#Professor Harker

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #315: DOOMSDAY PLUS ONE!

March, 1990

Guest-starring the Amazing SPIDER-MAN! The enemy REVEALED -- WHILE A UNIVERSE TREMBLES!

Is Nebula auditioning for a Bond movie poster? What's with the ass shot?

Also, we're still really slapping SPIDER-MAN prominently on the cover. I wonder if this story arc got a sales boost. Because it really is trying for one.

And not to nitpick but "the enemy revealed" when we already know Nebula's flimsy grasp of science was behind the universe vanishing. And how can a universe trembles when the universe has vanished?

Dammit, cover text! Get your story straight!

So, last times in Avengers: the Avengers were cleaning up after Acts of Vengeance when bouts of photo-negativity kept hitting the universe. While Iron Man and Vision went to investigate a weird call from Starfox, Thor and Spider-Man came into the Avengers Subbasement just in time for a series of photo-negativity strikes. Sersi used her Eternal powers to shield the room from the effects. Then, the Avengers discovered that everything outside of that one room had ceased to exist.

Captain America: "The whole universe has... vanished!!" Thor: "Say it is not so, Avenger! The son of Odin in his time hath stood upon the very brink of Ragnarok but ne'er hath such dark words been said!" Captain America: "See for yourself, Thor! This long range scanner shows the area of deep space immediately beyond Earth's Moon... At least, that's what it usually shows. Now there's... nothing!"

I wonder what DOOMSDAY PLUS ONE means in this context. Plus one what? Plus another doomsday? Plus another day?

I also wonder how all the instruments of the room are working without being connected to the greater sub-basement. Were the scanners and cameras located just within this square chunk of room? There wasn't anything on the surface? That doesn't make sense for an underground base...

I wouldn't bother thinking about it except the fact that the heroes only have the oxygen in this very specific room and no more invites one to think about the logistics of this.

A neat little touch is that endless nothingness isn't actually a white void. That's just the best man-made mechanisms can do at showing nothing.

The Avengers are feeling pretty defeatist in the face of the entire universe being gone. Understandably enough.

Captain America: "I've spent all my life surviving, first as a boy growing up in New York's lower east side, then as America's first and only super-soldier battling the Nazis in World War Two... finally as a member of the Avengers. But this... I don't want to sound like a quitter, but I have no idea how to deal with this!" Thor: "Nor have I, brave Captain -- and Thor hath lived a thousand times beyond thy mortal lifetime..."

Then, very special guest star, Spider-Man, gets a brilliant idea. He's the very special guest star so obviously, he's got to be pulling his weight.

Spidey knows a thing or two about cameras and Cap said the long range scanners weren't showing anything. What if they were missing something closer?

So he adjusts the depth of focus and zooms out (how do the scanners do this?) to see if there was something they just couldn't see because of how close it was.

"The way dust doesn't register on a normal camera lens..."

And bingo bango Bob's your mother's brother, another chunk of something floating in the endless void. A building floating about where New Jersey was labelled PolyDyne Industries.

Cap goes to check PolyDyne in the computer banks but ruh roh the computers aren't in this floating cube of Avengers Subbasement.

Sersi recovers from the strain of protecting the cube and suggests she can telepathically scan the PolyDyne sphere and find out if anyone is over there.

She tries to warn Cap that there could be danger to doing this but Cap insists. At this point, they have no choice but to try anything!

Sersi scans and then yells NO-OHHH!! and curls into the fetal position.

So her psychic abilities are about as useful as Jean in the 90s X-Men show. Zing.

Thor points out that a similar thing happened when she scanned the Negative Zone in Avengers #304. So basically, how do we keep an overpowered Eternal character like Sersi balanced?

This, I guess.

She's so ruffled that she forgets English so can't even warn the Avengers that she sensed a great EVIL at the center of the emptiness.

I guess that Thor knowing Allspeak hasn't been established yet. Or has been forgotten.

Thor can speak and understand every language. He gets Cipher's entire mutant power as a racial bonus

Ain't it sad, Cipher?

Jarvis, the most humany person here, notes that the air is getting stale.

Cap apparently has a "super-efficient bio-system" so he's better at breathing than a normal person. But even he can tell that the air is getting heavy on carbon dioxide.

This room only has this room's amount of air in it. It doesn't have extra air tanks or a carbon dioxide scrubber installed. Why would it? Under what circumstances would just this one communications room of the Avengers Subbasement get launched into an airless void??

I mean, except these circumstances. These are a bit unprecedented though.

But now that there's Something the Avengers can do, Cap isn't giving up.

Captain America: "If I've learned nothing else in my years of battle, I've learned the absolute truth of one old saying: While there's life, there's hope!"

Over at PolyDyne, everybody floats around in unconscious poses.

Nebula regains her wits first and marvels at the power contained in the compressor.

Nebula: "The power! Never in my wildest dreams have I anticipated such power! It crackles still about the compressor! It surges through my flesh like a thing alive! Even mighty gravity seems twisted by it!"

She tries to contact Gunthar the Rigellian on her mothership but he's not responding.

Then she looks outside the window and sees only the VOID.

Bit of a nitpick but after the explanation that the empty white void is the best human instruments could do to show absolute nothingness, I was hoping that seeing it with eyeballs would have a different effect.

Eyes lie to the brain, y'know.

Ah, well.

The story already settled on empty white void and its made for some striking splash pages.

Nebula floats over and starts yelling at Professor Harker to EXPLAIN.

