Spider and Stars

After the Earth had experienced a series of dangerous reality inversions, the Avengers were tipped off that the space pirate Nebula has her ship planetary orbit. Iron Man and the Vision were then sent to investigate the ship while the rest of the team followed leads on the surface. Using an experimental photon drive, they reach the dark side of the moon in a matter of minutes and find Nebula’s massive starship hiding on the other side. In order to go into space, Iron Man grumbles about having to add additional equipment to his armor to allow him to operate in the vacuum of space. This strikes the Vision as peculiar as Iron Man is inferring that he is the original Iron Man, someone who Tony Stark had claimed to have died and replaced.[1]

As Iron Man begins hacking his way into the airlock, Nebula’s right-hand-man Gunthar is inside the ship interrogating Starfox to find out what he knows about their mission. So far, the Titanian Eternal has refused to talk and Gunthar threatens to use a mental probe on him instead, a process that will leave Eros a mindless vegetable. Starfox continues to hurl insults at his Rigelian captor angering Gunthar to the point that he strikes Eros in the face so hard it knocks him out of his chair. It also loosens one of the mental probe’s connections allowing Starfox to use his ability to tap into the pleasure centers of an individual’s brain again and begins using it on the guards standing over him. Unaware of what is going on, Gunthar tries to re-establish communications with Nebula on the planet below.

At that moment, at the laboratory owned by PolyDyne Industries, the Avengers are recovering after they reversed the effects of an energy compressor that temporarily winked the entire universe out of existence. They are too distracted to notice Nebula, who was responsible everything, to recover and teleport away. When Sersi notices that Nebula is gone, Captain America is unconcerned since they had sent Iron Man and Vision to intercept Nebula’s ship earlier and are likely still on that mission now that reality has been restored. Cap, Sersi, Thor, the Avengers Butler Jarvis, and their ally Spider-Man hightail it back to Avengers Headquarters.[2] They arrive just as John Jameson is finished prepping another Quinjet for a trip into space so the heroes can catch up with Iron Man and the Vision. When Captain America thanks Spider-Man for his help, the wall-crawler insists on tagging along to see things through to the end. Captain America welcomes his help and they are soon on their way.

Meanwhile, aboard Nebula’s ship, the space pirate is furious that her plans of achieving ultimate power from the energy compressor has fallen through, however she still has a back-up plan that she wants to get underway as soon as possible. She then decides to pay a visit to her granduncle, Starfox, and boast her plans to him.[3] She brags about having found the Stones of Halkor. However, Starfox was there when she claimed the alleged stones and knows that they are fake because the Stones of Halkor are a myth.[4] This angers her to the point that she threatens to shoot Eros in the face with her blasters. Able to push his mental powers past the blockers he manages to influence Nebula into sparing him instead and she leaves the room.

By this time, Iron Man and the Vision have gotten the airlock open and enter the ship. However, they soon run into Nebula’s armed soldiers and a battle breaks out. Luckily, the other Avengers and Spider-Man arrive to lend a hand, turning the tide of battle. During the fight, Captain America notices that Spider-Man’s lighthearted attitude and jokes really mesh well with the team. Soon they get through all the soldiers and get to the bridge only to discover that Starfox finally managed to knock out Nebula, Gunthar and the rest of the guards with his pleasure center powers. With the battle now over, Captain America is so impressed with Spider-Man’s performance in battle he offers a spot on the team. The web-slinger is completely floored by the offer and accepts it without a moments hesitation.[5] However, they don’t have very long to celebrate when Starfox senses that someone is coming. Moments later, the Stranger comes tearing through the hull of the ship.

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Quasar, Thor, Vision, Sersi, Spider-Man), Nebula, Stranger, Starfox, Gunthar, Edwin Jarvis, John Jameson

Continuity Notes

1. At the time of this story, the general public was not aware that Tony Stark and Iron Man were the same person. Unless I missed a story somewhere, there isn’t a particularly story where Tony Stark reveals his true identity to the Vision directly. Likely, the Vision learned the truth when Tony stopped being secretive about his identity around the West Coast Avengers starting in Iron Man #193. The Vision ended up joining the team in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #39. At any rate, around that time, Tony Stark discovered that his technology was stolen and sold to others and he went on a crusade to brick it all, including armors worn by government officials and foreign agents. This proved incredibly unpopular and Stark faked Iron Man’s death and then tricked the public into thinking that there was a new man in the suit. See Iron Man #225-232 and Captain America #340. Tony will drop this pretense among his teammates starting in Avengers West Coast #72.

2. Here, Jarvis is depicted wearing an eye patch. This is because he suffered a serious eye injury after receiving a severe beating from Mister Hyde during the Masters of Evil’s siege on Avengers Mansion back in Avengers #273-277. Jarvis will continue wearing the eye patch on the regular until issue #317.

3. Here, Nebula makes the claim that Thanos is her grandfather, something she first claimed back in Avengers #260. This is later refuted by Thanos himself in Infinity Gauntlet #1-6. Later, in Gamora #1-5 and Silver Surfer: Rebirth #2, it is revealed that Nebula’s actual connection to Thanos was that he raised her as an adopted daughter early on in his career. Nebula’s motivation for claiming to be his grandfather is unexplained at she has made contradicting details regarding her true lineage as seen in Silver Surfer Annual #5 and Nova (vol. 2) #1. I have a theory on all of this here.

4. Starfox witnessed Nebula obtain the stones in Avengers #311.

5. Here, Spider-Man mentions how he always seemed to wash out on past attempts to join the Avengers. Prior to now, the web-head was considered on three different occasions and either failed to meet the requirements asked of him or turned it down. See Amazing Spider-Man Annual #3, Avengers #221 and 236-237.