Nick Peron

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Avengers Annual #19

Nick Peron

Beat Me in St. Louis!

Credits

This story continues from Avengers West Coast Annual #5…

The reborn Terminus has reached its ultimate form of evolution and is now making its way to the to the central United States. Pursing the creature is the combined East and West Coast Avengers. The western team consists of Hawkeye, Iron Man, Wonder Man, US Agent, the original Human Torch, Hank Pym and the Wasp. They are joined by their allies Machine Man and Hercules. Representing the eastern team are Captain America, Sersi, Quasar, the Vision, as well as reservists Starfox and Captain Marvel. As they follow the creature’s path, Hank Pym deduces that Ulterminus is heading to St. Louis and will begin to absorb all of the planet’s matter and energy, reducing the entire planet to a wasteland. The two teams find themselves on a race against time, but hope they can make it to St. Louis before it is too late.[1]

While Terminus-5 manages to reach St. Louis first, Mockingbird has arrived with the Great Lakes Avengers and tells the other teams that they will try to keep the alien creature distracted until other two teams can get there. While the GLA prove to be only a minor annoyance, they buy time for the Avengers West Coast to arrive. However, Mockingbird and Hawkeye almost get into an argument over their marital differences until they are reminded that there are more important things to be dealing with right now.[2] Unfortunately, the Vision calculates that in a few moments the probe-rays being emitted by Terminus will reverse and they must strike now before it is too late.

Meanwhile, in deep space, is still adrift in space after his encounter with Terminus, who absorbed his enchanted hammer Mjolnir before returning to Earth.[3] The thunder god spots an approaching meteor and maneuvers himself closer in the hopes of getting pulled onto its rocky surface by its gravitational pull. The gambit pays off, by Thor lands hard enough to knock himself out.

Back on Earth, Terminus’ probe rays return and the city of St. Luis begins to crumble. While the heavy hitters are trying to stop the alien creature, Captain America leads the rest of the team as they evacuate all the innocent bystanders. While from one of the Quinjets, both Hank Pym and the Vision continue to assess the situation while trying to come up with a solution to the current crisis.

That’s when Quasar recounts how he was able to launch Terminus into space during their last encounter with the help of the then-cosmic powered Spider-Man.[4] He figures he can replicate this feat with the others and uses his Quantum Bands to create a platform under Terminus and instructs everyone to try to use it to thrust Terminus into orbit. Unfortunately, this ultimate version of Terminus is much more powerful than before and proves impossible to budge.

By this time, Thor has recovered from his fall and is delighted to discover that the meteor he landed on has an atmosphere. This allows him to begin calling out in the ancient Norse language. This is the recall spell that makes Mjolnir return to Thor’s hand whenever thrown and by screaming it into the voice of space, he causes Terminus (who previously absorbed the enchanted hammer) to suddenly get sucked into space. He is followed by space-faring Avengers Quasar, Starfox, Iron Man, Sersi, Captain Marvel, and Machine Man. They witness as Terminus is pulled into a collision course with the meteor. While the massive alien is disorientated, Thor and Quasar yank Power Lance from Terminus and Quasar then quantum jumps it lightyears away.

Deprived of his power source, Terminus begins to burn out his power and shrinks down to until he is so dense he creates a black hole. Moments later, Mjolnir emerges from the black hole and back into Thor’s hand. With his enchanted weapon back in his hands, Thor uses its power to create a breathable atmosphere for his friends so they can safely make it back to Earth.

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Captain America, Thor, Starfox, Vision, Hercules, Captain Marvel, Quasar, She-Hulk), Avengers West Coast (Wasp, Hawkeye, Hank Pym, US Agent, Machine Man, Iron Man, Human Torch, Wonder Man), Great Lakes Avengers (Mockingbird, Mister Immrotal, Big Bertha, Flatman, Doorman, Dinah Soar), Ulterminus

Continuity Notes

  1. Here it is mentioned how Captain Marvel was once the leader of the Avengers. She took on this role in Avengers #279. After sustaining serious injury in issue #293, she was forced to step down as leader in the following issue while she recovered. Monica has been back on her feet again since Captain Marvel (vol. 2) #1.

