Avengers West Coast #61
The Immortus Imperative
Immortus has immobilized the Scarlet Witch, intending to use her hex powers for his own personal gain.[1] The Avengers West Coast try to stop him, but a temporal barrier prevents them from pulling Wanda away from his side. Not even Lockjaw, the Inhuman dog, can teleport her away.[2] With nobody able to stop him, Immortal teleports everyone away with him to Limbo. However, even though Immortus has fled, Agatha Harkness manages to cast a spell so that an astral image of the time master remains behind.
In Limbo, Immortus then summoned a new Legion of the Unliving which consists of the Black Knight, what appears to be the Human Torch, the Grim Reaper, Swordsman, Left-Winger, Right-Winger, Iron Man 2020, and Oort the Living Comet.[3][4] Each Avenger pairs off against a specific foe. Wonder Man battles his brother the Grim Reaper, Iron Man fights his future counterpart, while the Hawkeye takes on the Swordsman, Hank Pym fights the Black Knight, US Agent takes on both Left and Right-Wingers, the Wasp fights who she believes is the Human Torch,[5] and lastly, Quicksilver fights Oort the Living Comet who claims to have fought Pietro at some point in the near future. In the ensuing brawl, Quicksilver is the first to fall in battle.
Back on Earth, Agatha Harkness now has the astral projection of Immortus — a shade of his actual self — prisoner at Avengers Compound. With it under a magical trance, she demands that Immortus reveal his purpose for targeting the Scarlet Witch. She is aware that the multiverse itself is unraveling but highly doubts that Immortus is altruistic enough to repair the damage without serving his own ends. She forms a pentagram around the spectral form of Immortus and begins casting a spell that will make him reveal his secrets.
Back in Limbo, Hawkeye matches his skills against the Swordsman, questioning his motivation to side with Immortus the entire time. Although the Swordsman trained Hawkeye when he was a teen, the archer has far succeeded his teacher and takes him down in battle.[6] While high in the air, Hank Pym dogfights with the Black Knight aboard his Rover flying craft. When the craft is damaged, Hank comes out in a jetpack and knocks the Knight off his winged horse, sending him falling to his death a second time. Not far away, US Agent fights against his one-time allies Left-Winger and Right-Winger. When the pair come charging at him with jagged rocks, he tosses his shield at Left-Winger’s feet causing him to trip and stumble into Right-Wing and the two men impale themselves.
Meanwhile, the battle between the two Iron Man isn’t going quite so well for the hero. However, his future counterpart is too reliant on his more advanced Iron Man armor and the Avenger manages to knock his foe out using brute force.[7] On a nearby balcony, Wonder Man tries to talk some sense into the Grim Reaper as he doesn’t want to fight him. Unfortunately, the Grim Reaper wants to kill his brother and Simon is forced to break Eric’s neck in order to defend himself. The Wasp, on the other hand, is not faring so well against the “Human Torch”, who reveals that he’s actually the original Torch’s partner, Toro.[8] Knocking Janet out of the sky, Toro lands to the ground and begins reaching down to crush her with his flaming hand.
Back on Earth, the spectral image of Immortus reveals to Agatha Harkness his origins and his plans. He recounts how he was born in the 30th century of a parallel universe. Bored with this peaceful society, Nathaniel Richards entertained himself with ancient videos of long dead heroes such as the Fantastic Four. A descendant of the “Benefactor” who tamed his world, Nathaniel Richards learned that he was his ancestor and that he was related to Reed Richards, the leader of the Fantastic Four. Stealing plans for the Benefactor’s time machine, Nathaniel sent himself back in time over 6000 years and became the Egyptian ruler known as Rama-Tut. Ironically, Rama-Tut’s reign was ended by the Fantastic Four who also had traveled back in time to that period. Fleeing back to the future, Nathaniel eventually reinvented himself as Kang the Conqueror and soon clashed with heroes all over the time stream, creating endless divergent versions of himself. Skipping ahead in his tale, Kang the Conqueror eventually reinvented himself again, becoming Immortus.
