Avengers #309
To Find Olympia!
With Gilgamesh in a state between life and death, Sersi has led the Avengers to the Eternals home of Olympia.[1] There she is shocked to discover the entire city gone and a smoldering crater in its place. Unwilling to accept the idea that her people are all dead, Sersi attempts to make telepathic contact and the strain causes her to faint. As the Avengers try to make sense of what is going on, Sersi finally composes herself and tells them that the Eternals are no longer in this dimension.
With this information, Thor begins swinging around Mjolnir, opening a vortex to this other dimension.[2] When the portal opens, She-Hulk instantly recognizes the other dimension as the Negative Zone, having visited it during her time with the Fantastic Four.[3]
Meanwhile, back in the United States, Professor Harker is showing off his designs for a new energy generator to the people at Polydyne Incorporated. They are blown away by Harker’s designs and agree to fund his project right away. Harker looks forward to completing his work as it will change the entire world.[4] While in Wisconsin, Hawkeye and Mockingbird run their new team, the Great Lakes Avengers, through a training routine. While running through an obstacle course, Big Birtha knocks Mister Immortal into Doorman. Instead of a collision, Mister Immortal passes through Doorman’s body. After Dinah Soar pulls Immortal out, Hawkeye decides that it is time to look into the full scope of Doorman’s powers.[5]
By this time, the Avengers have flown their Quinjet through the portal into the Negative Zone and begin looking around for traces of the Eternals. They soon come upon the city of Olympia, which is in ruins. They land in a court yard and split into teams to look around. As Captain America and Namor search together, they reminisce over old times when they fought together in World War II. This reminds Captain America about the recent discover that the Vision wasn’t built from the body of their ally, the android Human Torch, and suggest they find out what happened to him when they get back to Earth.[6] Suddenly, the pair are knocked out by a blast of concussive energy.
Elsewhere, She-Hulk and Sersi conduct their own search. They find no physical trace of the other Eternals, but Sersi can faintly detect their presence. In the Eternals central meeting place they are ambushed by the same entity that attack Cap and Namor. The sound of battle draws Thor to their location and he watches as Sersi begins to lose tangibility. That’s when the thunder god is ambushed by their attacker: Blastaar, who vows to destroy them all just as he did the Eternals.[7]
Recurring Characters
Avengers (Captain America, Thor, She-Hulk, Sub-Mariner), Blastaar, Sersi, Gilgamesh, Paul Harker, Great Lakes Avengers (Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Mister Immortal, Big Bertha, Doorman, Dinah Soar)
Continuity Notes
Gilgamesh has been in a coma since getting the shit kicked out of him by a giant lava monster. See Avengers #305-307.
Thor states here that Asgard is also in another dimension at the time of this story. The domain of the Norse gods ended up transported to the Negative Zone. Asgard was set adrift after the Bifrost Bridge was destroyed in Thor #351 and ended up in the Negative Zone in issue #404. The bridge will be restored in Thor #426. Thor also states here that while his hammer lost its ability to travel through time, he still is capable of traversing dimensions. Immortus tricked Thor into giving up the time-travel power of his hammer in Thor #281-282. This duplicity is explained in Avengers Forever #8.
She-Hulk was a member of the FF from Fantastic Four #265 until she returned to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in Avengers #278. Her experience with the Negative Zone was chronicled in Fantastic Four #290-292.
Harker’s full name is not given here. The Nebula profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #8 reveals his first name as Paul.
From the wonky continuity department: Chronologically this story takes place between West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #46 and 47. As such the appearance of the GLA must be considered a flash forward placing it as happening after issue #48. Chalk it up to John Byrne trying to insert his shitty joke Avengers into both Avenger titles.
Hooboy, the whole Vision thing is quite a complicated mess:
Until recently, the Avengers were led to believe that the Vision was created by Ultron using the body of the android Human Torch of World War II. This was detailed in Avengers #134-135. This was said to happened after the Mad Thinker briefly revived the Torch in Fantastic Four Annual #4.
After the Vision took over all the world’s computers in Avengers #252-254, the government disassembled him to make sure he would never do such a thing again. In doing so they called in Phineas Horton to examine the Vision’s components and he claimed that they were not his work. See West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #42-45.
Shortly after this story, the android Human Torch is found and revived from his grave and reactivated in Avengers West Coast #50, seemingly confirming that the Vision and the Torch were separate entitles. It is said that the Mad Thinker buried the Human Torch after holding a funeral for him an manipulated Toro into attacking Namor in Sub-Mariner #14.
However, it is later revealed in Avengers Forever #8 that the Vision and the Torch are indeed the same individual. After the android Torch was defeated by the Fantastic Four, Immortus made a chronal duplicate. One Torch was buried in after the funeral in Sub-Mariner #14 and the other turned over to Ultron to turn into the Vision in Avengers #134-135. This was all part of a winding scheme to manipulate the Avengers destiny on behalf of the Time-Keepers.
Yeah, the Eternals aren’t dead. Blastaar’s energy blasts merely disrupted their physical forms. They will pull themselves back together next issue.