  2. Hawkeye and Mockingbird got married back in Hawkeye #4. More recently, their marriage has been in a rocky place after Mockingbird allowed the Phantom Rider to die in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #23. Something she kept secret from Clint until he learned the truth in issue #34-35. The have been trying to reconcile their differences since West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #46.

  3. Thor’s encounter with Terminus and his subsequent stranding in space happened in Thor Annual #15.

  4. Quasar previously fought Termanus in Quasar #7. He mentions how, at the time, Spider-Man was endowed with cosmic powers. At the time of that story, the wall-crawler was granted the Uni-Power of Captain Universe to deal with the threat of the Tri-Sentinel. See Amazing Spider-Man #326-329, Spectacular Spider-Man #158-160, and Web of Spider-Man #59-61.

Topical References

  • Captain America refers to the decade as the nineties in this story. This should be considered a topical reference due to the Sliding Timescale.

Media Watch

In the aftermath of the Terminus crisis, a popular news commentor discusses the recent spate of massive superhero confrontations in recent history. He compares these incidents to the Northeast Blackout of 1965 and the Assassination of JFK, as the people who experienced those events first hand remembered exactly where they were when they happened. However, the commentor muses that young people have experienced so many superhero conflicts they would ask you to clarify which one.[1] He then closes his segment by showing viewers where he was when the Terminus crisis happened, in the studio shooting a segment an the aglets at the end of shoelaces.

Continuity Notes

  1. The news commentator references three of the more recent Marvel crossover events at the time of this publication. They are:

Topical References

  • This Media Watch story features Andy Rooney a famous news anchor best known for his segment “A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney” on the TV news program 60 Minutes. His appearance here should be considered topical as Rooney retired in 2011 and died a few months later. References to 60 Minutes should be considered topical as it is a real world program.

  • Rooney also makes references to the “National Blackout”, this isn’t overly accurate. He is talking about the blackout of 1965 that affected the eastern United States. It was not national. He also refers to that and the JFK assassination as happening within the lifetimes of the average viewer. This should be considered topical reference as those who were alive during these time periods are now senior citizens as I write this and will die sooner rather than later.

Acts of Vengeance Epilogue

In the aftermath of the Acts of Vengeance conspiracy, Captain America has called a meeting with Thor and the Vision to go over everything they have learned and unravel the mystery of this grand conspiracy against the America’s superheroes, and the Avengers in particular. Part of this mystery includes robot duplicates of both the Red Skull and Doctor Doom that were recovered during the final battle.

They start with the testimony of the Wizard, who was the catalyst that set off the whole turn of events. Also known as Bentley Whitman, the Wizard explains how he was offered a part in the conspiracy by a mysterious man who helped him stage a jailbreak at the Vault prison for super-villains. Although Iron Man and Hawkeye were on the scene to try and contain the break out, many villains succeeded in escaping.[1] This mystery man also recruited others including the Kingpin, Doctor Doom, Magneto, the Mandarin, and the Red Skull. The Sub-Mariner was also approached, but he refused since he had since changed his sympathies of late.[2] Not long after this, Doctor Doom launched an attack that sunk the Avengers headquarters on Hydrobase. Quasar was the only Avenger to arrive on the scene, and ultimately failed to stop this attempt.[3] Quasar and Stringray then began trying to recover whatever equipment they could, however a number of renegade robots managed to escape, with some falling in the hands of their foes.[4]

The only robot that remained behind was the Awesome Android, which hampered the efforts to salvage equipment from Hydrobase until it was stopped by a team of reserve Avengers.[5] Afterwards, Captain America and Thor attempted to ask the Fantastic Four to allow the Avengers to operate out of the Four Freedoms Plaza, however the FF weren’t home and the pair had to deal with the security system instead.[6] Cap then had Kevin O’Brien reactivate the long abandoned sub-basement that existed under Avengers Park as their temporary base of operations.[6]

