Avengers #394 — Nick Peron

Apr 16

Apr 16 Avengers #394

Bad Blood

The Crossing continues from War Machine #23…

At Kang’s citadel beyond time and space, the man known as Moonraker has been captured. He has learned that his entire life has apparently been one big lie and that he is actually Gustav Brand, the father to Mantis. She takes great joy in watching her father suffer. Her husband, Kang the Conqueror, points out that this behavior is contrary to the pacifist teachings she received from the Priests of Pama. Mantis then reminds her husband that their ways are no longer her ways.

The pair give Moonraker a rest from torture and leave him to rest. He is soon visited by the young woman who has been reluctantly helping Kang and his family attack the Avengers in the present day. She tells him that she is a friend and that she has come to free him. Moonraker however doesn’t trust her and tells her to kill him now and get it over with. The young woman can hardly believe that Mantis would do this to her own father and decides to free Moonraker right then and there. In doing so, she sets off an alarm prompting Mantis and Kang to send their children — Tobias and Malachi — and Neut to investigate. They soon arrive in the torture chamber and catch their would be ally red handed.[1] Although they attempt to stop her, the young woman manages to pull herself and Moonraker onto her time chair and escape into the time stream.

While on present day Earth, Giant-Man is still working in his lab to try and save the life of his ex-wife, Janet Van Dyne, aka the Wasp. Using the same process that first turned Janet into a superhero, Hank inadvertedly caused her to weave a cocoon around herself.[2]

In the next room the Avengers — Black Widow, Hawkeye, Quicksilver, Crystal, Vision, and Hercules — and their ally Masque are sharing information gathered on Tony Stark’s arctic bunker with the Black Panther.[3] Via video link from Wakanda, T’Challa tells the Avengers that despite the fact that Tony Stark has gone completely insane, this bunker is a marvel of invention.[4] This gives Black Widow a lot to ponder about and as she tries to think of strategy, Hercules struggles to remember something that might be important to their current situation.[5][6] Quicksilver, meanwhile, wants to race right in and rescue his kidnapped daughter Luna.

Suddenly, the time-traveling woman appears in the middle of their headquarters with the injured Moonraker. The Vision remembers her as the one who sent Tobias and Malachi to attack him and the Swordsman earlier,[7] but Hercules finally remembers that she was the one who initially warned him about Tony Stark — something he instantly forgot — and tries to convince everyone to hear her out. However, before Masque can blast her in the head with her taser weapon, the young woman passes out. As they get Moonraker to a medical bay, the girl wakes up and Jarvis gives her some tea. As she is composing herself, Crystal finds something eerily familiar about the girl but can’t put her finger on it. The girl warns them that they need to escape as Kang’s family will soon come.

Second later, a time ship appears over the Van Dyne mansion and Neut leaps into the building and starts attacking the Avengers. The diminutive warrior takes down every Avengers until only Quicksilver and Crystal are left standing. When Neut tries to fire an energy blast at Pietro, the mystery woman leaps in the way and shields his body. Dying in Crystal’s arms, the girl tells her that the secret door in the Avengers basement is a time portal into the past and it is their key to defeating Kang, saying that Hercules knows all the secrets behind it. Before dying, the girl reveals that she is the adult version of Pietro and Crystal’s daughter Luna, whose final words is that she loves them deeply.[8] Neut is pleased that the traitor is killed but before he can renew his attack he is blasted from behind with a bolt so powerful it knocks him out.[9] This was a sting from the Wasp herself who has just emerged from her healing cocoon transformed into a more insectile form.

In the aftermath of the battle Giant-Man checks out the Wasp and gives her a clean bill of health. The rest of the team have pulled the information they needed from Hercules’ mind with their image inducer and wonder how they can use the time portal to win their war with Tony Stark. Masque recounts how T’Challa said that Tony is an absolute genius and suggests that they use the time portal to find themselves a genius of their own.[10]

… The Crossing continues in Avengers: Timeslide #1.

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Giant-Man, Wasp, Hawkeye, Quicksilver, Hercules, Vision, Black Widow, Swordsman, Deathcry), “Kang the Conqueror”, “Mantis”, Anachronauts (“Tobias”, “Malachi”, “Neut”), Moonraker, Luna Maximoff, Black Panther, Masque, Century, Edwin Jarvis

Continuity Notes

There is a lot going on here and not everything is as it seems. The details:
- Moonraker was captured by Mantis and Co. in Iron Man #324. The “revelation” that he is Gustav Brand, aka Libra, the father of Mantis happened in Force Works #19.
- However, Moonraker is not really Gustav Brand. This is all part of an elaborate hoax cooked up by Immortus who was manipulating the Avengers destiny at the time. It’s later explained in Avengers Forever #8 that Immortus was posing as Kang and Moonraker, Mantis, Neut, Malachi, Tobias, and the adult Luna are all Space Phantoms in disguise. They have all been brainwashed to believe they are the individuals whom they are posing as, hence why they still act in character when none of the Avengers are around.
- The real Gustav Brand was believed to have been murdered along with the rest of the Zodiac cartel in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #26. However, he will turn up alive again in Avengers Forever #1.
Janet was first turned into the Wasp way back in Tales to Astonish #44. She was seriously wounded by Iron Man last issue . Her new insectile form will remain Janet’s status quo until she is restored to her human form following the events of Onslaught: Marvel Universe #1 as seen in Avengers (vol. 2) #1.
The Vision scanned this bunker in Iron Man #324. This story incorrectly attributes it to issue #234.
Tony Stark has been turned against the Avengers and has been working against them since Avengers: The Crossing #1.
Hercules was given a warning about Tony Stark in Avengers: The Crossing #1, but instantly forgot because this plot is really awful.
Hercules’ dialogue is written without his usual Olympian affectation here. He stopped speaking in this matter starting in Avengers #390. The offered explanation is that he no longer speaks that way after Zeus stripped him of his immortality back in issue #384. However, Hercules starts speaking in his trademark fashion again in Incredible Hulk: Hercules Unleashed #1, suggesting that this was more of a conscious effort on Herc’s part rather than anything to do with the magic that stripped him of his abilities.
Luna’s kidnapping and the attack by Malachi and Tobias happened last issue.
This, of course, is not really an adult Luna from the future, but a Space Phantom pretending to be her as explained in Avengers Forever #8.
From here Neut goes missing in action. He’ll turn up years later on the planet Calculex in Iron Man Special #1, apparently still the mental conditioning that Immortus put the Space Phantom through is still intact and he still thinks he’s a minion of Kang.
This ends up being Tony’s teenaged self, as seen in Avengers: Timeslide #1. Pulling Tony out of time like this creates a divergent reality classified as Reality-96020 per Marvel Legacy: The 1990s Handbook #1.