AVENGERS #360

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

The Plot: Vision awakens, a prisoner of Proctor and the Gatherers. Proctor reveals his most recent refugee from an alternate dimension, another version of Vision. Vision then thinks back on how he wound up here -- he was working with Swordsman on the other's memory issues when he was summoned by telegram to the home of Laura Lipton. When Laura kissed Vision, he was attacked from behind by the Gatherers, as Laura revealed herself to be Tabula in disguise. Now, in Proctor's lab, the villain prepares to swap the two Visions' minds.

Meanwhile, Black Knight finds Sersi in Wakanda and convinces her to come home. But as they approach New York, Sersi flips out. Their Quinjet crashes into the Avengers' hangar as Proctor and his false Vision, now in the real Vision's body, observe. Sersi throws Black Knight out of the jet and then attacks her teammates. Back at Proctor's base, Vision attempts to escape, but finds that Proctor has disabled his ability to phase. Swordsman dons his costume and joins the Avengers against Sersi, but it is the arrival of "Vision" which turns the tide. The synthezoid ruthlessly takes Sersi down -- and then, as the Avengers stand over her unconscious form, Captain America appears.

Continuity Notes: Not continuity, but -- somebody stretched the logo! I don't know why, but beginning with this issue -- and lasting until #380, when it's replaced with a brand new one -- the AVENGERS logo is vertically stretched to bizarre proportions. Stretching was all the rage around this time in the nineties -- X-MEN had a stretched logo, though I think it was at least redrawn from scratch to appear "taller", and WOLVERINE's logo was stretched really badly. Plus you'd see it now and then on Spider-Man comics (after they switched to the jagged "Sabretooth logo" style), and I think on other titles as well. I really don't understand it, and I think it's quite ugly, but this is nonetheless the logo I chiefly associate with the Harras/Epting/Palmer AVENGERS run (and is the logo I used for my main page of links to these review, accessible from the right-hand menu over there).

Swordsman is still experiencing severe headaches, which Proctor used to cure for him, but which he is now forced to ride out on his own.

Crystal reminds Vision that the Avengers have a meeting planned for the evening, during which they will discuss Sersi's actions of Polemachus. A footnote points to the previous issue. Three pages later, when Vision is ambushed by the Gatherers, he recalls their first attack on the Avengers in issue 345.

Proctor reveals a new power, severing Vision's hand with eyebeams. He also then repairs it before sending "his" Vision to Avengers Mansion.

We get more on the Gatherers' motivation in this one: first, Proctor states that all his recent actions against the Avengers have been spurred by his hatred of Sersi, who was once his wife. Later, Cassandra tells Vision that the Gatherers are all the sole surviviors of universes destroyed because of the Avengers. (She also refers to the main Marvel Universe as the "prime dimension", so take that, Earth 616ers!)

Sersi has fled to Wakanda to avoid the Avengers following her killing of Anskar on Polemachus (which happened last issue, per footnote). Black Knight voices some of the Avengers' concerns over this -- yes, Anskar was a murderer, but he was also unarmed when Sersi killed him. And Sersi agrees with this assessment, confiding in the Knight that she reveled in her action and feels she is going mad. Later, Hercules gives the flip side of the argument, which I mentioned last week as something I would've liked to have seen in the Avengers' reactions there -- he believes "justice was done" when Sersi killed Anskar.

At a Manhattan police station, detectives working the serial killer case find unstable molecule fabric fibers on the most recent victim. They set out to interview Reed Richards about it. (It's also noted that the cops figured out what the fabric was by running it through the datatbase of Code: Blue, the NYPD's superhuman response team from contemporanous issues of THOR.)

After wearing her normal outfit early in the issue, Crystal debuts a new costume midway through, telling Hercules that "it was time for a change." Hercules' wardrobe is in a transitional state here as well. You'll recall he shaved his beard some time back. recent issues have found him sporting a simple band instead of his usual headgear. Now, when we first see him, he's wearing an Avengers bomber jacket. When he joins the fight against Sersi, we see that he's wearing pants instead of his usual trunks, though he still has his customary boots, belt, and green chest harness -- for now.

For reasons unknown, apparently Arkon left his dino-steed, Karia, in the care of the Avengers. We also see that Lockjaw seemingly lives in the mansion as well; something that seemed likely due to the presence of Crystal, but was never formally stated until now.

As of this issue, Vision is in the body of his other-dimensional counterpart, which will remain the case until the Avengers "die" saving the world from Onslaught a few years from now.

Assemble: What do you think? ("Avengers Assemble!" count: 4 in 27 issues to date.)

My Thoughts: Wow! Per the cover, this issue kicks off the Avengers' thirtieth anniversary year, and I'd say it's doing so in style. The Gatherers are back in full force, along with a bit more of their motivation dripped out for we readers. Swordsman suits up to fight alongside the Avengers. Vision is back to (a variation of) his classic green-yellow-and-red appearance. And Captain America has returned -- though he appears none too pleased about what's been going on his absence!

(His disposition is vastly improved, however, just a page later in the issue's backup story -- more on that below.)

Again, and I apologize for repeating myself so much as I look at this stuff, but Bob Harras is handling his Gatherers storyline just about right in my eyes. They aren't the villains of every single issue. But they appear more often than not, whether as an issue's main antagonists or in their very own sub-plot pages. They're presented in a such a way that a reader will never forget they're always there, ever lurking -- and then sometimes, when they do go up against the Avengers, our heroes aren't aware of it even as we readers are.

I use no hyperbole when I say that this is, in my mind, absolute pitch-perfect comic book plotting/writing. It brings to mind thoughts of Roger Stern's Hobgoblin saga -- a stretch where the villain appeared in seven out of fourteen AMAZING SPIDER-MAN issues -- and, as with a certain world-famous cartoon dog, whenever Hobgoblin wasn't in an issue, Spider-Man was asking, "Where's Hobgoblin?" (I.e., even in the issues that didn't feature the villain, Spidey was either thinking about him or looking for him.)

Anyway, what more can I say? This is another near-perfect issue of a near-perfect comic book run. This style of writing is exactly what I look for and hope for in any superhero comic I read.

This issue also features a backup story, "Overview", written by Bob Harras, drawn by Hector Collazo, lettered by Rick Parker, and colored by Gina Going. In it, a much more chipper Cap chats with Black Widow about what the Avengers have been up to while he was gone. The Widow goes over several personnel profiles with Cap, giving us a "sourcebook"-like look at: Black Knight, Sersi, Crystal, Coal Tiger (R.I.P.), Swordsman, Magdalene, Sloth, and Cassandra. All are written from Black Widow's perspective and don't offer a ton of new insight, though there are a few tidbits worth mentioning:

• Black Knight is the Avengers' "de facto field leader". Also, the Widow notes he is far more reckless than he used to be, and fears that recklessness may lead to tragedy.
• As with the Knight, Black Widow believes Sersi may lead the Avengers to ruin.
• The Avengers believe Swordsman's headaches are due to him not yet being "in sync" with the prime reality.
• The Avengers have deduced that Marissa Darrow was killed by the Gatherers since she was Magdalene's counterpart in the prime reality. (Also, apparently Marissa was a fashion model, which I don't recall being stated in her one appearance.)
• The Avengers have tried to find counterparts for Cassandra and Sloth in the prime reality, but have thus far come up empty-handed.

Lastly, the Widow mentions the Watcher's recent visit, and wonders if it is related to the Gatherers and everything going on with Sersi.