As the conspirators then began focusing on dispatching criminals to whom none of them had fought before against individual Avengers. The Controler enslaved the Sub-Mariner and sent him against Captain America, Thor was forced to fight the Juggernaut, Quasar had his hands full with the Absorbing Man, while Hawkeye had to deal with Boomerang, Angar the Screamer and Screaming Mimi, and Captain Marvel dealt with Klaw.[7] The Vision also reports that the Avengers West Coast had their own share of foes to deal with, such as the U-Foes and the Mole Man’s creatures.[8] The also heard reports of many of their old foes fighting the likes of Doctor Strange, Spider-Man and Daredevil.[9]

By this time, the core team had grouped together to deal with threats posed by Hydro-Man, the Jester, and a Hulk robot with Cloak and Dagger, while another team defender headquarters from rogue members of the Freedom Force.[10] With the Controller defeated by Captain America, the Avengers sent the Wasp and Wonder Man to Washington to support the protest against superhuman registration, leading to a battle with the giant known as Gargantua.[11] With reservists being sent to round up other Vault escapees, the masterminds behind this conspiracy had started making their involvement public. Spider-Man first encountered Magneto, while the Avengers fended off yet another attack on their headquarters by the Mandarin.[12]

From here things started falling apart with the conspirators as bickering and infighting started splitting their alliance apart. During one squabble, it was revealed that Doctor Doom had put one of his Doombots in his place. The Wizard was betrayed by the ringleader of this group and he turned, allowing the Avengers to locate their secret hideout. There they discovered that the mastermind behind this plot was Thor’s half-brother Loki. During the fight the Avengers learned that they were fighting on the Asgardian Isle of Silence.[13] As the battle progressed, the Kingping and Mandarin fled, the Wizard was captured, the Red Skull was uncovered as a robot duplicate, and Loki was vanquished.[14]

Although they still don’t have all the facts of what went down, Captain America concludes by saying that there are many organizational and security needs that have to be addressed and corrected in order to prevent something of this scale from ever happening again. If there’s any saving grace in all of this, it is that the foes they fought couldn’t bring them to trust each other, leading to their downfall. Should they ever learn to co-operate in the future it would give Cap reason to worry.

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Captain America, Thor, Vision), the Wizard, Edwin Jarvis

Continuity Notes

  1. The breakout at the Vault happened in Avengers Spotlight #26.

  2. Namor was approached by Loki in Captain America #365. At the time of this story, Namor had given up his animosity toward the surface world after being deposed as ruler of Atlantis in Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner #1-4.

  3. The sinking of Hydrobase happened in Avengers #311. At the time, Cap says he was returning home from Madripoor following the events of Captain America #363-364. He also states that She-Hulk was busy fighting Pseudoman. This was in Sensational She-Hulk #10-11.

  4. Quasar and Stingray’s recovery effort was documented in Avengers Spotlight #27. The captured robots were a loosely formed group dubbed Heavy Metal that were collected by the Super-Adaptoid during a quest to obtain the Cosmic Cube. See Avengers #286-290. Tess-One and the Super-Adaptoid are pilfered by Dr. Doom and later appear in Spectacular Spider-Man #160 and Fantastic Four #336 respectively. The Fourth Sleeper appeared in Captain America #367.

  5. The battle with the Awesome Android took place in Avengers Spotlight #27.

  6. The Fantastic Four were busy in a congressional hearing to prevent the government from enacting a superhuman registration act, as seen in Fantastic Four #334-336. The Avengers sub-basement was part of their original headquarters, Avengers Mansion, since Avengers #1. After the mansion was attacked by the Masters of Evil in Avengers #273-277, it was moved to Hydrobase but the old sub-basement remained behind. The land was turned into a park as seen in X-Factor #23. The Avengers started using the sub-basement again in Avengers #312.

  7. The battle with Namor/The Controller took place in Captain America #365-367, Thor’s battle with Juggernaut took place in Thor #411-412, Quasar fought Absorbing on in Quasar #5, Hawkeye fought his foes in Avengers Spotlight #27 and 28.

  8. The West Coast Avengers fought the U-Foes and Mole Man in Avengers West Coast #53 and 54 respectively.

  9. Doctor Strange fought Avengers foes the Enchantress and Arkon in Doctor Strange Sorcerer Supreme #12 and 13, while Spider-Man battled Graviton in Amazing Spider-Man #326, Titania and Goliath in Web of Spider-Man #59-60, and Daredevil fought Ultron in Daredevil #275-276.

