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thebibliomancer · 20 days ago

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Essential Avengers: Avengers #330: "In a STRANGE LAND"

March, 1991

Vs the TETRARCHS of ENTROPY!

I love the vibe of 'what fresh hell?!' from this cover. The giant angry tetrarch faces. The star field. The Avengers just looking like they're having a miserable time.

Imagine being Black Widow, though? First day on the job and she's been kidnapped by cosmic forces angry at the team for something Natasha wasn't even on the team for!

Anyway, last times on Larry Hama's Avengers: The team brought a Chernobyl survivor to another dimension to give him emergency bone marrow transplant surgery. Unfortunately, the another dimension was now a plane of exile and also unfortunately, the Avengers accidentally helped cause a jailbreak by taking one of the prisoners home with them to give emergency micro-surgery.

The Avengers had also lost their government charter and formed a new roster with a new reserve squad in order to get a UN charter.

I guess the Avengers were easier to track down than the actual escaped monster people because during the press conference to announce the new roster, the Tetrarchs of Entropy (a snake, a pyramid, two floating heads, and a creepy person) show up and cosmic arrest the Avengers for the jailbreak and throw them into the plane of exile.

But since the Avengers could use Thor's hammer to escape the dimension, Mjolnir - and also Sersi for good measure - have been put in display cases.

I love that Vision sass.

The Vision: 'I'd have already figured this out if you'd shut the hell up.'

Classic Vision sass!

Thor is obviously very upset that his special hammer is locked up in crystal.

Vision tries phasing through it but discovers, shock horror, that the crystal isn't crystal! It's anti-probability!

Of all the times for you to be separated from your probability altering wife!

Anyway, the anti-probability field is more of an anti-magic field. And the way that the field permeates Mjolnir, if they break the 'crystal', it could destroy Mjolnir.

Which Thor doesn't like for sentimental and practical reasons.

Thor: "Mjolnir doth be a primal artifact, endowed by Odin himself with powerful enchantments! The consequences of it being unmade are unthinkable and cataclysmic!"

OCEANS WILL RISE! VOLCANOES WILL BLOW! CIVILIZATIONS WILL CRUMBLE!

That's not me being colorful, that's what's happening in the panel that dialogue is from.

Anyway, the Avengers will need Mjolnir to bust out Sersi but messing this up could break Mjolnir so Vision leaves it up to Thor to decide.

And Thor decides yes because if this is the only way to free Sersi, then so be it!

So Vision lays out his plan for freeing Mjolnir.

Quasar creates an energy construct chisel and rest it against a fault in the facet of the anti-probability 'crystal.' Which despite being a field, has crystalline properties so you can break it like you'd break a crystal.

Vision intangibles into the crystal and covers Mjolnir with his body to protect it from the shattering.

And She-Hulk smashes her fist into the chisel to break the crystal. Freeing Mjolnir!

Intangibling through anti-probability is an exhausting thing so Vision is wobbly on his feet after freeing Mjolnir. But he staggers up and heads to repeat the process to save Sersi.

The Vision: "It is my choice to do this. It is my life-force in jeopardy in balance against all my fellow Avengers... for if we do not free Sersi, she cannot generate the modulating field that will permit Thor to open the gateway between dimensions!"

But Vision barely starts trying before the Tetrarchs of Entropy show up to yell at the Avengers for trying to break out of jail.

In fairness, the Tetrarchs were really underestimating them.

Captain America yells at the Tetrarchs that imprisoning them is an injustice and they're going to punch them about it.

So the Avengers all charge forward and punch the pyramid... but can't even get through his force field.

Pyramid Tetrach: "Right, wrong or justice have nothing to do with this! We, the Tetrarchs, do not dispense judgement! We simply oversee the dissolution of cosmic laws into chaos! We maintain a balance. There are unnatural forces in the universe striving for the triumph of ultimate good or ultimate evil, both patently unattainable... But both quite capable of creating order of sorts. That is anathema to us!"

