Avengers #347
Operation: Galactic Storm Part 19: Empire’s End
This story continues from Wonder Man (vol. 2) #9….
The Shi’ar have detonated a Nega-Bomb in the heart of the Kree galaxy.[1] Half a million miles away, Quasar is blinded by the sheer force of the blast. The explosion is so powerful that it wipes out whole armadas and decimates entire planets all across the Kree Empire. Incalculable lives are lost as planets are turned into mass graves. Those fortunate enough to survive the explosion emerge from the rubble of their dead worlds to inherit planet wide ruins. Witnessing the blast from a safe distance, the Shi’ar bomber ship records all of the destruction and sends word back to Empress Lilandra informing her that the Kree Empire is no more.
Quasar manages to survive the blast thanks to his quantum shield and once he re-orientates himself, he remembers that the Avengers were trying to stop the Nega-Bomb when it went off. Racing to the epicenter he finds the bodies of the Black Knight, Goliath, Hercules, Iron Man, Crystal, and Sersi floating in the void and fears that they are dead.
Meanwhile, on the surface of the Kree throne world of Hala, Deathbird pulls herself from the rubble, amazed that she is still alive when the entire city has been decimated. Wondering if the bomb killed all the Kree on the planet, Deathbird begins looking for survivors. She soon comes upon the body of Captain America. Presuming he is dead, she muses that he should have remained on Earth and lived to see old age instead of dying in an ancient war that had nothing to do with him.
Back in space, Quasar is trying to come to terms with the fact that his teammates are dead when he is suddenly found by Thor and a Quinjet of Avengers — Captain Marvel, Starfox, Scarlet Witch, and Living Lightning — who had come from the Shi’ar galaxy to try and stop the bomb as well.[2] After getting their deceased comrades aboard, they then look for two others among the missing — Wonder Man and the Vision — who attempted to disarm the Nega-Bomb.[3] Miraculously, Quasar and Thor are not only able to find them, but reports that they are both still alive. Once they are brought aboard, the Vision explains that the Nega-Bomb wasn’t as harmful to them as the blast radiated outward at such a speed that injury was minimal to them. Wonder Man is also left glowing as his ionically powered body is metabolizing the Nega-Bomb radiation.
Meanwhile, Capain Marvel and Starfox are tending to their seemingly deceased allies. However, Eros senses that they aren’t actually dead. By touching the hand of Sersi — a fellow Eternal — Starfox triggers her transmutation powers and restoring them to normal. As it turned out, when the bomb was about to go off, Sersi used her powers to convert herself and her comrades into inert matter so they could survive in the vacuum of space until they were rescued. That’s when the Scarlet Witch notices that Captain America isn’t among them and Iron Man explains that he pulled rank and ordered the others off Hala before the bomb went off in the hopes that someone would survive.[4] While Quasar and the others insist they go back and recover Cap, Iron Man wants everyone to be clear of the fact that Captain America might not have survived.
Back on Hala, Deathbird is surprised to discover that Captain America is still alive. Impressed by his survival, Deathbird kisses him on the lips as Cap is waking up, confusing the hell out of him.[5] That’s when the projected image of the Kree Supreme Intelligence appears before them and informs Captain America and Deathbird that they were both pawns in his grand scheme.
While on the Shi’ar home world of Chandilar, news about the Nega-Bomb’s detonation reaches Empress Lilandra. While the war with the Kree is finally over, she weeps tears of sorrow over the countless lives that have been snuffed out in order to accomplish this goal and asks her aides to leave her to mourn in privacy.
At that same moment, the Supreme Intelligence is explaining to Captain America and Deathbird that it had intentionally stoked the flames of war for the express purpose of goading the Shi’ar into detonating the Nega-Bomb. It explains that the Kree species had reached an evolutionary dead end and the triggering of the bomb, while killing untold numbers of living beings, was the catalyst that will jumpstart the evolutionary process. He is pleased with the end result, as the Kree Empire will grow back stronger than ever before. This information horrifies both Cap and Deathbird, who cannot understand how any intelligent being could so willingly cause so much death and destruction.