Sequestering himself in Limbo, Immortus gave up his ambitions of conquest and instead tried to understand the enigma of time itself. Eventually, he was visited by three entities called the Time-Keepers, the last living beings that exist at the end of time. They charged Immortus with safeguarding the time stream between the years 3000 BC and 4000 AD to ensure that time ends as it is ordained to do so. In this appointed task, Immortus soon interfered with his past selves — both Kang and Rama-Tut — but was more than a match for them. Over the years, he had been subtly manipulating the likes of Thor and the Avengers, pretending to be a benefactor when in reality he was merely serving the goals of the Time-Keepers. Eventually, Immortus began pursuing his own agenda, total mastery of seven centuries of time.[9]
Agatha knows that Immortus is holding something back and demands to know why he has been eradicating divergent timelines and who he is so focused on controlling the Scarlet Witch and her hex powers. Immortus reveals to her that the Scarlet Witch is a Nexus Being, one with the power to reshape all possible timelines and with her he can control all of the timelines under his purview.[10]
Immortus then reveals that he has been manipulating the Avengers since almost the very beginning, first by sending his Space Phantom to test them shortly after they were first formed. His original intent was to make the group disband so he had free access to the Scarlet Witch, but decided against this, instead choosing to use her future membership in the Avengers to mold her into becoming his tool. When she and the Vision began a romance, Immortus manipulated them into thinking that he was build out of the body of the original Human Torch. Immortus then officiated their wedding shortly thereafter. He then observed as Wanda used her powers to create a false pregnancy and gave birth to two twins who didn’t really exist. He then bided his time, slowly manipulating events.[11]
He slyly tricked the Vision into taking control of the world’s computers, prompting the international agency called Vigilance to dismantle the Vision. When the android was rebuilt it was bereft of his past emotions, effectively killing his marriage to the Scarlet Witch. From there, Immortus watched as Wanda was briefly captured to become one of the Seven Brides of Set and nearly becoming a host to the parasitic entity called That Which Endures. From there, it was a matter of Master Pandemonium pushing the fact that Wanda’s children were nothing more than the product of her imagination. This utterly broke her, allowing Magneto to easily convince her to rejoin his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. By that point, Wanda’s powers had reached their maximum potential. Suddenly, Agatha Harkness finally puts two-and-two together and is shocked to realize what Immortus’ ultimate goal is.[12]
Recurring Characters
Avengers West Coast (Iron Man, Hank Pym, Wasp, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Wonder Man, US Agent), Quicksilver, Agatha Harkness, Immortus, Legion of the Unliving (Black Knight, Toro, Swordsman, Grim Reaper, Left-Winger, Right-Winger, Iron Man 2020), Lockjaw, Ebony
Continuity Notes
Immortus seized control of the Scarlet Witch last issue during the Avengers battle with Magneto. This is so he could use her hex powers to alter time to suit his whims, as we’ll see next issue. This is all part of a grander scheme to manipulate the destiny of the Avengers, as we’ll learn in Avengers Forever #1-12.
The Avengers drop a lot of random bits of continuity during their confrontation with Immortus:
The Wasp refers to Hank Pym as a “founding father” of the team. What she is referring to is that Hank (like herself) was a founding member of the east coast tea in Avengers #1.
Wonder Man states that Iron Man’s “predecessor” was around when Immortus first showed up on the scene. At the time of this story, Iron Man got in hot water when he bricked a bunch of stolen Starktech, including that used by the government. Since Tony Stark’s double identity was a secret at the time, he faked Iron Man’s death then tricked the public into thinking he hired someone new for the job, as seen in Iron Man #225-232. Even though many of the Avengers know Tony’s secret he has attempted to play this ruse on them as well. He later gives up this pretense in Avengers West Coast #72.
Wonder Man incorrectly states that he came on the scene a few weeks after the Avengers first fought Immortus. Simon became Wonder Man in Avengers #9 and seemingly perished before Immortus first appeared in issue #10.
