Avengers West Coast #48
This Ancient Evil
500 Million Years Ago…
It’s the dawn of life on the planet Earth and churning around in violent seas the first building blocks of life are starting to form. A single celled organism divides into two identical copies of itself. However, they quickly merge back together again to become one again. This time, there is a secondary life form imprinted within this organism and when it splits again, so does the secondary entity. Life begins to evolve and after thousands of years the first complex organisms begin to emerge, all carrying part of this second organism.
Now…
This organism, called That Which Endures has, for centuries, been connected to the human race. However, with the decline of humanity and the rise of mutants, they have been trying to crossover to the race which will soon become the most dominant lifeform on the planet. They have attempted to transfer their essance to homo superior for some time with little success. However, under the guidance of Jeramiah Random, That Which Endures has finally bonded to a mutant host, the Scarlet Witch.[1] Bonded to the symbiotic entity, Wanda has been kept in a stasis tank as she is having memories about That Which Endures implanted in her mind. They believe this process will take about two hours time and by then they will have fought past the genetic lockout and make a finally connection.
Meanwhile, the destruction of the Scarlet Witch’s Quinjet, has attracted the attention of Captain America and She-Hulk who are flying out to Texas to investigate the cause. Alerted of their arrival, Random comes out to greet the two Avengers when they arrive outside Absolom College. He gives the pair the fake story that he told the Witch before them — that he had extended an offer to help restore the Vision’s lost emotions and personality.[2] He tells them that Wanda was there and invites them inside.
Far across the galaxy, Starfox continues to search for Nebula to learn if her claims that she is the granddaughter of his brother Thanos are true. He was about to give up after the Avengers informed him that Nebula had escaped through time when he got another lead.[3] Sure enough he finds her on a dead world where Nebula and Gunthar have just found some ancient tablets. Believing that they will make her more powerful than Thanos himself, Nebula orders them cut free and transported back to their ship.[4]
Back on Earth, in a homeless shelter in Denver, a woman has been admitted to the women’s ward. The administrators in charge are checking on their new Jane Doe. She hasn’t been forthcoming about who she is but insists that she needs to get to Los Angeles. The only possible clue to her identity is a newspaper clipping about the Vision’s recent public admission that he was not recreated from the body of the original Human Torch.[5]
In Texas, Captain America and the She-Hulk meet with the Vision, who was also told that Wanda left on some errand. Since he has been in the middle on examination of his composition he has no reason to question this claim. In the lab, Wanda continues to be fed memories of That Which Endures. He learns that the entity lived chose to live inside the dominant species of the planet until it reached a genetic dead end. When this moment happened to the dinosaurs, they deactivated in its species and instead focused on mammals, eventually zeroing in their focus on homo sapiens.[6] By this time, Random is giving Cap and She-Hulk on a tour of the robotics facility when he is called away. He tells the two Avengers that his assistant will continue the tour, but his abrupt departure makes them suspicious.
While at Grosvenor Memorial Hospital in Seattle, the Avengers West Coast visit with Phineas Horton, who has been hospitalized since their last encounter. Although they came looking for the Scarlet Witch and the Vision, they decide to use the trip to clarify some lingering mysteries surrounding the connection between the original Human Torch and the Vision, or the lack thereof apparently. The Avengers were previously led to believe that the Torch was rebuilt into the Vision by Ultron, who used Horton to assist him in doing so and that Phineas died as a result. Horton, who appears to be very much alive, reiterates that the Vision is not based on his invention. He points to the fact that the Torch was an artificial human with no mechanical parts while the Vision — a synthezoid — is a blending of artificial organs and machines. This supports Hank Pym’s experience, recounting back to when he once ventured inside the Vision to make repairs. Hank also recalls that the person who made the connection between the Torch and the Vision was Immortus, the self-styled master of time. If Immortus was lying to them, Hank wonders what the purpose was.[7]
Little does he know that Immortus is monitoring them at that moment from his fortress in Limbo. He has been manipulating the Avengers this whole time as part of a much larger scheme. Satisfied that everything is going according to plan, Immortus then turns his attention back to the Scarlet Witch, as she is an important part of his plans for the future.[8]
Back in Texas, the transfer process and a docile Scarlet Witch is released from the stasis chamber. Disorientated after ordeal, Wanda is then escorted to some quarters to get some rest. Pleased by this success, Jeramiah Random is happy to finally leave the human race behind who are as much of a genetic dead-end as the dinosaurs before them. In her room, Wanda feels as though all her fears and apprehensions have been scrubbed away and she finally feels at peace. She also comes to realize that things that her father Magneto said about humans back in her days with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants are starting to make sense to her. She now believes that mutants are superior to humans and that homo sapiens should bow down before her.[9]
That evening, Captain America and She-Hulk break into the robotics facility at Absolom to learn the truth about what happened to Wanda. Getting to Random’s office, Cap checks the computers and learns that there is a secret lab facility below the building. In order to get there as quickly as possible, She-Hulk leaps off the 20th floor of the building, punching a hole down in the sub-basement. Captain America, using his indestructible shield to break his fall, leaps down after her. Finding the holding cell where Wanda is being kept, She-Hulk punches her way inside. However, Wanda is now fully under the power with That Which Endures. She orders her friends to bow down before her, but before they can attack she uses her hex powers to cause the wall to collapse on them, burying them under a pile of rubble.