Meanwhile, the Avengers arrive on Hala and are devastated to see the utter loss of life first hand. They are soon confronted by Doctor Minerva and Captain Atlas, two more survivors, who accuse the Avengers for allowing this to happen and attack. The battle is quickly stopped by the arriving Captain America and Deathbird, who tell everyone of the Supreme Intelligence’s role in all of this. While Captain Atlas can’t believe a word that they are saying, Doctor Minerva is pleased to hear the purpose of all this death as she herself had been trying to jumpstart Kree evolution. Atlas cannot bring himself to be a party to the genocide of his own people and decides then to kill himself by activating a device on his belt in an apparent attempt at suicide. Minerva, who loves Atlas, races to him in an effort to stop him from doing this, but both end up apparently being vaporized in the process.[6]
After this latest horrific scene, the Avengers then decide how to deal with the Supreme Intelligence in light of everything they have learned. Shockingly, the Black Knight votes for them to kill the Supreme Intelligence. Captain America is horrified by the mere suggestion, reminding everyone that the Avengers do not kill. Surprisingly, the group actually finds themselves divided over what to do, given the gravity of the situation. Iron Man, being the most senior member on the team, pulls rank and agrees that the Intelligence should be put to death.[7] Those who side with Iron Man —the Black Knight, Sersi, Hercules, Vision, Wonder Man, and Thor — only do so because they see the Supreme Intelligence as an unliving machine, while those against killing it believe that it is a sentient being. When they leave, Captain America tells the others to let them go, as they can’t stop them.
When Iron Man’s group reaches the Supreme Intelligence’s base of operations, their foe uses his mental powers to create constructs warriors to defend him. These appear as constructs of the original Thor, Deviant Warlord Kro, the three-headed dog Cerberus, the Grim-Reaper, Ultron, the original Black Knight, and the Mandarin.[8] Iron Man reminds everyone that these aren’t the genuine article, only constructs, and to attack them hard. With the constructs defeated, Iron Man shatters the screen projecting the Supreme Intelligence’s visage in order to get at his inner workings. They are surprised to discover that the Supreme Intelligence is actually a large brain hooked into a massive computer system, confirming that he is indeed a living being. Despite this, these Avengers are still intent on killing Supremor. After fighting the defense systems to a stand-still, Black Knight plunges his neuro-sword into the Supreme Intelligence’s brain, seemingly killing him. However, as the building crumbles, a single point of light it launched into space.
Iron Man’s team then rejoins the other and tells the others that for better or worse, the Supreme Intelligence is dead. Captain America tries giving another speech about the sanctity of life, but Iron Man isn’t interested in listening. As the Avengers try to figure out what this will mean for their team moving forward, a Shi’ar flagship arrives carrying Empress Lilandar. Stepping off the ship she decrees that the Kree Galaxy will now become part of the Shi’ar Empire. Lilandra then surprised Deathbird by assigning her to rule over this sector of space as leader of Starforce. Lilandra then addresses the Avengers, telling them from this point forward the conflict is none of their concern and promises that her empire will stop using the star gate that puts Earth at risk.
This gives Captain America the opportunity to make his speech about preserving life after all and he tosses some major shade Iron Man’s way while doing it. Concluding his speech, he states that things will never be the same again.
Meanwhile, in the depths of space, the beam of light is intercepted and taken aboard by an alien ship that had been stationed to pick it up. As it turns out, this light carries the mind of the Supreme Intelligence, who planned to fake his death and go into hiding while he waits for his glorious new Kree Empire to actualize itself.[9]
… This story continues in Captain America #401.
Recurring Characters
Avengers (Black Knight, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Crystal, Goliath, Hercules, Iron Man, Living Lightning, Quasar, Scarlet Witch, Sersi, Starfox, Thor, Vision, Wonder Man), Deathbird, Doctor Minerva, Captain Atlas, Supreme Intelligence, Lilandra, Araki, Imperial Guard (Electron, Impulse, Oracle, Tempest, Titan), Starforce (Korath the Pursuer, Shatterax, Ultimus)
Continuity Notes
The Nega-Bomb was set off in Wonder Man (vol. 2) #9.
