#Peace Corpse

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #320: UNDERLYING CURRENTS!

August, 1990

The Crossing Line Part 2 of Six VENGEANCE!

I don't know what Vision did that running him over with an underwater jet-ski is considered vengeance. Maybe it's not vengeance at all. Maybe it's just rude.

Also, Underlying Currents just seems like a less pithy way of saying Undercurrents.

Anyway.

The Crossing Line. Which is not the Crossing.

Last time in the Crossing Line: A Russian terrorist group called Peace Corpse (good wordplay) took over a British nuclear submarine called the Waterwind.

The British government called the US government and asked them to do something. So the US government called the Avengers and asked them to do something.

Since Namor wasn't available, what the Avengers did was contact their back-up underwater expert Stingray and fly off to find the Waterwind.

Which they did do but they found their Russian equivalent superhero group the People's Protectorate also trying to stop Peace Corpse. And instead of working together, the two groups got into a big, dumb superhero fight.

Which happened to be too close to Atlantis and aggroed the people still hanging around after it got double destroyed in Atlantis Attacks.

I like putting the cast up on the splash page. It starts strong because Captain America and Red Guardian, Vision and Vostok are pretty much counterparts.

Sersi and Fantasma don't have much in common besides being The Girl of the team.

And then Quasar ends up paired with Crimson Dynamo and Stingray with Perun which just makes you feel like the story is missing an Iron Man and a Thor.

Maybe a mistake there. Being a guy in a technological suit maybe Stingray should have been opposite Crimson Dynamo and Quasar opposite Perun?

Also, Atlanteans. They don't get a cast list on the splash. If they wanted in on that, they should have filled out the paperwork.

Crimson Dynamo: "Uhm... comrades...?" Quasar: "Now we're comrades, Dynamo? A second ago we were fighting over a stolen submarine!"

But be that as it may, Vision points out that it's in their best interest to team-up to prevent the Atlanteans from damaging the Waterwind. Which Vostok agrees to.

I guess we had the misunderstanding fight and now we can get along.

Crimson Dynamo points out that the Atlanteans might be justified since the two groups were having an exciting comic book fight scene right next to their city. But nobody listens to Crimson Dynamo.

His is the saddest lot.

Orka tries swiping at Vision and instead swipes through Vision because intangibility. But Vision also can't do his intangibility fisting trick because Orka is just too girthy.

He's a big whale man. He's got the whale power of blubber. Yes, even though he looks like a weightlifter.

Vostok uses his power over machinery to wrap Orka up in an Atlantean craft, bending and twisting the vehicle around the big, girthy whale man.

And with Orka held in place... uh, in water... Vision is able to dive intangible through his whole body to get to his heart and do the thing where he partially resolidifies and it hurts so much the person passes out.

That's what I mean when I say Vision fists people, by the way. It's his power move.

Vision: "It would seem, Vostok, that the Avengers and the People's Protectorate function more efficiently as allies than opponents!" Vostok: "Then-let-us-work-together-to-deter-the-Atlanteans--and-apprehend-the-Waterwind."

(I can just tell I'm going to avoid quoting Vostok as much as possible.)

Elsewhere in the fight, Sersi uses her matter transmutation to troll the Atlantean soldiers.

Excellent jape, Sersi.

The battle is going so immediately against the Atlanteans that U-Man decides to sneak attack Sersi. He claims that this is not in his character, to attack in a dishonorable manner.

I don't know this man but a quick glance at his marvel wiki shows that he worked with the Nazis so I dunno, man.

Either way, before he gets the chance, Perun hurls his mighty axe and strikes U-Man's underwater gun before he can fire at Sersi.

But, whoops, this causes the gun to misfire and strike the Waterwind.

The Peace Corpse group that hijacked the sub are startled, to put it mildly.

Most of them want to flee from this comic book nonsense as fast and as far as they can. Whatever their goals (still unelaborated on), fighting superheroes doesn't help them accomplish them.

A man with an intense mustache refuses to flee because he's a soldier dammit! But one of the others points out that they need to berth now due to the damage. They need the sub in well enough repair to threaten the United States for their vague plan.

