Avengers/Invaders #8
Cry D’Spayre…
While attempting to contained the time displaced Invaders, the Mighty Avengers have to defend the SHIELD helicarrier from rogue Life Model Decoys under the control of Ultron. The Wasp (Janet Van Dyne), Black Widow (Natasha Romanov), and Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew)[1] have just liberated SHIELD Director Tony Stark (aka Iron Man). With Stark free, the heroes go see if the rest of the team have succeeded in liberating the Human Torch (Jim Hammond), Captain America (Steve Rogers) and the Sub-Mariner (Namor).
The three Invaders were trapped in a VR simulation in order to protect them from knowing too much about the future before Ultron’s attack. When this era’s Captain America (James Barnes) has just freed Steve from his isolation pod. However, Rogers sees his future counterpart’s mechanical arm and mistakes him for another LMD. James tries to convince Steve that he needs to save Namor before he gets killed in the simulation. That’s when the rest of the Mighty Avengers — Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers), Wonder Man (Simon Williams), Ares, and the Sentry (Bob Reynolds) — come crashing through the door. Barnes tells Steve to ignore them and he pulls Namor out of the simulation in the nick of time. Realizing he had his successor pegged wrong, Steve apologizes to James. Barnes says he understands and explains that he lost his arm in the war.[2]
Not far away, the LMDs have removed the Torch from the scene and have him shackled to restraining device. Jim has been weakened by the decoys after they fed off his synthetic blood, tainting him with Ultron’s code. Struggling to get free, Hammond finally wakes up and flames on and begins attack the LMDs, bringing them death that comes part and parcel with the life they so desperately sought.
Meanwhile, in the sewers of Manhattan, the New Avengers — Ronin (Clint Barton), Luke Cage, Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Wolverine (Logan), Echo (Maya Lopez), Iron Fist (Danny Rand), and Doctor (Stephen) Strange — the remaining Invaders — Bucky (James Barnes) and Toro (Thomas Raymond) — and time displaced soldier Paul Anslem have sought out the Cosmic Cube. Strange had discovered that it is the cause for the Invaders being pulled forward in time and they discover it is being used by the Fear Lord known as D’Spayre. The demon is able to ensnare most of the heroes and taunt them with past regrets. However, his poisoned words have no effect on Echo, who is deaf. Slipping away from the others, she manages to use the pipes overhead and grabs the Cosmic Cube.
She then tosses it at Strange, who uses it to free his comrades before blasting D’Spayre with its energies. This banishes D’Spayre, leaving the Vision (Aarkus) of the 1940s in his place. The Vision explains that he hasn’t come to help them, but rather to help the Cube, as is the calling of his people.[3] He explains that this Cosmic Cube is about to reach sentience and will take on a new form based on the wants and needs of the people who utilize it. However, the collective despair briefly transformed the Vision into D’Spayre in order to prevent it from influencing the shape the Cube will take. With the Cosmic Cube in hand, Doctor Strange says they can send them back home. That’s when Paul Anslem looks into the object and sees images of his buddies from the war getting killed in action. Seeing the look on Anslem’s face, Stephen asks if anything is wrong but Paul dismisses his concerns as nothing.
Back aboard the SHIELD helicarrier, the Human Torch causes the blood drank by the Life Model Decoys to burst into flames, immolating them. Grabbing the one possessed by Ultron, he rips off the synthetic flesh off its face, revealing the visage of Ultron underneath. Jim has figured out that Ultron intends to create a “master race” of robots to replace humanity. Having seen the horrors of such mad men in his own time, he refuses to allow that to happen. Dying, Ultron regrets not seeking out actual life and refuses to give up his desire to supplant humanity. With that, the Human Torch crushes Ultron’s head, seemingly destroying him.[4]
That’s when the New Avengers and remaining Invaders teleport onto the helicarrier. By this time, Stark has suited up as Iron Man and joined the others. They all agree to cease hostilities and return everyone home. Steve thanks his future counterpart and admits that there is a lot he wants to talk about, but given the situation James knows he can’t say anything for fear of negatively altering the future.[5] However, before they send the Invaders back to their own time, they all pay one final visit to the present day version of Paul Anslem. Paul hugs his past self, who then whispers that he is going to fix the tragic end of their friends in the past.[6] The present day Cap, who warned his past self (Bucky) of his fate in 1945, reminds young James to look out for himself as well.
