AVENGERS #347
Plus CAPTAIN AMERICA #400 & 401, AVENGERS WEST COAST #82, QUASAR #34, and WONDER MAN #9.
Note: While I am summarizing the entire "Operation: Galactic Storm" crossover in the "The Plot" section, the "Contiuity Notes" reflect only AVENGERS #347 unless otherwise indicated
"EMPIRE'S END"
The epic conclusion to the Kree/Shi'ar war brought to you by:
Writer: Bob Harras | Penciler: Steve Epting | Inker: Tom Palmer
Colorist: Gina Gong | Letterers: Bill Oakley & Michael Higgins
Editor: Ralph Macchio | Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco
The Plot:
CAPTAIN AMERICA #400: "MURDER BY DECREE!" by Mark Gruenwald, Rik Levins, and Danny Bulandi -- Captain America is caught up in an explosion in the Kree capitol building. Meanwhile, Iron Man, Black Knight, Hercules, Crystal, Sersi, and Goliath chase after the nega-bomb in their Quinjet, and wonder about Cap's fate. Back on the Kree homeworld of Hala, Cap suddenly finds himself confronted by several of his greatest enemies: King Cobra, Batroc the Leaper, Flag-Smasher, Viper, Crossbones, and the Red Skull. Cap battles the villains, but they prove too much and get the upper hand. But just as the Skull is about to execute Cap, Batroc's sense of honor prevails and he helps his enemy escape and fight back. Cap defeats everyone, then comes to the conclusion that these villains are simulacrums pulled from his own memories by the Supreme Intelligence. The Intelligence ends the charade and tells Cap this was a test to judge him worthy of assimilation. But Cap's sense of independence is too too much for even the Supreme Intelligence to overcome, so he declares that he will not absorb Cap into his collective mind.
AVENGERS WEST COAST #82: "SHI'AR HATRED!" by Roy & Dann Thomas, David Ross, and Tim Dzon -- Lilandra orders that the Kree Starfroce must die, but the Avengers try to convince her to speak with them first. The debate devolves into a battle between Avengers and Imperial Guard, but when Living Lightning blasts the Shi'ar prime minister, Araki, revealing him as a Skrull in disguise, both sides call a truce. Lilandra frees Ultimus and sends him back to the Kree to inform them of what has transpired. Then she reveals that the nega-bomb has gone missing. Back on Earth, the West Coast Avengers return to their compound in California, having left the Shi'ar prisoners in the care of the East Coast reservists at Project: Pegasus. Aboard the nega-bomb, Vision returns from reconnaissance to inform Wonder Man that the bomb is being towed by Skrulls. And back on the Shi'ar throneworld, Captain Marvel receives a call from Quasar, who informs her that he knows where to find the nega-bomb.
QUASAR #34: "THE SCORCHED SUN" by Mark Gruenwald, Rurik Tyler, and Keith Williams -- In Earth's solar system, Her observes as the Skrull ship tows the nega-bomb toward the stargate leading to the Kree empire. Her tries to intervene, but is attacked by Super-Skrull, who forces her into the stargate. Quasar soon arrives and defeats Super-Skrull, then speaks with the Skrull captain. When the captain threatens to detonate the bomb right there, Quasar reluctantly allows passage through the stargate, intending to follow. But before leaving, he realizes the sunspots are getting worse. Binary arrives in search of the nega-bomb, with Her showing up again as well. Binary leaves to pursue, but Quasar stays behind and enters the sun in an attempt to repair it. Binary has a change of heart and returns, aiding Quasar in his work. The sun is restored, but Binary burns out her power in the process. Quasar flies her to Avengers headquarters on Earth, where he learns that Binary was once the Avenger called Ms. Marvel. As Jarvis and the Avengers' doctor work to help Carol, Quasar leaves to pursue the nega-bomb to Kree space.
WONDER MAN #9: "BIG DECISIONS" by ______ _____, Jeff Johnson & Stephen B. Jones, and Dan Panosian & Bud LaRosa -- Aboard the nega-bomb, Wonder Man and Vision are attacked by, and easily defeat, two Skrull warriors. The heroes journey further into the bomb, which Wonder Man is determined to defuse. But the pair comes to blows over Vision's belief that detonating the bomb will end the war sooner and prevent extended bloodshed. Meanwhile, Captain Marvel, Stafox, Thor, and the Scarlet Witch leave the Shi'ar throneworld in search of the bomb. At the same time, Iron Man, Hercules, Black Knight, Sersi, Crystal, and Goliath find the bomb in space. The struggle between Wonder Man and Vision takes them to the heart of the bomb -- a portal into the Negative Zone. Vision finally decides that only Wonder Man, who has experienced death, is qualified to decide the bomb's fate. But just then, a group of Skrulls attacks the duo. Meanwhile, Iron Man and Thor, having exited their Quinjet, battle even more Skrull warriors in space around the bomb. The Avengers' Shi'ar contingent Quinjet arrives seconds later, just as the nega-bomb's detonatior is damaged. As the Avengers watch helplessly, the bomb detonates.