Captain America and Red Guardian notice the Waterwind take damage and start to flee. And they discuss just letting the submarine flee so its out of the way of any more misaimed attacks.

But also, fighting the Atlanteans is pretty much a stupid distraction that they don't have time for.

Atlantean Soldier 1: "For our lost honor!" Atlantean Soldier 2: "For Atlantis!" Quasar: "For crying out loud!"

Stingray sees the sub amscraying and decides to get back to his plan of sneaking onboard. Remember how he was going to try that?

Well, he's going to try that again. He'd rather face a sub full of armed terrorists than bully some Atlanteans who are just protecting the ruins of their home.

Which... fair enough.

I say he'd rather but he's also not too happy about doing that either.

Stingray: "I should be able to get in through the aft torpedo tube without being detected... of course, once I get in, I have no idea what I'm going to do! I'm an oceanographer, not a super hero! I could've stayed at O.M.I.T. when Cap called... told him I had a hangnail or something... but no... If there's a problem under the ocean waves, they call Namor. If he's too busy to answer -- they call me. And noble, caring, altruistic dunce that I am, I always say yes."

It's fun that the Avengers have a superhero on their consultant list that's not a superhero. Just a normal oceanographer guy who built a suit for underwater exploration that unfortunately looks like a superhero outfit so he's constantly getting drawn into superhero stuff. The fact that he hangs out in Namor's general orbit doesn't help. The man is a drama magnet.

Despite the damage to the sub and specifically the radar, Peace Corpse manages to surface not only near land but near a port town. Somewhere in Newfoundland.

Inside the sub, Stingray finds and frees the captured crew from the room they've been locked in. But a member of Peace Corpse spots him.

Back at Atlantis, the Avengers and the People's Protectorate are still fighting Atlanteans.

Quasar starts to worry. Not about losing but that he might get so exhausted from prolonged fighting that he fails to pull his punches and kills a guy.

Ah, the worries of superheroes before the modern age.

There's just so many Atlanteans, that some are getting to the Quinjet and the PP craft and trying to smash the windshields in.

Quasar swoops in, makes a net to wrangle all the Atlanteans on the Quinjet, and then smashes the net full of guys into the guys on the PP craft. Solving that particular issue.

I'm still not sure why the Avengers and People's Proetectorate haven't withdrawn once the sub was clear. This is the very definition of a derailed plot.

But the two hero groups don't need to ever get around to acting on the realization that they don't even need to be here because the Atlanteans withdraw on their own once Perun knocks out Tyrak, the last named guy on the Atlantean side.

Such a weird writing decision for the heroes to constantly go 'wow this is a pointless fight' and then keep fighting until the other side fucks off.

The two teams return to their respective vessels (just in time for the ones who like to breathe air) and decide what to do next.

FOR SOME REASON, despite the constant refrain of how pointless it is to fight the Atlanetans, who are just protecting their ruined home, its a serious consideration whether to pursue the Atlanteans all the way to the ruins and keep kicking their asses.

I have no idea why.

Captain America even says he hates to let the Atlanteans escape but dealing with the Waterwind is more important.

IT IS but why do you hate to let the Atlanteans escape? What is your end goal there? You've already kicked their asses. Have they done anything (recently) that gives you cause to... arrest them? The writing around this plot point is so weird.

Anyway, both groups agree to pursue the Waterwind.

Stingray calls in and reports that he's on the Waterwind and where the Waterwind has surfaced. And since there are berthing and repair facilities, Stingray even narrows the possible location down to the bays of Trinity, Placentia, or Conception.

Not bad for a guy who can't even look out a window.

But the call suddenly cuts off, leading Captain America to fear that Stingray was attacked.

The Avengers and People's Protectorate agree to work together to stop the sub, especially since it is now surfaced near a populated area and has an operational nuclear arsenal.

Captain America: "Let's do it then -- together -- efficiently -- but cautiously!"

