Business as Usual

Concerned about the Avengers after they went into space to stop Nebula, Jarvis decides to check the monitors to see what’s going on.[1] When pulling up an image of Nebula’s space ship on the monitors he is shocked to see someone has ripped a massive hole in the hull and worries about the safety of his charges.

Aboard the alien vessel, the Avengers — Captain America, Thor, Sersi and Starfox — had just finished defeating Nebula and invited Spider-Man to join the team when, suddenly, the enigmatic cosmic entity known as the Stranger came ripping his way through the hull. He has come to get back some property which Nebula stolen from him. However, when he demands that she return it, Nebula is more interested in flirting with the Stranger after being given the whammy by Starfox’s ability to overload the pleasure center of the brain. Spider-Man actually once encountered the Stranger before on the Moon and tries to get him to explain what’s going on.[2] While the Stranger remembers meeting the wall-crawler, he doesn’t explain himself and soon leaves with Nebula as his prisoner.

While Spider-Man suggests they head for home, Captain America wants to know what the Stranger is up to in case it might threaten the Earth. Unfortunately, Sersi couldn’t even begin to try tapping the mind of such a powerful being, prompting the heroes to follow after him and learn the hard way. They begin piloting Nebula’s ship toward the Stranger’s own craft, which is even more massive than hers. However, as they make their approach, the Stranger dispatches a robot called Blockade to prevent them from interfering. When the Stranger contacts them telepathically, Captain America explains that they aren’t leaving until they learn what he plans on doing with Nebula.

The Stranger explains how Nebula went to his world during a time he was away on other business and how she and her minion Gunthar stole a powerful device called the Infinity Union. The Stranger explains that the Infinity Union is a combination of three uniquely powerful devices that, when used in concert, allows the user to channel all ambient energy into themselves making them powerful enough to threaten all life in the universe.

As the Stranger is explaining all of this, Iron Man and Starfox are tying up Nebula’s remaining minions. Its here that they learn from Nebula’s right-hand-man, Gunthar, that she was intending to use the Infinity Union to annihilate an entire sector of space in a bid to claim universal power. Iron Man is horrified to learn this and heads back to tell the others.

By this time, the Stranger has been probing Nebula’s mind to learn where she stashed the Infinity Union but can’t divine its location. He doesn’t sense it aboard her ship and then decides to increase the strength of his mental probes in case Nebula is somehow shielding its location aboard her ship. This causes tremendous pain to the Avengers aboard Nebula’s ship. This assault convinces Captain America that something so sought after needs to be destroyed so it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. That’s when Iron Man arrives to tell them what Nebula was planning to do with the weapon, confirming the need to destroy it.

The Avengers all split up to search for the Infinity Union on Nebula’s ship. Spider-Man searches around using his spider-sense and feels really out of his depth and wishes he still had the cosmic powers he had a little while back.[3] Despite the web'-slinger’s misgivings, his spider-sense leads him to a secret chamber where the Infinity Union is being kept. However, when he tries to attach a web-line to drag it out of the room he us suddenly blasted by a powerful force of energy.

Back on Earth, Quasar has arrived at Avengers Headquarters after an extended absence of his own.[4] He finds none of the other Avengers around but soon finds Jarvis who gets him up to date on what the team has been up to. Running to the monitor room to get a look at Nebula’s ship, Quasar is shocked by what is happening and moments later the monitor explodes.

Recurring Characters

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

Continuity Notes

1. For the first time in a while, Jarvis is depicted without an eye-patch. his 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 goes back to wearing it again in Avengers #319. This discrepancy is probably due to different creative teams not being on the same page about Jarv’s injury. However, it’s later explained away in Avengers #326 where Jarvis mentions how his doctor had advised him to stop wearing the eye patch for a few hours a day so he can build up the strength of that eye.

2. Spider-Man encountered the Stranger along side Adam Warlock during an impromptu trip to the Moon back in Marvel Team-Up #55.

3. Spider-Man was briefly imbued with the power of the sentient Uni-Power, granting him cosmic powers. He was chosen by to become the next Captain Universe to prevent the Tri-Sentinel from wiping out all life on Earth. After he destroyed the Tri-Sentinel, he lost his cosmic abilities. See Amazing Spider-Man #326-329, Spectacular Spider-Man #158-160, and Web of Spider-Man #59-61.

4. Quasar mentions two of his recent solo adventures: Battling the mechanical monster named Omnivore and preventing the Kree scientist Doctor Minerva from surgically removing his Quantum Bands. These events happened in Quasar #8 and 10 respectively.

Topical References

• Spider-Man makes a joke about the Stranger being as tall as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Abdul-Jabbar was a pro-basketball player at the time of this story and was best known for his towering height of 7’2”. This should be considered topical as Kareem retired from basketball in 1989.

• When recalling his previous clash with the Stranger, Spider-Man makes yet another dated sporting reference comparing it to the fight between Mike Tyson and Billy Barty. Billy Barty was not a boxing star but a well actor best known for being a Little Person. Hence why this was apparently funny to Spider-Man. At any rate, this is a dated reference since Barty died in 2000 and Mike Tyson — heavy weight boxing champion at the time this story was published — has more or less retired from the sport.

• When the Stranger explains the threat posed by the Infinity Union, Spider-Man makes yet another dated reference, by jokingly saying this reminds him of a plot to Gilligan’s Island. This was a sitcom about a group of castaways who were stranded on a deserted island that ran from 1964 to 1967. The show has been in syndicated reruns ever since, so its reference here wouldn’t necessarily be considered topical if you accept the idea that the web-slinger grew up watching re-runs.