The Titannus War Part One

As he meditates, Doctor Strange suddenly screams in pain as he sees a vision of things to come. He tells Wong that he sense a great danger that is coming that may claim many lives, a threat that deserves immediate action.

At the same moment, Spider-Man is swinging across the city wondering if he paid his bills on time and thinks that he must be getting old.[1] That’s when someone comes flying into the sky, cutting through Spider-Man’s web-line in the process. Before the wall-crawler can hit the ground he is rescued by Nova, who apologizes for the situation, explaining that he is in the middle of a fight with the Rhino. Spider-Man accepts Nova’s request for help, both agreeing that the villain can be stopped faster with the two of them working together. They find the villain on the side of a building. There, Spider-Man orders Nova to knock the Rhino off the side. When he does, Spider-Man has just finished webbing up a net to catch their foe so he is immobilized long enough for the authorities to arrive and take him into custody. Since they haven’t seen each other in a while, Spider-Man suggests that they catch up. Nova tells the web-slinger how the New Warriors might be getting back together again,[2] and how his personal life is in traction, relating to how one of his ex-girlriends just had a baby while he’s still in collage. This comes as a shock to both Spider-Man and Nova, since Spider-Man thought they were the same age, while Nova always though he was older than Spider-Man.[3]

That’s when they are visited by the astra projection of Doctor Strange who says that he needs their assistance.[4] Doctor Strange cuts through all the small talk, telling them that he is gathering heroes to face an imminent threat and tells them to go to his Sanctum Sanctorum while he recruits others. Elsewhere in the city, She-Hulk and Carol Danvers are playing pool at a bar when they are also contacted by Doctor Strange and asked for help.[5] Changing into Ms. Marvel, Carol carries She-Hulk the whole way to Doctor Strange’s Sanctum, prompting both women to miss the days when they could just call a Quinjet.[6] The two women join Spider-Man and Nova and as Doctor Strange returns to his body, he teleports Bruce Banner to his sanctum as well.[7] He then tells the gathered heroes and tells them that some powerful foe had just descemated Tokyo and that the government’s of the world are trying to keep it a secret so as not to cause a panic. When Nova asks why Strange didn’t get the New Avengers, he explains that they were the only heroes in the city that he could find.[8] With that, they are teleported to Tokyo to face Titannus, a powerful Skrull that was responsible for these attacks. Surprisingly, instead of attacking the heroes, Titannus welcomes them saying that he had been waiting for them. That’s when Wolverine — who was already in Japan saving lives — tries to ambush Titannus but is easily swatted away.

By this time, Doctor Strange has used his magic to turn Bruce Banner into the Hulk and focus the gamma-spawned monster’s rage toward Titannus. He then instructs the others to help with the rescue efforts while the Hulk battles their foe. Titannus tries to explain that he doesn’t want to fight, but when the Hulk continues to attack him, Titannus easily knocks him out causing the Hulk to revert back into Bruce Banner. When Titannus explains that he needs their help, Spider-Man suggests that maybe they should listen.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Nova, She-Hulk, Hulk, Ms. Marvel, Wolverine, Rhino, Titannus, Wong

Continuity Notes

1. According to Civil War #2, Peter Parker first became Spider-Man when he was 15 years old. Per the Sliding Timescale that would make him roughly 26 at the time of this story.

2. At the time of this story, the New Warriors had been somewhat disbanded since New Warriors (vol. 2) #10. The team will reform in New Warriors (vol. 3) #1.

3. Although Nova’s age has never been specified, his creator — Len Wein — intended him to be a homage to Spider-Man by being a teenage superhero. Based on the creator’s intention, one could assume that Richard Rider was 15 around the time he first became Nova, making him about 22 years old at the time of this story.

4. Nova recalls that Doctor Strange was around when they “all fought Thanos a while back”. He is referring to the events of Infinity Gauntlet #1-6. Nova never met Doctor Strange at the time because he was briefly dead when Thanos used the Infinity Gauntlet to kill half of all life in the universe. Nova was brought back to life at the end of that storyline.

5. Carol asks why She-Hulk isn’t in human form, she says its because the patrons at the bar don’t find her interesting enough considering all the things that happen in New York all the time. However, the real reason is far more complicated than that. At the time of this story, She-Hulk hasn’t been able to fully control her transformations back to human form. This has been the case since She-Hulk #1. As explained in She-Hulk (vol. 2) #4, her transformations are due to her guilt over going on a rampage through the town of Bone, Idaho in Avengers (vol. 3) #73-75.

6. This is a reference to the fact that both women used to be member of the original Avengers, having joined in Avengers #183 (Ms. Marvel) and #221 (She-Hulk). At the time of this story, the primary team of Avengers disassembled following the events of Avengers #500-503 and have since been replaced with the New Avengers, who formed in New Avengers #1-6.

7. She-Hulk says its been a while since she last saw her cousin, Bruce Banner. The pair last encountered each other was in Avengers (vol. 3) #74-75.

Continuity Errors

• It’s weird that Nova doesn’t remember ever fighting along side Doctor Strange since they did so in New Warriors #32-34 and Annual #3. He also would have clashed with Doctor Strange during the events of Infinity Crusade #1-6 and its various spin-off issues as they were both on opposing sides. I’d chalk this up to the writer of this story, Robert Kirkman, not doing the proper research on the character.

Topical Reference

• Peter’s concerns are actually if Mary Jane signed physical cheques and mailed them off. This should be considered a topical reference because online banking and billpayments have replaced the need for physical cheques, let alone paying ones bills by mail.