Professor Harker: "It can only be a genesis pulse! There was always a danger of this, but it seemed so remote as to be beyond the need for considering! What my compressor does is concentrate the force of a one megaton nuclear explosion into an area smaller than the nucleus of an atom! In theory, this should release a vast quantity of usable energy. However, there was a small chance it might duplicate the effect of the Big Bang... create a new universe in the midst of the old..."

How small a chance is too big a risk that a science project might destroy the world? Just based on Mr. Destroy The Universe's project, I might say a non-zero chance but we've had a lot of particle acceleration since this was published and the universe seems fine.

Nebula slaps him and yells that obviously that thing he just described would destroy both the new universe and the original! Now she has PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER at her fingertips and no universe to become absolute ruler of!

ALSO, SOME AVENGERS JUST BUSTED IN SO SHE'S ALSO ANGRY ABOUT THAT NOW!

I have to say... The Avengers (and Spider-Man) had no idea they'd be busting into the PolyDyne building right where the baddie was so this isn't an "Ultron, we would have words with thee" badass entrance. They just kinda blow their way in, glue the Avengers communications room in place so it doesn't drift, and then go 'oh hey Nebula is here, now this makes sense.'

Although, Spider-Man hasn't run into Nebula so mistakes her for Andromeda. Do all blue ladies look alike to you, Spidey?

Thor asks how Nebula managed to escape that time vortex she fell into with Dr Druid, as seen in issue 297.

And Nebula's answer?

She has no fucking idea what he's talking about. She thinks he's making up nonsense just to distract her.

Ah, so, the retcon goes even this far back.

While Captain America and Thor are safe thanks to their shield and spinning Mjolnir respectively, Spider-Man has to dodge and jump around in zero gravity while Nebula shoots ray blasts at the Avengers and Spider-Man.

Captain America throws his mighty shield... which Nebula easily deflects. BUT IT WAS A FEINT. While she was doing that, Thor spins harder and kicks up a wind which blows Nebula into a bulkhead.

She manages to peel herself and blast Thor off-balance. Spider-Man gunks up her wrist-mounted ray blasters and tries to grapple her but she tosses him away.

And while Spider-Man is distracting Nebula by being his usual charming and/or irritating self, Captain America and Thor wander off to examine the compressor.

Cap is guessing that the big, glowing energy thing is what made the universe go away. But he doesn't have the science brain to know what to do about it.

He asks Thor to try to dissipate the energy in the compressor but it's just too much for the god of thunder.

Thor has to release the energies or else explode "as would a mighty oak struck low by lightning."

Meanwhile, Professor Harker crawls out from behind a chunk of dislodged lab equipment and tells Spider-Man the heroes have the wrong idea.

But before he can explain to the Avengers how to deactivate the compressor, Nebula blows him up.

Okay, but why?

Nebula, did you firmly clutch the villain ball in hand? Do you want the universe to not exist? Shouldn't you want this problem to be fixed too?

Idiot.

And weirdly a pointless death.

Captain America just switches to talking to the next nearest dude, a PolyDyne employee with red hair and a beard. And this random guy, who I don't think even has a name, is able to deliver the same exposition as Professor Harker.

It's not like it's played for tension. Professor Harker blows up and then on the same page Cap is like 'hey you' to the beard guy.

So I don't really get the point of killing Professor Harker. Nebula should want to restore the universe as much as anyone. And killing the guy didn't stop the relevant exposition from getting delivered immediately.

Weird. Weird writing choice.

Random Guy tells Cap that the compressor will be self-sustaining once it reaches 100% efficiency but until then, it's reliant on power from generators in the sub-basement.

But its crazy to try to unplug it! There's such an intense electromagnetic field around the compressor!

Guy: "There's no force on Earth that could break that connection!" Captain America: "Maybe not... but we're not on Earth any more!"

That's... That's a weird argument to make, Cap.

Granted, he also argues that they've got no other choice but to try.

Cap gets as close to the compressor as he can, even as the field makes him feel like he's got ants crawling around inside him. He can only hope that the super-soldier serum will protect him long enough to get the job done. But he's sure if he comes out of this alive, he'll be lucky if all this exposure to a powerful magnetic field doesn't permanently damage him.

He reeeeaches but he just can't get to the giant power cable.

Luckily, Spider-Man saw what he was doing and comes over to ask what the hell he's doing.

When Cap explains that they need to pull the plug ASAP, Spider-Man decides this looks like a guest starring role for Spider-Man.

His webbing is non-organic and non-conductive, thanks to tangling with Electro so often.

He thwipppts a webline on the giant cable and

PULLS

AS

HARD

AS

HE

CAN

Like lift heavy thing except with pulling.

Spider-Man's specialty.

So thanks to Spider-Man pulling something really, really hard, the universe is back.

... I wonder if the Avengers Communications Room is still webbed to the side of the PolyDyne building. I honestly hope so.

So with everything restored to normal, Captain America does his best to put a logical explanation on this.

Captain America: "Apparently, the... ah... 'genesis pulse' had only thrown the universe into a state of complete neutrality. It needed to reach maximum power to completely annihilate everything."

How did you reach that conclusion, Cap?

Anyway, Sersi has recovered from holding the communications room together and then scanning the void. She's telepathically scanned the entire world and determined no time passed while they were in the white void.

The whole story happened between two ticks of the clock.

Spider-Man's take-away is that they just saved the world and nobody will ever know!

(Jarvis says, hey, we'll know! Jarvis is a good guy.)

Apparently, Nebula vanished while everyone was distracted by the universe and gravity being back.

But Captain America remembers that Iron Man and Vision went to investigate her ship and thinks she's going to be in for a nasty surprise when she gets there.

So, apparently this saga still continues. The next issue is teased as "SPIDERS and STARS" so I'll bet next time has "Guest-starring the Amazing Spider-Man" slapped prominently on the cover.

