Titannus Lives Part Two

The Future[1]

At the Baxter Center the League of Losers continue to adapt to their new lives in the future. Chris Powell — aka Darkhawk — has decided to take the night off so he and Dagger can spend a romantic evening alone. While in the lab, Reed Richards has constructed a cybernetic arm for Terror. This is because he was relying on the capace provided by the severed arm of Araña that he was wearing was beginnning to decompose. The mechanical arm will preserve the tatoo, the source of the carapice, so that Terror can continue to use it to his advantage. In the monitoring room, Speedball is joined by Sleepwalker when suddenly an alarm goes off warning them that the timestream is collapsing and the reality they inhabit will cease to exist in a matter of minutes. Their only hope of salvation might be in returning back to their home timeline.

The Present

Peter Parker is changing into his costume to go out on patrol when Mary Jane why he is waring his old red-and-blue costume instead of the new one that Tony Stark made for him.[2] He tells her that he missed wearing his old one and after kissing her goodnight heads out on patrol. No sooner is he out in the open is he contacted by the astral projection of Doctor Strange. Starnge is also contacting Ms. Marvel, Luke Cage, Wolverine, Captain America, and She-Hulk. He teleports them all to his Sanctum Sanctorum to warn them that Titannus is back and on the rampage in America.[3] Spider-Man is confused, as he recalls that Titannus was died when they last fought him, however Doctor Strange explains that he has regenerated his body and is back.[4]

After everyone if brought up to speed they quickly arrive to the scene where Titannus is on the rampage. There, they try to reason with Titannus, reminding him how he killed himself the last time they fought when he was rejected by his true live, Amissa. When this does little to phase their foe, Doctor Strange tries to probe his mind and discovers that there is some kind of conflict going on in his mind. However, before Strange can probe further he’s knocked out. Wolverine, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, and Captain America all attempt to stop Titannus while Spider-Man clears the area of innocent bystanders. Each hero is defeated and Captain America is saved at the last minute by Crusader who offers to aid in the battle. Racing toward Titannus, the Crusader uses his power ring to create a bubble of false reality where he convinces Titannus that he has slaughtered all the heroes. However, the illusion is taking a lot of concentration and he cannot keep it up for much longer. This allows Doctor Strange to further probe Titannus’s mind, allowing him to learn about the mental probes implanted in his mind. He tracks them to their source and alerts the Japanese military who quickly arrest the rogue scientists responsible for unleashing Titannus on US soil. With the threat ended, Titannus is taken into SHIELD custody. The gathered heroes then congratulate Crusader for his assistance.[5] Although everyone celebrates this victory, Spider-Man figures they’ll be fighting Titannus again in another six months since it never ends.

The Future

Darkhawk enters the monitor room demanding to know what Speedball set off the alarm. After he tells Darkhawk how the mintors are showing the collapse of the timestream, Darkhawk points out that he’s actualy looking at the weather monitor by mistake. Speedball tries to brush this goof up off, but Reed Richards orders him to get away from his equipment.

New Avengers (Captain America, Spider-Man, Luke Cage, Wolverine), Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Doctor Strange, Crusader, Titannus, League of Losers (Darkhawk, Gravity, Speedball, X-23, Dagger, Sleepwalker, Mutant 2099, Terror, Inc.), Reed Richards-2992, Mary Jane Watson, John Jameson, Wong, Deadpool

Continuity Notes

1. Per the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #2, this future is actually an alternate reality designated Earth-2992. The League of Losers come from a not-too-distant future of Earth-616 designated Earth-6215. Their reality was invaded by a time travelling foe named Chronok who killed nearly every hero on Earth, the travelled to the future to stop him and ended up stranded since their reality potentially no longer existed as detailed in Marvel Team-Up (vol. 3) #15-18.

2. She is referring to the “Iron Spider” costume that Tony gave Peter in Amazing Spider-Man #529.

3. The man She-Hulk is in bed with is John Jameson. At the time of this story, the pair were made to fall in love by Awesome Andy as seen in She-Hulk (vol. 2) #6, they soon fall out of this manipulated love in issue #11 of that series.

4. Spider-Man and most of the other heroes gathered fought Titannus in Marvel Team-Up (vol. 3) #11-13. The battle ended when Titannus crushed his own head but his unique physiology caused him to regenerate it. In the time between, he had mental implants placed in his brain by Japanese scentists who blamed America for the destruction Titannus caused to Tokyo.

5. Ms. Marvel tells Crusader not to change his name, telling him that she had been there and done that and that nothing improves on the first name you come up with. At the time of this story, Ms. Marvel had changed her name on two different occasions. For a time she went by the name Binary from Uncanny X-Men #164 until Avengers (vol. 3) #4. She then changed her name to Warbird until Young Avengers #9 before going back to calling herself Ms. Marvel. This will be a name she keeps until Avenging Spider-Man #9 when she takes on the mantle of Captain Marvel.