AVENGERS #355

"WHEN COME THE GATHERERS...!"
Writer: Bob Harras | Penciler: Steve Epting | Letterer: Bill Oakley
Editor: Ralph Macchio | Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco
join in congratulating Tom Palmer on his 100th issue
embellishing the adventures of the mighty Avengers!

The Plot: On another version of Earth, Swordsman, Magdalene, and their teammates, the Gatherers -- Cassandra and Sloth -- appear in a ruined New York just as Captain America dies outside Avengers Mansion. The Gatherers find more dead Avengers and one final living soul on Earth -- T'Challa, the Coal Tiger. The Gatherers return with the Tiger to Proctor.

On the real Earth, Black Knight has found matching energy signatures between Marissa Darrow's apartment, the Avengers emergency systems, and the skycar -- proving that someone has been in all three places. The Knight and Vision have prepared a countermeasure for further such tampering, and Black Widow orders them to implement it immediately. Meanwhile, Proctor stabilizes the dying Coal Tiger, then orders the Gatherers to Avengers Mansion to find his counterpart in the main dimension. The Gatherers teleport into the mansion at night, but are confronted by the Avengers, alerted by Black Knight's new system.

A battle breaks out, but the Gatherers prove too much for the Avengers to handle. The heroes are defeated, but left alive per Proctor's order. The Gatherers get the information they needed and depart for Wakanda to find T'Challa, the Black Panther.

Continuity Notes: There are a handful of footnotes in this one, though most point to the same pair of issues. First, we're reminded that Marissa Darrow was Magdalene's counterpart in the Avengers' dimension, per issue 348. We're then told that the Gatherers infiltrated Avengers Mansion, unknown to Avengers and readers alike, prior to the events of issues 344 (in order to override the alert system and stage a fake call from the Human Torch) and 348 (to sabotage the skycar). Hercules then tells Magdalene he will avenge his defeat at her hands in issue 344, and two pages later, Swordsman recalls his duel with the Black Knight in that same issue yet again.

We are allowed a brief glimpse of Proctor alone, as he examines an image of Sersi under the filename "Alpha/Omega", and it is revealed that he somehow knew her in the past.

Sersi is visited by Sprite of the Eternals, at the command of Sersi's sister, Thena, who is concerned over Sersi's melding with an alien Uni-Mind (which happened during "The Collection Obsession", though there's no footnote here). Sersi brushes off Thena's concern and goes on her way. Sersi also debuts a new costume this issue, stating that she "never" thought green was her color -- which seems odd, since she had been wearing green for centuries or more at this point!

Crystal speaks with Black Knight about his recently avoiding her, and he nearly tells her how he feels until Sersi arrives. Crystal leaves the two, and Sersi immediately comes on to the Knight again, as Crystal watches forlonrly.

Proctor reveals the power to read minds (or perhaps memories). It's unclear at this point if there are any limitations on the ability, as he is only shown using it on Coal Tiger (though it does appear in the scene that he needs to touch the subject in order to get anything from them).

Hercules wants to ask Taylor Madison out on a date, but can't bring himself to pick up the phone, so infatuated is he with her. So Black Widow makes the call instead, inviting Taylor to a cocktail party. It's a nice scene showing the Widow as more than a cold spy, and also highlighting a bit of a friendship between her and Hercules. I wonder if Harras was thinking of their time as teammates in the Champions when he wrote the scene?

Assemble: As usual, the answer is no. But here's a sweet group shot to make up for it:

Oh, I didn't mention Thor is in this issue too? It's kind of weird to see how Harras handles him in these issues... he's basically a non-entity, showing up for meetings and fights, but otherwise standing on the sidelines and barely talking. I suppose it's because he can't get too integrated into any of the sub-plots since he has his own ongoing series. In fact, in the above image, he's the only character present with that distinction!

Anyway -- "Avengers Assemble!" count: 4 in 22 issues to date.

My Thoughts: I love how Harras is dripping out little bits and pieces of his storyline here... we met Swordsman, Magdalene, and Proctor nearly a dozen issues ago in their first enigmatic attack. Now we learn a bit more about them -- Proctor's mysterious history with Sersi, their mission of apparently rescuing sole survivors from various doomed universes. Then there's Sersi -- her meld with the Brethren's Uni-Mind seemed a simple trick to resolve Harras's inaugural -- and otherwise totally stand-alone -- storyline, but here we learn, via Sprite, that there may be lasting effects from that moment -- which is likely meant to explain Sersi's recent bloodlust in "Galactic Storm".

It's kinda funny, when you stop to think about it: Bob Harras was the X-MEN editor and the AVENGERS writer. Both series feel sort of similar at this point in time, with regards to dripping out bits and pieces of storylines, setting up mysteries, and so forth. But what fascinates me is that Harras is clearly writing AVENGERS with an endgame in mind. I mean, I know via hindsight that the "Gathering" stoyrline will culminate in issue 375, and that all the stuff about Proctor, Sersi, etc. will be resolved. But even if I didn't know that -- this stuff feels way better conceived and thought-out than what readers would get in X-MEN over the same span of time.

It's just really interesting to me that Harras the writer was capable of planning a long-term storyline through to its definitive end, but Harras the editor was content to let his writers drop hints and set up plots willy-nilly, with no resolution planned for half of them!

Anyway -- we've yet another solid, engrossing chapter on our hands, here. I honestly feel that at this point in time, the Bob Harras/Steve Epting/Tom Palmer team can do no wrong. They're firing on all cylinders, and this run is shaping up to become all I had hoped it might be.