When Comes the Gatherers…!

New York City has been decimated by some powerful attack that caught the Avengers off guard.[1] The last survivor of which is Captain America who collapses to the ground dead just as a dimensional gateway opens in front of Avengers Mansion. Emerging from it are the Gatherers — Swordsman, Magdalene, Cassandra and Sloth — who are taken aback by the death and destruction in this reality.[2] Entering the mansion to look for survivors they find the other Avengers of this world — Iron Man, Giant-Man, and Hawkeye — are all dead as well. They are soon attacked by the Coal Tiger, this reality’s version of the Black Panther.[3] As he is the one they came to gather, Sloth quickly knocks him out and they drag him back through their portal.

They appear in the citadel of their leader, the enigmatic Proctor who orders them to take Coal Tiger to the infirmary to be stabilized while they finalize his transition. Cassandra expresses her concerns that they cut it very close this time around. Proctor dismisses her concerns and asks to be left alone. He then calls up a hologram of the Eternal known as Sersi, and blames her for what has happened to him and vows to make her pay.[4]

Meanwhile, in New York City, this reality’s Sersi is visited by Sprite, one of her fellow Eternals. He has come to express the concerns of his fellow Eternals that Sersi has been acting very erratically the past few months after merging with the Brethren’s Uni-Mind.[5] She dismisses their concerns as nothing more than old legends and departs for a meeting with the Avengers, telling Sprite not to worry.

At Avengers Headquarters, the Black Knight, aka Dane Whitman, has called a meeting to discuss the recent disappearance of Marissa Darrow, a malfunctioning sky-car, as well as a phony distress call they received recently.[6] Putting it all together, Dane has discovered that the energy signatures detected during these events all match and reveals that someone has been able to access their base and cloak themselves from discovery. Following their recent encounter with the Grim Reaper,[7] the Vision has been able to program the computers to detect the next intrusion so they can catch the intruders in the act when they try the same trick again.

When the meeting as adjourned, Crystal stays behind to talk to Dane because she noticed that he has been avoiding her lately.[8] She also wants to thank Whitman for saving Luna, even though he suffered serious injury by doing so and is grateful for it.[9] Dane is about to explain the feelings he has for her when Sersi arrives and interrupts their conversation. Crystal decides to leave the pair to talk in private, but not before Sersi can force a kiss on Dane.

Back at Proctor’s citadel, the leader of the Gatherers uses his powers to calm the Coal Tiger’s mind. However, this is only a stop-gap measure as they will need to eliminate T’Challa’s counterpart in this reality to complete the gathering process. A process that will be easier than killing Magdalene’s counterpart — Marissa Darrow — because the Black Panther is a well known member of the Avengers. To prevent the heroes interference, they will need to infiltrate their headquarters again. Magdalen has her concerns as they are skirting interference from the Avengers by pushing their luck, but Cassandra is certain that they can carry out this operation without getting caught.

At Avengers Mansion, Hercules tries to call Taylor Madison in order to ask her out on a date, but finds it difficult to dial her number.[10] He admits to the Black Widow that he is nervous about asking a woman out for the first time in centuries. Amused by this, the Widow picks up the phone and calls Madison for him and arranges a date for a grateful Hercules.

Later that day, the Gatherers teleport into the sub-basement of Avengers Headquarters, their presence cloaked by Cassandra’s powers. However, when Swordsman tries to access the computer he triggers the trap set by the Vision, and they are caught in the act by the Avengers. A battle breaks out between the Avengers and the Gatherers and the two teams find themselves evenly matched. However, the tide ultimately turns in favor of the Gatherers when Cassandra uses her advanced age to trick the Black Widow into thinking she is of no threat. The old crone then pulls off her glasses and unleashes a powerful energy blast that knocks the Avengers out.

With the Avengers defeated, the Swordsman is able to obtain the location of this world’s Black Panther, who is presently in his home nation of Wakanda. With that, Magdalene opens a gateway to the Panther’s location so they can finish the job they have been tasked with doing.

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Thor, Hercules, Vision, Black Knight, Black Widow, Sersi, Crystal), Gatherers (Proctor, Swordsman, Magdalene, Coal Tiger, Cassandra, Sloth), Sprite, Taylor Madison, Edwin Jarvis

Continuity Notes

1. This is obviously another reality. Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #2 designates this as Reality-355.

2. So just a roll call of realities for each of the Gatherers. Swordsman comes from Reality-921, Magdalene from Reality-9201, and Cassandra from Reality-92101. Sloth’s native reality is unrevealed as of this writing (May, 2022). These realities are listed in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #2, 3, and 5.

3. The Coal Tiger’s costume is based on an unused design for the Black Panther drawn by Jack Kirby. This design was first showcased in Jungle Action (vol. 2) #10.

4. As revealed in Avengers #374, Proctor is his reality’s version of the Black Knight. He hates the Sersi of his reality for making him her Gann Josin — or life mate — and then abandoning him when she grew bored. He then became obsessed with getting revenge by killing every version of Sersi in the multiverse.

5. The Brethren were a race of hyper-evolved bacteria created by the Celestials. Sersi helped them form a Uni-Mind in Avengers #334-339. The Eternals, as explained in issue #361, fear that she is suffering from a form of Eternal senility called the Mahd W’yry. In reality, her behavior is being manipulated by Proctor as we’ll learn in Avengers #374-375.

6. The hacking into the Avengers emergency systems happened in Avengers #343, the death of Marissa Darrow was in issue #348, and the faulty sky-car incident happened in Avengers #349.

7. The Avengers had just recently fought the Grim Reaper in Avengers #352-354.

8. Quicksilver and Crystal have been married since Fantastic Four #150. More recently, Crystal had an affair in Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #6-12 and got caught. The pair have been trying to make their marriage work since Fantastic Four Annual #21. However, this has been made more difficult since Quicksilver joined X-Factor and Crystal the Avengers, as seen in X-Factor #71 and Avengers #336. Further complicating things is the fact that Dane has been attracted to Crystal almost since the moment she joined the team.

9. The Black Knight saved Crystal’s daughter from Raza, who was attempting to use the girl as a hostage as part of an attempt to assassinate Whitman on behalf of the Kree. See Avengers #350-351.

10. Herc met Taylor Madison while visiting the hospital for sick children she volunteers at in Avengers #349. What Hercules doesn’t know is that his romantic interest in her has been manipulated by his step-mother Hera and that Madison is a construct created by his father Zeus. This will all be revealed in issue #384.

Topical References

• This story states that the date is August 30, 1992. The year in question should be considered topical as it is the same year this comic book was published.