Nick Peron

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Avengers #300

Nick Peron

Inferno Squared

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Kang the Conqueror is trapped within the Time Bubble, a temporal barrier that exists some 20 years in the future.[1] He is surprised to have survived the ordeal and struggles to maintain his existence in the time stream. He is able to witness all possible future timelines and is horrified to discover that they are slowly being overwritten by a single future where the Earth has been conquered by demons. Tracking the source back to the present day, Kang is able to use his time harness to appear as a temporal specter so he can determine the cause.

He appears in modern day New York City and sees that it ground zero for the demonic invasion of Earth. There he observes N’Astirh, the demon responsible for the invasion, who is already planning his end-game.[2] Searching for any sign of the Avengers, Kang finds Captain America fighting side-by-side with Reed and Sue Richards — aka Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four — as well as the Eternal known as the Forgotten One.[3] They are battling Nanny and the Orphan-Maker in Central Park after they kidnapped Franklin Richards, the son of Reed and Sue. This task has been made more difficult due to the fact that Nanny has placed Franklin in a cybernetic suit of armor which had made the boy loyal to Nanny and forces him to forget his past.

The battle attracts the attention of N’Astirh, who can sense the powerful mutant energies emanating from Franklin Richards, power enough to complete the sacrificial spell to permanently merge Earth with Limbo. With the Goblin Queen and S’ym pursuing their own agendas, N’Astirh decides to capture the Richard boy for himself so he can cement his dominion over the demonic hordes.[4]

By this time, Nanny has decided that it is time for her and Orphan-Maker to leave. Escorting her young charge back to their ship, she orders Franklin to kill everyone, including his parents. Luckily, Mister Fantastic has managed to rig up a live-wire from the Fantasti-Car and tosses it at Franklin’s cybernetic armor, shorting it out. When Nanny tries to escape in her ship, the Invisible Woman uses her powers to try and stop them from getting away. Trapped in an invisible sphere, Nanny’s ship suddenly explodes and the remains of the craft fall into the nearby lake. Reed then checks on Franklin and confirms to Sue that their son is still alive, leaving them with the task of finding a way to free him from Nanny’s cybernetic armor.

In the aftermath of the battle, the Forgotten One searches the lake and determines that Nanny and Orphan-Maker apparently managed to escape.[5] Not recognizing their newfound ally, the Forgotten One reminds the Captain that they previously fought together against a renegade Celestial.[6] When the Forgotten One states that he is related to Enkidu, Reed suggests they call him Gilgamesh.[7] Suddenly, N’Astirh appears through a portal and nabs Franklin, disappearing as quickly as he appeared. Racing back to the Fantasti-Car, Reed is unable to track the energy signature from the portal, but hopes the instruments can track Franklin’s mutant energy signature. Soon, the four heroes take to the air but discover that there is some kind of interference preventing them from pinpointing Franklin’s location.

Still observing events as they transpire, Kang realizes that he will have to aid his mortal enemies in order to maintain his own existence. Since he knows Franklin’s location, Kang decides to employ one of his Growing Men hidden in this era to point the Captain and the others in the right direction. Located in Alphabet City, the Growing Man begins making its way to the heroes. It is attacked by some demons on the way, but this only causes the Growing Man to increase in size and chase them off. In order to hide his master’s involvement, the Growing Man then covers himself in some strange metastasizing gunk growing on a nearby building in order to disguise itself. With this task complete, the android then begins making its way through the city.

Meanwhile, atop the World Trade Center, N’Astirh returns to his headquarters where his demonic minions easily remove the cybernetic armor Franklin is incased within. The boy is then placed in one of the walls which will begin tapping the powerful mutant energies and his life force in order to permanently merge Earth with Limbo.

Elsewhere, the search for Franklin continues across the city. When the Captain spots some familiar bolts of lighting he tells Reed to head in that direction. There they find Thor defending himself and the immobilized body of the Black Knight from an army of demons.[8] After slaying the demons and hearing about Franklin’s capture, Thor agrees to join them on their quest.[9] However, before they leave, the thunder god uses Mjolnir to create a vortex around the Black Knight to keep him safe until his return. They are then ambushed by the Growing Man, who succeeds in tricking the group into thinking it is another demon. It then leads them to the base of the World Trade Center and disappears into the building. The team then begins scaling the building, fighting armies of demons along the way.

At the very top, they spot Franklin and are horrified to see that his life energies are being drained into the massive pentagram shaped portal suspended over Times Square. In order to save her son, Sue erects an invisible force field around the boy, preventing the energies from being drained. They eventually build up until there is an explosion that frees Franklin and saves his life. At that same moment, the pentagram over Times Square suddenly vanishes, cutting off the demons from their home dimension, Limbo.[10] The heroes then quickly destroy all the demons.

In the aftermath of the battle, the Growing Man — its programming malfunctioning due to its exposure to the demonic material it used to disguise itself — begins trying to topple the World Trade Center. Springing into action once more, the heroes notice that the creature grows every time they strike it prompting Thor to recognize the Growing Man for what it really is.[11] Mister Fantastic then blasts the android with a device that inverts its size-changing power so that when Thor strikes it again it shrinks to nothingness. In the aftermath of the battle, Thor and the Captain thank Gilgamesh for his help.[12] The trio are then invited back to the Richards home for some milk and cookies. There, Franklin is given a clean bill of health after his ordeals and is put to bed. The demonic invasion have convinced Reed and Sue that perhaps retiring from heroics is no longer an option for them.[13] That’s when the Captain explains that he first came to see Reed and Sue to ask them to join the new team of Avengers he is forming since the last group disbanded. The two former members of the Fantastic Four, along with Thor and Gilgamesh, all accept his offer and so the Avengers are reborn.