Iron Man mentions how his “predecessor” has faced the Legion of the Unliving in the past. In fact, the Avengers have faced iterations of this group many times before. There was an iteration created by Kang the Conqueror in Avengers #131-132 and Giant-Size Avengers #2, and a second iteration was created by the Grandmaster in Avengers Annual #16.
The members of the Legion of the Unliving seen here are all characters who were, at the time of this story, believed to be deceased. Here’s the dope on each one:
The Black Knight aka Nathan Garrett: the first Black Knight of the Modern Age. After falling off his flying horse in a battle with Iron Man in Tales of Suspense #73, he succumbed to his injuries as reported in Avengers #48. As of this writing (September, 2022) he is still considered among the deceased.
The being who everyone mistakes for the Human Torch here is actually his wartime partner Toro, aka Thomas Raymond. Toro died in a battle with Namor in Sub-Mariner #14. He will eventually be resurrected in Avengers/Invaders #12.
The Grim-Reaper aka Eric Williams: brother of Simon Williams, aka Wonder Man. He committed suicide in Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #2. Although he was briefly reanimated as a zombie in issue #12 of that series, he is deceased at the time of this story. He will be resurrected as a zombie again in Avengers West Coast #65.
The Swordsman aka Jacques Duquesne: A reformed Avengers foe who sacrificed his life to save his beloved Mantis in Giant-Size Avengers #2. He will be briefly resurrected in Chaos War #1-5 and Chaos War: Dead Avengers #1-3.
Left-Winger and Right-Winger, aka Hector Lennox and Jerome Johnson: Former allies of US Agent back when he was Captain America circa Captain America #332-350. When they leaked John Walker’s true identity in Captain America #341 it led to his parents getting murdered in issue #345. As revenge, Walker left the two tied to a burning oil tank that later exploded in issue #347. Although the two survived the blast they were horrendously burned. US Agent’s encounter with the pair here will lead to him investigating what happened to them in Captain America #381. It’s then that he learned that the pair committed suicide just prior to the AWC’s battle with Immortus.
Iron Man 2020 aka Arno Stark: Comes from some 30 years in the future (see below) from Reality-8410 (per Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Univeses 2005 #1). As of this writing it is hard to nail down Arno’s time travel and reality hopping adventures to a consistent chronology. Since the Legion consists of those who are deceased it’s possible that he was pulled from the moment of a death that has yet to be depicted as of this writing. Iron Manual Mark 3 suggests that this might have been a simulacra of Iron Man 2020 as opposed to the real deal, but isn’t firm on this possibility.
Oort the Living Comet: Oort is supposed to hale from some point in the immediate future as he recalls an as-yet-to-happen battle with Quicksilver. However, to date, Oort has not appeared in any stories that take place in the Earth-616 universe. In Avengers Forever #3, the Songbird of Reality-98120 mentions having fought Oort in battle before, suggesting that he actually comes from that reality. (That universe was given a designation in Blockbusters of the Marvel Universe #1.)
Janet mentions that the android Human Torch has been deactivated. This is indeed the case as seen in Avengers West Coast #57. He’ll be brought back online in issue #63.
Mention is made of how the Swordsman trained Hawkeye as a teen and that he is still “using the Mandarin’s hand-me-downs.” This is a reference to both Avengers #19-20, where the Swordsman’s connection to Hawkeye was revealed and he received a technologically enhanced sword by the Mandarin.
Here, Arno Stark refers to Tony as his “great-uncle” this relational reference is topical (see below). However, his connection to the Stark family is not. As per What If? (vol. 2) #53, he is descendant from Morgan Stark. That said, he’s not biologically related to Tony Stark though. As revealed in Iron Man (vol. 5) #17, Tony was adopted by the Starks, so he is not actually a blood relative to Morgan.
Here, Toro states that he was once kidnapped by Kang the Conqueror who thought he was the Human Torch as well. This is in reference to the first Legion of the Unliving and this statement doesn’t make any sense. Let me break it down to explain it:
As seen in the aforementioned Avengers #131-132 and Giant-Size Avengers #2, the android Human Torch was among their number. At the time, the Torch noticed that the Vision had similar components to his own, suggesting that they might be related.