But before that, we switch back over to Avengers West Coast to continue the Wanda Is Evil And Crazy story.

yay.

Follow @essential-avengers because this issue was actually pretty fun. Like, reblog, comment, or dance like nobody is watching.

[see-arcane]

Jack: Van Helsing and I, the definitely-for sure canniest minds of the team, are keeping a close watch on Mina for signs of too much visible vampiritis. If her teeth get too pointy we'll sadly have to break out the stake and saw maneuver, as his been discussed and demonstrated to the entire group via Lucy and our Dracula plans. Thank goodness Harker is totally oblivious to our suspicions! Isn't that right, Harker?

Jonathan 'Spent Two Months in Vampire Hell, Fresh from Watching All His Allies Swear to Murder His Wife If She Got Too Dracula'd, Has Been Sleeping with Said Wife Every Day/Night, Has Not Let Go of His Giant Fuckoff Knife Since October 3rd' Harker, whetting the kukri until it's an atom wide as he casually takes stock of everyone's throats: No sir :) Haven't even the tiniest inkling :)

Jack: Excellent, you just keep those cold hands steadily sharpening that knife and stay ignorant to our tragic-wise machinations

Jonathan: Will do :)

[theholmwoodfoundation]

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE Updated Commemorative Plaque for Quincey Morris

Dallas’s favourite not-quite fictional cowboy is being remembered with an updated plaque this week, which will be re-mounted at the US Branch of the Holmwood Foundation, built in his honour as part of their 100-year celebrations.  Quincey Peter Morris is most colloquially known for being fictionalised in the gothic horror novel Dracula, published in 1897. However, the truth of his death in a tragic accident in the Carpathian Mountains, along with fellow traveller Jonathan Harker, left their loved ones wanting to build something in their memory—The Holmwood Foundation.  For the last century, the Holmwood Foundation has worked to provide world-class research into haematology, expanding from England to other parts of the world, including Dallas, Texas, where Quincey spent most of his adulthood. The original plaque was unveiled in 1910 with Mina Harker, Professor Abraham Van Helsing and Dr Jack Seward in attendance. In a letter sent to the Morris family, the other co-founder, Lord Arthur Godaming, sent his heartfelt apologies that he could not attend. Tomorrow’s plaque ceremony will be presented by Jonathan Harker, the current CEO of The Holmwood Foundation, and Jacqueline Morris, the last surviving member of the Morris Family and Director of Operations for the US Branch. We asked Jaqueline how she felt about the plaque and her family’s history: “Quincey P Morris was by all accounts a wonderful man, and we are honoured to have a part of him here, as a reminder of the great man he was. Whilst he was born and raised in the outskirts of Dallas, this town became his home where he and his brothers found fortune in trade. He was a solider, but also a great lover of people, and we know that his love for his friends was what is remembered most about him. This present from the Harker family, as part of the Foundation Birthday celebrations, was a delight to receive. We know from his letters and diaries that Quincey would undoubtedly have stood by them in their cause and so we, the Morris family, do the same today.”

-Extract from The Dallas Morning News, Pub June 2004

[nebulousboops]

what.... what if dracula but professor layton.....

look I noticed similarities and I had to do SOMETHING now that I think about it seward's role is more similar to carmine's but ehhhhh I've already drawn the thing

[lunar-eclipse-bunnies]

if you're wondering why i haven't psoted atr in a hot minute, my world building class is why.

[vickyvicarious]

van Helsing: I don't want to rush you, I know you're still recovering, so I only have a few questions for now...

Jonathan: Hang on. Are you planning to deal with the Count?

van Helsing: ...yes.

Jonathan: Great, cause so am I. Let's fuck him up!

[marietheran]

Coming in late, but how about Finnick, Jonathan Harker, Halt from Ranger's Apprentice, and Galadriel for the Character Bingo, please?

Thanks a lot for the ask! It's not late at all, in fact it's still open, haha. At your service:

Finnick:

Hmm... so, I like him, but while I know he's the Blorbo Ultimate for a lot of people, I don't think I would call him mine. I get why people adore him so much; he does share some characteristics with my favourite blorbos of all time.. maybe it's just that while I'm interested in the Hunger Games, I don't love this franchise as much as people seem to.

And, maybe I'm wrong, but I do feel like the fandom kind of reduces him to a pure sunshine boy™, and though there's nothing wrong with this kind of character, I don't think it's plausible to portray Finnick like that. He's had to win the Hunger Games somehow. He's killed people - at fourteen! - he's been forced to participate in this horror as a mentor - if he's got strong principles, his conscience must torment him. And then, of course, the prostitution thing. He's not 100% good cheer.

(I've heard about someone headcanoning him as Catholic - Irish name, etc - and I love this idea, but that would make him even more conflicted)

Of course, I have to add an obligatory expression of annoyance at the way he was killed. It made no sense and somehow the surrounding characters had zero emotional reaction to it.

If I'm allowed to have another quibble with the text I hate the way he was introduced. I get that the author wanted his actual good character to come as a surprise, but it was gross.

Jonathan:

I don't really have much to say except *general positive feelings*. (I feel like he might even qualify as a Blorbo!)

He's excellent husband material and he's never done anything wrong in his life - except, this applies to both those things - when he said he could become a vampire for Mina. Jonathan, no! I'm sure Mina would prefer you to have a strong moral backbone regardless of her own state.

Halt:

It feels very much a disservice to consider Halt (or anyone in these books) apart from the other characters. They're very much the most interesting together, especially when you consider the humour of the banter.

