Operation: Galactic Storm Part 2 - Turn of the Sentry

This story continues from Captain America #398…

Rick Jones has been kidnapped by the Shi’ar Imperial Guard and brought about their ship in Earth orbit. They have captured the human to learn Kree secrets he learned from his time as Captain Marvel’s partner.[1] Rick refuses to reveal any of these secrets, prompting Oracle to use her telepathic powers to probe his mind for the information they are seeking instead. Through this mind probe, Oracle learns the location of a long abandoned Kree Psyche-Magnatron that was hidden on Earth some years earlier.[2] She also looks into Rick’s involvement in the Kree/Skrull War, specifically how Mar-Vell was being forced to create an Omni-Wave Projector during that conflict.[3] Lastly, she accesses information about Mar-Vell’s death and how his body was buried on one of Saturn’s moons. With the information she needs, Oracle then forces Rick to show them where he first encountered Captain Marvel and the Psyche-Magnatron.

Meanwhile, at Avengers Compound in California, Hawkeye and Living Lighting are in the middle of a training session. Clint manages to use a trick arrow to short out Miguel’s electrical powers forcing him to return to human form and fall out of the sky. Luckily, Spider-Woman is there to create a net out of psi-webbing to break Miguel’s fall. As the other Avengers — Hawkeye, Mockingbird, and the Scarlet Witch — check to make sure Miguel is ok, Wonder Man returns after a day of filming a new movie. He has come to join the others for a team meeting that has been called by Iron Man. When they all go back into the compound, Iron Man is informed that there is a call waiting for him by Captain America.[4] Cap tells Iron Man that he has been stranded in New Mexico since Warstar kidnapped Rick Jones.[5]

Iron Man and the rest of the team then head out in a Quinjet to get Cap, leaving Mockingbird behind to keep an eye on the compound. Bobbi wonders if she shouldn’t return to Detroit given her current marital problems.[4]

As the Avengers are picking up Captain America, Rick Jones leads Oracle, Electron, and Tempest to the cave where the Psyche-Magnatron has been hidden. There, they discover that the device is still intact. However, the presence of three of the Shi’ar Imperial Guard causes the automated defenses to activate a Kree Sentry robot. As the three Imperial Guardsmen fight back against the monster, Rick Jones is left in his telepathically induced trance, putting him in the line for fire. Luckily, the Avengers were able to track Rick through Captain America’s communicard and Cap arrives in time to shove Rick out of harms way. As the Avengers West Coast prepare to join the fight they are ambushed from behind by Warstar who has finally caught up with his comrades after being abandoned on Earth.

Figuring out that Warstar is a composite being consisting of the massive C’cil who is piloted by the smaller B’Nee, Iron Man yanks the smaller robot away from its larger counterpart. Taking out B’Nee causes C’cil pain as well, taking them both out of the fight. This allows the Avengers to focus their attention on the nearly unstoppable Kree Sentry. The Scarlet Witch’s hex powers help create a weakness in the robot’s armor, allowing the rest of the team to crack open the Sentry’s chest casing. As the others are dealing with the Sentry, Wonder Man and Living Lightning try to prevent Oracle, Tempest, and Electron from escaping. While the team manages to take down the Sentry, they are unable to stop the Imperial Guard from retreating back to their ship and escaping the planet. Since their Quinjet is not space worthy and therefor cannot follow the Shi’ar, Captain America contacts Quasar, his fellow east coast Avenger, and has him follow after the alien ship.

With his Quantum Bands, Quasar is quickly able to catch up with the Imperial Guard just as they are boarding their warship. However, the ship quickly enters hyper-space through a warp gate near the sun. When Quasar tries to follow he’s knocked by by the solar flare preventing him from following. Meanwhile, on one of Saturn’s moons, the tomb of Captain Marvel has stood undisturbed this entire time. However, that won’t be for very long as alien beings are heading to it very soon!

… This story continues in Quasar #32.

