Nick Peron

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Avengers #398

Nick Peron

Paranormal Activity

Credits

The mysterious Masque is sneaking around Avengers Mansion when she becomes aware that she has been made. She allows Hawkeye to think he has ambushed her, but she is quickly able to disarm him and get him to stand down. This situation is interrupted by the Black Widow, who doesn’t trust Masque. Hawkeye, on the other hand thinks they need to give her a chance to prove her loyalty. Masque figures that Natasha is jealous of Clint’s interest in her.[1] Hawkeye also believes that Natasha is jealous as well. However, the Widow shows him why she is suspicious of Masque: A box full of fried tracking devices. She explains that the energy signature of the weapon that destroyed them matches that of Masque’s taser.

Meanwhile, in the hanger bay, Deathcry is making repairs to the ship that first brought her to Earth,[2] with some help from Hercules.[3] She wants to go to the moon to investigate the strange message she recently received,[4] In light of what has happened recently,[5] Hercules doesn’t want to let the young Shi’ar warrior out of his sight and insists on going with her. Deathcry playfully trips Hercules, causing him to land on top of her. This attempt at romance makes Hercules incredibly uncomfortable and suggests they get going. Soon they take off in Deathcry’s ship and set course for the Blue Area of the Moon. As their ship departs, they are unaware that they are being observed by someone lurking in the shadows of the hanger.

Downstairs, Quicksilver is preparing a meal when he is visited by the Vision, who decides to help out by using his solar gem to boil a pot of water. Pietro explains that he is preparing a meal for Thor and Scarlet Witch who are due back from dropping off Swordsman and Moonraker upstate to recuperate from their recent injuries.[6] He explains that he felt the urge to cook because he always looked out for his sister back when they were children.[7] Pietro then invites the Vision to join them and gets upset when the android points out that he doesn’t need to eat. They are joined by Pietro’s wife Crystal who tells him that it is his turn to put their daughter Luna to bed, telling him that their daughter wants to hear stories about Tuc.Seeing the happy couple together gets the Vision thinking about how he was once married to Pietro’s sister the Scarlet Witch and had a family of their own before it was all torn away.[8] He then abruptly leaves the couple as they start fighting over the possibility that Tuc might be their future son.[9]

Pietro won’t even entertain the idea and storms out of the room. Crystal begins worrying that their marriage might be on the rocks again after so recently patching things up.[10] However, her thoughts are cut short when she is stabbed from behind by mechanical tendrils from the mysterious intruder lurking in the mansion. Meanwhile, Pietro goes to the hanger to meet with the Scarlet Witch and Thor. With brother and sister happily reunited, Thor decides to give them some privacy and check in on the Wasp and see how she is coping with her recent metamorphosis.[11]

Meanwhile, Deathcry and Hercules are approaching the Blue Area of the Moon where the Shi’ar warriors hopes to learn the mystery surrounding K’rin’s message to her. However, once they arrive their ship is blasted out of the sky and crash lands on the moon’s surface.

Back on Earth, Thor hears the Wasp in distress and races into her room to help. He discovers that she is upset after finding a implant had been put on the base of her skull. Assuming it was put there by Giant-Man without her permission, Janet races off to confront him. Thor is then ambushes by metallic tendrils that come up through the floor. After getting wrapped up, Thor is made intangible and pulled through the floor, dropping Mjolnir along the way. He passes by the Black Widow and Hawkeye who are still arguing over Masque. Seeing Thor in trouble the pair put aside their difference and follow after their comrade.

While on the moon, Deathcry pulls Hercules from her wrecked ship where they are confronted by a pair of Shi’ar soldiers. They play a holographic message from Lilandra that warns Deathcry that K’rin has been sent to a prison colony on the planet Alabar and warns Deathcry against going after her, as the entire empire will come down on her hard. With the message delivered, the soldiers knocked Deathcry out. As they leave, a mysterious man watches them from the shadows.[12]

Finally, back on Earth, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch are sitting down to dinner. Their conversation is interrupted by the Vision comes phasing in through the ceiling and blasts them with his solar gem, knocking the Maximoff twins out. However, the Vision hasn’t betrayed them but was actually being controlled by the tendril covered cyborg that has infiltrated the mansion.[13] It has assumed that he has defeated all of the Avengers, the intruder is unaware that Masque is still on the premisis and watching him from the shadows (lots of that going on this issue.)

