bobbi Morse, have checked into a hotel in California and are looking forward to beginning their search for the Avengers new west coast headquarters.[5]
Recurring Characters
Avengers (Captain America, Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Starfox, Captain Marvel), Dire Wraiths (William Bridges, Rocketeers), Quicksilver, Bova, Lockjaw, SHIELD (Nick Fury), Hawkeye, Mockingbird
Continuity Notes
There is a lot going on here as the relationship between Quicksilver, Bova, and Magneto is quite complex:
Pietro has been seeking out Bova as a nanny because she took care of him and his sister Wanda when they were newborns, this was first detailed in Giant-Size Avengers #1.
Years ago, Magneto had a wife named Magda and while pregnant for the second time, she witnessed him commit murder with his mutant powers she fled him in fear. This was detailed in Classic X-Men #12.
In Vision and the Scarlet Witch #4, Magneto learned that Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch were Magda’s children and attacked Bova in a fit of rage since this knowledge was kept from him all these years.
However, we will later learn that Pietro and Wanda actually aren’t Magneto’s children. Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #4 reveals that their parents are actually Natalya Maximoff and an unidentified man.
They aren’t even mutants! Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4, reveals that while they were taken from their home by the High Evolutionary and experimented upon. In order to hide his work he made it so future genetic tests had them register as mutants. The whole Magneto parentage thing sure helped that lie.
What has yet to be explained (at the time of this writing in August 2021) is what really happened to Magda and the child or children she was carrying. I talk about that a bit more here.
The mystical Wraiths have been trying to wipe out the technological ones. It’s a whole thing. See Rom #48.
Cap’s concerns are valid, as the Vision has been under the influence of ISAAC the world-mind on Titan since interfacing with the super-computer back in Avengers #238. He is plotting to turn Earth into a utopia by any means necessary, the fruition of this plot will occur in Avengers #252-254.
This story happens around the whole Wraith War event which mostly takes place in Rom #51-65, but also spins-off into Fantastic Four #276-277 and Uncanny X-Men #184-188.
The Vision convinced the government to allow the Avengers to expand operations to the west coast back in Avengers #243. At the time, he charged Hawkeye and Mockingbird with the task of setting up operations there.
