AVENGERS #345

Plus CAPTAIN AMERICA #398, AVENGERS WEST COAST #80, QUASAR #32, WONDER MAN #7, IRON MAN #278, and THOR #445.

Note: While I am summarizing the entire "Operation: Galactic Storm" crossover in the "The Plot" section, the "Contiuity Notes" reflect only AVENGERS #345 unless otherwise indicated

"STORM GATHERINGS"
Writer: Bob Harras | Penciler: Steve Epting | Colorist/Inker: Tom Palmer
Letterer: Bill Oakley | Editor: Ralph Macchio | Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

The Plot:
CAPTAIN AMERICA #398: "IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE" by Mark Gruenwald, Rik Levins, and Danny Bulandi -- Rick Jones dreams that the Kree homeworld is annihilated, and sees Captain America, with the head of the Kree Supreme Intelligence, walking through the ruins. Rick calls the Avengers, and Cap flies to Arizona to meet him. But as the two talk in a diner, they are attacked by Warstar of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard. Warstar tries to abduct Rick, but Cap stops the alien as Rick escapes. However, Rick is subsequently mind-controlled by Imperial Guardsma Oracle, and is captured anyway. Elsewhere, the Supreme Intelligence activates a physical body to house its consciousness. Christening this being Supremor, the Intelligence declares it will be the first member of the Kree Starforce.

AVENGERS WEST COAST #80: "TURN OF THE SENTRY" by Roy & Dann Thomas, David Ross, and Tim Dzon -- Aboard a Shi'ar ship, Oracle telepathically interrogates Rick Jones for information on Captain Mar-Vell and the Kree. Meanwhile, the West Coast Avengers (Iron Man, Hawkeye, U.S. Agent, Scarlet Witch, Wonder Man, Living Lightning, Spider-Woman, and reservist Mockingbird) are about to begin a meeting when Captain America calls from a payphone. The Avengers pick Cap up at the Arizon diner, while Oracle and her Imperial Guard teammates, Electron and Tempest, enter the "lost Kree outpost" with Rick. Their arrival activates a Kree Sentry, which attacks. The Avengers arrive a moment later, as does Warstar. Rick is rescued and the Sentry is beaten, but the outpost is destroyed as the Imperial Guardsmen escape with a psyche-magnetron stolen from the base. Captain America calls Quasar to pursue the Guard into space, but their ship vanishes into a stargate before he can follow.

QUASAR #32: "THE TOMB OF MAR-VELL" by Mark Gruenwald, Greg Capullo, and Harry Candelario -- In search of the Shi'ar ship, Quasar visits the Starcore space station and learns that the sun is erupting with an unusual number of solar flares. Aboard Starcore, he receives a call from Peggy Carter on Earth, informing him that former Avenger Starfox of Titan has detected someone breaking into Captain Mar-Vell's tomb. Quasar flies to Titan and enters the tomb with Starfox, where they find Kree operatives Doctor Minerva and Captain Atlas. As the Avengers question the duo, the full Shi'ar Imperial Guard arrives and attacks. Meanwhile, on Earth, Captain America assigns Wonder Man to act as Rick's bodyguard for the time being. Back on Titan, Quasar and company quickly realize something is amiss, eventually determining that only three of the Guardsmen are real: Manta, Impluse, and Magique, who create illusions of the rest of her teammates. The Guard trio is defeated, but Minerva and Atlas escape back into the tomb. Elsewhere, a Kree scientsit transforms himself into a super-being called Korath the Pursuer. On Titan Quasar follows Atlas and Minerve into the tomb, to find Atlas donning Captain Marvel's nega-bands. Atlas slams the bands together, and Rick Jones appears in place of Atlas, and immediately begins to succumb to Titan's lack of oxygen.

AVENGERS #344

The mighty assemblers must face...
"ECHOES OF THE PAST"
Writer: Bob Harras | Pencils: Steve Epting | Inks: Tom Palmer
Colors: Tom Palmer | Letters: Bill Oakley
Editor: Ralph Macchio | Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

Note: This issue (or at least the version reprinted in the AVENGERS: THE GATHERING OMNIBUS) does not include credits. The above are pulled from Comics.org.

The Plot: On a rooftop near Four Freedoms Plaza, the Avengers are confronted by the Swordsman and his companion, Magdalene. After ranting at the Avengers for letting him die, Swordsman attacks. He sends Thor flying, while Magdalene goes toe-to-toe with Hercules. Soon, Crystal comes to Hercules's aid while Black Knight engages the Swordsman. Black Knight eventually stuns Swordsman with his laser sword, so Magdalene abandons the fight and calls to someone named Proctor to teleport the Swordsman and herself away.

While the battered Avengers regroup, Magdalene and Swordsman appear in a remote control room, where the mysterious Proctor heals Swordsman and speaks of revenge on Captain America and the Avengers. At Avengers Mansion, the group decides that the man they battled was the real Swordsman, somehow back from the dead, and wonders what to do next.

