If Volcanic Winter Comes

The Avengers West Coast have received an anonymous tip about one of their greatest foes being sighted at the Coit Tower in San Fransciso.[1][2] Their search worries one of the bystanders, 18-year-old Gary Wilton, who decides to leave the scene before something dangerous happens. As he flees into a nearby park, he trips over a rock causing his pencil clip — a gift from overbearing stepfather — to fall out of his pocket and down an open manhole cover. Climbing down to collect it he happens to overhear someone talking in the sewers. Curious, Gary goes to check it out and finds Ultron and his newest creation Alkhema discussing their latest plans to wipe out all organic life on Earth.

Gary is spotted and taken prisoner. As the boy begins to panic a strange aura begins glowing around the boy. However, before Ultron can figure out what this means, the Avengers West Coast arrive. During the fight, Mockingbird drops her Avengers communi-card and Gary instinctively picks it up. They manage to pull Gary to safety but the team quickly falls under Ultron’s hypnotic spell. Turning his attention back to Wilton, Ultron is intrigued when his aura begins to glow again. As the boy reaches peak panic he suddenly undergoes a startling transformation, going from a noodly teenager into a winged creature call the Raptor. Wanted to be free, Raptor flees the scene and flies into the sky above San Francsico. That’s when a call from Iron Man comes in through Mockingbird’s communi-card. Raptor tells Iron Man that the Avengers have been captured and unsure if he can trust the strange creature, Iron Man activates the communi-card’s self destruct. Iron Man learns that the captive Avengers have been sent to various locations and calls in the reserve members of the team to help him investigate Raptor’s claims, including the Living Lighting, Tigra, the Wasp, and Hank Pym to assist.

Meanwhile, the Raptor continues to fly across the skies of San Francisco. The creature’s mind drifts back to the past recalling how he came to be. His parents — Gary and Maxine Walton — were expecting their first child when their doctor informed them that the fetus was seriously malformed and recommended an abortion as soon as possible. The two parents were devastated by the news and refused to give up. As they were research scientists, the Waltons went to work creating a formula that could cure their son before he was born. Six months later, the Waltons ended up in a car accident, killing Gary. Maxine survived and gave birth to their son whom she named after her late husband. Gary Walton, Jr. was an outwardly normal boy but his mother was over protective and sheltered the boy, trying to keep him from getting sick or injured whenever possible. A few years later, Maxine married Roger Morley, the owner of Daedalus Airlines. A self-made man, Morley pressured the boy to be his own self made man.

However, all this did was make Gary more and more timid even when he went away to college in San Francisco. He soon started getting recurring headaches for some unknown reason. One day, while out walking he happened upon a mugging in progress. When the punks decided to rob Gary as well, the young man panicked and fled to the roof a nearby abandoned building. Trapped with nowhere to go, the young man was shot at by the crooks. Clipping Gary’s shoulder, he ended up falling over the edge of the building to what should have been his demise. However as he fell he underwent his very first transformation into the Raptor. The massive avian creature slaughtered the muggers and then fled into a nearby park where he reverted back to Gary Walton, with no memories of what happened, how he got in the park, or how his clothes got shredded.

Meanwhile, the enthralled Avengers have gone to three locations to plant devices around volcanos in an attempt to create a volcanic winter that will wipe out all life on Earth. The Scarlet Witch and Hawkeye are sent to Alaska where they set up their device on the inactive volcano on Mount Katmai. They are opposed by Hank Pym and the Wasp but unfortunately, the pair are no match for the brutality of their hypnotized comrades. After the pair are defeated, Jan and Hank are left tied up next to the device that will revive the dormant Alaskan volcano.

At the same time, Mockingbird and War Machine arrive at El Chicon volcano in Mexico. They are opposed by the Living Lighting and Tigra. In the ensuing battle, Tigra is subdued prompting War Machine to threaten to execute her unless the Lightning surrenders. Miguel Santos does just that and is knocked out as well.

Lastly, Iron Man is heading to Mount St. Helens in Washington state.[3] En route he runs into the Raptor who convinces him to at least trust him enough to allow the creature to help. At the mountain, they try to stop US Agent and Spider-Woman from setting up a third device. Unfortunately, just like all the others, Iron Man and Raptor are also defeated.

By this time, Ultron and Alkhema have determined that the device in Washington state is malfunctioning and head out to inspect it in person. When they arrive, they discover that the enslaved Avengers have brought all their prisoners to this one location. As the two robots try to figure out what went wrong with their device, Tony Stark recovers from the telepresence feedback from his remotely piloted armor and ambushed Ultron and Alkhema. As the trio fight it out, Ultron’s hold on the other Avengers begins to wear off and eventually the two robots have the entire team to deal with. This is when Alkhema also turns against Ultron again, as she doesn’t want to wipe out all of humanity at once, but wants to enjoy killing humans one at a time. This allows the Avengers to incapacitate Ultron, but Alkhema makes her escape. Raptor tries to chase after her but is burned by her jet boots and ends up falling into the forest below. There, the creature reverts back into Gary Walton who has no memory of how he got there or why.

In the aftermath of the battle, Ultron is restrained in an Adamantium casing and the devices deactivated. With disaster averted, Mockingbird fears what will happen if Ultron and Alkehma ever learn to work together.[4] Hawkeye isn’t sure, but hopes the Avengers are ready for it when that happens so humanity doesn’t pay the ultimatep rice.

Recurring Characters

Avengers West Coast (Iron Man, Hank Pym, Wasp, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Tigra, “Mockingbird”, US Agent, Living Lightning, Spider-Woman, War Machine), Raptor, Ultron, Alkhema

Continuity Notes

1. The woman who appears to be Mockingbird here is actually a Skrull spy named H’rpra who took Bobbi’s place between issues #90 and 91. This is all part of a years long plot by the Skrulls to invade the Earth. However, nobody will not learn this until many years later in New Avengers: The Reunion #2. The real Mockingbird will be rescued from the Skrulls in Secret Invasion #8.

2. Hawkeye wonders if he gave up being Goliath too soon. He resumed using the identity in Avengers West Coast #90 to give the team an needed power boost but went back to being a regular old archer in issue #97.

3. Here we learn that Tony Stark isn’t in the Iron Man armor. It is in fact a remotely piloted suit that he is mentally linked to via a telepresence interface. Tony started using this type of armor in Iron Man #290 so he could operate as Iron Man as his body underwent physiotherapy while he recovered from a serious health condition. This will remain Tony’s status quo until he starts wearing armor again in Iron Man #300.

4. It’s mentioned here that Alkhema is based on Bobbi’s mental patterns. Ultron used Mockingbird’s personality to create his “War Toy” in Avengers West Coast #89-91.

Topical References

• Alkhema quotes writer Mickey Spillane when betraying Ultron. Spillane was best known for his detective novels that featured the character Mike Hammer. This should be considered a topical reference as Spillane died in 2006 and unless you’re big on reading detective novels you probably haven’t heard of him.

Supplementary Material

• Like all 1993 Marvel annuals, this issue was polybagged and included a trading card of Raptor, the new character introduced in this story.

• This issue also features pin-ups of War Machine, the Avengers West Coast vs. Mephisto, and Iron Man vs. Raptor.

• Then to fill up some more pages it includes a cover gallery of every issue published that year.