And then the narration reveals that the Waterwind is surfaced in Conception Bay in St. John's Newfoundland and that "after today, it will be known as the site of the world's worst nuclear detonation" so my condolences to Conception Bay.

Sucks that you are going to get destroyed in a fill-in arc.

Off-panel, the Peace Corpse member with the fabulous mustache, Strokov, has captured Stingray and recaptured the rest of the hostages. But he let Stingray make his call to the Avengers to force leader Illyich Prokvitch's hand.

According to Strokov, now Prokvitch has no choice but to execute the vague plan.

The Avengers and the People's Protectorate arrive but they can't move right away because of all the hostages.

Captain America tries to see if Sersi can be the Win Button but like I've said, with powers as plot breaking as hers, they can never make things too easy.

He wants her to turn all the terrorists into flies but she says she's too far from them to do it. And she doesn't know enough about how nuclear submarines work to transmute it either.

Oh, so I guess she needs to know a thing before she can transmute a thing. Very Full Metal Alchemist of her and also a logical limit on her powers.

Well written, Fabian Nicieza.

Mr. Illyich Prokvitch, leader of the Peace Corpse, gets on the bullhorn and loudly announces he demands access to St. John's maritime facilities.

Captain America says hell no, release the hostages instead.

Prokvitch says he'll start executing the hostages - starting with poor, sweet Stingray - one every five minutes until his demands are met.

So the heroes take a huddle.

Cold, calculating Vostok points out that the Waterwind can't launch its nuclear arsenal while surfaced. And if they kill all their hostages, then there's nothing to stop the heroes from punching them in the faces in abooooout five hours.

Captain America does not like the suggestion that they just let over a hundred people be murdered.

But Vision offers his own computer-brained opinion that because the hostages are so necessary to keep the heroes from punching Peace Corpse in their faces, logic dictates that Peace Corpse will hesitate to harm their hostages.

Cap decides this does seem logical, thanks computer-brained Vision, and yells at Peace Corpse that he's not going to accept their terms as given. Y'know, leaving the door open for some haggling. Some negotiation. A little diplomacy.

Instead, Prokvitch shoots Stingray in the head.

You might not have a future career as a hostage negotiator, Cap.

(I'm pretty sure Stingray is alive because I've seen him alive in later comics and also there's no blood and also he's wearing a helmet. I'm sure his ears are ringing, though.)

Quasar tries to rush in at seeing Stingray shot, held back by Cap.

Red Guardian argues that at this point they should just call it acceptable casualties and just rush over and punch Peace Corpse.

But suddenly A NEW CHALLENGER!

Guardian: "No citizens and no property will be placed in jeopardy without our say so. In case you've forgotten, you're on Canadian soil, which means jurisdiction of this little mess passes on to -- ALPHA FLIGHT"

So now we have a third superhero team in the mix.

I love it. How many more people can we get involved? A lot, I'd bet. This is a six part story.

Hopefully, someone on Alpha Flight is a better hostage negotiator than Captain America.

To sum up the issue: there's more of the issue to go. Remember that backup story thing? Where Jarvis tormented Jarvis? We're due more of that. Well, more of something like that.

CHANGING of the GUARD

Instead of Jarvis, Michael O'Brien. The Avengers chief of security. And, for some reason, chief of table acquisition.

The original table, which was probably always consistently portrayed don't even bother looking into it, was destroyed when Hydrobase sank.

So O'Brien just spent fifty thousand dollars on a new one. And instead of getting a dolly or an anti-gravity dolly (because this IS a comic book universe), he's getting two dudes to carry it by hand.

Maybe stick to security, O'Brien.

He has the table brought to the room which will become the Avengers' inner sanctum, where only Avengers will be allowed. Like a very exclusive club but instead of drinks and cigars, there will be discussions on the crisis of the month.

After sending the two table carrying guys away, O'Brien spots the flash of a light down a corridor where nobody is supposed to be.

Obviously, he goes to investigate by himself.

Where he is accosted by his dead brother, Kevin, in a set of the Guardsman armor.