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Thor, Giant-Man, Wasp, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Hercules, Vision, Black Widow, Crystal, Deathcry, Masque), Benedict (unidentified), Lilandra, Za’ken (unidentified)

Continuity Notes

  1. Mention is made of how Hawkeye and the Black Widow used to date. Clint was seduced into helping the Widow back when she was a Russian spy back in Tales of Suspense #57. Natasha later defected from her communist masters in Avengers #30. She remained with Clint until she decided to end their relationship so she could focus on being a spy for SHIELD in Avengers #57.

  2. Deathcry first came to Earth in this ship in Avengers #364.

  3. 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.

  4. The message that Deathcry received was from her former nest mother K’Rin, sent to Earth in Avengers #389.

  5. Hercules is referring to the events of The Crossing, which ended with the death of Iron Man. The details:

  6. Both men were injured during the Crossing. However, as per Avengers Forever #8, the man they think is Moonraker is actually a Space Phantom in disguise.

  7. Here, the Vision makes reference to the fact that Pietro and Wanda are the children of Magneto. Everyone was led to believe this in Vision and the Scarlet Witch #4. However, this has since been proven false, the pair aren’t even mutants. See Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4-5 and Scarlet Witch (Vol. 2) #3 & 11.

  8. The Vision recounts how he and the Scarlet Witch once had a family. This is incredibly complex, buckle up:

    • Wanda and Vision got married way back in Giant-Size Avengers #4. They lived happily for years and eventually Wanda used magic to impregnate herself with twin boys in Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #3 and gave birth to them in issue #12 of that series.

    • Later, the Vision was kidnapped and disassembled by the organization known as Vigilance. The process resulted in the Vision’s body being bleached white and the emotional connection to his memories being irreparably erased as seen in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #42-45.

    • Not long after this, the children were revealed to be nothing more than fragments of Mephisto’s soul and brought to life through Wanda’s magic and weren’t real. Ultimately, the twins — Billy and Tommy — were destroyed as seen in Avengers West Coast #51-52.

    • From there, the Vision became estranged from his wife, joining the east coast team in Avengers #312. Later he would regain the capacity for emotion in Avengers Spotlight #40 and get a new body in Avengers #360. Despite these reversions, he and Wanda have remained estranged.

  9. Quicksilver and Crystal met Tuc in Avengers #390 and interacted with him all throughout the crossing until he claimed to be their son in issue #395. However, this is all another fabrication created by Immortus as Tuc was just a Space Phantom playing a role as seen in Avengers Forever #8.

  10. Quicksilver and Crystal’s marriage is equally as complicated as that of the Vision and the Scarlet Witch:

    • The pair got married in Fantastic Four #150. However, after a period of neglect, Crystal had an affair in Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #6-12.

    • The pair had been trying to work on their marriage since Fantastic Four Annual #21. This was made more difficult when Pietro joined X-Factor in X-Factor #71 and Crystal joined the Avengers in Avengers #336.

    • After a disastrous romantic getaway with Pietro in X-Factor #89, Crystal gave into her lust for the Black Knight in Avengers #361 and the pair had a brief tryst. However, Quicksilver soon returned to the Avengers following issue #369.

    • When the Knight later went off to another dimension in Avengers #375, Pietro and Crystal started working on their marriage again in an effort to make it work.

  11. After getting injured in Avengers #393, the Wasp underwent a healing process that transformed her into a more insectile form in the following issue. This will remain Janet’s status quo until she is reverted back to human form in Avengers (vol. 2) #1.

  12. This mystery man is revealed to be a Shi’ar warrior named Za’ken next issue.

  13. This unnamed cyborg is identified as Benedict next issue, easily one of the stupidest names for a villain ever.