AVENGERS #385

Stan Lee presents a new threar for the mighty Avengers...
"EVIL IN A COLD AND LONELY PLACE"
Story: Bob Harras & Terry Kavanagh | Script: Bob Harras
Breakdowns: Mike Deodato & John Buscema | Finishes: Tom Palmer
Colorist: John Kalisz | Letterer: Bill Oakley
Editor: Ralph Macchio | Editor-in-Chief: Mark Gruenwald

The Plot: Black Widow meets with her mentor and father figure, Ivan, in Manhattan. Ivan tells her that he recently learned of a massive energy surge in Canada. The Widow leaves to assemble the Avengers, warning Ivan to watch his back. But as he drives home, Ivan is ambushed and captured by a mystery figure.

At Avengers Mansion, Deathcry is injured when the strange door in the basement emits a blast of flame. The Avengers depart for Canada, leaving Deathcry behind on monitor duty. Nick Fury learns of the group's course for Canada, and is none too pleased. When the Avengers reach their destination, they find a massive crater in the ground. The group descends, but they are ambushed at the bottom by the Red Skull, standing over Ivan's body.

Continuity Notes: It is revealed that Ivan is who the Black Widow spoke with on the phone in the prior issue.

As described above, the Avengers' mystery door shoots fire at Quicksilver, Crystal, and Deathcry as they scan it. However, though she is hit by the flames, Deathcry is not burned. Quicksilver speculates that a temporal paradox is involved, though how he arrives at that conclusion is beyond me. (I mean, yes, the Avengers scanned temporal energy behind the door when they first discovered it, but what would that have to do with flames not burning someone?) As the trio walks away from the door, they fail to hear someone or something inside tapping on it.

Deathcry is stated to be sixteen years old. She's also adapted quickly to Earth culture; suddenly she peppers her dialogue with "like" all the time, and suggests that it would be "dope" to have her picture in PEOPLE magazine!

During their Quinjet flight to Canada, Black Widow worries over Captain America and Giant-Man, who have been missing since an "incident two days ago." A footnote points to CAPTAIN AMERICA #438. However I've read Mark Gruenwald's CAP run more than once over the years, and while Giant-Man does appear in that issue, nothing like the Widow describes here happens in it!

Meanwhile, Hercules has his own problems: between the "death" of Taylor Madison (or should that be the death of "Taylor Madison"? Or "the" death "of" Taylor Madison? I dunno...) and losing his immortality, he's now developed a death wish. He mentions it to Crystal aboard the Quinjet, and later when he leaps into the crater, he wonders whether he will survive the fall -- "And he realizes that he really doesn't care."

Not a continuity note, but I just need to mention that John Buscema and Tom Palmer draw one of the most breathtakingly "on model" versions of the Red Skull that I've ever seen. Sadly, next issue features a guest penciler who will go in a rather... unfortunate... different direction with his interpretation of the villain.

Assemble: Sadly, no. The closest thing we get is Black Widow ordering all Avengers to "report to hangar deck." Though it suddenly occurs to me that the majority of the "Avengers Assemble!"s scripted by Bob Harras have come from Captain America. When he's around, it gets shouted more often than when he's not. I'm now thinking that's intentional on Harras's part. ("Avengers Assemble!" count: 11 in 52 issues to date.)

My Thoughts: First and foremost, I have to say: Tom Palmer is a doggone miracle worker. Look at those credits above: breakdowns by Mike Deodato, Jr. and John Buscema -- and thanks to Palmer, the finished issue is totally consistent, artistically. I mean, it's obvious which pages are penciled by which artist, but Palmer finishes them both so well that it's barely noticeable. It's astounding.

And with that out of the way, what of the issue itself? Well, it's the Bob Harras version of a "Quiet Issue" -- most of the story is devoted to sub-plots and the Avengers' inner monologues, though it all happens in the framework of a story setting up the group's next big adventure: specifically the "Taking "A.I.M." crossover with CAPTAIN AMERICA. (Though I find it odd that next issue's cover brands it a "Taking A.I.M. prologue", because that's really what this one feels like.)

Nonetheless, not much happens here. Besides the usual soap opera stuff, we just have the Avengers moving to Canada and meeting the Red Skull. The actual story begins next issue. And speaking of the soap opera -- I hate to say it, but I'm beginning to think Harras is running on fumes at this point. He got his best material in terms of soapiness from the Black Knight/Sersi/Crystal triangle, plus the bits and pieces in its orbit -- Sersi possibly being a serial killer, Crystal torn between the Knight and Quicksilver, and so forth. With that plotline long resolved, we're now left with Crystal and Quicksilver's "will they get back together or not?" as the only major soap opera element at this point. I mean, the Hercules death wish thing just got added into the mix, but it remains to see how far it will go before I quit the series in another few issues.

Anyway, we're not quite finished yet. One last crossover to wrap things up sounds about right, so be back here next week for the afore-mentioned "Taking A.I.M." prologue!