There's history here which I don't know very well because I haven't read a lot of olde Iron Man comics. But apparently, Kevin got jealous of Tony's money and girlfriend. So he used the Guardsman armor Tony built him, teamed up with a dude who was trying to steal Tony Stark's stock, and attacked a protest at a Stark Industries plant.

Just going off marvel wiki here.

Tony was forced to fight him as Iron Man and accidentally blew Kevin the fuck up.

His death inspired Michael to put on the Guardsman armor and attack Iron Man but after some plot happenings, Tony was able to convince Michael that his dead brother was nuts.

Which Kevin is not thrilled to hear now.

How dare Michael believe Tony over his own kin? That and not using his brogue probably makes him a traitor to his Irish heritage!

Michael thinks that this Kevin is probably an imposter and tries to unmask him. Only to get flipped.

So he runs off to get a gun.

He finds one of the emergency guns that the Avengers Sub-Basement just has and threatens to shoot Kevin in the head.

Kevin calls his bluff and tells him to do it. What's it matter to a ghost? Turn your back on family, dick.

And Michael can't go through with it.

Michael: "I... can't, Kevin. I did -- do -- love you, no matter what you did. Do with me as you will."

So Kevin blows Michael the hell up.

Geez. Being confronted with his demons ended a lot worse for him than it did for Jarvis.

Is this part of getting rid of everything new Stern wanted to implement before he got fired? Hydrobase got sunk so are the Avengers Support Crew all going to be killed off?

Grim if true. John Jameson is one of the support peeps and he's a tertiary Spider-Man supporting cast member.

I guess I'll see next time. But we pop back over to Avengers West Coast first. There's a dumb Immortus plot to wrap up.

Follow @essential-avengers. Like and reblog. Have a good day.

[radiumjuice]

I can’t believe they killed five at the end of season three

[notetaeker]

“Take these biscuits with you to heaven.”

‘A father went to buy biscuits for his son, and when he returned, he found his son and wife killed by Israeli missiles on the house to which they had fled in Khan Younis.’

[simcardiac-arrested]

day 30 - videogame (undertale, fnaf, etc)

somebody get this man some chapstick

[vaguely-concerned]

fucking crying real tears of laughter at the idea of lucanis letting out a sigh of relief at finally leaving the endless wind-whipped halls of the grand necropolis behind only to find that rook has brought the cursed giant skeleton statues back home with them. and turning to look directly into the camera as only a man who has slept six hours altogether in the last week and is animated only by coffee and spite at this point could. the nevarran lighthouse decor my beloved.

[snakeredbirdbatkatana]

In a way this was the best outcome.

Timothy Drake was always meant to die.

He cheated the reaper when he was nine knife at his throat chasing around vigilantes who wouldn't have ever known him as anything other than a statistic.

He survived past fifteen which for any boy who wears those bright colors knows is an achievement.

Luck is what they will say.

Bad luck specifically wrong place right time at least in his mind.

Bleeding out with his brothers surrounding him.

A bullet he took before it could reach Damian.

He can see him he looks terrified standing a good two feet away which is an accurate description of them a gap that neither boy could ever seem to close.

Jason lost his mask somewhere he can feel the press of his fingers trying to keep blood in. Demanding it. Hopeing for a miracle. That's Jason Todd.

Holding him Dick's arms wrapped around him whispering

"I have you sweetheart I know it hurts, Dad's coming baby just a little bit longer."

He remembers a poem he found right after Jason died he had wondered if Jason raged fought tooth and nail to keep breathing.

But with all his brothers here his Father on the way he can't think of a better time.

As his breathe slows and he feels his vision fade he doesn't fight.

Lying in his brothers arms Timothy Jackson Drake takes his last breath.

Peacefully falling into the night.

There was no rage only a sense of peace for a tired hero who could finally rest.

[fjordfolk]

at this point both of my dogs' dams have passed so now every time someone refers to me as their mother i get to look them in the eye and say "her mother is dead."

