The Fires of Sunrise

Members of the Kree Starstrealth have broken out of the Vault Prison. Responding to the break out are both the Avengers and Force Works. Complicating matters is the arrival of a delegation of Skrulls that want to extradite the Kree to space to face justice for their intergalactic crimes. This doesn’t sit well with Force Works because they want the Kree to remain on Earth and be punished for the death of their teammate Wonder Man.[1] This has lead to an uneasy alliance between the two hero teams as they hunt down their quarry.

A team consisting of Iron Man, US Agent, Quicksilver, Hercules, and Crystal have left the Vault in a hex-ship and are searching for alien energy signatures in the area. Their ship is soon shot down over a rail yard in Chatiwn Falls, Colorado, where the Starstrealth have recovered weapons from the remains of their ship.

Meanwhile, the remainder of the Avengers and Force Works — the Black Widow, Giant-Man, Scarlet Witch, Spider-Woman and Century — are beamed aboard the Skrull ship. There, the Quo Madri — alien diplomats who have come to negotiate the extradition — agree to meet with the members of Force Works and discuss the Starstrealth’s other crimes. They also bring aboard the rogue Recorder RE-404 so it can be examined by a representative of the Rigellians, the race who built the Recorders. They determine that RE-404 had been tampered with by the Kree who installed a behavioral inhibitor, explaining why this particular units perverse behavior.[2] While the Earthlings are distracted, Skrull commander Hokk Algol is informed that the Kree Starstrealth have been located and locked in battle. He orders his men to meet at the teleporter so they can go back down to the planet surface and eliminate the Starstrealth once and for all.

At that same time, the Quo Madri show the Scarlet Witch the refugees of the Starstrealth’s acts of slaughter across the universe. Seeing that they are all living in squalor aboard this ship, Wanda realizes that the Kree’s crimes are bigger than Force Works need for personal justice and agrees that extraditing them is the best course of action. That’s when Wanda gets a distress call from US Agent. While the team on Earth have found the Starstrealth they are faring poorly against their advanced weapons. That’s when Hokk Algol and his team teleport down to the surface. This leads to an argument between the Skrulls and US Agent over jurisdiction. While they are busy bickering, Kalun Lo orders a retreat and has Zamsed teleport them away. Furious that their quarry has escaped, Hokk Algol tries to report back to the ship but something has cut off communications.

Aboard the alien vessel they have discovered that not only are communications are down, but they have lost control of their ship as well. Everyone instantly realizes that the Recorder must have gotten loose and race to the tech-lab. There they discover the Rigellian scientist that had been examining RE-404 has been murdered. That’s when the doors seal behind them, trapping them in the lab. The Recorder’s face then appears on one of the monitor screens and tells demands that they free the rest of the Kree from Earth and allow Starstealth to take command of the ship. When they refuse, the Recorder teleports the Kalun Lo and Zamsed aboard the ship. Kalun Lo kills one of the Quo Madri before threatening to do the same to the Scarlet Witch unless their demands are met. Wanda dares the Kree to shoot her and when he pulls the trigger, the gun explodes in his hand thanks to Wanda’s hex powers.[3] Century then takes out Zamsed within moments.

Having pinpointed the Recorder’s location on the ship, Century teleports himself and the Scarlet Witch to his location. Here, Wanda is stricken by another headache but she pushes through it.[4] The Recorder warns them not to take another step as it has observed them both for a very long time and can anticipate their every move. The Recorder then explains how it was found by the Starstrealth in orbit over Hala, the Kree homeworld and discovered that it was programmed by an unknown being with instructions to kill Wonder Man and the Vision, prompting the Kree renegades to act on that information.[5] Having become obsessed with observing experience, the Recorder glommed onto Force Works after the Starstreath were originally defeated. When the heroes couldn’t give the Recorder the excitement it craved it then orchestrated the Starstrealth’s escape from the Vault. While the Recorder has been making this confession, the Scarlet Witch has been concentrating her hex powers and unleashes it in such a way that RE-404’s body suddenly experiences rapid decay and withers away into dust.