As Doctor Strange begins communing with the Cosmic Cube to send the Invaders and Paul back to 1943, Anslem makes his move. He reaches out and touches the Cube with his index finger causing both to vanish in a flash of light. Suddenly, the mystic barriers that Strange had put up to prevent the present from being overwritten by the changing timeline breaks causing him great agony. Suddenly, a reality wave begins sweeping the planet, rewriting history in the process. With the two Avengers teams being slowly wiped out, Doctor Strange manages to cast a spell to send the Invaders and a group of Avengers — Iron Man, Ms. Marvel, the Wasp, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Luke Cage, and Wolverine — so they can fix the timeline in the past.[7]
Recurring Characters
Mighty Avengers (Iron Man, Ms. Marvel, the Wasp, Wonder Man, Black Widow, “Spider-Woman”, Ares, the Sentry), New Avengers (Ronin, Luke Cage, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Echo, Iron Fist, Doctor Strange), Captain America (Barnes), Invaders (Captain America (Rogers), Bucky, Human Torch, Toro, Sub-Mariner), Vision, Paul Anslem, Ultron, D’Spayre, SHIELD
Continuity Notes
The woman who appears to be Spider-Woman here is actually a Skrull spy named Veranke, as will be revealed in Secret Invasion #3. Per New Avengers #42, she took the place of the real Jessica Drew circa Giant-Size Spider-Woman #1. This is ahead of a planned invasion of Earth that will primarily take place in Secret Invasion #1-8.
What Steve Rogers doesn’t know is that the present day Captain America is actually the future version of his partner Bucky. In 1945, Bucky was blown up trying to disarm a drone loaded with explosives, as seen in Avengers #4. He survived, as seen in Captain America (vol. 5) #11, but lost his left arm in the blast. After being recovered by the Russians, they outfitted him with bionic arm to replace the lost appendage.
Aarkus is a member of an alien race which originate from the smoke dimension who ended up trapped on Earth, as seen in Marvel Mystery Comics #13. This is the first time it is mentioned that Aarkus’ people guide the development of Cosmic Cubes. The idea of someone nurturing a sentient Cosmic Cube isn’t out of the ordinary, we’ve seen this when the Shaper of Worlds (a sentient cube himself) guided the development of another Cube called Kubik. See Captain America Annual #7. That said, Aarkus doesn’t specify his people caretake only Cosmic Cubes, but rather the emergence of new species of life. This would explain why neither the Vision nor any of his people have been present when other nascent Cubes came to life. However, as of this writing (September, 2024), this concept has not been explored any further.
This isn’t the end of Ultron, his code will jump ship from here and end up in Hank Pym’s Infinite Mansion, as seen in Mighty Avengers #33-36.
Namely, everyone is mourning the loss of Steve Rogers in the present day because everyone believes he was killed by an assassin’s bullet in Captain America (vol. 5) #25. What nobody knows is that Steve was hit with a chronal bullet and has been forced to live his life in a constant loop. He will remain in this purgatory until he is freed in Captain America: Reborn #1-6.
How Paul Anslem manages to survive into the Modern Age becomes increasingly difficult to explain as the Sliding Timescale bumps the Modern Age forward (see below). At least not without some means of extending, slowing, or stopping his aging process at some point. That said, as of this writing (September, 2024), Marvel has yet to provide an explanation for his longevity. I have posited a theory in my index entry of issue #1.
Reality-616 is temporarily overwritten with another reality, which can happen when time travel causes a massive historical change or by reality warp. This phenomenon is explained in more detail in Exiles #70-71. In this case, per Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z Update #1, the reality that replaces the Prime Marvel Universe has been designated Reality-93198. This will remain the situation until Avengers/Invaders #12.
Topical References
When D’Spayer demands they return the Cosmic Cube to him, Spider-Man does an impression of Golum from the 2001-2003 film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings. The performance was by actor Andy Serkis who provided motion capture for the CGI created character as well as providing his distinctive voice. As this impression hinges on this very specific performance of the character it’s kind of hard to dismiss it at a topical reference as replacing it with a contemporary example would change the nature of the joke.
The elder Paul Anslem states that World War II was about 65 years prior to the present. This should be considered a topical reference as that is relative to the date of publication. The Modern Age of the Marvel Universe operates on a Sliding Timescale that constantly bumps it forward in time. As a result, the gulf of years between the end of the war and the preset will continue to grow over time.