[thermodynamic-comedian]

arthur and john's relationship is built on codependence and working together because there's no other choice, but it's also a lot about arthur projecting onto john. arthur considers himself a failure as a person, but now he has a chance to prove that someone evil can actively choose to be better. he believes that if john can be saved, so can he. if john can be redeemed, so can he. that's why he tries, at every possible turn, to push john to be better. that's also why, whenever john takes a few steps back in progress, it has such an intense effect on arthur. because he wants to save john.

because if he can save john, he'll finally have proven to himself that he can be saved too.

[cent-scratchnsniff]

here together

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #324: The Crossing Line Part 6: IMAGINARY BORDERS

October, 1990

NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST!

Finally, we reach the end of the Crossing Line. In which at no point is the title the Crossing Line explained. I've heard that the Crossing, that infamous Avengers storyline, also doesn't really explain itself. Maybe both stories are named for making people cross. Who can say?

Anyway, last time in Avengers: Russian terrorist group Peace Corpse hijacked a nuclear submarine to try to cause World War III to fix the world economy.

The Avengers were called in to try to get the sub back. The Russian group, the People's Protectorate also showed up because leader Red Guardian knew Peace Corpse's leader. Due to a lot of dumb fighting, the two groups aggroed a group of Atlanteans. And the action shifted to Canada, so Alpha Flight got involved.

Captain America proceeded to bungle a hostage crisis and fucked up so bad while storming the sub that Canada exploded. Alpha Flight's shaman slurped up the explosion, the city, and an entire chunk of Canada into his magical bag of holding.

Everyone had to get along and cooperate to reunite with the bag dimensions but they found that leaving the bag would instantly kill them with radiation.

Then the Peace Corpse leader and his lieutenant show up as a giant naked radioactive conjoined man, who still wants to cause World War III.

I have all the context and I still don't quite understand why this is happening.

It's all a metaphor for a post-Cold War world, probably.

Vision: "It would appear that their biological link to the Waterwind radically altered them when the submarine's nuclear payload detonated." Captain America: "No need to belabor the obvious, Vision."

The obvious?? The only reason I buy that as an explanation for what happened is because it clearly happened and there's no other explanation offered.

Anyway, the giant naked man is named Combine, because he is two guys Combine-d into one. And he wants to help everyone leave the bag of holding dimension so they can shotgun radioactive fallout all over the world.

He's not here to be helpful.

Box forms some guns and tries shooting at Combine but combine laughs off bullets and then eye lasers Box the fuck unconscious.

A big radioactive conjoined naked man fight floating in a void doesn't give all the characters a way to join the fight. So Puck, Stingray, Red Guardian, Diamond Lil, an unconscious Sersi, an unconscious Box, and Fantasma chill with the civilians.

Vostok uses his technopathy on the Box armor to turn it into a wall to keep the civilians safe from stray shots.

Meanwhile, Fantasma meditates to contact Shaman in the outside world. Just to touch base. Tell him about the giant naked man.

Shaman is not holding up too well. Containing a chunk of Canada and a bunch of people in his mystic satchel of holding is not what it was meant for. And the strain is making him bleed from his face holes, as strain sometimes does to characters whose gifts aren't in the more mental or mystical department.

The long and short and the teal deer is that the People's Avengers Flight need to wrap this up soon or Shaman might be unable to get them out at all.

They also don't really have a plan to wrap it up. Just determination from Captain America that they can't let Combine release all the radiation. If they have to be stuck in the mystic satchel to prevent him from poisoning the planet, well, that's what heroes do.

Perun: "Ho! Have at thee, pontificating buttocks-touching baboons!!"

You're a treat, Perun.

And Combine isn't one of those unstoppable cosmic powers that the Avengers et al are way over their heads with.

As Vision, Perun, Guardian, Crimson Dynamo, and Quasar hammer him, Combine complains that their stupid, ineffectual attacks are wearing down his (their?) supply of radiation.

Combine can absorb more radiation. From the various people trapped in the bag of holding or from the inanimate objects that got hoovered up. But that's not a bad thing either, since once something/someone has been cleansed, they or it can be released from the satchel.

The only problem is the balancing act of making sure Combine doesn't slurp up so much radiation that he murders all of the People's Avengers Flight members fighting him.