However, I will say I find his backstory incredibly cool actually. It seems like it got invented pretty late into the series, but actually I think his character fits someone who was raised as nobility (into the "noble" kind of noble, and not the "pampered" kind), but hasn't been leading this life for a while, and has experienced assassination attempts from close family members. I do wonder what his relationship with his sister was like.

I must admit I'm partial to the common headcanon of him as autistic, although, as always with this sort of thing, I'm a bit bothered by the fact that a character may have some autistic traits, but never the less "aesthetic" ones, so

Galadriel:

Tolkien characters, my beloveds! (with the very strong exception of the darksiders, of course)

Anyway, Galadriel/Artanis!

She's not my favourite out of all Legendarium figures (mostly because all of my blorbos come from there), but I like her a lot, especially when you take into account all the Silm stuff, and look at her role in LotR through that lens. It's tragic, to be honest. She's the only one left. Out of 15 grandchildren of Finwë. And she lives in this delightful (to consider - not to experience) state of being caught between homesickness and pride, ambition and regret.

I strongly dislike Tolkien's later attempts to smoothen her out, to make her so perfect - she never really struck me as a Marian figure; there are Marian figures in the legendarium, but Galadriel isn't one. Her Silm backstory is everything it should be.

I also dislike the theory that she was specifically banned from returning to Valinor. It's way more interesting when it's a "no" said in pride, in the wish to be a queen and not a subject, to be one of the most powerful and not one of the less - a "no" that she may come to halfway regret but believes is an irrevocable choice - or is hesitant to take back.

I find an interpretation that takes into account her more complicated characteristics like the fact that she is willing to cover for murderers really worthwhile. The fact that she starts off as the very skilled youngest child of a youngest child of a king, with ambitions and little way to be taken seriously until disaster strikes... chef's kiss.

I eternally loathe the movies' interpretation of her (and of the other elves, though it's most visible in her). Cate Blanchett seems so cold, even when she's trying to seem warm. They went for "otherworldly" and forgot elves are at the same time just as, if not more, grounded as men are.

Sorry if you expected a more LotR-centered take though, I'm afraid the Silm is firmly holding my mind hostage.

[theimpossiblescheme]

Swaddled in his coat, the thick fur collar wreathed around her head and her arm pulled into the long, heavy sleeves, Mina looks so like a child.  Knees pulled up to her chest as she lay on her side by the fire, visibly trying not to toss and turn against the rough ground.  No lines on her face save for the burn on her forehead, but the light of the fire throws the shadows under her eye into sharp relief, and her features are pinched into the sort of fear that pierces an old man’s heart.  The sort of fear he’d hoped to spare her.  It is hard to reconcile the calm, graceful, divinely patient, and devilishly clever woman she’d been before, all racing mind and sweet words, with this lost creature laying at his side.  It feels too cruel a reversal, to try and offer her comfort now when she had given it so freely only days before.

But Abraham has already failed her dearest friend, and sweet Lucy’s death still casts a pall over the whole company, even for all his efforts.  He will redouble them for Mina’s sake.  It is enough to know he might never see John or the brave Arthur again… a third loss may be his undoing.  It is all he can do to keep from imagining his own long-loved, long-lost faces in their place.

He stays silent as he pulls another wrap of furs from the wagon about his shoulders and straightens where he sits, signaling his intent to stay up and keep watch.  Mina’s head moves in what’s almost a nod before lolling heavily aside, just inches from him.  Tempting as it is to haul her into his lap as he would a small girl or run a hand over her unbound dark curls, Abraham abstains.  He will not touch her if she does not wish it–her cries upon having the wafer pressed to her skin still ring in his ears.  As do the resolute declarations of love and soothing hums from her husband shortly thereafter as he held her.  What would their Jonathan think to see her now, he wonders… and quickly resolves that it must not be so.  He will not leave her side tonight, and he shall return Mina to him as she was–bright and lovely, her energy and light restored.

This new oath is a balm, if only a slight one, to such an aching, weary old breast as his, and for the first time in hours he lifts his voice, hoarse with disuse, but gentle enough that only she can hear…

“’k Heb U altijd van noode, dag en nacht, slechts uw genâ verwint des boozen macht. Wie kan als gij mijn gids en sterkte zijn? Blijf bij mij, Heer, in nacht en zonneschijn!”

[singingbookwormwithrainbowheart]

Prepping for the only reason I have tumblr in the first place: Dracula Daily!

[ieidolon]

"Do you know what the place is? Have you seen that awful den of hellish infamy--with the very moonlight alive with grisly shapes and every speck of dust that whirls in the wind a devouring monster in embryo? Have you felt the Vampire's lips upon your fucking throat?"

Being as Dracula Daily is starting up again in about three days, I think this is a perfect opportunity, as we follow along this year, to play the PG-13 game.

For the unfamiliar, the PG-13 game is as follows: you are allowed to insert one and only one instance of the word "fuck" into the text as written. For maximum impact, where do you put it?

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #314: "Along Came A Spider..."

February, 1990

Guest-Starring the Amazing SPIDER-MAN! INTO THE VOID!

The world has apparently been replaced by a void but yet the headline is "Spider-Man hangs out with Avengers"?

Weird priorities, cover text and also title of issue.

Jarvis is on the cover but doesn't get a "guest-starring Edwin Jarvis" caption? That's BS!

Anyway.

Last times in Avengers: just a whole bunch of stuff. Atlantis Attacks and Acts of Vengeance back to back. Avengers Island sank and the grounds of Avengers Park suffered significant damage.

The Avengers have given up on the whole island headquarters thing, despite having only just moved into it. They're moving back to Avengers Park where the old Avengers Mansion was located. And they're gonna make it bigger this time!

