Issue(s): Avengers #387
Cover Date: Jun 95
Title: "Island of Spirits"
Credits:
Bob Harras & Terry Kavanagh - Writer
Mike Deodato Jr. - Penciler
Tom Palmer - Inker
Matt Idelson - Assistant Editor
Ralph Macchio - Editor

Review/plot:
Digital review warning.

Superia has injected Captain America with a serum that was meant to cure his super-serum problem. It has allowed him to start moving without his armor, but before he can celebrate he starts having hallucinations about Bucky.

Meanwhile, the Avengers are fighting AIM.

But the soldiers are really Adaptoids.

For some reason the Black Widow has been keeping the specifics of this a secret from the Avengers. When Hercules finally puts his foot down, the Widow explains that they are investigating the creation of a Cosmic Cube.

There's no reason to have kept this a secret from the Avengers. It seems like the idea was to drag out the mystery just for the suspense of it, something that Harras is familiar with from being editor of the X-Books (except we are at least actually get a conclusion here). It's especially silly since Mark Gruenwald was not on the same page during the Captain America chapter of the crossover and made it very clear that MODAM was working to repair a Cosmic Cube. But when Quicksilver complains that the Widow has been treating the rest of the Avengers like children, they get a Cube-induced hallucination of their Roma father.

Similar stuff is going on all over the island.

Not-quite-half the pages in this issue are double-page spreads that you have to turn sideways to read. Especially fun when viewing in PDF. And it's amazing how much content there was in the Captain America issue vs. this one as drawn by Deodato.

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This is part two of Taking AIM. Part three is in Captain America #441.

References: N/A

Crossover: Taking AIM

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A