With the danger over and the Starstealth back in custody, the Avengers and Force Works decide to hash out their differences. Iron Man tries to overstep Wanda’s authority again but she stops him before he can. Speaking on behalf of her team, Wanda agrees that the Kree should be extradited to face punishment for their galactic crimes. However, she expresses her displeasure with the Avengers for making this agreement with the Skrulls and Quo Madri without speaking with them first. The Black Widow agrees that they screwed up and that they’ll do more to keep Force Works in the loop in the future. Afterwards, Natasha pulls Tony aside and tells him that Wanda is a good fit as leader of the team and suggests that he give her more freedom to make judgment calls for the group, suggesting he wouldn’t want to get on her wrong side.[6] Iron Man mutters to himself that Wanda wouldn’t want to get on his.[7]

Spider-Woman finds Century staring out into space and asks him what he’s thinking about. He remarks about how beautiful his foster home looks from space and wonders if his home world is as much a sight as the Earth. When Spider-Woman asks if Century is planning on leaving them to try, he assures her that he is not, pointing out that he has nowhere else to go.[8]

Meanwhile, in deep space another alien ship stops at a gas giant planet called Arabellum. It pauses long enough to extract the energy it needs from the planet to continue its trek. As it leaves Arabellum’s orbit the planet destabilizes and explodes. The alien ship narrowly avoids getting destroyed by the on rush of space debris by kicking on its warp drive and setting course for Earth.

Recurring Characters

Force Works (Iron Man, Scarlet Witch, US Agent, Spider-Woman, Century), Avengers (Giant-Man, Quicksilver, Hercules, Black Widow, Crystal), Hokk Algol, Starstealth (Kalun-Lo, Stug-Bar, Zamsed), Recorder RE-404

Continuity Notes

1. Wonder Man seemed to be killed in Force Works #1 on the team’s inaugural mission. In reality, Simon Williams is now floating on the brink between life and death. The Scarlet Witch will begin pulling him back to the world of the living starting in Avengers (vol. 3) #2 until he is fully restored in issues #10-11 of that series.

2. RE-404 was recovered by Force Works in issue #1 of this series. He tagged along with the team and secretly interfered with their missions so he could record more deadly battles. He was found out in Force Works #11-12 and deactivated and turned over to the Vault. His repair circuits kicked in last issue and helped stage the Kree break out from the prison before being shut down again.

3. Here, Wanda refers to herself as a mutant. Years later she will discover that she actually isn’t. It’s later explained that — as a baby — both she and her brother Quicksilver were kidnapped by the High Evolutionary and experimented upon by him. After he was finished his work he covered it up by making the pair register as mutants. See Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4-5.

4. Wanda will suffer a first headache last issue and a third of this type in Force Works #16. The cause of them are never explained. I assume that perhaps this is a premonition of some kind warning her of the events of The Crossing.

5. During Operation: Galactic Storm a Shi’ar built nega-bomb was detonated in the Kree galaxy. This was all manipulated by the Kree Supreme Intelligence so that he could jumpstart the Kree’s stagnant evolution. Wonder Man and Vision had the unfortunate distinction of being trapped aboard the nega-bomber. See 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. The identity of who planted this information in the Recorder’s mind is (as of this writing in November, 2022) unrevealed. Semi-official sources suggest that it was probably the Supreme Intelligence.

6. Iron Man appointed the Scarlet Witch as leader of Force Works in issue #1. However, since at least issue #5, Tony has been overstepping her authority, much to her chagrin.

7. This is alluding to the fact that Iron Man is now under the influence of Immortus and is plotting against both the Avengers and Force Works as part of The Crossing. See Avengers #390-395, Iron Man #319-325, Force Works #16-20, War Machine #20-23, Avengers: The Crossing #1, Avengers: Timeslide #1, Age of Innocence: The Rebirth of Iron Man #1, and Avengers Forever #8.

8. When Century first appeared on Earth in Force Works #1 he had no memories of his past. He has slowly been learning about it in bits and pieces since War Machine #9. However, he won’t learn his past until Century: Distant Sons #1.