AVENGERS #380

"ERRAND OF MERCY"
Writer: Bob Harras | Penciler: Mike Deodato Jr.
Inker & Colorist: Tom Palmer | Letterer: Bill Oakley
Editor: Ralph Macchio | Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

Note: AVENGERS #379 - 382 were published as "Double Features" with a GIANT-MAN limited series included as a "flipbook" within those issues. I will cover the GIANT-MAN serial in one post after issue 382.

The Plot: Quicksilver and Crystal arrive at Wundagore Mountain in Transia, where Bova, the evolved cow who nursed Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch as children, is dying. Bova's friend, a human named Fydor, confides in Quicksilver that the cow-woman's creator, the high Evolutionary, has returned to his lab atop the mountain, and that he might be able to save Bova. Quicksilver and Crystal head up the mountain, where they find a shrine to Quicksilver's late mother, Magda. Present at the shrine is a young Acolyte, recently cast out of Avalon by Exodus. The boy reveals that the Acolytes never visit the shrine anymore, as the High Evolutionary has forbidden anyone to trespass on the mountain.

At that moment, two of the Evolutionary's brutish evolved creatures appear and attack, while the Acolyte boy teleports away. Crystal is taken out first, but Quicksilver holds his own until the High evolutionary appers and blasts him. Meanwhile, at the base of the mountain, Fydor lies to Bova, telling her that Quicksilver and Crystal went into the village. With a sinister smile, he tells her that everything is fine.

Continuity Notes: You'll note above that the series logo has changed. This has to be one of my least favorite Avengers logos. It's just so ugly and... pointy. You could put an eye out with that thing. Sadly, it will stick with the series until its final issue, #403.

Quicksilver collapses upon raching Wundagore, prompting Crystal to remind him that he still hasn't fully recovered from injuries sustained in AVENGERS #369 (when Exodus zapped him in the "Bloodties" finale).

The Acolyte who greets Quicksilver and Crystal at Magda's grave says that he was banished from Avalon in UNCANNY X-MEN #316 (which was, incidentally, the series' final issue before the "Age of Apocalypse" event). The boy is not named here; in X-MEN when he first appeared circa issue 300, everyone called him "neophyte" -- i.e., "newbie" or "rookie" or what-have-you. And then, somewhere along the way, I assume some writer failed to realize what the word neophyte meant, and somehow the boy's actual codename became Neophyte. Which is absurd.

Quicksilver recognizes the High Evolutionary's evolved animals as "New Men", which is what they are traditionally called -- but a footnote helpfeully tells us that these guys are actually "Animutants", and to see current issues of THOR for more on that.

A few things happen in the hallowed halls of Avengers Mansion during this issue: first, Hercules calls Taylor Madison, pining over her after weeks since they last saw one another. Meanwhile, Taylor greets a woman who has answered her ad for a roommate -- Augustyne Jones, who is shown to have mysterious glowing eyes.

Second, Captain America has a workout in the Avengers' gym, but he overexerts himself and his body spasms. Black Widow witnesses the event, but doesn't tell Cap she saw, then she speaks with Vision about it. All of this is still reference to the ongoing "Fighting Chance" storyline in Cap's solo title, where the super soldier serum was failing him.

Lastly, Marilla finds Luna in her room, staring at a mirror and calling for her "unca." The nursemaid thinks nothing of it as she takes Luna out of the room, but after they're gone, the Black Knight's reflection appears in the mirror, calling for help.

Assemble: No big team battles this issue, so -- no. ("Avengers Assemble!" count: 10 in 47 issues to date.)

My Thoughts: It's a well-known fact that if you were a comic book in the 1990s, sooner or later, Mike Deodato Jr. would draw you. Such is the case here, as Deodato comes aboard AVENGERS as the new regular penciler, a role he will retain, barring fill-ins, for the remainder of the series until it is cancelled to make way for the "Heroes Reborn" event.

And where walks Deodato, can gratuitous cheesecake be far behind? The answer, as evidence by Black Widow's statuesque butt just up above there, is no -- though unlike a lot of the artists who specialized in quesionably drawn T&A in the nineties, Deodato actually knows how to tell a story with his artwork as well. By no means can I say that I prefer him over Steve Epting -- that would be impossible. But at this point, I would put Deodato on par with, say Andy Kubert when he started drawing X-MEN a couple years earlier. That is to say, a decent artist who knows what he's doing but isn't quite "there" yet.

Still, I put Deodato a cut above nearly any fill-in artist we've seen on this run. Of course, retaining Tom Palmer as inker helps in a major way. Palmer's tenure as AVENGERS inker stretched back to the Roger Stern/John Buscema run in the 1980s, and he provided the series with an unusual level of artistic consistency for a full decade or so. Because of Palmer, even a guy like Deodato still "feels" like an AVENGERS artist in the tradition of Buscema, Paul Ryan, Steve Epting, etc. -- even if his penciling skills are not at the same level as those others.

As for the story itself -- well, this is a three-parter, so I'll discuss it more next time. But just now, I do want to comment on that peculiar apperance from the Black Knight. It seems Bob Harras must have had some sort of plan to continue the story of the Knight and Sersi, if the cliffhanger here is anything to go on. But, as I mentioned when we looked at issue 375 a few weeks ago, the next major appearance of the Knight and Sersi comes in the Ultraverse titles -- so whatever Harras's plans, I guess he didn't get to see them through. That said, it'll be interesting to see whether the Knight and/or Sersi show up again before we quit following the series.