Oh, the irony, that beings that represent chaos are running a jail.

Also, oy, with the cosmic forces. Entropy isn't even the same thing as chaos.

Now Thor yells at the Tetrarchs that they suck and he's going to punch them about it.

Some Avengers charge at the pyramid again. This time, the pyramid lifts up and lets the Avengers falls into the secret bottom hole.

Thor, Sersi, and Captain America go down the pyramid hole. Leaving behind She-Hulk, Vision, Black Widow, and Quasar.

Then, the giant cosmic entropy snake winds around those four, too. Letting them "fall screaming into the exquisite blackness that is the void between universes!"

Well, that's not the best thing that could happen. But at least it's not being eaten by a pyramid anus.

Captain America, Sersi, and Thor find themselves in a new alien landscape. A world of rotting meat, according to Thor. I don't really interpret the art that way but Thor is actually there so he probably knows better than I do.

And in this fresh new hell, the three Avengers see four aliens. Each more alien than the last. Because the last just looks like a Skrull and Skrulls look like green humans with silly chins and elf ears. So an orange lizard man, a bubble gum blob with eyes, and a green bug are much more alien than that.

Captain America, the sometimes eternal optimist, decides that sure, these four aliens look ugly and mean but that doesn't mean they're jerks!

He goes to introduce himself and gets immediately splooted in the throat with a pink, bubble gum tentacle.

And with that, diplomacy is abandoned and Thor and Sersi charge to defend their pal, Cap.

Meanwhile, Quasar, She-Hulk, Vision, and Black Widow find themselves in a cloudy, rocky place which Natasha describes as looking like something from Dante's Inferno.

A portcullis opens up and three nasty characters confront our heroes. A minotaur with a buckler, a werewolf with a mace, and a witch.

The minotaur announces that he likes roasted food and then breathes fire at Black Widow. She dodges and Quasar chokes off the flame with an energy fist to the minotaur throat.

Good pun, Quasar.

Meanwhile, back at the new Avengers Headquarters. Which should be Avengers Mansion. They certainly spent enough time renovating it. But the outside establishing shot doesn't look like Avengers Mansion.

Anyway, the reserve Avengers have stepped in since the entire team getting raptured is sort of why you even have a reserve squad.

As the only one here with Avengers leadership experience, Captain Marvel is leading the reservists. And she's doing this by the book!

As she sees it, the substitute Avengers have two objectives: rescue the Avengers, fight supervillains. Especially supervillains that think now is a good time to villain because the A-squad is missing.

Hercules is boisterous and mad that they're standing around talking about it instead of getting on with rescuing the Avengers from the cosmic snake et al.

I'm sure Hercules already has a solid plan for how to rescue the Avengers from people that are Tetrarchs of Entropy, otherwise interrupting the planning stage to yell lets just get on with it is an incredibly stupid thing to do.

Anyway, speaking of procedural things, Jarvis shows up to ask Sandman and Rage to come get processed as probationary members.

(Sandman standing around brightly colored costumes central in just a shirt and pants is sending me.)

So, since the Avengers have security clearance (even when fired by the government, I guess?), members have to pass a background check.

Sandman has already passed the check because he was open about his identity and also already done the time for his various crime. Rage doesn't want to reveal his identity, his check is a little more complicated. But the Avengers do make allowances for secret identities. I mean, it's in their original charter that you don't have to reveal your civilian identity or any personal biz.

So Tony Stark did what Tony Stark do and built a technological solution to the problem of how to background check a person when you also let them keep their identity secret.

The SECRET BACKGROUND CHAMBER!

Which is a big privacy room with a computer console and nothing else.