This later led to Immortus revealing to the Vision in Avengers #134-135, that he was created using the original Human Torch’s body.
At the time of this story however, the Avengers were recently tricked into thinking that the Vision wasn’t actually created by the Torch after he was disassembled in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #42-45 and found the original Torch buried in a grave in Avengers West Coast #50.
In reality, this was all a manipulation created by Immortus as part of his ever expanding plans to manipulate the destiny of the Avengers. Per Avengers Forever #8, he created a chronal duplicate of the Human Torch, one of which went off to be rebuilt into the Vision while the other was buried in a grave. This was so he could later sow confusion among the Avengers.
Per the above point, it’s likely that Toro has been brainwashed into thinking that he was in the first Legion of the Unliving in order to sell the deception currently in play.
Brace yourself, this is going to be a long one and as it not only delves into the history of Immortus, but his manipulations over the years, and I’ll also explain a number of his deceptions on display in this story. Buckle up sweet-pea it’s going to be a hell of a ride.
Immortus states that he was born in the 30th century of a parallel universe. Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005 #1 states that this is Reality-6311. It is a world that did not go through the Dark Ages and as such advanced at a much faster rate than most realities.
That world we eventually plunged into war and saved and revitalized by Nathaniel Richards, a time-traveler from the Prime Marvel Universe and the father of Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four. Nathaniel had children on this world, leading the birth of his descendant, also named Nathaniel Richards, in the 30th century. This was all detailed in Fantastic Four #272-273. For a time, Immortus’ lineage was questioned as other sources suggested he might actually be related to Doctor Doom. Fantastic Four (vol. 6) #35 finally put this to bed, confirming he is indeed related to the Richards family.
Richards’ trip to ancient Egypt, his time as Rama-Tut, and his subsequent defeat at the hands of the Fantastic Four were all detailed in Fantastic Four #19.
Skipping ahead, Rama-Tut’s reinvention into Kang the Conqueror came from encountering the present day Doctor Doom in Fantastic Four Annual #2, as explained in Avengers #8.
The Council of Cross-Time Kangs is also briefly mentioned here. This concept was first explored in Avengers #267-269.
Kang eventually reinvented himself as Immortus. Although we first saw Immortus in Avengers #9, we did not learn that he was a future version of Kang until Giant-Size Avengers #2… More on that in a second.
The Time-Keepers were first seen in Thor #282. Immortus’ servitude to the Time-Keepers will be explored in more detail in Avengers Forever #8.
Immortus details his first encounter with Kang and Rama-Tut. This was during the period that both Immortus and Rama-Tut were trying to prevent Kang from capturing the so-called Celestial Madonna. This happened in Avengers #129-135 and Giant-Size Avengers #2-4.
Agatha Harkness notes a number of timelines that Immortus had recently pruned from existence. These realities have been indexed in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #3-5. Linked realities are semi-official on the Appendix and could be subject to change at a later date. They are:
Earth-78912: A reality where England was controlled by Mary Queen of the Scotts and Queen Elizabeth I was executed. This reality was first seen in Avengers West Coast #53.
Earth-9002: Where the assassination of Abraham Lincoln was thwarted. This was previously seen in Avengers West Coast #55.
Earth-9007: The JFK Assassination was prevented by the authorities. We saw this one in Avengers West Coast #60.
Earth-9008: Napoleon conquered Russia. This is the first time this reality has been seen.
Earth-90659: Where Hawkeye, Wonder Man, and Hank Pym were killed by a bomb created by Hydro-Man. We saw this fake-out reality in Avengers West Coast #59.
Earth-908: Where a man Leonard Tippet caused World War III. This is a deep cut reference to Avengers #101, where the Watcher recruited the Avengers to prevent Tippet’s growing power from causing a world war. Presumably, Reality-908 is the future that Uatu was trying to prevent. Here, Agatha states that World War III took place in 1985. This is probably a topical reference, see below.
