AVENGERS #346

Plus CAPTAIN AMERICA #399, AVENGERS WEST COAST #81, QUASAR #33, WONDER MAN #8, IRON MAN #279, and THOR #446.

Note: While I am summarizing the entire "Operation: Galactic Storm" crossover in the "The Plot" section, the "Contiuity Notes" reflect only AVENGERS #346 unless otherwise indicated

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

The Plot: CAPTAIN AMERICA #399: "TWENTY MILLION LIGHT YEARS FROM EARTH" by Mark Gruenwald, Rik Levins, and Danny Bulandi -- Shatterax delivers the captured Captain America, Iron Man, Goliath, Sersi, Crystal, Black Knight, and Hercules to the Kree homeworld of Hala, where Ronan the Accuser takes them into custody. But as soon as Shatterax and his men depart, Crystal metamorphosizes the Avengers to look like Kree Accusers. Thus confusing their captors, the heroes escape. Soon, in a safe haven, Iron Man angrily orders Sersi to reverse her sorcery. He and Goliath then depart to conduct recon. Elsewhere, Ultimus arrives on Hala and meets up with Shatterax, Korath the Pursuer, and their leader, Supremor. Meanwhile, Iron Man calls Cap to tell him he's found what appears to be the Kree capitol building. Cap's team heads that way, but Korath intercepts them. Cap manages to defeat Korath, and his group proceeds on their way to meet with Iron Man and Goliath.

AVENGERS WEST COAST #81: "THEY ALSO SERVE..." by Roy & Dann Thomas, Dave Ross, and Tim Dzon -- On Earth, Hank Pym, Wasp, U.S. Agent, Spider-Woman, Gilgamesh, She-Hulk, Mockingbird, and Falcon are on guard duty at Project: Pegasus, where the captured Kree and Shi'ar forces are being held. Nightside and Scintilla of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard arrive and release Warstar and the Shi'ar crewmen. As the Avengers battle this group, Doctor Minerva rouses Captain Atlas and the duo escapes to a parked Shi'ar craft. The Avengers pursue, but the Kree exit Earth's atmosphere and land aboard a massive Shi'ar warship, where Minerva reveals that she is actually Imperial Guardsman Hobgoblin (now calling himself "Shifter") in disguise, with the diminutive Scintilla hiding on his person. The Shi'ar grab Atlas's stolen quantum bands. Meanwhile, the Avengers have recaptured their Shi'ar prisoners, along with Nightside and Warstar, and they find the real Doctor Minerva still inside Project: Pegasus. Minvera uses her mental bond with Atlas to find him, and the Avengers call Quasar to intercept the Shi'ar ship. Accompanied by the engimatic Her, Quasar battles Neutron and Starbolt of the Imperial Guard, while the Shi'ar ship escapes into the stargate.

QUASAR #33: "SPATIAL DELIVERIES" by Mark Gruenwald, Rurik Tyler, and Fred Frediericks -- Quasar and Her battle Starbolt and Neutron in deep space. After defeating the two Imperial Guardsman, Quasar leaves Her to guard the stargate and takes off after the Shi'ar cruiser. He catches up with it in Shi'ar space, and boards the craft. Quasar demands the return of Captain Atlas and the nega-bands. The Shi'ar release Atlas, but inform Quasar that the bands have already been beamed off their ship. Quasar departs with Atlas, while the Shi'ar contingent of Avengers arrives on the throneworld of Chandilar. The heroes meet with Prime Minister Araki, who agrees to take their case to Lilandra. Meanwhile, Quasar tracks the nega-bands deeper into Shi'ar space -- but he is attacked by Binary of the Starjammers, along with several members of the Imperial Guard. They briefly engage Quasar and then vanish, with Captain Atlas their prisoner. Meanwhile, Lilandra speaks with a technician about a deadly new weapon created using the nega-bands. And finally, after Atlas is thrown into a Shi'ar cell, a mystery figure appears to liberate him.

