Avengers #391 — Nick Peron

Apr 16

Apr 16 Avengers #391

Shadows of the Past

The Crossing Continues from Iron Man #320…

In the middle of the night, Magdalene wakes up to find that her love, the Swordsman, has gotten out of bed. Looking out the window she sees him walking out of the cottage loaned to them by Tony Stark and into the nearby forest. There, he finds the mysterious young man named Tuc and one of the Priest of Pama. When the Swordsman asks what’s going on, the priest tells him to be silent and says that he has been called upon for a much greater purpose as he is to journey to the place where heroes gather to ask them who mourns Agaphaur.[1]

Meanwhile, at Avengers Mansion, Hercules is trying to help Giant-Man secure Gilgamesh to an examination table.[2] Unfortunately, the rapidly aging Eternal keeps thrashing around in agony, making the whole process difficult. In a moment of lucidity, Gilgamesh says he regrets teaching a family everything he knows as they are now too dangerous. However, before they can get any answers the Eternal passes out. Hercules cannot understand how this could be happening as Eternals are supposed to be immortal. Giant-Man however confirms the worst, Gilgamesh is dying and won’t live through the night. This deeply disturbs Hercules as the team had gotten together to celebrate their anniversary and the festivities ended with the team being attacked, Gilgamesh being mortally wounded, and Marilla — Crystal’s nanny to Luna — going missing.[4]

Elsewhere in the mansion, the Vision is sweeping each room with a scanner in the hopes of finding Marilla or, at the very least, what happened to her. Upstairs, Crystal and Deathcry wait for news and the young Shi’ar is afraid the worst might have happened to Luna’s nanny. That’s when Quicksilver returns from his own search and informs them that he was unable to find any clues to Marilla’s whereabouts. They are soon joined by the Vision and asks Jarvis to summon the rest of the team. When he is pressed about what he has discovered, the android insists that they need to wait for the others to arrive.

At that moment, uptown, Janet Van Dyne — aka the Wasp — is meeting with her accountant Liam O’Lynch. He has just informed her that her entire fortune has been stolen out from under her. Curious to find out why, she has O’Lynch go through the financial records in order to learn the truth. They soon discover who is responsible and Janet cannot believe that they would do something like this to her.[4]

Back at Avengers Mansion, the Vision presents his findings to the group and tells them that someone murdered Marilla with a high intensity plasma blast. However, nobody can think of a reason why someone would murder Luna’s nanny. That’s when Hank Pym notices a glitch on the computer and tells the others to try and relax while he tries to figure out the source. the Black Widow, Vision, and Hercules go upstairs and tell everyone the bad news regarding Marilla and everyone mourns her loss. When Jarvis suggests making everyone a pot of tea, the Vision stops the butler and tells him to mourn with everyone else as he has suffered a huge loss just like the rest of the group. That’s when Giant-Man arrives and tells them that the glitch he was investigating was residue of yet another murder victim, Rita DeMara the woman who usurped Hank’s Yellowjacket persona.[5] As the Avengers try to make sense of this latest revelation they suddenly hear a scream coming from the med lab.

Quicksilver races ahead of the others and catches Neut, a blue-skinned diminutive mercenary, stabbing a spear through Gilgamesh’s chest. The Avengers soon join Pietro but they are too late to stop Neut from finishing off Gilgamesh. With his mission accomplished, Neut then phases through the various floors of the mansion to get to the mysterious door that appeared in the mansion some time ago.[6] The Vision follows after him and, after warning the android that this is only the beginning of his mistresses revenge scheme he opens the door and disappears through a portal on the other side, the door slamming shut behind him.

With the battle over, the Avengers regroup in the comm room and contact Tony Stark and tell him everything that has happened in the mansion — from the murders to the attacks — and everyone agrees that the safest thing to do right now is evacuate the mansion as it has been deeply compromised. During this conversation, Luna is deeply upset and keeps on talking about a “bad man”.[7] Crystal tries her best to comfort her daughter. As soon as the call is over, the Avengers pack their things and lock up the mansion. As they leave, Jarvis can’t believe it has come to this, but the Black Widow assures him that the Avengers have never faced a menace like this before. Moments after they leave, a laughing voice begins to echo through the halls of the abandoned mansion.

… The Crossing Continues in Iron Man #321.

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Giant-Man, Wasp, Quicksilver, Vision, Hercules, Black Widow, Gilgamesh, Crystal, Swordsman, Magdalene, Deathcry), “Neut”, Tony Stark, Luna Maximoff, “Tuc”, Edwin Jarvis

Continuity Notes

If the monologue given by the Priest of Pama doesn’t make any sense to you, you’re not the only one, but also don’t worry. The facts:
- The Swordsman here is an alternate reality version of the character that crossed over to Earth-616 back in Avengers #343. Per Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #2, he comes from Reality-921.
- This grander purpose appears to relate to the Earth-616 version of the Swordsman, who was involved in the quest for the Celestial Madonna that saw his lover be chosen for that role as seen in Avengers #129-135 and Giant-Size Avengers #2-4. The Swordsman died defending Mantis in Giant-Size Avengers #2.
- None of this really matters because, as explained in Avengers Forever #8, this entire ordeal was a grand manipulation by Immortus who has been secretly manipulating the destiny of the Avengers. Tuc and the Priest seen here are actually Space Phantoms as is this issue’s villain, Neut.
Hercules’ dialogue is written without his usual Olympian affectation here. He stopped speaking in this matter starting in Avengers #390. The offered explanation is that he no longer speaks that way after Zeus stripped him of his immortality back in issue #384. However, Hercules starts speaking in his trademark fashion again in Incredible Hulk: Hercules Unleashed #1, suggesting that this was more of a conscious effort on Herc’s part rather than anything to do with the magic that stripped him of his abilities.
All of this exposition is regarding events that happened in Avengers: The Crossing #1. The facts:
- The Avengers were celebrating their formation which happened in (you guessed it) Avengers #1. Per the Sliding Timescale, the Avengers would have been together about 9 years at the time of this story.
- Gilgamesh was attacked by the followers of “Kang”. Although most of the players in this deception were later revealed to be Space Phantoms, this is indeed the real Gilgamesh. Although he dies in this story, he will be resurrected again in Eternals (vol. 4) #3.
- What the Avengers don’t know and will find out later this issue is that Marilla was murdered and her body hidden in he mansion. The murderer is revealed to be Tony Stark in Iron Man #323.
Janet inherited her family fortune when she turned 23 way back in Avengers #43. Last issue, she learned that she had lost the her entire fortune. The man responsible is left a mystery here, but we’ll learn in Iron Man #323 that it was Tony Stark.
After Hank Pym retired from his Yellowjacket persona in Avengers #230, his costume was stolen by Rita DeMara who took over the identity in issue #264. The ended up joining up with the 30th Century Guardians of the Galaxy of Earth-691 (per Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005 #1) in Guardians of the Galaxy #34. She remained in the future until she returned to the present day to warn the Avengers that one of their number was about to betray them. She left Reality-691 in Guardians of the Galaxy #60 only to be murdered by Iron Man in Avengers: The Crossing #1.
The mystery door first appeared in Avengers Mansion back in Avengers #382.
This is a not so subtle hint that Tony Stark is the killer, as we’ll learn in Iron Man #323.