Continuity Notes: There's lots going on between the main conflict's pages in this one! First, Luna's nursemaid, Marilla, gets into a spat with Jarvis in the Avengers' kitchen when Marilla tries to doctor Jarvis's recipe to make his food more palatable to Crystal. In the same scene, Sersi returns to the mansion unexpectedly. Jarvis tells her where the Avengers are and mentions that Captain America has been concerned for her, but Sersi declares that her life is her own. Then, as she leaves to go join the team, she is stopped when she catches sight of her own reflection and begins babbling to herself.

AVENGERS #343

"FIRST NIGHT"
A story of acquaintances, old and new, brought to you by...
Writer: Bob Harras | Penciler: Steven Epting | Inker: Tom Palmer
Colorist: Tom Palmer | Letterer: Bill Oakley
Editor: Ralph Macchio | Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

The Plot: On the roof of Avengers Mansion, Vision, Jarvis, and the new Thor welcome Crystal, her daughter Luna, and Luna's nursemaid, Marilla, to their new home. While Jarvis escorts Marilla and Luna to Luna's room, the rest of the group encounters Hercules and the Black Knight battling a group of robots in a hallway. Thor and Crystal team up to defeat the robots, after which Captain America and Black Widow appear. The veteran Avengers inform Crystal and Thor that this was a surprise test of their abilities.

The next morning, while Captain America and Black Widow are away in California for a meeting with the West Coast Avengers, a priority alarm comes in from the Human Torch, in which he says the Fantastic Four are under attack. Vision scrambles Crystal, Thor, Hercules, and the Black Knight (with his winged steed, Valinor) to investigate. But when the heroes reach Four Freedoms Plaza, they find nothing amiss, and the Fantastic Four apparently not home. Then the Avengers are attacked by an energy bolt that sends them falling from the sky. The heroes land on a rooftop and find themselves confronted by the long-thought-dead Swordsman and an armored mystery woman.

Continuity Notes: As noted above, this Thor is not the original God of Thunder, but is rather the mortal, Eric Masterson, acting as Thor while the real McCoy is banished per events in his own series. Masterson is none too pleased by the Avengers' test, mentioning that it's the second time the group has pulled something like this, as Hercules apparently attacked him to test his mettle in THOR #437. It should be noted that this is "my" Thor -- i.e., when I was a kid, really beginning to explore the Marvel Universe, this was the Thor I knew from things like INFINITY GAUNTLET and WAR, random assorted issues of this AVENGERS run, and so forth.

AVENGERS #340, #341, & #342

"CLAY SOLDIERS"
Plot: David Michelinie | Script: Scott Lobdell
Pencils: Paul Abrams | Inks: Robert Jones & Chuck Barnette
Letterer: Brad K. Joyce | Colorists: Renee Witterstaetter & Marie Javins
Edits: Ralf Macchio | More Edits: Tom DeFalco

The Plot: Captain America, Wasp, Hercules, She-Hulk, and Iron Man attend the opening of New York's new super hero medical research and treatment facility -- but the festivities are interrupted when a woman races toward Captain America for help, but gets hit by a car in the process. In Cap's arms, the woman warns him that "he's crazy" and that Cap must help "the children." Then she passes out. Later, at Avengers Mansion, Wasp and Jarvis dig up information on the injured woman, learning that she is married to a weapons manufacturer named Itzhak Berditchev, and that the couple has ten year-old quintuplet sons. Realizing these must be the children in question and suspecting that Berditchev recently stole some plutonium from Austria, Cap and Wasp send Jarvis, undercover as a gunrunner named Armond Carlyle III, to infiltrate Berditchev's estate while they follow.

At the estate, Jarvis gains entrance as Cap and Wasp sneak around the grounds. Wasp feigns unconsciousness when sprayed with gas, and Cap races into Berditchev's hedge maze. Jarvis is taken prisoner by two of Berditchev's sons, but manages to escape them. Elsewhere, Cap speaks with Berditchev via a video screen and learns that he saved Berditchev, then a child, from a Nazi concentration camp during World War II, and that Berditchev has since patterend his life -- and the lives of his sons -- around a twisted understanding of Cap's ideals. Soon, Cap overcomes Berditchev's assassin, Bulwark, while Jarvis and Wasp appeal to the children and turn them against their father. When everyone eventually crosses paths in Berditchev's control room, the munitions dealer has a nervous breakdown. He and Bulwark are arrested, and the Avengers prepare to turn his sons over to their recovering mother.

Continuity Notes: In the opening pages, Iron Man mulls over his "recent health problems" as seen in issues of his own title, while Hercules confides in She-Hulk that he feels like the "token god," covering while Thor is unavailable due to events in his ongoing series. There's also a reference to the Avengers' encounter with Thane Ector and the Collector last issue. Later in the story, Jarvis recalls his injuries at the hands of the Masters of Evil in AVENGERS #275.

In the issue, Wasp wears the costume she's shown using on the cover, but it's colored yellow-and-blue instead of blue-and-white.