AVENGERS #374

"INTERSECTING PARALLELS"
A Harras/Epting/Palmer Production
with Colorist: John Kalisz | Letterer: Bill Oakley
Editor: Ralph Macchio | Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

The Plot: The Avengers are rescued from the roiling East River by the Eternals Thena and Sprite. Moments later, Thunderstrike, having responded to a distress signal at Avengers Mansion, arrives with Jarvis and Quicksilver. Jarvis fills everyone in on Sersi's troubled dreams, and the Black Knight deduces that the man haunting her must be Proctor. Meanwhile, Proctor reveals his past to a captive Sersi -- he led the Avengers in another reality, where he fell in love with Sersi and became her gann josin -- until she grew bored of him and flew away, leaving him heartbroken. Proctor then dedicated his life to ridding the multiverse of all iterations of Sersi.

Back in New York, Thunderstrike, Hercules, and Sprite accompany Detective Dubois to her precinct house, where Sprite examines the stone detectives and says that Sersi was not responsible for their transmutation -- and that they are not dead. Meanwhile, at the ruined Avengers Mansion, Black Knight programs the computer with everything the Avengers know about Proctor in hopes it will find his counterpart in the prime reality. Back at Proctor's base. Sersi breaks free and attempts escape, but stumbles into the room where Proctor keeps his near-dead parallel Watcher, as well as multipe copies of Sersi from across the multiverse. One of the Gatherers, Rik, blasts Sersi and Proctor takes her away.

Hercules, Thunderstrike, and the rest return to Avengers Mansion with the restored detectives, who reveal that it was Proctor who changed them to stone. Then Proctor's imprisoned Watcher sends a psionic projection to warn the Avengers that they must stop Proctor or he will destroy reality. Meanwhile, the computer reaches its conclusion, reporting to the Black Knight that Proctor is alternate universe version of himself.

Continuity Notes: Thena and Sprite came to Earth when they sensed Sersi was overcome by madness. Thena chastizes the Avengers for not letting the Eternals deal with Sersi "months ago" in issue 361. Incidentally, Jarvis says that Sersi told him about her dreams "a few weeks ago." There's no footnote, but that was issue 363. So somehow 361 was long enough ago to be referred to as "months", but 363 was only "weeks" -- despite the fact that issues 360 - 366 altogether seemed to take place within the span of just a few days!

Since the last time we saw Thor circa issue 356, a lot has happened in his solo title! The original Thunder God has reclaimed his hammer and identity, while his substitute, Eric Masterson, has been given an enchanted mace by Odin and adopted the codename Thunderstrike.

Then gann josin bond between Black Knight and Sersi is officially severed as of this issue (really as of the end of last issue) -- but somebody didn't tell subsequent writers! More than once later in the nineties, the pair will be shown as still bonded, with the bond being severed again in HEROES FOR HIRE circa 1998 or thereabouts.

Black Knight thanks Crystal for helping him overcome his bond with Sersi, and then attempts to kiss her, but she pushes him away, telling him that she loves him, but she also still loves Quicksilver. The moment is witnessed by Quicksilver, who later confronts the Knight and asks him to let him try to put his family back together -- but before they can speak further, the computer drops its revelation about Proctor's identity.

An another nod toward his health issues in his own series, Captain America has a coughing fit at one point. When Giant-Man asks him if he's okay, Cap (utilizing Hank Pym's classic Silver Age nickname of "High Pockets", which I love), counters by asking Giant-Man about his own health. Pym says that any issues he had are a thing of the past now.

Captain America recalls seeing Proctor's imprisoned Watcher at his citadel in issue 363.

Assemble: It's your classic "downtime in the middle of an action epic" issue, so -- no, not here. But I've got my hopes up for the big issue 375 next time... ("Avengers Assemble!" count: 9 in 41 issues to date.)

My Thoughts: Isn't it always the way -- two issues where there's not a lot to say because they're mostly concerned with moving the pieces around, and then suddenly everything comes to a head and we hit one with a lot to unpack! Let's get to it...

First off, apparently the Avengers had the capability at any time to just ask their computer who Proctor is?? They have no new information at this point; the Black Knight just randomly decides to program in everything the group knows about Proctor, and then let it compare all that info against its databanks in order to figure out who he is on the prime Earth. If it was that easy, why didn't they do it months ago? I suppose a case can be made that they didn't now as much about Proctor before they met him -- the Swordsman had a mental block, after all -- and then when the team finally encountered him in issue 363, he seemed to die at the end of their battle, so perhaps they felt there was no need to figure out who he might be. Still, though, this machina has perhaps a bit too much deus going on, if you take my meaning. I'm sure Harras could've come up with another way for the Avengers to learn the truth.

And speaking of Proctor -- if his story is really all there is to his motive, it's a little weak. Sersi spurned him, so he decided to wipe out all her counterparts across the multiverse? Talk about a fragile ego! Though at the same time, I kind of like it. Like, you're waiting for this huge, Earth-shattering reveal about Proctor's quest, but it turns out he's just nursing a broken heart. Even his premise for forming the Gatherers now seems manufatured. He's said all along that he's plucking his followers from various alternate universes where Sersi went mad and brought about the end of days -- but it's revealed here that Proctor himself has been messing with Sersi's sanity via the gann josin link, which he somehow still has, on some level, with the "prime" Sersi.

So does that mean Proctor has been driving every Sersi insane and ending all these universes himself? That would be a great reveal, and a way to truly cement him as the "big bad" he plays at being. Or are they actual dying universes where he's pretending Sersi caused all the damage? I feel like there must be one more revelation coming up next time -- at least, I hope so. The "unmasking" of Proctor as the Black Knight is a fantastic twist, but this story needs one more nudge to get it across the finish line. I don't know what that form that nudge might take, but I hope Harras does!