Avengers #250
World Power!
From his secret laboratory, Maelstrom resurrects his minions — Gronk, Phobius, and Helio — in newly cloned bodies.[1] The trio instantly start bickering with one another until Maelstrom threatens to kill them again. In order to ensure that his minions remain in line, he shows them that there is only one spare set of clone bodies and after that their deaths will be very permanent. Maelstrom tells them that they have many days work ahead of them, but soon he will have all the power of the Earth at his disposal.
Meanwhile, at Avengers Mansion, the Vision continues examining the remains of Maelstrom’s previous body.[2] The Vision can’t help but notice similarities between this and the remains of the psudo-Hulks he recently encountered during the Avengers battle with Arnim Zola.[3] The Vision’s work is interrupted when a proximity alert warns him that someone is about to enter his private lab. Phasing through the floor he finds Hercules attempts to enter in order to store some electronic equipment.[4] The Vision thanks Hercules for his help and takes the electronics off his hands so the Olympian doesn’t see what’s going on in his lab.[5]
Hercules then joins the Wasp and the Scarlet Witch at the swimming pool where they are timing to see how long Starfox can remain underwater. It turns out that Eros can remain underwater without air for over thirty minutes, but when he flies out of the pool he splashes the women with water. This angers Janet, who just got her hair done, but gets him back by resuming normal size and diving into the pool, splashing Eros in revenge, much to the amusement of Hercules.
At that moment, Captain Marvel has travelled to the Bern Institute of Science in the Swiss Alps to check up on her old friend, Professor Andre LeClare. While Andre is happy to see Monica after so much time, he and his team are worried about recent seismic activity they have been recording. He warns her that the Earth is slowing down at a very unnatural rate and if things continue at this pace there could cause devastating ecological disasters including volcanos, tidal waves, and gale force winds. Ultimately, when the planet comes to a complete stop one half will burn under the rays of the sun while the other half is frozen solid. Monica refuses to allow this to happen and changes back to Captain Marvel and speeds back to New York to warn her fellow Avengers of the impending catastrophy.
Meanwhile, in California, the newly formed West Coast Avengers are enjoying some downtime when the city is suddenly struck by a powerful earthquake. This is followed by the priority alarm, prompting Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Wonder Man, and Tigra to race into the communications room to find out what’s going on. They are put in contact with the Vision who tells them what he just learned from Captain Marvel and suggests that both teams of Avengers work together to save the planet for extinction.[6] The Vision has sent Captain Marvel ahead to scout the source responsible for slowing the Earth’s rotation. Captain Marvel returns afraid of her mind, because when she found Maelstrom’s secret hideout she fell victim of the powers of Phobius, who can instill fear into those who gaze into his eyes. When the Avengers begin planning to confront Maelstrom, Captain Marvel refuses to go along as she is too afraid.
Hearing this, Tigra empathizes, telling Monica about her own short lived stint with the eastern Avengers. She tells her to face her fears, imparting some wisdom that Captain America once gave her when she was too afraid to go into battle.[7] Captain Marvel reluctantly agrees to accompany the rest of the team and as the Avengers leave the mansion in their Quinjet, her teammates try to convince her to be brave.[8] Meanwhile, the West Coast Avengers leave in their own aircraft to meet up with the other team. Along the way, Iron Man tries to keep the rest of the team confident, but is secretly unsure if they can win this battle.[9] When they arrive outside Maelstrom’s hideout, they are attached by Helio, who unleashes a punishing onslaught of “air quakes” to knock their Quinjets out of the sky.
Iron Man and Starfox exit the jets while they land to attack their foe directly. While Iron Man is knocked out of the sky, Eros is nabbed by their foe. Although Helio thinks he’s won, he succumbs to Starfox’s ability to tap into the pleasure center of the brain. With the villain now fully compliant, the Avengers have him lead them to the entrance to his master’s lair. There their path is barred by Phobius and Gronk, the former of which uses his own mind altering powers to free Helio from Eros’ control. While Hercules, Tigra, Iron Man, the Vision, and Wonder Man stay behind to deal with these foes, the rest of the Avengers sneak into Maelstrom’s hideout.