Also, now Team Don't Irradiate the World does have a plan.

The other Peace Corpse members who didn't turn into a giant, naked radioactive conjoined man have had a change of heart.

Some guy: "We understand your doubt, Captain, but it is through your own actions -- and those of the others -- that we have seen the error of our ways! Through your efforts, you not only saved your own lives, but those of hundreds of innocents and the very people who threatened you to begin with!"

Feels like the other Peace Corpse members should have gotten more focus to sell this change of heart. But I think we're supposed to view it the same as the Atlanteans coming together to work with everyone.

Whatever.

Anyway, the other Peace Corpse guys suggest that they be merged with Combine so they can out-vote Illyich and Strokov.

Puck: "Democratic principles in a communist villain?! Don't you just love this international thing here?"

Now, you can't just throw Peace Corpse at Combine and expect them to bloop together. Illyich and Strokov were fused because they were wired into the missile computer or whatever nonsense it was.

But Sersi can do it, with her matter transmutation power!

Except she's unconscious from all the strain of using her powers and then getting psychically whammied by Combine!

But Fantasma can just hijack Sersi's powers like she did in the previous issue!

Poor Sersi and Box. Cool stuff is happening with their powers in this issue. But they're both unconscious and someone else is using their stuff.

I guess that's the international cooperation in work.

Fantasma helps Captain America manifest as a giant head to explain the plan to the heroes who are busy fighting Combine.

Captain America: "We have a plan -- but it requires your help -- all of you must continue to pound the Combine relentlessly! Don't let up -- once their resolve is weakened... the remaining members of the Peace Corpse will enter their group mind and force the Combine to absorb our radiation from us!" Perun: "That sounds ridiculous!" Crimson Dynamo: "Of course it does, friend Perun... Which means it will probably work perfectly!"

I can almost imagine the exhaustion in Dynamo's voice. As he grapples in that moment with the insanity of living in a comic book universe where nonsense is just reality.

While Team Fight Combine fights Combine, Fantasma takes Sersi's unconscious body and starts bringing the remainder of Peace Corpse towards Combine.

Meanwhile, Combine has absorbed radiation from enough people and material for Shaman to start bringing people through.

Tyrak: "Avenger! Allow us to go first -- we are perilously close to death as it is. If someone is to be used to test the magician's theories, it may as well be us." U-Man: "After all, what difference if a few Atlanteans die?" Captain America: "All life is precious to us, Meranno, yours included. But if you're volunteering, then let's do it. We don't have much time..."

So Shaman dumps people and stuff out of his bag of holding and huzzah, the radiation is gone.

The Atlanteans are able to hydrate and save the human civilians that landed in the water.

Back in the bag space, Vision puts into motion his secret plan.

... He just does what he always does. He intangibles. In fairness, he doesn't fist. He usually fists. But Combine is just too dang big. So he flies through him instead and does him a distraction.

That lets Guardian do her thing. And her thing is apparently a "gravitational shunt."

She instant transmissions. Even including the POP!

The non-Combine members of Peace Corpse are shoved into Peace Corpse, leading to a discussion as everyone fights for consensus.

"--No! You cannot control us -- our cause is just!" "No, Illyich, my friend -- your actions, your decision to unite the world through war was wrong!" It's true, Illyich! An international enclave of heroes has shown us the way of the future!" "That was is through might! We must use force to further the needs of our country and our planet!" "No, Strokov -- it's not through force of might, or through personal gered. We've learned that now!" "It is through mutual dependency, mutual cooperation, and mutual desire!" "Do you see inside our minds now, Illyich? Strokov?" "I -- I -- see --" "Then we must atone for the error of our ways, comrades."

Outvoted. Democracy in action!

The new Combine absorbs all of the excess radiation and form a giant hand-holding circle of naked people.

And like a lot of throwaway cosmically powerful characters in fill-in stories, the Combine decides to fuck off into (bag) space to explore reality.

We'll never see them again.

But at least they learned that borders aren't real.