AVENGERS #346 -- In pursuit of the nega-bomb, Quasar witnesses its detonation. The bomb reaches every planet in the vast Kree empire, leaving very few survivors on the thousands of worlds. In the aftermath, Quasar finds Iron Man, Sersi, Black Knight, Crystal, Hercules, and Goliath all adrift in space, apparently dead. Meanwhile, on Hala, Deathbird comes across the body of Captain America in the rubble of the Kree capitol. Back in space, Thor finds Quasar and brings him, with the Avengers' bodies, aboard the Quinjet containing Captain Marvel, Starfox, Scarlet Witch, and Living Lightning. The group then finds the bodies of Wonder Man and Vision and brings them aboard as well. Miraculously, the duo has survived destruction thanks to their being in the eye of the detonation. A moment later, Starfox realizes that his fellow Eternal, Sersi, used her power to transmute the Avengers into inert matter at the last second. Starfox restores the group to normal. Now reunited, the Avengers head back toward Hala for Captain America.
Meanwhile, Cap awakens, having survived the blast. The Supreme Intelligence appears to him and Deatbird, while on the Shi'ar throneworld, Lilandra receives word of the nega-bomb detonation. Back on Hala, the Intelligence gloats to Cap and Deathbird that it planned the entire war, as well as the creation of the nega-bomb, as a way to finally put an end to the Kree's evolutionary dead end. Now, ninety-eight percent of the Kree population are dead, and the survivors will mark the beginning of a new, superior race. Meanwhile, the Avengers arrive on Hala and mourn the carnage. Captain Atlas and Doctor Minerva appear, and Atlas attacks the heroes in rage. But when Captain America and Deathbird arrive, they explain everything the Intelligence told them -- and Cap deduces that Minerva knew about the entire plan. She admits that she did, leading Atlas to activate the self-destruct system on his armor. With his last words, he asks the Avengers to kill the Supreme Intelligence -- then he dies, taking Minerva with him.
The Avengers debate the morality of executing the Supreme Intelligence, with the dissenting half of the group -- Iron Man, Hercules, Black Knight, Sersi, Vision, Wonder Man, and Thor -- eventually leaving to carry out this grim task. They make their way to the capitol citadel, where the Intelligence conjures a group of their greatest enemies to defend him. But the Avengers defeat these guards easily, destroy the Intelligence's facade, and ultimately exterminate its living brain. They then rejoin their teammates, just as a Shi'ar fleet arrives. Lilandra emerges from her flagship and claims the remnant of the Kree Empire as part of the Shi'ar Imperium. She then appoints Deathbird viceroy of the Kree. The Avengers depart for home, while in deep space, the essence of the Supreme Intellgience, beamed away from Hala at the last moment, lives on.
CAPTAIN AMERICA #401: "AFTER THE STORM" by Mark Gruenwald, Rurik Tyler, and Keith Williams -- After a majority of Avengers vote not to impose disciplinary action on the group that killed the Supreme Intelligence, Captain America requests a vote on whether he should step down as team leader. But Iron Man shoots down the idea. Cap tells the team he will be holding a seminar on ethics that evening, and then leaves. Quasar informs Cap that he's taking a leave of absence from the team, then departs. At the ethics meeting, Cap is disheartened to find that only Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, and Black Widow have shown up. Cap leaves, and the Widow tells Hawkeye to take Cap out on the town. Later, Clint Barton and Steve Rogers walk into a bar to discuss Cap's issues. But Tony Stark soon arrives to speak with Cap privately. The men hash out their differences, going back several months, and ultimately part ways as friends once more.
Continuity Notes: I'm pretty sure this is the last appearance of the Supreme Intelligence until the "Live Kree or Die!" crossover early in the Avengers' "Heroes Return" era, circa 1998. So the status quo of no Kree empire lasts for around six years, during which time the Kree are regularly shown to be living under Shi'ar rule.