Recurring Characters

Avengers (The Captain, Thor, Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Gilgamesh), N’Astirh, S’Ym, Goblin Queen, Orphan-Maker, Nanny, Franklin Richards, Growing Man, Black Knight, Kang, Cha’sa’dra (unidentified)

Continuity Notes

  1. Kang has been trapped here following the events of Avengers #294-297, a battle that ended with the Avengers disbanding.

  2. Reference is made to the Goblin Queen making the final sacrifice. N’Astirh has been manipulating Madelyne Pryor to sacrifice mutant babies in order to open a permanent portal between Limbo and Earth. See Uncanny X-Men #240-243 and X-Factor #36-39.

  3. Kang notes that Captain America is wearing a different costume. At the time of this story, Steve Rogers was forced to give up his Captain America identity after he refused to work exclusively for the government. He then changed his costume and started calling himself simply “The Captain”. This was the status quo from Captain America #332 to 350.

  4. For more on S’ym’s activities during Inferno in New Mutants #71-73.

  5. That they did! They will be seen again in X-Factor #40.

  6. The “rogue” Celestial the Forgotten One is referring to is the Dreaming Celestial, whom the Avengers helped stop in Eternals (vol. 2) #12 after the Deviant known as Ghaur merged with it.

  7. This is in reference to the Mesopotamian gods, aka the Annunaki, of whom Gilgamesh is not a member being an Eternal and all. What the others don’t know is that the Forgotten One actually called himself Gilgamesh at one point, as we’ll learn in Captain America Annual #11.

  8. The Black Knight has been slowly transformed into a living blade thanks to the blood curse on his Ebony Blade that was awoken when the weapon was used to slay Leviathan in Avengers #293. Thor and the Knight had just returned from Asgard where Thor failed to find a cure, see Thor #396-400. Dane will eventually be cured in Black Knight (vol. 2) #1-4.

  9. One of the demons slain here is Cha’sa’dra who is worshiped as a god by the Lava Men. Cha’sa’dra’s death will have repercussions as we’ll see in Avengers #305-307.

  10. The actual cause of the portal’s closure was due to Magik denying her demonic legacy and using her Soul Sword to close the portal, as seen in New Mutants #73.

  11. Thor first encountered Kang’s Growing Man back in Thor #140.

  12. Gilgamesh cryptically suggests that he and Thor have met in the past. Which is kind of a dick move since they encountered each other relatively recently, as seen in Thor #287-291 and Eternals (vol. 2) #12.

  13. Reed and Sue just recently took a leave of absence from the FF in Fantastic Four #307. They will eventually return to that team in FF #326.

Topical References

  • The original twin towers of the World Trade Center are depicted in this story. This should be considered a topical reference as these buildings were destroyed during a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 and subsequently replaced with the new Freedom Tower.

The Coming of the Accursed Avengers

On the anniversary of his greatest mistake, Loki makes his annual pilgrimage to the Isle of Silence to contemplate his role in creating the Avengers.[1] He recalls how, all those years ago, he sought to trick the Hulk into battling his half-brother Thor. To that end, Loki used an illusion into tricking the Hulk into nearly derailing a train. The gamma spawned monster took the blame and when his some-time sidekick, Rick Jones, learned about it he sought to contact the Fantastic Four for help.

Loki intercepted this message and made it reach Don Blake, Thor’s mortal guise, instead. Unfortunately, they message was also received by Iron Man, Ant-Man, and the Wasp and the four heroes all agreed to work together to track down and stop the Hulk. Loki then attempted to lure Thor away with an illusion of the Hulk while the others tracked down the real one. This proved to be Loki’s undoing as the illusion tipped Thor off to who was responsible. Travelling to the Isle of Silence, where Loki was imprisoned at the time, Thor then dragged Loki to Earth. This interrupted the battle with the Hulk and the others learn that the Hulk was framed. Despirate to get away, Loki turned himself radioactive only to be contained in a lead-lined tank by Ant-Man and the Wasp. Liking the way they all worked together, the assembled heroes agree to form a team which they call the Avengers.

Finishing his recollection, Loki vows that he will one day undo this grave mistake, but vows to continue returning to the Isle of Silence every year as the horror of this memory can never be free.

Recurring Characters

Loki

Continuity Notes

  1. The flashback in this story is a near faithful retelling of Avengers #1. Per the Sliding Timescale, the Avengers were formed about 7 years prior to this story.

  2. Loki’s statement here is alluding to the upcoming Acts of Vengeance storyline where he forms a vast conspiracy wherein superheroes are forced to fight villains they have never faced before, all part of a grander scheme to destroy the Avengers. See Alpha Flight #79-80, Amazing Spider-Man #326-328, Avengers #311-313 and Annual 19, Avengers West Coast #53-55, Avengers Spotlight #26-29, Captain America #365-367, Damage Control (vol. 2) #1-4, Daredevil #275-276, Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #11-13, Fantastic Four #334-336, Incredible Hulk #363, Iron Man #251-252, Marc Spector: Moon Knight #8-10, Mutant Misadventures of Cloak and Dagger #8-9, New Mutants #84-86, Power Pack #53, Punisher (vol. 2) #28-29, Punisher: War Journal #12-13, Quasar #5-6, Spectacular Spider-Man #158-160, Thor #410-412, Uncanny X-Men #256-258, Web of Spider-Man #59-61, Wolverine (vol. 2) #19-20, and X-Factor #50

Topical References

  • Rick Jones and Teen Brigade are depicted using ham radios to contact the Fantastic Four and the future Avengers. This should be considered a topical reference as ham radios are not the “teen craze” they were when the Avengers origin story was first told back in 1963. Later retellings, particularly Avengers: The Origin #1-5, update this story choosiung the depict Teen Brigade as a group of hackers who use the Internet.

Inferno Reading Order