Avengers Annual #17
Prometheus Mutans!
The Evolutionary War continues from Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #8…
Within the High Evolutionary’s citadel a team of scientists are working to rebuild the female robot known as Jocasta.[1] Once activated, the disorientated robot runs to a phone and makes a panicked call to someone before she is incapacitated.
This was the Avengers emergency phone number which goes out to their headquarters on Hydrobase. Unfortunately, there is nobody there to take the call, prompting the computers to kick in and assemble a team of reserve Avengers.[2] This coincides with the arrival of the Captain, who is bothered that a there are no Avengers on site. After listening to Jocasta’s distress call, Cap decides to see which of the reserve Avengers show up. The Captain is soon joined by the Falcon, Hercules, the Beast, the Hulk, and the criminal Yellowjacket.[3] Hercules is still sore about Yellowjacket’s involvement in the recent attack on Avengers Mansion,[4] however he quickly welcomes her onto the ad-hoc team when she insists that she came to help in order to atone for her criminal past.
Concerned that the distress call might be a fake, the Captain has the Beast determine its validity. He determines the call from an abandoned laboratory out on Long Island. The team takes a Quinjet to the facility where they clash with the High Evolutionary’s minions. While rescuing Jocasta, they keep one of the minions conscious to explain why they rebuilt her. The scientist explains that his master, the High Evolutionary, has constructed a genetic bomb that will speed up human evolution by a million years. He tells them that the High Evolutionary’s hideout is somewhere in the pacific but won’t give the exact location and is destroyed by a kill device implanted in his head. The Captain convinces the others that they need to stop the Evolutionary before he forces his genetic will on humanity.
Heading to the Pacific Ocean, the ad-hoc Avengers try to figure out how to find the High Evolutionary’s base before the bomb goes off. Cap suggests they go to Leumria and seek the assistance of the Deviants. When they arrive at the undersea city they discover that Leumria is under attack from Attuma and the armies of Atlantis. As the Avengers try to stop the two factions from fighting, a sub send by the High Evolutionary arrives and fire a beam that renders both Deviants and Atlantean with an energy beam. The Beast examines the energy and determines that it was made to render the Deviants and Atlanteans sterile. Explaining this to Attuma and Warlord Kro, the two leaders agree to cease hostility and help the Avengers stop the High Evolutionary.
They quickly find the High Evolutionary’s hideout and while the Deviants and the Atlanteans keep the crew distracted, the Avengers sneak aboard. Looking around, they discover a number of the High Evolutionary’s New Men are ordering the human scientists to do the Evolutionary’s bidding. Learning that they believe the New Men to be men in costumes, the Avengers have the Beast disguise himself as one and reveal that the they are actually hyper-evolved animals and leads the scientists to believe that they will be replaced after the genetic bomb goes off. The humans then begin slaughtering the New Men in an act of mutinty.
Heading to confront the High Evolutionary, the Avengers realize they are no match for someone who is hyper-evolved. They then find one of the evolution rays and decide to use it to fight fire with fire by using it on Hercules. After the Beast makes some modifications to Herc’s armor, they use the evolution ray against him. When he attacks the High Evolutionary, the villain attempts to stop Hercules he discovers that the Beast rigged a device to absorb the High Evolutionary energy attacks and continue to evolving Hercules. The demigod blasts the Evolutionary with mental energy that causes him to discorporate while Hercules evolves beyond godhood to an ultimate form that eventually vanishes in a flash of light.[5] Seriously damaged in the battle, Jocasta tells the Avengers that she has accessed the matter/anti-matter core of the ship and set it to explode. Jocasta sacrifices her life yet again in order to save the planet from the genetic bomb.[6] Making a daring escape, the Avengers get away just as the Evolutionary’s vessel explodes.
Recurring Characters
Avengers (The Captain, Hulk, Hercules, Beast, Yellowjacket, Jacosta), High Evolutionary, Attuma, Kro, New Men
Continuity Notes
Jocasta sacrificed her life to defeat Ultron in Marvel Two-In-One #92-93.
At the time of this story, the recent team of Avengers disbanded after being manipulated by Ravonna Renslayer. See Avengers #294-297.
Everyone believed the Hulk had died. Indeed the general public has been led to believe this when the Hulk was caught in a gamma bomb explosion in Incredible Hulk #345. He has been laying low by working as a bodyguard in Las Vegas ever since. The Beast recruited the Hulk into helping following his battle against the Thing in Incredible Hulk #350.
Yellowjacket was a member of the Masters of Evil during the siege on Avengers Mansion in Avengers #273-277.
This is not the end of either the High Evolutionary or Hercules. Both are restored to their corporeal forms by the Celestials in Thor #407.
Jocasta actually survives the explosion as a disembodied head, which will be recovered in Iron Man Annual #11.
Beyond Life
This story continues from Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #8…
The Thing, Alicia Masters, Moondragon, Starhawk, and Her have come seeking the High Evolutionary, discovering that he had evolved beyond his humanity, Her used her cosmic power to bring the Evoltuionary back to his corporeal form. It was then that he discovered that his creation, Counter-Earth, has been stolen. Following the thieves, the Evolutionary learned that his world was stolen by the Prime Mobers of Tarkus on behalf of the omnipotent Beyonders. Intreagued by the Beyonders, the High Evoltionary went along with the Prime Movers.[1] He would later witness the Beyonders move Counter-Earth into a stasis field with other anomalous planets like it was nothing more than a marble.
Driven mad by the experience, the High Evolutionary returned to Earth to end his life. Unable to do so by his own hands due to his high tech armor, he sought out the Hulk. Angering the brute into attacking him, the High Evolutionary succeeded in damaging his armor enough so he can trigger a rapid de-evolution, turning him into primordial ooze.[2]
After the Hulk’s departure, the High Evolutionary’s armor repairs itself and returns him to his human form. Havinng experienced life on both ends of the evolutionary ladder, the High Evolutionary has decided that humanity’s evolution is not glorious enough and decides to devote his life to make his race the supreme form of life in the universe.
Recurring Characters
High Evolutionary, Moondragon, Thing, Alicia Masters, Her, Starhawk, Sphinxor, Hulk, Beyonders
Continuity Notes
These events were first depicted in Marvel Two-In-One #62-63.
This encounter with the Hulk was chronicled in Incredible Hulk #266.
Evolutionary War Reading Order
X-Factor Annual #3
Punisher Annual #1
Silver Surfer Annual #1
New Mutants Annual #4
Uncanny X-Men Annual #12
Avengers Annual #17 <— You Are Here