(It was already variably big so whatever.)

Iron Man lands and invites himself into the conversation that Cap is having with I guess the construction foreman.

The guy, Mr. Withers, thinks they'll need blasting permits to expand the sub-structure like the Avengers want. But Iron Man ironsplains that the additions fit pretty closely to what's already there.

Despite abandoning the original Avengers Mansion site and moving the whole mansion to Avengers Island, all the original sub-basements were maintained, including plumbing and electrical. So that part of the new HQ construction job is already done.

He knows because Tony Stark told him, wink.

Captain America has a similar reaction that "New" Iron Man got with the West Coast Avengers.

Gosh, he certainly knows everything Tony Stark knows. And Cap knows that Iron Man was Tony Stark. But the original Iron Man supposedly died after Armor Wars. But Tony Stark is still around. And now there's a supposedly new Iron Man.

But if "new" Iron Man is Tony, why won't he admit it to his good pals?

Anyway, Thor takes a giant ball of debris from the site to deposit in a government land-fill in New Jersey.

There might be proprietary technology mixed in so they'll have to sort through it all but the land-fill will let them keep it out of the way but still under guard.

Mr. Withers: "Wow! Y'know, I've read about Thor, even seen him onna TV..." Iron Man: "But up close he does kind of take your breath away. I know. And you know something, Withers? You just never get used to it!"

Cap, overhearing this exchange: HM BUT IF YOU WERE A NEW IRON MAN, YOU'D HAVE BARELY BEEN AROUND THOR AT ALL.

Tony, just confide in your damn friends so they don't stand around =_= at you all day.

Since Iron Man somehow knows everything about the sub-basements, Captain America decides to head off on a mission of his own.

With his pilot, John Jameson and the newly fixed Quinjet. Yes, the one that crashed during Acts of Vengeance has been made like new.

I suppose if Quinjets get destroyed as often as they have been, it saves money to repair what can be.

Cap's mission?

Recruitment!

Cap has John hover outside Sersi's apartment so he can go inside and proposition her.

No, not like that.

Sersi is decorating for Christmas. While Eternals aren't really down with Buddy Christ, Sersi also doesn't let a good excuse to party pass her by.

She also wants to bang Cap probably but he's here on business. Between the Negative Zone trip and her help in Atlantis Attacks and y'know, there is an Eternal vacancy since that Gilgamesh guy went on medical leave... Sersi, will you join the Avengers?

Meanwhile, Thor is carrying the large garbage ball New Jerseyward when suddenly the world goes photo-negative and he drops the dang thing.

And as unluck would have it? He dropped it right over a school!

Dangit, Thor!

Thor yells at the mortals to scatter but realizes that when the ball drops, its going to shotgun razor sharp shrapnel everywhere.

His only other thought is to hit the ball with Mjolnir, which solves a lot of problems but wouldn't this time. It'd just knock it down faster.

But then a wonderful sound: thwiiippt!

And then vvrrooosh!

Tethered by something, instead of hitting the playground, the ball of garbage swings like a pendulum.

This gives Thor the opportunity to throw Mjolnir from a lower vantage point. Throw it so hard it embeds in the ball. Then he hops the fence, books it to a big, clear area, and summons Mjolnir (and the garbage ball) back to himself.

He catches it, pulls out Mjolnir, and sets the garbage sphere down.

A guy: "Wow! Thor... That was somethin' else!!" Thor: "Verily? What was it then, I wonder?"

Thor is down with modern slang.

Thor calls Spider-Man to come out, since he recognized his webbing tethering the trash orb.

He asks if the wall-crawler also felt the world go photo-negative.

And not in the exact same way, no. But something made his spider-sense scream at him.

Thor realizes that this is bigger than a giant ball of garbage so he abandons that where he set it down. And tells Spider-Man they need to get to Avengers HQ like now!

Spider-Man: "But... But I'm not an Avenger...?? Thor...?"

Oh, Spider-Man! You act like you've never been dragged into a crossover or guest star spot before!

And I know you have.

Meanwhile, at Sersi's apartment, both Sersi and Captain America felt the photo-negativity too.

Cap describes it as feeling like "my whole head had turned inside out" and it is very alarming that Sersi felt the same. If it floored too strong people like them, what are normal peeps feeling?

No, really, what are normal peeps feeling? In the Thor drops garage scene, we only see people reacting in fear to the giant garbage drop, not being floored by photo-negativity.

But over with Cap and Sersi, pilot John Jameson is so affected he can't fly the Quinjet and Cap has to budge him over to take the controls.

John Jameson: "Awful. As if... something had got inside me and turned every cell in my body upside down. I haven't felt anything like it since I was freed of the curse that used to transform me into the Man-Wolf!"

Okay, so, John is/was a super-powered weirdo too. Maybe its only affected superheroes and adjacent people.

(Also, Sersi decided to join the Avengers, at least in regards to this newest crisis. And she molecularly shifts her duds into a fur-lined version of her green swimsuit costume.)

The scene shift proves me wrong. All the construction crew have been knocked a loop by the whatsit. Which Vision (oh, hi, Vision) calls "some kind of flux, an atomic inversion."

And Vision's robot ears can hear thousands of people around the park moaning in pain. So the effect is widespread.

Iron Man himself is about as weak as the normal construction dudes but his armor is keeping him upright and moving.

Captain America and co arrive, reporting that the inversion effect was as widespread as Sersi's apartment.

Iron Man: "That's bad. As an Eternal, she's in complete mental control of every atom of her body at all times. For her to be hit..." Sersi: "... The effect must have been most powerful and insidious."