Now we’re getting into the nitty gritty of Immortus’ deceptions over the years. So as not to sound like a broken record, the proceeding events, particularly the role Immortus played in them, is all expanded upon in Avengers Forever #8:
The Space Phantom was first sent to fight the Avengers back in Avengers #2. This is the first time that Immortus is revealed to be responsible for this. Immortus’ connection to the Space Phantoms was first made in Thor #281-282. However, at the time of this story everyone believes that the Phantoms are aliens from outer space. In reality, they are individuals who have been trapped and transformed by Limbo.
The revelation that the Vision was built from the remains of the Human Torch was first reveled in Avengers #134-135. While Immortus states that this was a ruse, the “ruse” was actually lie as I explained above.
The wedding of the Scarlet Witch and the Vision took place in Giant-Size Avengers #4.
Wanda used her magic to combined the essence of herself and the Vision to make herself pregnant back in Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #3. She gave birth to twin boys — Billy and Tommy — in issue #12 of that series.
Now we’re getting into how Immortus subtly manipulated the deconstruction of Wanda:
First he states that he subtly manipulated the Vision into taking over the world’s computers. When the Vision was immobilized during a battle with Annihilus in Avengers #233, his teammate Starfox had him hooked up with ISAAC, the Eternal’s world mind on Titan in issue #238. This gave the Vision greater computing power than ever before and he decided that he could force world peace if he took over all of Earth’s computers. The Avengers convinced him the errors of his ways as seen in Avengers #253-254.
Because of his actions, the Vision was later captured by an organization called Vigilance who dismantled him to make sure he wasn’t a threat. This left Vihz a husk of his former self, as detailed in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #42-45. It was here that the Avengers were tricked into thinking the connection between the Vision and the Torch was a lie by a man purporting to be Phineas Horton, the Torch’s inventor. Avengers Forever #8 reveals that this was actually a Space Phantom in disguise.
Wanda was later made a host of That Which Endures from West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #47-49. The narrative of this story flip flops it with Atlantis Attacks which actually happened after the That Which Endures arc.
Wanda was forced to become a Bride of Set along with six other female superheroes during the Atlantis Attacks event. See Silver Surfer Annual #2, Iron Man Annual #10, Uncanny X-Men Annual #13, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #23, Punisher Annual #2, Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #9, Daredevil Annual #5, Avengers Annual #18, New Mutants Annual #5, X-Factor Annual #4, Web of Spider-Man Annual #5, Avengers West Coast Annual #4, Thor Annual #14, and Fantastic Four Annual #22.
The revelation that Billy and Tommy were in fact constructs created by Wanda’s imagination and therefor not actually real was detailed in Avengers West Coast #51-52. However, these children will later be reincarnated in to real live boys as we’ll learn in Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #6.
After all her ordeals, Wanda was seduced into rejoining Magneto’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in Avengers West Coast #56-57. Immortus nabbed her soon after in issue #60.
As we’ll learn next issue, Immortus’ ultimate goal for Wanda is to manipulate all time and space to his whims. It won’t go so well.
Topical References
Marvel has yet to reconcile how Iron Man 2020 could be from the future now that the Prime Marvel Universe is now past that current date. It’s my theory that Iron Man 2020 no longer comes from the year 2020, but a future a set number of decades in the future of the Prime Marvel Universe that will always be pushed forward by the Sliding Timescale. This time period will always be relative to the point in history. The way my theory would be interpreted would be that rather than some specific date, Iron Man 2020 exists between 30-40 years in the future of the Prime Marvel Universe at all times so that his future is never stale dated.
Here, Iron Man 2020 refers to Tony Stark as his great-uncle. This should be considered topical as the generational relation here is based relatively on the date of publication (1990) and the year 2020. Modern readers should view Arno Stark as a descendant of the Stark family that traces its line back to Morgan Stark.
When referring to the reality where Leonard Tippit causes World War III, Agatha states that those events happened in 1985. It’s my opinion that this is a topical reference that is relative to the original 1972 story told in Avengers #101. Mostly, because the story itself is vague on when that disaster was supposed to happen, but also since that reality is a possible future of the Prime Marvel Universe, it too should operate on a Sliding Timescale to always keep it in the relative future from present day Earth-616.