Avengers West Coast #49
Baptism of Fire
While investigating a destroyed Quinjet, Captain America and She-Hulk have traveled to Absolom College in Texas. There, they discovered that the biological entity called That Which Endures has taken control of the Scarlet Witch, in order to bond to the homo superior race after centuries controlling humanity.[1] She is congratulated by Jeramiah Random, the leader of the humans that are under That Which Endures control. He then has Cap and She-Hulk carried out of the room so they can begin the next phase of their plan.
Meanwhile, the Great Lakes Avengers — a new team being mentored by Hawkeye and Mockingbird — have also picked up the distress signal. They are heading to Texas in the private plane owned by super-model Ashley Crawford, aka the GLA’s Big Bertha. As this ship flies much slower than the Avengers Quinjets, Hawkeye has grown increasingly impatient and has to be told that they are going as fast as they can. Mockingbird also tells them that they only know the general area of where the Quinjet was destroyed and they will have to triangulate the location once they reach its general location.
At that same moment, the Avengers West Coast are returning to their headquarters after meeting again with Phineas Horton. While they were originally looking for the Scarlet Witch and Vision, the trip helped them resolve unanswered questions about the recent revelation that the Vision was not built from the remains of the original Human Torch.[2] As Hank Pym heads to the lab, the Wasp stays behind to talk more about the Vision with Wonder Man. Simon had recently decided not to offer up his brain engrams to restore the Vision’s personality and emotions because he has come to realize that he is also in love with the Scarlet Witch.[3] Janet points out that this is not surprising since the Vision’s personality was based on him.
While in the lab, Hank tries to do more research on the Vision’s past, a job that has been made difficult after Vigilance used a computer virus to eliminate all data gathered on the synthezoid. Frustrated, Hank figures he can get answers from the Scarlet Witch and asks their butler Carlos about Wanda’s behavior before she disappeared. Carlos is mentioning the letter that she received moments before she and the Vision bugged out when suddenly, Tigra — more feline in form than ever before — comes charging by. When Carlos mentions that she had been hunting mice on the property, Hank fears that her feline persona might be becoming dominant again and goes into the woods after her.[4] There, Tigra tries to attack him, forcing Hank to use his Pym Particles to shrink her down to size so she doesn’t harm anybody while he tries to get her contained.
Back in Texas, Captain America has been playing possum this entire time and when he and She-Hulk are left alone he suggests that they get moving in order to free Wanda. However, She-Hulk has been taken over by That Which Endures and she starts attacking him. Out of his league, Cap decides to flee and regroup elsewhere but he runs into Jeramiah Random who shoots him with a stun blaster. Random doesn’t understand how they cannot take control of Cap since That Which Endures exists in all humans.
Elsewhere in the facility, the Vision has been left unattended following a test for over seven hours. Suspecting that there is something amiss, he becomes intangible and begins looking around. Suspecting that Random has lied about Wanda going off on an errand, the Vision takes to the air where he is spotted by the Great Lakes Avengers who circle their plane around. Boarding the private jet, the Vision discovers that Hawkeye and Mockingbird are mentoring the fledgling team and they compare notes.
Back on the ground, Random has his scientists begin tests on Captain America and they discover that the Super Soldier Serum that created him somehow purge the Enduring from his body. Although she is under the control of That Which Endures, She-Hulk doesn’t know what it is. The Scarlet Witch explains that the entity was created during the early days of life on Earth when a single celled organism divided in two. Rather than continuing to self-replicate like all other life at the time, the two cells merged back together creating That Which Endures. As it began to divide and evolve into more complex lifeforms That Which Endured lived on in ever new organism that was born. The entity focused on the dominant species of each cycle of life on Earth, stating that it was responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs once it decided that they were an evolutionary dead-end.[5] It moved on to mammals, and later humanity, and is now attempting to branch over to mutants, with the Scarlet Witch being the first successful host integrated into the collective.
That’s when the alarm goes off, warning them that the Great Lakes Avengers have arrived on the property. She-Hulk is sent up to help the students defend the lab from Hawkeye and the others. As the battle rages on, Doorman uses his powers to give Mister Immortal access to the lab. He soon finds the lab where the assimilator device — what allows That Which Endure to take control of its human hosts — is located. When Random and his assistants confront Mister Immortal he is about to enter the main reactor. Their warning that he will be instantly bombarded with lethal radiation does little to dissuade him from going inside, since Mister Immortal — as his name suggests — can come back from the dead.