Recurring Characters

Avengers West Coast (Iron Man, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Wonder Man, Mockingbird, US Agent, Living Lightning, Spider-Woman), Captain America, Rick Jones, Imperial Guard (Electron, Oracle, Tempest, Warstar), Kree Sentry, Quasar, Carlos Alvarez

Continuity Notes

1. Rick Jones spent a period of time living a shared existence with Captain Marvel. By clashing Mar-Vell’s Nega Bands together the pair could swap places. They were fused together from Captain Marvel #18 through 50. It is stated here that Mar-Vell is dead. The hero died of cancer in Marvel Graphic Novel #1.

2. The Psych-Magnatron affair was chronicled in Captain Marvel #18-19. Here it is stated that Yon-Rogg — the man who used the Psyche-Mangnatron to try and kill Mar-Vell — died in the process. This is not actually the case. He survived and will turn up alive again in Avengers Assemble (vol. 2) #16.

3. Rick Jones was instrumental in ending the Kree/Skrull War (at least for a little while) many years earlier as seen in Avengers #89-97.

4. Here, Wonder Man mentions that things have been tense between Cap and Iron Man ever since the Armor Wars event. At that time, Tony Stark had discovered that people were using stolen Iron Man tech and set about destroying it all. This also included government operatives, which put him at odds with Captain America. See Iron Man #225-232. Iron Man and Cap fought it out in Iron Man #228 and Captain America #340.

5. Captain America failed to stop Warstar from nabbing Rick in Captain America #398. The alien kidnapper left Cap without his sky-cycle or his Avengers communicard.

6. Hawkeye and Mockingbird’s marital situation is a very complicated situation:

   • Clint and Bobbi got married back in Hawkeye #4. It was all marital bliss until the time when the West Coast Avengers were struck going backward in time circa West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #17-24. As seen in issue #18, while in the 1800s, Bobbi was kidnapped by the Phantom Rider just as the rest of the Avengers were going backward in time.

   • Bobbi was forced to drink a love potion that made her loyal to the Rider. Eventually, she shook off the effects of the potion and, in a battle with her captor, did nothing to prevent him from falling off a cliff to his death, as seen in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #23. Because of Clint’s staunch belief in the Avengers rule about killing, Bobbi kept the truth of what happened a secret for months.

   • Things went south when the the spirit of the Phantom Rider possessed his modern day descendant and revealed the truth to the rest of the Avengers. As seen in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #34-35, Hawkeye didn’t take it very well either and this put a strain on their marriage.

   • From issue #37 on, Clint and Bobbi split up. However, Mockingbird came back in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #46 and convinced Clint to help her train the Great Lakes Avengers and work on their marriage. Although Clint agreed, the two could not reconcile and Clint returned to the west coast team in Avengers West Coast #60. He has been openly flirting with Spider-Woman since she started hanging around the team in issue #70, Bobbi learned this when she returned in issue #78.

   • Although Iron Man believes their marriage is doomed to end in divorce, it will appear that Clint and Bobbi reconcile in Avengers West Coast #92. However, by that time Bobbi will have been replaced by a Skrull impostor as we’ll learn in Secret Invasion #1-8. Their marriage won’t be reconciled until many years later New Avengers: The Reunion #1-4.

Topical References

• When learning that Warstar is comprised of two robots named B’Nee and C’Cil, he asks if they “come from a moon called Leakin' Luna?” This is a nod to the fact that the characters are named after Beany and Cecil the titular characters from the 1962 cartoon of the same name. One of their allies on the show was Captain Horatio Huffenpuff who owned a ship called the Leakin’ Lena. You could consider this a topical reference since the show has long since become obscure.

Operation: Galactic Storm Reading Order

Captain America #398, Avengers West Coast #80, Quasar #32, Wonder Man (vol. 2) #7, Avengers #345, Iron Man #278, Thor #445, Captain America #399, Avengers West Coast #81, Quasar #33, Wonder Man (vol. 2) #8, Avengers #346, Iron Man #279, Thor #446, Captain America #400, Avengers West Coast #82, Quasar #34, Wonder Man (vol. 2) #9, Avengers #347, Captain America #401, Quasar #35