The Titannus War Part Three

Failing to recruit a number of Earth’s heroes to his cause, Titannus has decided to kill them. As Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Wolverine, Nova, Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk battle Titannus, Bruce Banner helps get locals in the decimated city of Tokyo to safety. As the military arrves, Banner realizes that his heart is reacing and yet he hasn’t changed into the Hulk. For once in his life he finds himself hoping that this is only temporary situation. He convinces the soldiers to help with the relief effort, but when Bruce watches as two innocent people are disintigrated by an stray energy blast from Titannus, it angers Bruce enough to trigger a transformation into the Hulk. The Hulk charges past his allies and ambushes Titannus, pummeling his foe. While the Hulk is busy, Doctor Strange calls Nova to his side to formulate a plan while there is still time. He tells Nova that they are to search the nearby mountains for the ship that brought Titannus to Earth while the others keep their foe busy. As they depart, Spider-Man tries to formulate a plan with Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk, but Wolverine leaps into the fray because Titannus has already overpowered the Hulk.

Amused, Titannus strikes Wolverine with his hardest blow, sending the feral mutant to the ground. This causes a distraction long enough for Spider-Man to snare their foe’s legs in webbing allowing She-Hulk and Ms. Marvel to attack. Their combined blows manage to knock the helmet from Titannus’s head. Unfortunately, Titannus shrugs off these women as well, leaving only Spider-Man standing. The web-slinger knows he is out of his league, but sprays a load of webbing into his foe’s face anyway. Titannus rips the webbing away easily and is amused that the web-slinger is still standing his ground and admits that Spider-Man has earned his respect. When Titannus fights back, he discovers that Spider-Man attached webbing from his arm to his ground, Still Titannus manages to overpower them all.

Luckily, Doctor Strange and Nova return, revealing that they have rescued Amissa from her the stasis pod aboard the ship that brought Titannus to Earth. When he insists that she is deathly ill, Amissa tries to force him to see the truth: telling him that he is a tyrant that kidnapped her from her homeworld and that she was never sick, nor did she ever love him. Unable to deal with the rejection, Titannus decides that he has no will to live and suddenly commits suicide by crushing his own head. With the battle over, Doctor Strange tells the gathered heroes that he will send them to get medical help while he stays behind to assist with the relief efforts and assures them that arrangements have been made to get Amissa back to her homeworld. In the afermath of the battle, Spider-Man remembers he heard the name Titannus before.

Moments later, the heroes find themselves aboard the SHIELD helicarrier where Nick Fury has sent out a call to Quasar who arrives to bring Amissa back to her home planet. By this time, Spider-Man remembers where he heard the name Titannus before and asks Nick Fury to set him and Wolverine up to speak with the evil Tony Stark from another dimension.[1][2] At that same moment, in space, Amissa suddenly punches Quasar in the face and flies away under her own power. Back on Earth, the evil Tony Stark is more than happy to tell Spider-Man all about the Titannus War that happened on his world.[3] In Tony’s reality, the original Avengers never disbanded.[4] On his world, they met Titannus much in the same way and none of them were able to determine that he was lying. When the Avengers arrived on Amissa’s homeworld they learned that her father was a tyrant who brainwashed Titannus to lure Earth’s heroes to Earth as their legends reached that world. Many of the Avengers were slaughtered the rest were enslaved. Tony goes on to say that it took five years for a team of reserve Avengers to rescue the survivors. It took another five years before they could fend off invaders from Trellions for good. When Spider-Man and Wolverine explain how things went down earlier, Stark finds it hard to believe since the Titannus from his world could regenerate from his injuries and was nearly invincible, leaving him to wonder how different things are in this reality.

At that very moment, while Doctor Strange continues to assist with the relief efforts, a group of Japanese scientists managed to secret away the body of Titannus for examination. Their examinations have revealed an interesting development, Titannus is somehow re-growing his head.[4]

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Hulk, Wolverine, Nova, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Amissa, Titannus, Quasar, Nick Fury, Iron Maniac

Continuity Notes

1. Wolverine and Nick Fury both joke about how young Spider-Man is. According to Civil War #2, Peter was 15 when he first became Spider-Man. Per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616, Peter would be roughly 27 years old at the time of this story. Peter asks Fury and Wolverine how old they are but they refuse to answer. per Origins #2, Wolverine was born in the 1885 at the latest. While Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #76 states that Nick Fury was born in 1916. Wolverine;s healing factor has also slowed his aging process while Fury has maintained his vitality after taking the Infinity Formula (first referenced in Marvel Spotlight #31) . Pinning down their exact ages is difficult to do since the Sliding Timescale constantly pushes the Modern Age of the Marvel Universe forward in time. Basically, every time the Timescale rolls forward it adds an additional four years to their lives.

2. This, however, is not the real Nick Fury, but a Life Model Decoy. The real Fury went into hiding following the events of Secret War #1-5. SHIELD then started using a LMD to hide the fact that the real Fury had gone AWOL.

3. This Tony Stark ended up on Earth-616 in Marvel Team-Up (vol. 3) #2. Per the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #2, this dimension is designated Reality-5012.

4. On Earth-616, the original Avengers were disbanded following the events of Avengers #500-503 and since replaced with the New Avengers who formed in New Avengers #1-6.

5. Titannus will return in Marvel Team-Up (vol. 3) #20-25. As I write this (July 2020) there has yet to be any word on if Amissa made it back to her homeworld or if her people will still attempt to invade Earth. It’s possible these events will not come to pass on Earth-616 since Titannus was defeated.