Lilandra mentions that Deathbird abdicated the Shi'ar throne "months ago," with a footnote pointing to UNCANNY X-MEN #276. In the same scene, she promises Captain America that the stargate in Earth's solar system will not be used again, stating that the "home of [her] heart" is safe once more -- a reference to Charles Xavier, her royal consort. (In a show of surprising restraint, considering the Shi'ar's strong ties to them, the X-Men are never once explicitly mentioned during this entire event.)
It seems that perhaps Araki was found after his imposter was unmasked, as he appears to be standing with Lilandra when she arrives on Hala. But given the character's frequent habit of getting killed off and turning up alive later, who knows what was intended here? (I believe at some point, possibly during Grant Morrison's NEW X-MEN run, it was established that Araki is no longer an individual, but a series of clones, with a new one activated anytime the previous one dies -- not unlike the Vorta in STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE).
Assemble: Nope; the closest thing is "Avengers attack!" from the Scarlet Witch in AVENGERS WEST COAST #82. ("Avengers Assemble!" count: 3 in 14 issues to date.)
My Thoughts: As usual, I'm keeping my comments mainly to the subject of AVENGERS #347, but I just need to note that here, in the middle of this massive crossover event, Captain America has the misfortunte of celebrating his four-hundredth issue. To his credit, Mark Gruenwald does the best he can with it, taking a break, mostly, from the crossover's narrative -- and even creatively using the event -- to present that staple of anniversary issues, a hero going up against a group of his greatest foes. I think Gruenwald deserves great kudos for finding a way to make CAPTAIN AMERICA 400 feel special, as best he can, even as it's stuck in the middle of a nineteen-chapter event. (And for the record, CAP 400 was eighty pages long and featured a number of backup stories to help it feel less like a chapter of "Galactic Storm" and more like its own thing that happened to include a segment of the crossover.)
Now, on with the show. The grand finale of "Operation: Galactic Storm" brings with it a moral argument that I find a bit hard to fathom. Captain America is dead-set against executing the Supreme Intelligence. After it masterminded a war and the genocide of its own people. Again, ninety-eight percent of the Kree are killed as a direct result of the Intelligence's manipulations -- literally "untold billions" of them, per Iron Man in CAP #401! And I am totally, all in favor of super heroes having codes against killing. It's what makes them aspirational figures. But at the same time, a line needs to be drawn somewhere. The Intelligence is, at best, a war criminal. And Cap's position is that the Avengers aren't self-appointed executioners. I totally get that. But he just wants to leave. He essentially says that this is the Kree's problem now.
I honestly just have a hard time buying this. Of course, at this point in continuity, Mark Gruenwald had infamously ret-conned the idea that Captain America had never killed a single soul, not even during World War II. The first life he ever took, per Gruenwald, was a random agent of Flag-Smasher's Ultimatum organization early in Gruenwald's run -- and Cap spent something like a year agonizing over that moment. It was more than a little ridiculous.
Now, I'm not saying I want to see Captain America become like the Punisher or something like that. I'm uncomfortable with how often he was shown actively killing nameless goons early in the Marvel Cinematic Universe! But when faced with something like this, even if he doesn't believe in hunting down and murdering the Intelligence -- which, again, I get -- you'd think he would at least want to turn the thing over to the Shi'ar or somebody to stand trial for what it did. (And in the interst of full disclosure, Cap does suggest exactly this during his conversation with Tony in CAP #401 -- but he does not say or even imply anything of the sort in AVENGERS 347.)
Speaking of the MCU, there are surprising parallels between this moment and the opening scenes of AVENGERS: ENDGAME, in which the Avengers take off into space, hunt down Thanos, and kill him for his extermination of half the galaxy. There, Cap goes along willingly with the mission. And, unlike the discomfort I felt in CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER and AVENGERS, where Cap was shown offing Hydra agents left and right, in that ENDGAME sequence, I have little problem with him joining the mob.
So what am I trying to say here? I guess I'm not sure, other than that I find Cap's attitude in AVENGERS 347 a little naive or perhaps... defeatist? Like, sure -- don't kill the Intelligence, but at least turn him in to the authorities like you'd do on Earth!
One last thought: it's more than noteable, I believe, that when the Avengers split, the group in favor of killing the Supreme Intelligence contains more of the core members of this upcoming Harras/Epting run than the group not in favor. The main Avengers in the run are Black Knight, Sersi, Hercules, Vision, Black Widow, and (sometimes) Captain America -- and of those, Black Widow isn't here, and only Cap and Crystal vote against offing the Intelligence. Further, it is the (arguably) "main character" of the run, Black Knight, who performs the actual execution. An omen of what is to come? We'll soon find out!