WONDER MAN #8: "DEATH ADRIFT" by ______ _____, Jeff Johnson & Stephen B. Jones, and Jan Anton Harps -- Aboard a Shi'ar space station, the Avengers envoy (Captain Marvel, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Thor, Wonder Man, and Living Lightning) watches as Lilandra directs the Starjammers to deliver a "nega-portal" via stargate to Kree space. But Starjammer leader Corsair, a human, objects to ferrying the weapon through his home system, and walks out on his crewmates. The remaining Starjammers proceed with the mission, however, towing the nega-portal to a nearby system for transport, since Thor sealed the stargate in the Shi'ar system. An impetuous Wonder Man grabs Vision and leaps to the nega-portal as the Starjammer leaves the station. Lilandra informs the Starjammers of the stowaways, and Ch'od, Hepzibah, and Raza beam aboard the nega-portal. After a brief fight, Wonder Man convinces the Starjammers that this is no "portal", but a powerful nega-bomb. The Starjammers decide they won't be party to delivering such a device and beam back to their ship -- but it is too late for them to stop their trip into the stargate, so they jettison the bomb with Wonder Man and Vision aboard as the Starjammer soars through the gate.

AVENGERS #346 -- On Hala, Captain America, Sersi, Crystal, Black Knight, and Hercules make their way to the Kree capitol building. Their movements, along with everything else on the planet, are observed by the Supreme Intelligence, who next turns his attention to the Kree's current rulers, Ael-Dan and Dar-Benn, as they berate Ronan for letting the Avengers escape. After checking in on them, the Intelligence watches the arrival of Deathbird on Hala. She kills the man who smuggled her in and slinks into the shadows. The Supreme Intelligence next summons his Star-Force: Korath the Pursuer, Shatterax, Ultimus, Captain Atlas, Doctor Minvera, and Supremor. He convinces them the Avengers are agents of the Shi'ar and sends the group to attack Earth's heroes. Star-Force attacks the Avengers, while inside the capitol, Ael-Dan and Dar-Benn plan to go confront the heroes -- but they are watched by Deathbird. The Kree rulers appear and address both Star-Force and the Avengers, but both teams are encased in a force field, courtesy of Deathbird, who swoops in and assassinates both Kree rulers, then vanishes again. The Supreme Intelligence appears, seizing the moment to retake control of the Kree Empire. He sends Ronan to take most of Star-Force on a mission to kill Lilandra, but orders Atlas and Minvera to remain behind and guard the Avengers, who will be executed the next day.

IRON MAN #279: "BAD JUDGMENT" by Len Kaminski, Paul Ryan, and Bob Wiacek & Keith Williams -- Iron Man and Goliath see news footage of the Avengers captured by Ronan, along with a bulletin about Deathbird's assassination of the Kree leaders. The duo splits up: Iron Man goes to find the Avengers while Goliath searches for Deathbird. Meanwhile, inside the Kree Citadel of Judgment, Captain America is escorted away by guards -- and on another level, the Supreme Intelligence absorbs the neural matter of the deceased Kree leaders into himself. Iron Man bursts into the citadel at ground level, but is intercepted by Ronan. Elsewhere, Goliath finds Deathbird in the sewer. One size-changing threat later, she agrees to help him rescue the Avengers. Iron Man finds himself on the defensive against Ronan, but the Avengers, freed by Goliath and Deathbird, arrive to save him. The team escapes into the sewer, where Goliath reveals that he let Deathbird go because the Shi'ar were going to launch their nega-bomb if she didn't return from her mission. Iron Man orders the team to stop the bomb, but Goliath tries to go back for Captain America. Iron Man stuns him and leads the Avengers away. And in deep space, a Skrull spacecraft finds the nega-bomb adrift.

THE MIGHTY THOR #446: "NOW STRIKES THE STARFORCE!" by Tom DeFalco, Patrick Oliffe, and Al Milgrom -- On the Shi'ar throneworld, Captain Marvel, Thor, Scarlet Witch, Starfox, and Living Lightning are escorted to a meeting with Lilandra. But when Thor's temper gets the better of him, the majestrix sends the Avengers away before hearing them out. Meanwhile, Ronan and the Star-Force beam into the building and split up in search of Lilandra. As Lilanda confides in her chancellor, Araki, that she's uncertain whether launching the nega-bomb was the right move, Araki prepares to assassinate her. But he's stopped when Imperial Guardsman Earthquake arrives to guard the majestrix. Elsewhere, Supremor battles Guardsman Titan, and the Avengers overhear the battle and race to join in. In space, the Skrulls begin to tow the nega-bomb with a tractor beam. Meanwhile, the Avengers join the fray against the Star-Force. But Ultimus finds Lilandra, defeats Earthquake, and prepares to kill her, until Starfox arrives. The Avengers and Imperial Guard together defeat the Star-Force, but Ultimus easily beats Starfox. However Lilandra gets the drop on the Kree warrior with a gigantic blaster, and takes him out. Moved by Starfox's valor, Lilandra decides that the nega-bomb must be stopped. But elsewhere, the Skrull ship begins towing it toward Kree space.