Shaman is just about to collapse and the dimensional vortex too so everyone still in the bag dimension books it back through to planet Earth.

Just one entire half hour later, everyone is getting ready to go their separate ways.

The Atlanteans have fucked off. Apparently, Captain America talked with them before they left, telling them that Attuma would be treated fairly in his war crimes trial.

Didn't realize that was a thing.

Anyway, they Atlanteans also expressed interest in getting some humanitarian aid. Considering Atlantis got blown up twice in one event.

The People's Protectorate fuck off, on good terms with the Avengers. And since this is Canada, the Avengers fuck off, leaving Alpha Flight to watch them go.

Guardian: "We did ourselves and our country proud, gang. Funny, to be part of an ideological struggle between the world's super powers, wasn't it?" Puck: "Sort of makes you wonder what the worth of ideology really amounts to, eh? After all, we don't owe the children of tomorrow a bit of our ideologies and foolish way.s We just owe them a world in which they can choose to create their own... for the better, one hopes..."

Is THAT what we learned from all of this?

I thought we learned... something about democracy and working together? Idunno.

Let's just transition into the back-up feature so I don't have to sort out themes.

So we finally learn who has been messing with the Avengers Support Crew and who called them all out to the park last issue.

It is Mother Night!

I haven't heard of her! But she works for the Red Skull and seems to have power over perception.

She's also, maybe, a bit of a doofus. Calling the Avengers Crew for a big dramatic reveal without thinking that construction workers might wander through.

Her powers let her get away with it but she did have to pause her dramatic speech to disguise herself.

Mother Night takes the Avengers Crew outside the grounds to a blood donation truck where Minister Blood and Machinesmith are waiting.

Minister Blood wasn't around when this evil scheme was set into motion so Night Explains It All.

She and Machinesmith have been staking out the Avengers' headquarters for two weeks. Night disguised herself as a lady walking her dog and hypnotized Jarvis as he was on his way to the mansion. Then, she planted a micro-transmitter in his inner ear. And did the same with the rest of the Crew over the next days. With that micro-transmitter, she could trigger a traumatic hallucination.

Which is what was happening in all the back-up stories.

Now, with the Avengers Crew in her power, Mother Night and Minister Blood are going to perform psychic surgery to implant post-hypnotic commands for later.

Which apparently consists of the same traumatic experiences again but this time Mother Night saves them in exchange for them doing favors for her. But the favors will be done subconsciously and the Crew won't remember any of this except as a hazy dream.

Minister Blood: "So how long has the Skull been planning this little venture?" Mother Night: "Johann doesn't know a thing about it, Minister. Using their civilian workers to bug the Avengers' new headquarters was all my idea. When the job's complete, I'm going to give Johann a bank of video monitors to correspond to every bug they plant. I think the Red Skull is going to just adore the birthday present I got him, don't you?"

Making him a birthday gift. First-name basis. This woman I've never heard of and the Red Skull must be close. Like the closest of acquaintances.

So, all those back-up stories were written by Mark Gruenwald, who is also writing the entirety of Avengers #325.

So he's setting something up. We'll see what. Because I'm covering that issue before I head into the Terminus Factor, the linked annuals story for the Avengers.

Stay tuned!

Follow @essential-avengers and don't forget to like, reblog, subscribe, hit that bell, and fell that tree.

[gothicbutcher666]

♱ 𓉸 ⚰

[viaphni]

I thought the shinji chair image was very Louis so

[eigong]

BOOP BOOP BOOP

[shadystranger]

I watched the man I love die

[realityxen]

R.I.P master miller, aka burger master aka McDonnell benedict miller aka kazuhira miller aka big boss' husband aka my husband aka dead guy (he died today a long time ago i dont remember the year)

[antianakin]

"Just let Bo-Katan be a hypocrite and a murderer in peace if you don't like her character"

I WISH I COULD BUT THEY KEEP BRINGING HER ASS BACK IN THINGS AND INSISTING SHE'S REDEEMED AT ME WITHOUT DOING THE WORK TO MAKE HER REDEEMED, THAT'S HARDLY MY FAULT