Captain Marvel’s team were selected in Avengers #345 to petition the Shi’ar government to stop using the warp gate between Earth as it was threatening to destroy the sun. Their mission was chronicled in Thor #445-446, Wonder Man (vol. 2) #8-9, and Avengers West Coast #82.
The Scarlet Witch is deeply concerned about the fate of Wonder Man and Vision because there is a deeply complex love triangle going on between these three Avengers that goes back for years:
Way back in Avengers #9, Simon Williams, aka Wonder Man, seemingly died as a side effect of his powers. His brain engrams were recorded and they were later used to create the Vision as seen in Avengers #57-58 and 134-135. Wonder Man returned to live in issue #150.
Vision and the Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlet Witch, over the years, fell in love and eventually got married in Giant-Size Avengers #4.
For years, everyone was fine with this for the most part until the Vision was disassembled and re-assembled by Vigilance in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #42-45. During this time, Wonder Man declined to offer his brain engrams to restore the Vision because he came to realize he was in love with the Scarlet Witch.
Since then, the Vision became estranged from his wife, moving from the west coast team to the east in Avengers West Coast #53. Wanda and Simon tried dating in issue #65, but Wanda decided she only liked him as a friend and suggested they stop dating in issue #68.
The group who escaped Hala were part of a delegation sent to petition the Kree to stop using the warp gate. Their mission was chronicled in Avengers #345-346, Captain America #399-400, and Iron Man #278-279.
Here, Deathbird mentions that she is the former ruler of the Shi’ar. Deathbird’s rule lasted from Uncanny X-Men #155 through 277. She was deposed as ruler by her sister Lilandra.
Although they seem to have died here, Atlas actually teleported himself and Minerva to an uninhabited world. We’ll see them again in Silver Surfer (vol. 3) #79.
Iron Man is the only founding member of the Avengers among this group. It’s later revealed in Avengers Forever #8, that Iron Man’s desire to kill the Supreme Intelligence was implanted in his mind by Immortus as part of a scheme to force the Avengers to remain on Earth as part of his grander scheme to manipulate the group’s destiny in order to preserve the existence of his masters, the Time Keepers.
There are some details and errors on display here in terms of the constructs and how they are identified by the Avengers:
Thor: The real Thor had been banished by Odin prior to this story, as seen in Thor #432-433. The role of thunder god was then passed to Eric Masterson. This will remain the status quo until issues #457-458.
The Black Knight: Dane Whitman identifies his opponent as his late uncle, Nathan Garrett and calls him the “original” Black Knight. Garrett preceded Dane as the Black Knight in the Modern Age from Tales to Astonish #52 until his death in Avengers #48. However, he was not the first. Moreover, this construct is actually wearing the armor of Sir Percy of Scandia, Dane’s distant ancestor who was the Black Knight during the time of King Arthur from Black Knight #1 until his death in Marvel Super-Heroes #17. Obviously an error on the part of artist Paul Ryan, it’s anyone’s guess how Dane could make this misidentification, but whatever.
If you guessed that they didn’t actually kill the Supreme Intelligence, move to the head of the class. Ol’ Supremor survives this attempt on his life and will end up in the sewers of New York of all places, as seen in Imperial Guard #1-3.
Operation: Galactic Storm Reading Order
Captain America #398, Avengers West Coast #80, Quasar #32, Wonder Man (vol. 2) #7, Avengers #345, Iron Man #278, Thor #445, Captain America #399, Avengers West Coast #81, Quasar #33, Wonder Man (vol. 2) #8, Avengers #346, Iron Man #279, Thor #446, Captain America #400, Avengers West Coast #82, Quasar #34, Wonder Man (vol. 2) #9, Avengers #347, Captain America #401, Quasar #35