A good reason to have a super-powerful character on a superhero team is not just for how good they can beat people up. But so they can feel disturbances in the Force and go 'guys, shit is BAD.'

Meanwhile, the PolyDyne Lab with Professor Harker and Nebula.

Nebula in her generic blonde lady disguise and the professor are also woozied by the photo-negativity. The professor calls it an unexpected glitch but can't explain why it happened.

Nebula: "Old fool! Your so-called compressor holds the key to vast power, and you tell me now there are things about it you cannot predict?"

She calls her Rigellian henchman, Gunthar, who is in a spaceship orbiting Earth and wow, geez, he was knocked out by the effect too.

It's widespread enough to affect orbit!

Damn, Professor Harker!

Scratch that, Gunthar checked the sub-space communications grid and the effect actually covered AT LEAST the entire galaxy!

Damn, Professor Harker! You've moved up from blowing up your own house.

Nebula changes gears from yelling at Harker to being impressed how powerful the compressor is. She has Gunthar (that is such a penguin name) calculate the full extent of the effect.

Gunthar: "I have already done so, my lady... But I cannot believe my findings! According to the automatic scanners, at the precise moment the Earthling Harker's compressor reached within .0000000000000000001 percent of its maximum efficiency... the entire universe flashed out of existence!"

Holy shit!

Nebula is surprised that she stumbled assbackwards into such a source of power. So is Starfox, who is lurking in secret on Gunthar's ship.

He had no idea Nebula would come so close to becoming as powerful as Thanos or that Starfox would find it so difficult to stop her.

(Hey, Eros, a thought? Just blow up the PolyDyne facility. Duh.)

Gunthar cautions Nebula that while blinking the universe out of existence IS neat and it seems safe to continue testing, some undefined, mysterious "he" might be aggroed by all this and then bad things.

Back at Avengers Subbasement Serving As Headquarters Until The Mansion Gets Rebuilt, Captain America and Vision contact the West Coast Avengers.

Hank Pym confirms that the photo-negativity atomic inversion effect was even felt as far as California.

Hm. I think this scene contacting the West Coast Avengers should have gone before we learned the effect went as far as THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE. Learning that it affected California is a bit of a 'no shit' situation. The Avengers are behind the audience.

(Also, I wonder when this is happening in conjunction with the Evil Scarlet Witch stuff. That arc happens right after Acts of Vengeance and nobody fell over shouting 'OW, MY ATOMS!' so I have to assume this is after all of that.)

Sersi finishes her psychic scan and reports that everyone on Earth felt the same effect.

Vision extrapolates that such a widespread effect MUST be outside the four fundamental forces.

I don't follow his logic but it's leading him in the right direction.

Vision: "In effect, something which cancelled out those forces." Wasp: "Canceled as in...?" Dr Pym: "That's impossible, Vision. if the four forces binding our universe together were to be cancelled..." Vision: "... The universe would cease to exist. Which is precisely what seems to have happened, Dr. Pym."

Wow, Vision. You really logiced your way into exactly what is happening.

Now the Avengers aren't behind the audience so much.

Hank guesses "the only thing that could really pack enough power to achieve the effect would be another universe encroaching on our plane of existence!"

Huh. He predicted Secret Wars (2015) way before it happened.

Captain America recalls that the Fantastic Four encountered the Beyonder or someone similar recently and wonders if the photo-negativity is a prelude to another Beyonder invasion.

Hank doesn't want to think about that. And unfortunately, there isn't enough data to make a good theory on the cause. They have no choice but to wait for it to happen again and hope that it doesn't.

Back at the PolyDyne lab, Nebula starts shouting at the lab people, telling them to start up the compressor again.

Nebula: "That was nearly it! That was the ultimate power I seek!!"

A goggled lab man protests the flux was a totally unanticipated effect and Professor Harker backs him up. BECAUSE. His calculations indicated something like this could happen... he just didn't tell anyone because it would have gotten in the way of him getting funding.

You dipshit!

YOU CALCULATED THE UNIVERSE MIGHT BLINK OUT OF EXISTENCE AND YOU BUILT THE MACHINE ANYWAY?

Go to your room!

Nebula is equally angry in the opposite direction.

Nebula: "You dare speak so to the granddaughter of Thanos? I have crossed and recrossed the universe seeking a source of energy that would elevate me to the position of power and fear he once commanded! I shall not be frustrated now!"

Two of the lab workers briefly discuss what the hell Nebula's deal is. She wasn't part of the deal between PolyDyne and Professor Harker. So either she was Harker's secret benefactor all along... or she's nuts.

GUYS. SHE'S NUTS. She's talking about ultimate power and Thanos! Someone pull the plug!

Starfox shows himself to Gunthar and knocks the Rigellian out with a judicious application of his PLEASURE POWER.

You're not beating the creepy powers allegation yet, Starfox.

He takes over the radio and tries to contact the Avengers but gets choked out by another of Nebula's minions before he can get further than "Starfox calling the Avengers!"

Jarvis does report to the Avengers that Starfox tried to contact them.

Sersi: "Eros? Of the Eternals of Titan? What's wrong...?" Captain America: "Easy, Sersi. I know your own race of Eternals is distantly related to the dwellers of the Saturnian moon, but there may not be anything to get upset about here..."

Jesus, Cap.

She's thousands of years older than you. Give her some credit for controlling her emotions. Reflexive sexism isn't a good look on you.

Jarvis backs up Sersi's worry because Starfox was unable to complete the transmission before it was cut off. And because of the way it was cut off, Jarvis guesses Eros didn't cut the connection but was stopped.