  10. The Avengers helped Cloak and Dagger take down the so-called Assembly of Evil in Mutant Misadventures of Cloak and Dagger #8-9, while the battle with Freedom Force took place in Avengers #312.

  11. Captain America took down the Controller in Captain America #367, while Wonder Man and Wasp fought Gargantua in Avengers Spotlight #28.

  12. Quasar’s hunt for Vault escapees was chronicled in Quasar #6, Spider-Man’s encounter with Magneto was in Amazing Spider-Man #327, and the Mandarin’s attack on the Avengers occurred in Avengers #313.

  13. This final battle and all its revelations took place in Avengers West Coast #55. The Isle of Silence was a location of importance as this was where Loki was first defeated when the Avengers first formed in Avengers #1.

  14. Unkown to everyone at the time, Magneto had left the real Red Skull to die in a bunker as punishment for his crimes as a Nazi during World War II in Captain America #367. He then placed a robot duplicate in the Skull’s place.

Day the Stranger Came

Hubie Green is a little boy who lives in a small town in Iowa, where he helps his family run their struggling motel business. Hubie is absolutely in love with superheroes and the Avengers in particular and has amassed a huge collection of newspaper clippings about Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.[1] As Hubie is taping up his latest clippings he listens to recent radio reports about the Avengers recent battle with Terminus which happened in nearby Mason City. That’s when the bell rings at the front desk and Hubie rushes down to help check in the new guests, hoping they might have a story to tell about the Avengers.

The guests are three men and two women: Steve Rogers, Clint Barton, Pietro Maximoff, Janet Van Dyne, and Sersi. Pietro doesn’t like the idea of staying in town saying it is a waste of time. Not really listening to this, Hubie is more interested in the newspaper tucked under Steve Rogers’ arm as it has a front page story about how the racist group the Sons of the Serpent have recently been active in the area. Asking Steve if he is done with the paper, the man gladly gives it to the boy, who races back up to his room to add this new clipping to his collection. Hubie remembers hearing about the Sons of the Serpent before, Hubie goes through his collection of clippings and finds a number of stories about the Avengers many clashes with the racist group.[2]

The next morning, Hubie dresses up in his home made superhero costume and checks the papers for any news to see if there is any more news about the Sons of the Serpent. That’s when Hubie’s brother Luke comes home and mocks Hubie for his hero worship and tells his brother that the Avengers don’t care about little people like them and gets into a racist rant about foreigners stealing all the jobs. This deeply upsets Hubie who goes up to his room to sulk. That’s when he hears people talking outside his bedroom window. When he looks out to see who it is, he is excited to see that it is Captain America, Hawkeye, Quicksilver, the Wasp, and Sersi, who are in town to investigate the return of the Sons of the Serpent. Hubie then excitedly listens to television and radio reports of the Avengers battle with the Sons of the Serpent, excited to hear his heroes are in action in his home town.

When he goes to tell his brother Luke about what’s going on, he makes a shocking discovery: Luke is the leader of the Sons of the Serpent. Luke managed to escape and is talking with another member of the group about relocating to their hideout. Hubie is devastated to learn that his brother is a supervillain and he goes down the hall to the room where their current guests are staying. Hubie reveals he knows that they are the Avengers and where they can find the Sons of the Serpent. Sure enough, the Avengers are able to bust the rest of the group. As Hubie listens to reports of the battle on the radio he slowly taks down all of his newspaper clippings of the Avengers. Even though he still respects the Avengers as heroes, suddenly their exploits are no longer so exciting anymore.

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Captain America, Quicksilver, Sersi, Wasp, Hawkeye), Sons of the Serpent

Continuity Notes

  1. On the opening splash page we get a look at a number of the newspaper clippings that Hubie has taped to the walls of his bedroom. Each one denotes a specific point in Avengers history. They include the headlines:

    • CAPTAIN AMERICA JOINS THE AVENGERS: A reference to the classic Avengers #4.