Inside they discover that Maelstrom has been absorbing the Earth’s kinetic energy into himself and is starting to grow at an alarming size. He is unconcerned with killing all life on Earth as he intends to take his new power to some other world and conquer it. The Avengers try to attack the madman, but his immense size make their attacks ineffectual. Captain Marvel — still sufferings the effects of Phobius’ glare — watches from the sidelines in fear. However, when Maelstrom is about to squeeze the life out of Tigra she finds an inner courage to save her teammate. The team quickly deduces that the only way to defeat Maelstrom is to destroy the machines that are giving him his power, however, it is protected by a forcefield that none of their powers can penetrate. Things look even more grim when their strongest members are trapped in a similar forcefield.
The Vision quickly comes up with a solution to victory, to defeat Maelstrom they need to overload the machine with too much power for it to handle. While the other Avengers keep Maelstrom busy, the Scarlet Witch unleashes a powerful hex bolt that causes the machine to overload and explode.[10] The influx of power causes Maelstrom to grow at an alarming rate, faster than his body can compensate, and eventually he grows so large that his body cannot maintain its molecular cohesion and he dissipates into the void of space.[11] Seeing their master defeated, Maelstrom’s three minions race to the chamber where their spare bodies were kept and are horrified to discover that the clones have been destroyed as well. Fearing for their own mortality, they quickly surrender to the two team of Avengers without further conflict.
In the aftermath of the battle the Avengers go back to their new west coast compound to celebrate. There, Wonder Man can’t help but notice how much the Vision has mellowed since they last saw each other.[12] However, not everyone is happy, as the team has finally learned about Starfox’s secret power to tap into the pleasure center of the brain. This has made the Wasp uneasy because she doesn’t know if this power has previously affected her feelings about Eros in the past. Starfox however, has approached Captain Marvel who is somber after her experience fighting Maelstrom. He tells her that at first he wasn’t impressed that she named herself Captain Marvel because of his late friend, the Kree hero Mar-Vell had the same name. However, after her bravery today he tells her that she has proved herself worthy of the title and the two share a toast to the late hero.[13]
Recurring Characters
Avengers (Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Hercules, Vision, Starfox, Captain Marvel), Avengers West Coast (Iron Man, Hawkeye, Wonder Man, Tigra, Mockingbird), Maelstrom, Gronk, Phobius, Helio, Andre LeClare
Continuity Notes
This trio of henchmen were killed during a battle with the Thing and the Inhumans in Marvel Two-In-One #72.
Maelstrom previously fought the Avengers in Avengers #248. When it was looking like he was going to lose, Maelstrom killed himself in order to escape into a new cloned body as seen last issue.
The Avengers fought Arnim Zola and an army of psudo-Hulks in Avengers Annual #13. The connection between the two bodies is a hint to the fact that Zola learned many genetic secrets for Phaeder, Maelstrom’s father. See X-Factor Annual #3 for the full story.
Here, the Vision states that they recruited Hercules onto the team to replace Captain America who is missing in action. At the time of this story, Cap is in the middle of a life-and-death battle with the Red Skull. See Captain America #294-301.
The Vision has been secretly working on a way to take over all the world’s computers in order to transform Earth into a utopia since Avengers #238. His plan will come to fruition in issues #252-254.
Here the Vision states that he attempted to contact the Fantastic Four for help, but they were unavailable. This is because the team is searching for Reed Richards’ long lost father. See Fantastic Four #272-273.
Tigra was briefly on the east coast team from Avengers #211 through 216. The incident she is speaking of was when she was exposed to the Ghost Rider’s hellfire in Avengers #214.
Eros compares Maelstrom’s threat to that of his late brother Thanos. At the time of this story, Thanos was slain following the events of Avengers Annual #7 and Marvel Two-In-One Annual #2. He will remain so until he is resurrected again in Silver Surfer (vol. 3) #34.
Iron Man mentions how the team recently defeated Graviton. That happened in West Coast Avengers #4.
The Scarlet Witch’s power is referred to as a mutant ability here. However, she is not actually a mutant. It is later revealed in Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4 that she was experimented upon by the High Evolutionary while still an infant. In order to cover up his work he made it so future genetic tests had her register as a mutant.
This is not the end of Maelstrom who continues to live on as an astral being. He will resurface in Quasar #19-25.
Wonder Man last saw his “brother” the Vision in Vision and the Scarlet Witch #3. Mention is made here how Simon now has a career as a Hollywood stunt man. He started this career in West Coast Avengers #1.
At the time of this story, Captain Marvel had died of cancer relatively recently in Marvel Graphic Novel #1.
Topical References
The original twin towers of the World Trade Center are depicted as part of the New York City skyline in this story. This should be considered a topical reference as they were destroyed in a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 and have since been replaced with the Freedom Tower.