Captain America checks and sees that the Subbasement's communications equipment managed to track the signal to beyond the orbit of the Moon.

Iron Man suspects that it must have something to do with the current crisis. He interfaces with the Subbasement's computers to run the data through his armor systems.

Cap once again =_= at Iron Man and thinks he's AWFULLY familiar with all the Avengers equipment. Could Tony REALLY have briefed a completely new guy so thoroughly?

Tony, just TELL them. God.

Iron Man finishes tracking the signal and takes Vision to go check it out.

As those two tear out, Thor and Spider-Man tear in.

Spider-Man wonders if they should go with Iron Man and Vision, wherever they're going. But Thor says nay because they didn't come all the way to Avengers Subbasement to NOT find out what's going on.

They arrive just in time to get hit by back to back photo-negativity.

I don't know why but the idea that briefly not existing hurts like hell is kind of funny to me.

The Avengers are blinking in and out of existence and fuck ow. Their atoms don't like it!

I don't know what effect that would have realistically because what here is realistic? But if I had to guess an effect, I'd guess... mostly mental effects. Confusion, dread, stuff like that. But, no. It hurrrrrrts.

Even though the Avengers were waiting for another flux, now that they've gotten three in a row, the Subbasement's instruments can't tell them anything substantive.

Cap asks Sersi if she can do anything about this barrage of not existing.

She grants that hypothetically it is something she can do.

As an Eternal, she controls every atom in her body by force of will. And of the Eternals, she is the most skilled at molecular transmutation.

Hypothetically, she should be able to protect all the atoms in this room from the effect.

Even though another flux comes while she's preparing, Sersi holds strong and successfully protects the room.

Sersi: "Whatever force this is, I shall not let it master me! I am Sersi! I am an Eternal born! I... WILL... NOT... FAIL!"

But... even though she succeeded, Spider-Man notices something very odd on the external security feed.

As in, there is no outside anymore.

Universe gone.

What a place to end an issue!

Gotta laugh at Spider-Man seeing a blank monitor and (correctly) leaping to the conclusion that the universe broke rather than that the monitor did.

Also, gotta laugh at Sersi choosing now to still keep being horny for Cap. I have no idea how she ended up with Black Knight instead. No offense to Dane but some offense to Dane.

Next week, more Evil Scarlet Witch.

I'm getting excited about Avengers (East Coast) again. It's been kind of spinning its wheels during Byrne's run and then back to back events. But I'm looking forward to seeing where this one is going. And the other book has Evil Scarlet Witch so at least I have one book that I'm excited to read.

Follow @essential-avengers because I'll never flick the universe off and on like a light switch. I'm courteous. Like and reblog and comment and applaud as the mood moves you.

[thebibi]

Next time there's a big adaptation of Dracula, they should do a cold open.

Its the year 188x, Amsterdam University. In a small operating theatre, a professor has just been stabbed in the hand by his overly anxious colleague during an operation. Realizing it was a dirty knife with gangrene, a student quickly kneels before him, seizing the professor's hand and selflessly decides to suck the gangrene from his wound. He sucks and spits the blood out, looking up intensely at the professor. Fade to black.

The next scene transitions to May 189X in Romania, and a young Jonathan Harker steps off the train.

[theholmwoodfoundation]

I know your logo contains those darling little allium flowers. Do wild roses grow at your facility as well?

When The Whitby Office was first established, backing onto the moors as it is, the Crew of Light made sure that the surrounding area was covered in, yes, wild garlic and rambling wild roses. There were many occasions where the group would need sunshine and distraction and sit together for lunch and to discuss plans.

In earlier days of the Foundation, staff would hold picnics in this area for employees and their families. Unfortunately this tradition ended a few decades ago. Like the garlic, wild roses are purely for extracting and testing now.

[fiotrethewey]

Going to use this opportunity to remind everyone that I’m making a Dracula novel Sequel as an audio drama which doesn’t do the Crew of Light dirty ❤️

You can find out more at @theholmwoodfoundation or you can go to our Kickstarter page

Yeah poor Arthur keeps getting made into either an arse or a bad guy (and the excuse is always "he was boring in the original so I am fixing him")

He's an arse to everyone in Dracula 2016

He's horrible in Hammer Dracula

He's the one who throws away the garlic in Bram Stoker's Van Helsing out of jealousy

He's a power hungry fascist in The Adventures of the Athena Club (everyone in the crew of light is evil there, minus Mina and Dracula who eloped together)

He's a villain in Anno Dracula (Jack is too) and the author admitted it was just because he hates him

He's a greedy murderous opportunist in Lucy Undying (though still not as evil as Mina)

What's boring at this point is completely changing his personality. Make him interesting with the building blocks you have than by making him an OC. He Would Not Fucking Say That.

RIGHT!? And the thing is he’s not boring in the novel? He wins Lucy’s heart, still trusts in his friends despite them being suitors to help him with his ailing fiancée. Not to mention his dad dying and taking on a title around the same time his fiancée dies and takes it mostly in his stride. (That man deserves to cry dammit.)

He’s incredibly resourceful (see dogs and the money for lock picking/travel) and he alone had to do something that no one else in the novel had to do, stake a vampire that was previously their loved one.

Jonny even said he can’t do that.

[see-arcane]

I have been possessed by a stronger than average craving for tinkering with Jonathan Harker's genders (Jonders). Jonathan Harker is undeniably and forever my favorite gothic heroine. But, being that there is so much to chew on regarding his potential fluidity when it comes to gender roles within the story--the classic damsel, the willingly submissive half of the couple, the vengeful berserker, etc--it's got me thinking.