    • AVENGERS AID IN EARTHQUAKE: This one is pretty vague and there are quite a few Avengers stories that involve an earthquake. The earliest one, however, was in Avengers #5 when the team battled the Lava Men.

    • AVENGERS DEFEAT KANG: Likely referring to the team’s first battle with the time traveler back in Avengers #8.

    • AVENGERS, FF BATTLE THE HULK: The two teams first worked together to stop the Hulk in Fantastic Four #25-26.

    • AVENGERS FIGHT MOLE MAN!: This one isn’t entirely clear. It could reference their first encounter with the Mole Man back in Avengers #17 or their more recent clash with him in Avengers West Coast #54.

    • A poster of Captain America, Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and Scarlet Witch is from when that team first formed in Avengers #16.

    • BLACK PANTHER JOINS THE AVENGERS: T’Challa first joined the team in Avengers #52.

    • YELLOWJACKET IS GOLIATH: Hank Pym transitioned from being Goliath to Yellowjacket over the course of Avengers #59-60.

    • A photo of the wedding of Yellowjacket and the Wasp: The two tied the knot in Avengers #60, although by the time of this story the two had since divorced in issue #213.

    • AVENGERS PREVENT EARTH’S ATOMIC DEATH: Features a picture of Arkon, pointing to the time Arkon of Polmachus attempted to blow up Earth to re-energize the rings that give his homeworld life circa Avengers #76.

    • AVENGERS CLASH WITH ZODIAC: Features a picture of Zodiac’s star-craft, placing this battle as the one that occurred in Avengers #120-122.

    • STAR ABOVE AVENGERS MANSION: is in reference to the Celestial Madonna affair which took place in Avengers #129-135 and Giant-Size Avengers #2-4.

    • AVENGERS CHANGE ROSTER: Features a picture of the Beast, which either means when Beast tried out and became a provisional member of the team in Avengers #137 or when he was granted full membership during the next official roster change in issue #151.

    • AVENGERS BREAK UP: Shows a picture of Henry Gyrich, former NSA liaison for the team. He forced the group to downsize in Avengers #181 when its roster blew up to include nearly every past member up to that point.

    • AVENGERS FORM W. COAST TEAM: The Vision decided to form a west coast roster in Avengers #243. Hawkeye got the new roster up and running in West Coast Avengers #1.

      GREAT LAKES AVENGERS?: Is a reference to the unofficial Avengers team of the mid-west which first formed in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #46.

    • HUMAN TORCH RETURNS TO WEST COAST: Is a reference to the recent reactivation of the original android Human Torch in Avengers West Coast #50. He had been deactivated since Fantastic Four Annual #4.

    • THOR BATTLES JUGGERNAUT: Which took place in Thor #411-412.

    • AVENGERS VS U-FOES: A reference to the west coast team’s recent battle with the quartet in Avengers West Coast #53.

  2. Hubie’s newspaper clippings reference the times that the Son of the Serpents clashed with the Avengers (Avengers #32-33 and 73-74) and the Defenders (Defenders #23-25).

Topical References

  • Hubie is depicted watching the Avengers exploits on a black-and-white CRT television. This should be considered topical as this type of technology is obsolete.

Clowning Around

Construction of the Avengers brand new headquarters is underway and the site foreman are giving Captain America, the Falcon, She-Hulk, Quasar, and Sersi on a tour of the site to show them how work is progressing. Two of the workers — named Frances and Percy — get nervous seeing the Avengers on site, fearing that their presence will attract super-villains and ruin all their hard work.

No sooner than they voice this concern does the villain known as Plantman shows up to ambush the Avengers. The construction crew leaps into action and subdues the criminal before the Avengers can see him. They do the same thing with the Water Wizard and Stilt-Man when they show up next. Lastly, the Wrecker shows up and he proves too strong to over power. In order to deal with him, they then use a crane to dump a pile of debris on him. They celebrate their victory just as the Avengers finish their tour. Seeing this display, Captain America figures the crew is just clowning around.

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Captain America, Falcon, Quasar, Sersi, She-Hulk), Plantman, Wrecker, Stilt-Man, Water Wizard, Redwing

Terminus Factor Reading Order