While in Milwaukee, Hawkeye is continuing to train the Great Lakes Avengers in an effort to make them an well oiled fighting machine. Unfortunately, things aren’t going so well, much to his frustration. After another botched training exercise, they are interrupted by Mockingbird who tells them that she just picked up a distress signal from a destroyed Quinjet out in Texas. Seeing this as their baptism of fire, Hawkeye calls for the Avengers to assemble and they head out to bail his former teammates out of a jam.
Recurring Characters
Avengers West Coast (Wasp, Hank Pym, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Wonder Man), Captain America, She-Hulk, Starfox, Nebula, Gunthar, Immortus, That Which Endures, Charles Edison, Ann Raymond, “Phineas T. Horton”, Great Lakes Avenges (Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Mister Immortal, Big Bertha, Flatman, Dinah Saur, Doorman)
Continuity Notes
At the time of this story, everyone believes that the Scarlet Witch is a mutant. However, this is not actually the case. Years later, in Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4-5, it is revealed that Wanda was experimented on as a baby by the High Evolutionary. In order to cover up his work, he made it so future genetic tests would have her register as a mutant.
The Vision had just recently been disassembled and wiped of his memory. This happened in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #42-45.
The situation with Nebula here is quite complicated. Here are the facts:
Her claim that she is the daughter of Thanos and Starfox’s subsequent hunt for her was originally chronicled in Avengers #257-259.
Is she really Thanos’ daughter? Well she has made conflicting claims regarding this. In Silver Surfer Annual #5 a mind probe revealed that her father was an alien with blue skin and a ridged chin like Thanos. Later, in Nova (vol. 3) #1 she claimed to be related to Zorr a Luphomoid tyrant. Gamora #1-5 shows that Nebula was, at least at one point, was raised by Thanos like an adopted daughter alongside Gamora. What’s the truth? Who can say, it doesn’t help that Nebula herself is certifiably insane.
The Nebula storyline teased here is later chronicled in Avengers #311-318.
This mystery woman and her connection to the Human Torch and the Vision is explained in Avengers West Coast #50, which reveals that she is Ann Raymond, the wife of Thomas Raymond, aka Toro, the Torch’s old wartime sidekick. The Vision’s public announcement is chronicled in Avengers Spotlight #23. We’ll get into the Torch/Vision thing in sec…
This story states that That Which Endures might have been responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs. However, there are other events that have been attributed to the end of the dinosaurs. In Iron Man Annual #10, it was stated that Gaea allowed them to go extinct in favor of making mammals the dominant species. Thor (vol. 2) #80 states that a meteor-shower caused by Mjolnir was the cause. Conan the Barbarian #163 claims that it was a comet. However, all of these explanations might not be mutually exclusive.
Yeah the whole Human Torch/Vision thing is a god damn mess. Follow along, if you dare:
Horton created the Human Torch way back in Marvel Comics #1. The Torch later became one of the premiere super-heroes of the 1940s
By the 1950s, the Torch’s powers flared out of control and he was deactivated. He was recovered and revived by the Mad Thinker in the Modern Age and used against his successor, Johnny Storm and deactivated again. See Fantastic Four Annual #4.
What nobody knows is that Immortus — as part of a long running scheme to manipulate the Avengers destiny explained in Avengers Forever #8 — created a chronal duplicate of the Human Torch. One of them was buried in a grave in Sub-Mariner #14 until he is revived in Avengers West Coast #50. The other one on the other hand…
Per Avengers #57-58 and 134-135: The Vision was created by Ultron and he did indeed get the aid of Phineas Horton (apparently, see below) and Horton did seemingly die at that point.
Hank Pym once ventured inside the Vision’s body and examined his inner workings this was in Avengers #93.
Immortus later revealed to the Vision that he was created from the Human Torch’s remains, again, in Avengers #134-135.
The Avengers were led to believe their original understanding of the Vision’s origins were actually false in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #42-45. This was also when they apparently met Horton and he claimed the Vision wasn’t based on his work. However, as Avengers Forever #8 reveals that this was all a deception. The man claiming to be Phineas Horton they met then and are talking to here is actually a Space Phantom in disguise, planted to sell this false narrative.
Immortus’ scheme here is yet another smaller part of his grander schemes. Here, he is trying to mentally condition Wanda in order to make her easier to control so that he can exploit her power as a nexus being. This process involve the aforementioned disassembling of the Vision, this That Which Endures plot line which runs from Avengers West Coast #47-49, the death of her children in issue #51-52, her becoming evil and rejoining Magneto’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in issues #56-58 and 60. Immortus will try to finalize his plan in issues #61-62.
Wanda had two stints on Magneto’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants from X-Men #4-11 and Avengers #47-49, 53, and X-Men #43-45. At the time of this story, Wanda had just recently been convinced that she is the daughter of Magneto in Vision and the Scarlet Witch #4. However, this turns out to be as much of a lie as her mutant heritage. As revealed in Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #4 and 11, she is actually the daughter of Natalya Maximof and an as yet unidentified Scarlet Warlock.