The Reaper and the Robot Part Three: Converging Trajectories

Having escaped capture by his brother, Wonder Man, the Grim Reaper has fled into the Los Angeles sewers. There he finds Ultron’s secret hideout where the robot is keeping Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and Tigra prisoner. The robot is exposing them to a form of gallium arsenide crystals that will transform them into living robots. This is all part of a grand scheme to turn every living being on the planet into a robot, making Ultron the undisputed ruler of the planet.[1] The exposure to the spray is already taking effect and their skin is already starting to show patches of metal.

The Grim Reaper, who needs to consume human life force every 24 hours, doesn’t like this as it puts his food supply at risk. He quietly enters the lab and sneaks up behind Ultron. The robot, however, is too wrapped up in explaining his master plan to even notice.

Meanwhile, Iron Man is continuing his search for illegal spraying of Melathion, a pesticide that is supposed to manage the medfly population but is at the root of the strange robotizing plague affecting the area. He soon comes upon some people fighting in the park. Going down to break up the fight, he is shocked to discover that the brawlers have been partially transformed into robots themselves. Quickly incapacitating them with his repulsor rays, Iron Man then flies them to a nearby hospital in the hopes they might be cured there.

Back underground, Ultron becomes aware of the Grim Reaper’s presence and defends himself from the new attacker. Surprisingly, the Reaper’s scythe manages to cut through Ultron’s arm, something that should be impossible given the robot is built from Adamantium. Regardless, Ultron’s self repair systems quickly repair the damage done. Overpowering the Grim Reaper, Ultron amuses himself by fusing the Reaper’s scythe permanently to his hand with its eye lasers.[2] After this is done, Ultron learns that the Reaper needs to absorb the life force of a human being every 24 hours in order to prolong his existence. Amused by this Ultron suggests that they work together to accomplish his goals. The robot figures that there will be plenty of humans who will avoid being transformed by his robotizing process and he can offer them to the Reaper like cattle to feed his need life energy.

While on the surface, Hank Pym and Wanda Maximoff have gone to the University of California, Los Angeles, and uses their credentials to gain access to the facility’s new super-computer. This has earned the ire of Dr. Falk who operates the facility. Hank hopes to use the computer to figure out a way to reverse the effects of the Melathion spray and change those affected by it back to normal. As Hank works, Wanda wonders what her place will be on the Avengers now that she no longer has her powers.[3] She also worries about Wonder Man who stormed off to find his brother, the Grim Reaper, and wishes there was something she could do to help him. About an hour later, Hank finds a possible cure for the transformation, as a certain type of light might hold the key to reverting people back to normal.

That’s when Hawkeye, Tigra, and Quicksilver — now under Ultron’s influence — come crashing in through the skylight. They easily knock aside both Wanda and Hank and begin trashing the computer equipment. That’s when the Wasp, Iron Man, and US Agent arrive on the scene to lend a hand. The Avengers hold back afraid to permanently harm their friends, but the three enthralled Avengers have no such concerns and savagely attack their comrades.[4] Luckily, Wonder Man arrives to lend his teammates a hand. As they try to contain their comrades, Hank tells Iron Man that some kind of light frequency will undo the effects of their transformation. Iron Man then begins bombarding Hawkeye, Tigra, and Quicksilver with different spectrums of light via his armor’s uni-beam. Flipping across different spectrums, he discovers that infrared beams can incapacitate the three of them.

With Hawkeye and the others incapacitated, Iron Man continues bombarding them with different forms of light but it could taken him years of trial and error to find out the right frequency to cure his friends. Wanda then tries to force herself to use her hex powers. Although they have been lost for some time, she suddenly feels them kick back in. Sure enough, the hex works and Iron Man locks on the right spectrum. He manages to completely cure Tigra and Quicksilver, but runs too low on power before he can do the same for Hawkeye. Hank decides that they’ll have to finish the job later as their primary concern should be stopping Ultron from transforming any more people into robots.

At that moment, Ultron is explaining the next phase of his plan to the Grim Reaper. He intends on exposing countless thousands of people to his robotizing process by infecting the patrons attending that year’s Rose Parade.

Recurring Characters

Avengers West Coast (Iron Man, Hank Pym, Wasp, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Wonder Man, Tigra, US Agent), Quicksilver, Grim Reaper, Ultron

Continuity Notes

1. Here, Ultron refers to Quicksilver as a mutant. However, neither he nor his sister the Scarlet Witch are mutants. Years later they will learn that they were actually experimented upon by the High Evolutionary while they were still children. In order to cover up his work he made it so any future DNA scans would have them register as mutants. See Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4-5.

2. Mention is made here how the Grim Reaper is now undead. He committed suicide back in Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #2. He was recently resurrected as a zombie in Avengers West Coast #65.

3. Wanda seemingly lost her powers after much of her energies were siphoned off during a fight with Immortus, as seen in Avengers West Coast #60-62.

4. US Agent states here that he’s been waiting for an opportunity to punch Hawkeye’s lights out. The two have been at odds with one another ever since US Agent was imposed on the team in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #44.

Topical References

• While investigating the illegal sprayings happening in Los Angeles, Iron Man likens himself to Angela Lansbury. Lansbury was was the lead actress on the crime drama Murder, She Wrote. Airing from 1984 to 1996, Lansbury played mystery writer Jessica Fletcher who plied her mystery writing skills to solver various murders. Due to the popularity of Murder, She Wrote, Lansbury’s name (for a time) was eponymous with mystery solving. Do I need to tell you how a show that ended in 1996 is topical? Nah, I didn’t think so either.

• Among the floats in the Rose Parade is one advertising the Kodak company. This should be considered topical as this is a real world company.