Pre-recorded Tony Stark: "Hello, prospective Avenger... I'm Tony Stark, and I'm going to take you through this process via this pre-recorded message. You can start by sitting down at the console." "I personally wrote this program and it is thoroughly shielded and tamper-proofed. Any input at this console stays in this room and is encrypted into a one-time random sequence code to activate search procedures through the data banks of the FBI, CIA, NSC, Interpol and Amex. The search is supposedly a background check on an employee of the Department of Agriculture." "The prospective Avenger's name and address never leaves this sealed room and is permanently erased from the computer memory as soon as the search is completed. This program makes non judgement, but simply ascertains whether the applicant is eligible or not under the current security restrictions."

So, basically, it anonymously searches a person, deletes the information afterward, and delivers a Ye or Nay to the outside.

Pretty cool thing for the Avengers to have. I think outside of story logic... would this really work? How can you even know that the person is inputting their own name? I guess a person that gets this far must have really earned an Avengers' trust but in Rage's case, the Avengers knew him a day before they asked him to hang around for the new roster deliberations.

Still, for the needs of this specific plot, pretty cool.

In a funny bit, the computer plays muzak while running the program and Rage complains about not having something better to listen to.

Meanwhile, in the Dimension of Exile, Cap and Thor realize a thing about the four monster people. There's something familiar about their body language.

So he asks Sersi to project a psychic illusion into the monsters' minds that Cap, Sersi, and Thor are Cap, Sersi, and Thor.

Which helps Black Widow, Quasar, Vision, and She-Hulk realize who they're truly facing. And also reveals them to Cap. For reasons.

The pyramid Tetrarch of Entropy shows up to yell about the Avengers lessening entropy by figuring out the illusion.

All the Tetrarchs then come to confront the Avengers and muse on how they fall on the scale of good and evil.

Pyramid Tetrarch: "You actions have caused a quandary! You are creatures who are prepared to use violence, so you cannot be instruments of ultimate good..." Snake Tetrarch: Yet, you are capable of compassion and restraint, so you cannot be instruments of ultimate evil!" Pyramid Tetrach: "Perhaps you are not in league with Ngh the Unspeakable?" Captain America: "Now you've got the ticket! Can we talk?"

Odd morality system that people that rule entropy operate by. Odd, indeed.

Anyway, Rage's background check concludes and a bombshell drops.

A bombshell that, to be fair, has been heavily hinted at. And I honestly thought it would get drawn out more.

The background check reveals that Rage is really only fourteen years old.

Explaining what he's been doing since he got powers - nothing, that was, like, a week ago or something.

Why Granny Staples is still alive - because his backstory wasn't that long ago.

And Rage's straightforward problem-solving.

But because of privacy concerns, all the automated background search was interested in was whether or not the person has anything that would disqualify them from security clearance. AND AN AGE MINIMUM WAS NOT CONSIDERED NECESSARY.

Honestly, most kids look like kids and would have gotten disqualified before this point. So I get it.

Plus, if you don't include his retconned backstory as the robot Human Torch, Vision was like one year old when he became an Avenger.

Rage: "It's true? Everything that went up on the screen in there got erased?" Peggy Carter: "Absolutely! If Tony Stark designed it, there's no getting around it!" Fabian Stankowicz: "All we get out here is the green light that means you passed with flying colors!"

So, since both Sandman and Rage passed, they're given their Avengers Priority Identicard. Which not only opens doors in Avengers Headquarters, not only allows members to communicate with HQ or each other, but is a bank card to a special Avengers contingency account, is a mini computer terminal, is solar-powered and waterproof, and somewhat bulletproof.

(I hear that sometimes it also is a discount card for participating coffee shops.)

Basically, every gimmick and gadget that Tony Stark could fit into a little card the side of a drivers license.

It also can have a personal, private phone number programmed into it so that friends and family can call Avengers in case of emergency. And that's the feature Rage is most excited about.

He goes off to set up that personal number so he can call Granny Staples with it.

Except, uh oh, Ngh the Unspeakable answers the call.

Ngh the Unspeakable: "You will not exclaim or alter the expression on your face... We have your grandmother and we are perfectly capable of arranging an excrutiating and prolonged demise for her should you fail to cooperate in every way!" Rage: "What do you want?" Ngh the Unspeakable: "Come hom, Elvin! Your granny misses you!"