Continuity Notes: Sersi and Crystal are suddenly wearing Avengers-branded bomber jackets when this issue opens, despite not having them in previous chapters. This seems to be an artistic choice by Steve Epting, as dialogue, apparently aimed at explaining the oddity, has Black Kight state that Sersi conjured the garments with her powers. More notably than their unexpected origin, however, is the fact that these jackets will go on, perhaps somewhat infamously, as shorthanded to define this Avengers era -- i.e., you'll often see this group referred to as the "bomber jacket Avengers". As we'll see in the next few months, nearly the entire team will start wearing them at one point or another. I'll talk more about the jackets after "Galactic Storm" is finished, when my posts have a bit more space to breathe.

At one point, the Black Knight declares that the Avengers' backs are against the wall with little hope of survival, and tells Cap that he's setting his energy blade to "kill" -- but Cap shoots him down. More on this below...

Assemble: She-Hulk yells it in AVENGERS WEST COAST #81, and Captan Marvei gives the cry in THOR 446. But it's not used in AVENGERS 346, so neither of those are included in our count, which now stands at: 3 utterances in 13 issues to date.

My Thoughts: As "Operation: Galactic Storm" moves into its second month, some cracks in the event's previously tight continuity begin to show. Chiefly, it's the fact that the crossover's writers seem to have lost track of what Imperial Guardsmen should be where -- specifically, in QUASAR 33, Warstar and Nightside are among the Shi'ar the Quasar meets in space, where the chapter just previous -- AVENGERS WEST COAST 81 -- showed them captured (or in Warstar's case, re-captured) by the Earthbound Avengers. Initially I thought the fact that everyone was still using the stargate to get around was a plot hole as well, since Thor sealed it in his issue 445, but WONDER MAN #8 specified that Thor only collapsed the gate entrance in Shi'ar space -- something that was not made clear in the THOR issue.

Further, there is evidently a miscommunication between writers as to what exactly Iron Man and Hawkeye/Goliath (let's just call him Clint for now) are doing during this span. In CAPTAIN AMERICA 399, they leave the group to go do reconnaissance and eventually find the Kree capitol. Iron Man calls Cap and tells him to hurry over if he doesn't want Shellhead and Clint to go in alone. That's ostensibly why Cap and his team are en route to the capitol when AVENGERS 346 opens -- but in that issue, they act like they don't know where Iron Man and Clint went off to, and as if they haven't had any contact with them since they left.

Beyond that, this chunk of issues spends a good amount of time on setup for a schism among the Avengers, which will spin out of this crossover's finale -- and which will come to define the tone of this Harras/Epting run going forward. Minor spoiler: the crux of the event's climax hinges on the Avengers arguing over whether or not to kill the Kree Supreme Intelligence (we'll find out why some of the team considers such drastic action soon). To set this up, Iron Man is unusually grumpy in these chapters, arguing with Captain America, even trying to pull rank on him as the only founding Avenger present in the Kree delegation. We already saw a bloodthirsty side to Sersi in the previous AVENGERS issue, and that continues here. Plus, we now have the Black Knight ready and willing to use lethal force on his opponents, as described above.

It's nice to see this stuff seeded into the crossover at various points, as it will make the Avengers' eventual debate feel like it has spun logically out of what we've seen so far. Masterful writing, I say!

Now -- though I'm keeping my analysis limited mostly to events which affect (or will affect) the AVENGERS title proper, I just want to note that I was little disappointed in IRON MAN 279 when no comment was made of the fact that Hawkeye had previously fought Deathbird many years earlier, in one of her first appearances (before it had even been revealed she was Shi'ar!). I mean, it's clear from dialogue that he knows who she is, but a little winking nod to their classic encounter in AVENGERS 189 would've been fun. Especially if it came in the form of Deathbird not recognizing Clint in the Goliath costume, but making some comment about how he reminds her of this boorish oaf who she fought on Earth years ago.

I also want to comment, without judgment -- though I think anyone who reads this site regularly knows where I would fall on this -- that if this were a twenty-first century Marvel event, several memebers of the Imperial Guard would've been killed in THOR 446 like so much cannon fodder, since at some point, somebody implemented the bizarre idea that the Guardsmen are all legacies who pass their identities down to successors when they are (frequently) killed in battle. (I know this originated pre-2000, with a second Fang to replace the one who had died many years earlier, but back then he was the exception. The practice has now become a rule.)

Anyway -- next week, it's the epic conclusion to "Galactic Storm"!