Inside, Immortal sacrifices himself to destroy the assimilator’s power source, freeing everyone from That Which Endure’s controls. In the aftermath of the battle, they learn that “Jeramiah Random” is actually a man named Charles Edison. Considering he was being forced to do all this against his will and sank his entire fortune to build the facility, Hawkeye and the others decide to let him go. Also back in her right mind, the Scarlet Witch is frightened about everything she learned about That Which Endures and wonders what will happen if it does succeed in making the leap from humans to mutants. Captain America doesn’t know how much of what he has learned today is true or not, but hopes that the spark of hope in humanity is not the product of That Which Endures and that they are more than just vehicles or a parasite because the day That Which Endures moves on they will find themselves very much alone.
Recurring Characters
Avengers West Coast (Wasp, Hank Pym, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Wonder Man, Tigra), Great Lakes Avengers (Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Mister Immortal, Big Bertha, Flatman, Dinah Saur, Doorman), Captain America, She-Hulk, That Which Endures, Charles Edison
Continuity Notes
This story refers to the Scarlet Witch as a mutant, however, this turns out to be false. As revealed in Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4-5, Wanda was experimented upon as a child by the High Evolutionary. To cover up his work, he made it so future genetic testing would have Wanda register as a mutant.
The Vision’s origins are incredibly complicated. Here’s the dope:
The original Human Torch from World War II was an android created by Phineas Horton in 1939, as seen in Marvel Comics #1.
The Torch burned out in the 1950s and his deactivated body was recovered by the Mad Thinker in the Modern Age and used to try and defeat his successor, Johnny Storm. That fight ended with the android Torch being deactivated. See Fantastic Four Annual #4.
During this downtime, as revealed in Avengers Forever #8, the time-master Immortus used his powers to create a chronal duplicate of the Torch. One copy was buried in a grave, as seen in Sub-Mariner #14 and will be revived in Avengers West Coast #50. While the other….
Was taken by Ultron who kidnapped Horton and forced him to recreate the Torch as the Vision. Horton died during this process. See Avengers #57-58 and 134-135.
More recently, in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #42-45, the Torch was kidnapped by an organization called Vigilance who disassembled him and erased his memory. Although he was rebuilt, he no longer has his original personality and emotions. It was during this time that the Avengers were convinced by a man claiming to be Phineas Horton that the Vision was not based on his work.
This was all part of the grand scheme of Immortus to manipulate the destiny of the Avengers, as detailed (again) in Avengers Forever #8. The man appearing to be Horton in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #42-45 and last issue is actually a Space Phantom who posed as Horton to sell this lie.
After becoming Wonder Man, the process that gave Simon Williams his powers seemingly killed him. As they were trying to save his life at the time, the Avengers made a copy of his brain engrams as detailed in Avengers #9. These engrams were used to create the Vision. Later, in Avengers #151, Simon returned to life. It was later explained in issue #165 that Simon didn’t really die but underwent a metamorphosis and became a being of ionic energy and that this process put him in a state that resembled death.
Tigra’s transformation into a cat-woman has a quite complicated history
Greer Grant wasn’t always like this, she started her crime fighting career as the Cat, and wore a high-tech suit to simulate feline like powers. See The Cat #1-4
During a battle with Hydra, she was exposed to deadly radiation. In order to save Greer’s life, Dr. Joanna Tomolo — the woman who created the Cat costume — revealed that she was one of the Cat People and used a magic spell to merge her with the spirit of their greatest warrior, Tigra. See Giant-Size Creatures #1.
From West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #1, Tigra’s two souls began warring with one another, causing her feline personality to fight for dominance. This was due to the merger process being imperfect. This was corrected in issue #15, but it started becoming a problem again in issue #42. Tigra will ultimately be cured in Avengers Spotlight #38.
That Which Endures isn’t the only event or individual that has claimed ownership for wiping out the dinosaurs. Iron Man Annual #10 states that it was Gaea — the Earth Mother — who decided that the dinosaurs had to go in favor of mammals. Thor (vol. 2) #80 claims a meteor shower caused by Mjolnir was responsible. Conan the Barbarian #163 lays the blame on a comet. That said, none of these explanations are mutually exclusive.