Falcon and Spider-Man happen to be walking by and ask why Rage seems really upset.

Rage: "No... nothing's the matter... Everything is just fine..."

Xa, the little evil fairy girl, has a good laugh that the Tetrarchs banished the heroes that would be opposing Ngh and co in this world. And, yeah, kinda dropped the ball, the Tetrarchs!

But speaking of which, after an off-screen chat, the Tetrarchs have brought the Avengers back, yay!

A measured yay. A restrained yay.

Honestly, feels like you could have gotten more out of the reserve squad concept while they were gone. Have some adventures running in parallel. The main team having to break out of cosmic entropy jail. The back-up squad proving they can hold their own on Earth.

The reservists didn't even get to do anything! Secret Wars did a better job at giving those left behind stuff to do!

Also, a restrained, measured yay because the Tetrarchs are playing dirty.

As Thor rightly worries, if the Tetrarchs don't care about good or evil, why did they test if the Avengers were good? And Captain America agrees they should tread carefully with these cosmic dinguses.

Which is the right instinct because the Tetrarchs have decided to throw the entire planet Earth into the dimension of exile, once the Avengers have helped recapture Ngh.

That's not entropic at all, that's just being a dick!

You suck, the Tetrarchs of Entropy!

The next time box promises that next issue will wrap up this story. But next week next time, we're back over with Avengers West Coast and their silly Ultron problem.

That robot sure is always up to something.

Follow @essential-avengers or don't. I'm not your boss. But, hey, why not like and reblog.

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thebibliomancer · 5 months ago

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Essential Avengers: Avengers #325: PARTY GAMES!

October, 1990

Quasar: "Uh, Cap -- did you invite these people?" Captain America: "Don't look at me, Quasar -- it's Sersi's party!"

This is so embarrassing. Several of these guests are wearing the same thing. Someone is going to have to change.

Hm, though, that's the Crimson Cowl, Sharon Carter The Girl On Fire, Man-Wolf the Werewolf, Dead Guardsman, and the Mechano-Maurauder Mom-Killer. And two of each.

Don't know why there's two of each. To pad out the crowd? But these are the visions that haunted the various Avengers Support Crew people.

That's the last time on Avengers: by the way.

There was the Crossing Line incident, with the hijacked nuclear submarine and the getting stuck in a bag of holding. The Avengers just finished wrapping that up. And while that was going on Mother Night, Minister Blood, and Machinesmith were putting the Avengers Support Crew under mind control by showing them traumatic visions.

The Avengers are back from their silly submarine adventure, so now the back-up plot becomes the main plot.

Psshaw, Cap. Surely some fraternizing is allowed. Wanda and Vision did an entire courtship while they were on the team. Go ahead and bathe with Sersi.

So when the Avengers arrive back at the Subbasement, they're greeted by Micahel O'Brien, head of security. He's so eager to spring their surprise new meeting table!

Remember that? From the back-up story?

But, whoops. Thor already called dibs on rebuilding the old one.

Michael O'Brien: "whoops." Captain America: "Don't sweat it -- we'll find a good use for it!" Sersi: "If you don't wipe that hurt puppy look off your face this minute, Mr. O'Brian -- I'm going to bite your lip." Michael O'Brien: "Well, I wouldn't want that, would I?" Sersi: "Never know till you try."

Sersi, pls.

I said "some fraternizing."

But, also, this:

The world's most obvious bug.

I'm sure that the color is just for the benefit of the audience but that doesn't blend into the wall at all.

Captain America: "Great! The new laptop voice processors are in. This will speed up filing case histories considerably." Sersi, sarcastically: "the part of being an avenger i can't get enough of!" Captain America: "If you'll just look into the tiny screen when you speak, the processor will not only record your image and voice, it will also transcribe your words into cold type."

I love it when the Avengers book gets granular about their procedures. I truly do. Captain America, and presumably Mark Gruenwald, is very excited about the new way to file after-action reports.

