Avengers #372-375Issue(s): Avengers #372, Avengers #373, Avengers #374, Avengers #375 Review/plot: These issues wrap up the Gatherers plot and the 'Sersi is going crazy' plot. The plots are related. Proctor is really an alternate reality Black Knight who was driven insane after his Sersi left him. So now he goes around to different realities and kills their Sersis. But this Sersi is said to be the template of them all (in fact, "our" Avengers are said to all be the main templates). Proctor is responsible for driving her mad. The Avengers stop Proctor with some help from the Eternals Thena and Sprite. Quicksilver and Thunderstrike are also with the team. Sersi kills Proctor. Avengers Mansion was destroyed by Sersi when the police come to arrest her for the murders that previous issues have hinted that she's been committing. It also turns out those people weren't really killed; just put into a stonelike stasis. The alternate dimension Watcher named Ute restores Avengers mansion along with all of the damage done to New York during the fight with Proctor. The narration says that there's possibly a "small error" with the restoration of the mansion, though. He also opens a portal for Sersi to go through, allowing her to avoid the Eternals' punishment for having contracted the Mahd W'yry. The Black Knight goes with her even though their Gann-Josin is broken. But the effort kills Ute. One of the new Gatherers introduced in this story is an alternate version of Jocasta. She'll appear again in the Vision miniseries. For what it's worth, Henry Pym says that his health problems are a thing of the past. I assume that means that any problems with him changing size or remaining at giant size are no longer operative. The return of Quicksilver and the departure of the Black Knight have implications for the love polygon around them and Crystal and Sersi, but it's not like anything is actually resolved. Deathcry continues to hit on the Vision.
Pym is the last person to use as a baseline on a psychological test. Chronological Placement Considerations: Quicksilver's appearance in X-Factor #104 takes place during this arc, just before Avengers #375. It's clear that Quicksilver hasn't been seen at Avengers Mansion in a while, so this should be his first appearance as a member of the team since Bloodties (he has appearances in issues of Thunderstrike and Captain America as an Avenger). The Vision, Deathcry, Swordsman, and Magdalene leave for Scotland at the beginning of this arc. Definitely takes place before the Vision miniseries; their story will continue in issue #378 where it will be said that only 27 hours have passed. The Black Knight and Sersi shouldn't appear anywhere after this until their return from the Ultraverse universe. The Giant Man back-up can take place after the main story. Captain America is clearly suffering from power loss, but it's less clear whether or not he's officially recognized that fact yet. References:
Crossover: N/A Continuity Insert? N My Reprint: N/A Inbound References (3): showCharacters Appearing: Black Knight (Dane Whitman), Black Widow, Captain America, Crystal, Deathcry, Henry Pym, Hercules, Jarvis, Jocasta (Gatherers), Luna, Magdalene, Marilla, Proctor, Quicksilver, Sersi, Sprite, Swordsman (Gatherers), Thena, Thunderstrike, Ute, Vision CommentsThe "small error" regarding the mansion is that the mansion now resembles the Avengers' pre-Mansion Siege mansion, not the rebuilt mansion. So in theory, the mansion's look has considerations for placing issues but in practice, it's usually hard to tell which mansion the artists are drawing. Posted by: Michael | March 8, 2018 8:14 PM Not all the Gatherers are analogs of super-characters in 616. For example, Magdalene's counterpart on our earth is an ordinary person. That being said, Sloth might be a version of the Beast, albeit with a Scottish (Irish?) accent. The psychic, Crone, could be a variation on Marvel Girl. But since her real name is Cassandra, she could be considered to be a before-the-fact rip-off of Cassandra Nova. Posted by: Andrew | March 9, 2018 12:52 PM The mansion Ute "restored" was, in reality, one from an alternate timeline, as it contained the mysterious door in the basement that led to the domain Kang and Mantis ran. As shown in AVENGERS #382, the conference room table was also different. Of course, thanks to AVENGERS FOREVER, Immortus was behind it all, not Kang, but I tend to ignore that idiotic retcon. Posted by: Andrew Burke | March 9, 2018 1:18 PM Some of the Gatherers May be counterparts to DC rather than Marvel characters. Magdalene is Big Barda, and someone who knew DC better than I did once explained who some of the others were—is there a Cassandra-like skinny old lady in Kirby’s Fourth World?—but I can’t make the matches. Posted by: Walter Lawson | March 9, 2018 9:53 PM Not all the Gatherers are analogs of super-characters in 616. For example, Magdalene's counterpart on our earth is an ordinary person. That being said, Sloth might be a version of the Beast, albeit with a Scottish (Irish?) accent. The psychic, Crone, could be a variation on Marvel Girl. But since her real name is Cassandra, she could be considered to be a before-the-fact rip-off of Cassandra Nova. Perhaps Sliver is a counterpart of the Alpha Flight character Silver, albeit without the latter's freezing powers. Speculation at the time was that she was an alternate counterpart of the by-then obscure Spider-Man character Cassandra "Madame" Webb, who was also an old woman who was a blind psychic, albeit with very different powers. This Cassandra seems to have a kind of fusion of the powers of Scott Summers and Jean Grey. Tabula Rasa was similarly speculated to be a counterpart of either Primus, Arnim Zola's creation, who'd last been seen looking similar in New Warriors #3, or perhaps the Super-Adaptoid. But then, the whole "Gatherers must kill their counterparts or go mad" gimmick was mostly ignored after their first few appearances, and doesn't seem to make much sense, since plenty of alternate counterparts have coexisted before. Perhaps it was a self-serving lie -- or delusion -- on Proctor's part to justify his own madness and corrupt his pawns. After all, we learn here that the whole "Sersi always goes mad and kills the Avengers" thing is not quite the truth. Posted by: Omar Karindu | March 10, 2018 6:36 AM This ends the era of mediocre writing and strong art. Steve Epting would be missed. He made Bob Harras' stories readable. I think this era was better than the post-Secret Wars Mark Waid run. From issues #376-402 the wheels have come of the title and it needs to be cancelled. Posted by: Steven | March 10, 2018 6:40 PM The backup had Hank claiming that he'd become Giant-Man to "pick up the slack we lost when the Hulk left." Unfortunately Ben Raab (credited here as Benjamin "Big Ideas" Raab) either never read Avengers #2 or forgot that Hank showed up AS Giant-Man near the beginning of that story and the Hulk didn't leave until the end. At least it's just a harmless comment as opposed to the numerous continuity errors Raab committed with his later X-Men / Alpha Flight mini-series, but given what a classic chunk of Marvel history he's referencing, you'd think at least the editor (Macchio) would have caught it. Posted by: Dan H. | March 10, 2018 7:14 PM (Derp - and of course Fnord already caught that particular error in his references section. Reading is fundamental). Posted by: Dan H, | March 10, 2018 7:16 PM Comments are now closed. |
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