Next week, the crossover is over and we're back to normal. "Galactic Storm" was a wild ride, and surprisingly well executed for such a massive event, but I'm ging to be happy to have it in the rear-view mirror as we move back into this Avengers run proper.
Captain America #400 also included a reprint of Avengers #4 which gave readers an easy chance to see the issue without having to resort to the expensive Masterworks - this was before the Milestone edition and the various trade paperbacks. Both Avengers #350 and Thor #450 would also contain a reprint though the former is an odd choice of issue.
ReplyDeleteAtlas and Minerva would reappear in Silver Surfer about a year later with a classic "the explosion disguise our teleportation" explanation.
The massive moral debate has some real world counterparts, especially at the time when you had both a renewed drive against the committers of Second World War atrocities and the recent collapse of many dictatorships leading to questions over who had the moral and legal right to try & punish for actions during those eras. In theory Cap's line of argument, although not expressed too well here, is the equivalent that a country's own authorities should deal with their ex rulers and implementers rather than self-appointed international forces. This can be deeply controversial, especially when a country is either left in a very weak state to actually carry out such a trial but also when the regime ended peacefully amidst negotiations that included immunity (Augusto Pinochet in Chile springs to mind) but many feel that only the country itself can come terms with the past and international intervention can destabilise it further. And the worst situation is for an arbitary execution to be carried out by a self-appointed external force with no legal authority, no trial and no backing by the society in who's name they claim to be acting.
Operation Galactic Storm was actually named after Operation Desert Storm from the Gulf War when there was a massive debate at the time and since over whether the international force should limit itself to liberating Kuwait or if it should push into Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein's regime with massive consequences beyond taking out a single dictator. Doing so would almost certainly have split the international coalition assembled.
The problem is that Cap's dialogue is doubling down on "We're Avengers. We don't kill!" rather than on principles of the rule of law and the need for the Kree survivors to deal with the Great Intelligence as part of rebuilding their society. And there isn't exactly much sign of surviving Kree officials to take charge. (Contrast with Silver Surfer where the second Kree-Skrull war also ends on Hala but with a concerted effort made to find Kree officials to conclude a truce with rather than simply abandoning the planet.)
Thanks as usual for all this information, Tim.
DeleteI can't believe I failed to note the origin of this event's name. I well remember when it originally came out, recognizing it as a nod to Desert Storm. I was a pretty apolitical kid, but even I caught that.
I also appreciate your enlightening me on the return of Atlas and Minverva in SILVER SURFER! They show up in the GIANT-MAN "mini-series"/flip book feature with no explanation and no footnotes as to their survival, so it was quite jarring to see them there. I knew they came back at some point, but I just assumed it was later on. George Pérez wrote the Giant-Man story; was their return in SILVER SURFER during his run writing that title as well? I know he had a fairly long stretch on it during the 90s.
I agree that Captain America's protests are poorly written here. Harras goes the simpler route, as you said, of having him invoke the idea of a no kill code, which is fine in itself, but my bigger issue (as I noted above) is that Harras writes like that's his only reason for wanting to leave. There is absolutely no reasoning presented in AVENGERS 347 that alludes to him wanting to leave the Intelligence to the Kree (or, I suppose, even to the Shi'ar) to stand trial for his crimes. He just wants to leave.
Gruenwald corrects this to some extent in CAP #401, but it feels a bit too late by then.
Atlas and Minerva reappeared in Silver Surfer #79 which is midway through Ron Marz's run. George Pérez didn't arrive until #111 and was only around for a year (I think this was one of the series that gave him a reputation for taking over for very brief runs that followed him to Heroes Return Avengers where he defied these expectations). His Surfer run was dire; the best I can say about it is that the preceding Mike Lackey run was even worse.
DeleteI think Cap's line "Let the Kree survivors handle this. The war is over. The Stargates won't be used again. Earth is safe." is the key one, summing up his view that the Avengers have achieved what they set out to do and indicating who he feels should deal with the Intelligence. It just seems to echo so heavily all the real world arguments I've heard over the years about jurisdiction over internal atrocities and the need for intervention forces to have clearly defined limited goals then get out, that it immediately puts Cap in the same camp as many in the real world.
Harras doesn't have many writing credits outside Avengers, with only short runs on Nick Fury, Namor, Breach (me neither) and JLA plus a few annual and fill-in stories that I can find, so I don't know if this true of his broader work but his Avengers run never struck me as especially political and I suspect the parallels in the crossover come more from others, probably Mark Gruenwald. This is probably why such a critical debate gets sidelined into one of killing in cold blood.