Let's take the metaphor out. What would happen to the Dracula narrative if Jonathan Harker was...

First thing's first--she almost definitely gets shouldered out of the Important Solicitor's position due to reasons of Being Girl. But she still has to get to Transylvania to be menaced by Count Bat Bastard. How?

Hawkins! Johanna is working at the firm as a secretary and personal assistant to a still very paternally mushy old Peter Hawkins. When Dracula's request comes around, he can't give up such a lucrative client over his gout and there's no one he trusts to pass it to. He has to go. And it'd only be right to treat his surrogate daughter to a paid scenic vacation have his aide along on the business trip. Especially when she hunted down Carfax Abbey herself! What a lovely outing they'll have.

...or not.

True to form, Count Dracula is very much not to be trusted around pretty young things of any kind. Considering his canon habits, things aren't about to go any easier for Miss Harker. But at least she has Hawkins watching out for her in-person! It all makes for some very tense talk when discussing anything other than the estate purchase; which Hawkins seems as keen to rush as Dracula is to dawdle over. But at least they'll be out of here soon. What's a couple of awkward nights, right?

One in particular has Johanna nervous as she goes to bed. Hawkins had taken Dracula aside with a hard smile, insisting there was a 'delicate matter' he wished to speak with the Count about. The last time a 'delicate matter' was brought up was when he nearly lobbed a typewriter at one of his ex-solicitor's heads for some distinctly unseemly behavior in her direction. She hopes there isn't a storm brewing under their host's roof. She hopes harder that tomorrow they'll be heading back to the Borgo Pass.

Instead:

Oh.

Oh no.

Between this and one requisite nightmare-week in which the joys of womanhood come and go--let's leave it unspoken whether her set of bloodstained cloths stay in her possession or not--Johanna gets put through the wringer. Per usual. But eventually..!

Yeah. No shock there. Deep calming breaths, Jack. Don't let the wonderful diary concuss you.

Part of being one of two (gasp) G I R L S in the Scooby Gang, Van Helsing and company vote Johanna and Mina out of the dirt hunt. Except. Well. Johanna is still necessary to have on the ground here. She's the only one with the location intel--and a surprise willed gift of inheritance and the firm from poor Hawkins, who the Transylvanian locals all vouch for as being 'slain by wolves,' leaving Johanna free of blame--so she's still running around for the crew.

Even so, odds are high that she initially gets sidelined with Mina. Which isn't overly awful. It is good to be side-by-side in this timeline! No needless sequestering from each other! Johanna is already planning to see Mina back to their new house before they have to sleep another night in an asylum.

And then comes the 3rd of October.

Van Helsing: "Madam Harker, is it not somewhat attention-catching to wear trousers in public? We are meant to be unremarkable while we wait on th--"

Johanna, has already smoked through two cigars, kukri in her lap, playing a game of chicken with God: "Do you think I scaled a mountain in three layers of skirts, Professor? No? Then I will not do the same if the rancid bastard tries to escape out the window."

Van Helsing, aside: "Friend John, can you speak sense to her?"

Jack, melting off the side of the bench: "I think I hauve consumption"

Anyway. She very much does get to the Dracula head chopping. And there will be much rejoicing. BUT all that grimdarkness aside, there are other, more hijinks-flavored opportunities to think of with this particular set up. If only because I genuinely believe that Lucy and Art, having two spare best friends on hand and a general vibe that radiates 'ooooh what if triple wedding???', would come up with the following master plan. Some truly Shakespearean folly kind of shit:

Thankfully, Johanna and Mina nix the idea pretty quick. Case in point:

And, last but not least, my final word on the range of Jonders that exist within my very best gothic heroine friend:

ha ha I do that

[freuleinanna]

ngl van helsing and mina's relarionship is very very dear to me and does in fact have me in chokehold

we're expecting jack seward to be van helsing's protégé, them being academics and jack having been vh's student. and yet jack is the least flexible in his beliefs. meanwhile mina, despite not having any relevant education, demonstrates all qualities that van helsing seeks and respects!

she's anticipating the need for a record and typewrites her and jonathan's diaries in advance, plus later continues her task to make sure they all have access to the least available bit of information (to which van helsing refers a LOT closer to the end)

she's quick-minded and can surprise the old professor (cue the 'teehee sure read my diaries oops it's in shorthand' scene, after which vh basically goes I AM ADOPTING HER, teary-eyed)

she has a chronical case of understanding him instantly. parallel the scene with jack 'WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN ELEPHANTS LIVE LONGER' seward and the scene with mina 'SAY NO MORE I GOT YOU DRACULA IS FLEEING BACK HOME' harker, it's just so funny to me

van helsing constantly saying how he needs jack to have an open mind, yet here's madam mina, self-educated on the horrors in castle dracula, asking van helsing himself to keep an open mind as he reads the diaries!

in van helsing's memorandum he says she obediently does anything he asks. she even gets up to leave the wafer circle, although she can't. like.... she knows that van helsing is testing her, and helps willingly. she feels the changes in herself, and she allows her friend to carry out his research too.

they are SO quick to follow each other's thoughts! mina discovers hypnotism as means to speak freely and calls for van helsing right away. and he gets her without missing a beat

don't even get me started on every time mina saves the situation and van helsing muttering 'wonderful woman!' under his breath. he cares for her so deeply it's insane and heart-warming and bittersweet

and that damn november 4 entry? van helsing being afraid, afraid, afraid! of mina and the changes she undergoes. yet he continues to care about his friend. huge thanks to @re-dracula for bringing each emotion to life in such a vivid manner

in conclusion, mina harker is van helsing's spiritual kin and i am not normal about it