Avengers #361
Family Responsibility
The intruder alarm has been set off at Avengers Headquarters prompting Captain America, the Black Widow, Hercules, and Crystal to head to the front gate and find out what’s going on. There they find a strange glowing orb floating in the middle of the court yard. It suddenly vanishes in a flash of light, revealing the Eternals Ikaris, Sprite, and Arex. They demand to see their fellow Eternal, Sersi, and are very impatient to boot.
Captain America doesn’t like their demanding tone and asks for an explanation. Ikaris responds by blasting Cap and trying to force his way inside. When Hercules tries to restrain him, Sprite tries to diffuse the situation while Arex comes to Ikaris’ aid. Before people come to blows, the Black Knight and Sersi come out to see what the commotion is all about.
When Ikaris insists that he speak with Sersi in private, she agrees but only if the Black Knight accompanies here, explaining that she has chosen him to be her Gann Josin. Ikaris sees this pronouncement as proof that things have gone too far. As everyone goes inside, Dane asks Sprite what a Gann Josin is. The impish Eternal explains that it is like a mental bond between two individuals that is like a two-person Uni-Mind that unifies them body and soul. Sprite says that this is a great honor and Dane should be proud to have it. Whitman, who has feelings for his teammate Crystal, sarcastically agrees with him.[1]
Inside, the Vision — whom nobody knows is actually an evil counterpart from another dimension — is communicating with his boss, the enigmatic Proctor.[2] He assures Proctor that he has succeeded in infiltrating the Avengers ranks and will carry out his mission, but admits that he might take the opportunity to enjoy himself by trying to have his way with Crystal. His conversation is interrupted when the Eternals barge into the room and demand privacy. However, Sersi insists that whatever Ikaris and the others have to say, they can say it in front of the Avengers.
Seeing that Sersi isn’t going to budge on this, Ikaris relents and tells her teammates why they have come for her. Ikaris explains that while the Eternals were given great power and immortal life spans from the Celestials, the enigmatic space gods left them with normal human brains. The unforeseen side effect created by this is that after centuries of life, Eternals will eventually start suffering from what is called the Mahd W’yry, a form of senility that makes them irrational and prone to violence. Sersi scoffs at this idea, saying that it is an old superstition with no basis in fact. Ikaris, on the other hand, insists that it is a true concern and that the madness will soon claim her. He explains that, in the past, the Eternals have staved off this mental illness by regularly forming the Uni-Mind. Unfortunately, this is no longer a possibility as many of the Eternals have left the Earth and there are no longer enough left to form the Uni-Mind, even if they wanted to.[3] Ikaris believes that Sersi’s mental decline has been accelerated when she formed a Uni-Mind with the Brethren, distant genetic cousins to the Eternals.[4]
Sersi refuses to accept any of this, and forces Ikaris to admit to the Avengers that the only “solution” to treat the Mahd W’yry is to kill the afflicted via molecular dispersal. When Arex attempts to force Sersi to come with them, he is attacked by Hercules. As expected, the Avengers refuse to allow harm to come to their teammate. Ikaris is ready for a fight, but Sprite manages to talk him down. Frustrated with the mortals, Ikaris tells the Avengers to deal with her and then uses his powers to finalize the Gann Josin link between the Black Knight and Sersi. The other Eternals then teleport away as Sersi rushes to check to see if Dane is okay.
The process of making him Gann Josin has shockingly changed turned Dane’s eyes black with red irises. When she asks how he is doing, he is horrified to find that they are now both permanently mind-linked, a bond that he was forced into without his consent. Angered by what happened, Dane storms out of the room, deeply upsetting Sersi who didn’t expect things to go this way.
Meanwhile, at the Proctor’s Citadel, the true Vision has managed to find a way to break out of his containment cell and tries to make his escape. He is caught in the act by Proctor and a fight breaks out between the two. The Vision refuses to accept Proctor’s claim that he is married to Sersi. However, as Proctor overpowers the android, he insists that he is her one true Gann Josin and the only one who knows exactly what is going to become.
Back at Avengers Headquarters, the Black Knight has gone outside to get some fresh air and to make sense of what just happened. He is visited by Crystal who is concerned for his well being. He tells her what it is like being mentally linked to Sersi, and how he constantly feels her thoughts and emotions. When Crystal asks how he feels about their teammate, Dane admits that he doesn’t love Sersi but has feelings for her. Crystal admits that she has feelings with Dane as well and explains that she has held back on them since she had been trying to patch up her troubled marriage with Quicksilver. However, after her most recent visit with her husband, she believes that their differences are irreconcilable.[5] The two then give into their passions right there in the garden after months of holding back. Little do they know that their romantic interlude is being observed by both Sersi and the evil Vision.
Recurring Characters
Avengers (Captain America, Hercules, Vision, Black Knight, Black Widow, Sersi, Crystal), Proctor, Anti-Vision, Ikaris, Sprite, Arex
Continuity Notes
The love triangle between the Black Knight, Crystal, and Sersi is a complex one.
Dane has been attracted to Crystal pretty much from the moment she joined the Avengers in issue #336.
Meanwhile, Sersi has been attracted to Dane, throwing herself at him since Avengers #350.
The situation with Crystal is complicated as she is currently married to Quicksilver, dating back to Fantastic Four #150. We’ll get into that in more detail down below…
Sersi’s increasingly erratic behavior has been making her more aggressive about romancing Dane. It’s later revealed that she has been pushed over the edge by Proctor, the evil Dane Whitman of another reality who has gone all Incel after his Sersi dumped his possessive ass. See Avengers #374 for all the problematic facts about that.
This Vision, haling from Earth-932 (per Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #2), swapped bodies with the Earth-616 Vision on behalf of Proctor last issue. His cover will get blown next issue however when he tries to rape Crystal. Rule #1 of infiltrating the Avengers is to not try and rape a member of the Avengers.
Indeed, many of the Eternals had decided to leave the Earth following the events of Avengers #246-249. They will remain in space for quite some time. The ranks of the Eternals on Earth won’t really reach Uni-Mind levels until Eternals (vol. 3) #6.
The Brethren were also created by the Celestials, but were evolved from bacteria. See Avengers #334-339. However, as stated above, the real source of Sersi’s madness is due to the machinations of Proctor, as seen in Avengers #374.
The whole situation with Crystal and her husband, Quicksilver, is pretty complicated. The deets:
Crystal and Quicksilver got married back in Fantastic Four #150.
However, after being neglected by her husband, Crystal engaged in an illicit affair in Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #6-12.
Despite this infidelity, the pair have been trying to patch up their marriage since Fantastic Four Annual #21.
This was made much more difficult since Pietro joined X-Factor in X-Factor #71 and Crystal joined the Avengers in Avengers #336.
Pietro and Crystal recently tried to reconcile by going on a romantic retreat together in X-Factor #89. Unfortunately, a paparazzo put the doubts into Quicksilver’s mind that Crystal might be seeing another man, putting their reconciliation on ice.
However, never say never, since Crystal and Quicksilver will make another attempt to patch up their failing marriage following the conclusion of the Bloodties event that takes place in Avengers #368-369, X-Men (vol. 2) #26, Avengers West Coast #101, and Uncanny X-Men #307.