DeleteI first read Cap’s return in Avengers #4 in the 1979 anthology Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty, but you’re right that it was before TPBs from Marvel itself as came to be the norm and, of course, that book was over a decade old by this point. The Fireside and Pocket reprint lines from Simon & Schuster, plus a few other releases in the general book market, were dearly treasured and read to pieces by young comics-history buffs like me.
And I actually have a couple of issues of Breach, Tim! I picked ’em up in a quarter bin purely based on the art from Marco Martin et al.; can’t say whether I read ’em, though.
Funny, I actually know about BREACH as well! Harras mentions it in Tom DeFalco's COMICS CREATORS ON X-MEN book -- and I just re-read that interview recently to see if he said anything about his work on AVENGERS (which he did not, other than to mention that "Bloodties" was the only time he ever scripted the X-Men despite his long association with them).
DeleteI wish DeFalco/Titan had done a COMICS CREATORS ON AVENGERS book. If it followed the concept laid out by their SPIDER-MAN, FANTASTIC FOUR, and X-MEN books, it likely would've featured interviews with most all of the regular writers and artists who had worked on the core series up to the point the book was published in the mid-00s. So thoughts from Harras and likely Epting would have probably been in there. As it is, all I've found regarding them talking about the series are quotes in various MARVEL AGE, etc. articles reprinted in the back of the GATHERING Omnibus.
Anyway, evidently BREACH was originally developed as a new CAPTAIN ATOM series, but at some point changed to a new character. I didn't realize Marcos Martin drew it! I love his artwork.
Marcos Martin with an s, of course, yes. I’d swear I typed that! 8^)
Delete
ReplyDeleteThat’s an excellent cover on Avengers #347 even with all the copy and trade dress stuffed together. I also found Harras’ script over the pages of carnage depicted surprisingly good.
Big mismatch between picture and dialogue at one point, though: Atlas warns Cap to get to a safe distance after triggering his self-destruct program. They keep talking face-to-face until Minerva runs to him, both are vaporized, and everyone just stands around the charred ground having not backed off in the least.
I’m pretty much right there with you vis-à-vis Cap and the ethical situation, Matt. Tim rightly points out the poorly articulated or misdirected focus of his rationale. Cap’s hands were surely not bloodless during World War II and even when he’s adamant with the Black Knight about no killing in a previous chapter it rings hollow given the situation. There’s daylight between indiscriminate murder and refusing to handicap yourself when you and countless other lives are in evident, proximate mortal danger, especially since the usual context of superheroes having a special responsibility to use their godlike powers wisely is rather mooted if you’re, say, a guy with a laser-sword in the midst of a literal war facing opponents possessed of equal or greater technology.
Yeah, that's what I don't get. Captain America has been on the front lines in a legitimate war. He's fought alongside soldiers using lethal force. Even if he, himself, didn't do so, I can't see him shouting at Private So-and-So to holster his weapon and fight the Nazis with fists.
DeleteAnd I agree that's a far cry from, say ordering Thor to use lethal force on the Wrecking Crew or what-have-you.
I love, love, love Mark Gruenwald's CAPTAIN AMERICA run. But even I will admit that he turned Cap into kind of a naive dweeb for the majority of his time on the title. I suspect it's due to Gruenwald that Captain America earned the reputation I remember him having among my friends when I was young, as an uncool square. And I think Gruenwald, in his position as Marvel's executive editor, was in a position to make sure HIS Cap was the one who popped up everywhere else. In other words, I believe Harras is writing his version of Gruenwald's Captain America here, and possibly not the Cap he, himself, would write.
But I could be wrong! I'm just speculating idly now.
I don’t recall having come across Dr. Minerva or Captain Atlas before this crossover, by the way, which in the former’s case at least is surprising just because of how long she’s been around, but I find the names of both delightful in-jokes/homages. Atlas, of course, is a play on Marvel’s prior incarnation. Minerva is a name roughly on the order of Dr. Sivana, arch-nemesis of Fawcett’s original Captain Marvel, as well as the name of a less well-known foe of the Marvel Family, Aunt Minerva.
DeleteTo deal with as you see fit and delete after if desired…
ReplyDeleteContiuity > continuity
Gina Gong > Gina Going
Danny Bulandi > Danny Bulanadi
Starfroce > Starforce
detonatior > detonator
Deatbird > Deathbird
ging > going
Yeek! "Gong" instead of "Going" was a legitimate typo on my part, but I must confess that for decades, I have read Danny Bulanadi's last name as "Bulandi". I've somehow never noticed that second "A"! How embarrassing!
DeleteAnyway, thanks, Blam -- I'll try to update these as well.