And, hey! Science fiction becomes science fact. Voice recognition transcribing exists now and it is not very good!

As the Avengers work on the Crossing Line incident report, Mother Night, Minister Blood, and Machinesmith watch and congratulate each other on having bugged the Avengers' headquarters, something no one else has ever done apparently.

Machinesmith: "Mmm-hmm! The Red Skull is going to be tickled pink, I'll betcha!"

That's a fun turn of phrase.

Despite Mother Night's protests that she was watching that, Machinesmith starts flipping through the different bugs to see if any new ones have been planted.

Machinesmith: "Although you two may have been the ones to brainwash the fine upstanding members of the Avengers' support crew into planting the bugs -- I was the one who designed and manufactured the bugs themselves. Don't I have the right to examine my handiwork, too? Tsk tsk. I see they couldn't afford an interior decorator."

Hm.

Satisfied, Machinesmith turns the remote back over because he wants to go work on a transmitter so Red Skull can watch the feed all the way in Washington.

Mother Night: "You may be a just a robot, 'Chiney, but sometimes I feel like -- " Machinesmith: "Whoa! Time out! Save that stuff for someone who can appreciate it, Momsy! I agreed to help you with this plan of yours to get in good with the boss, not so you could slobber over me! Say, Blood, why don't you take your sister for a walk or something? I hate it when humans start going stir-crazy!"

Machinesmith is not about kissing humans. Or lady humans.

The comment about the interior decorating feels very... gesturing towards stereotypes.

Anyway, Minister Blood does take Machinesmith's suggestion and he and Mother Night go off to have lunch on the Red Skull's expense account. It's a business lunch!

Back in the Subbasement, the Avengers finish recording their reports and Sersi has an important announcement.

Sersi: "I'm having my monthly get-together this Saturday night, and I"ll take it as a personal affront if you boys do not attend. Shall we say eightish?" Captain America: "Uh, gee, Sersi, I've got the Wakanda Design Group coming in this weekend and --" Sersi: "They're invited too! I'm not taking a no for an answer. You boys have yet to make a single one of my parties! I did you the favor of joining your world-saving club, it's not that much to ask for in return!"

I love Sersi on the Avengers.

Also, the Wakanda Design Group. At some point it was established that Quinjets are made by a Wakandan manufacturing plant. Marvel wiki doesn't have a page for the group so I don't know what issue and date this was first mentioned.

But when T'Challa bankrupt Wakanda to own Killmonger, Tony Stark bought up all the shares in the Wakanda Design Group to keep Avengers tech out of rando hands. He also promised to give the shares back to T'Challa as soon as he uncratered the economy.

So I recognize it from the Priest run of Black Panther and a few other places. I just wish I knew when this was established.

Ah, well.

They're going to be at the party, maybe.

After the party conversation, Vision deduces that he wasn't included in the invite because Sersi only directly addressed Captain America and Quasar. Since the invitation wasn't explicitly addressed to him, he assumes he's not invited.

Vision: "Perhaps she reasoned that synthezoids would be out of place at such a gathering. I don't recall ever attending a party. Who is to say then that she is wrong?"

I'm sure some people are vibing so hard with Vision right now.

Anyway, Quasar also has something important he has to say, to Captain America.

He confesses that his civilian identity runs a security consultant firm and he wants to offer his services to the Avengers. Buuut he also doesn't want to be exploiting his membership for personal gain. So he makes it clear that he definitely doesn't need the business, really, he just wants the Avengers to be as secure as possible!

(I read a big chunk of the first half of Quasar's book. He WAS hurting for business for a while but Moondragon mind-controlled various companies into signing contracts with him. She was trying to help, I think. Point being, he's not just covering his ass when he says he doesn't need the work.)

Captain America asks if Quasar's company is any good. Quasar, obviously, says yes so Cap says the Avengers could use an independent security firm to double check their defenses. His razor sharp Cap insight also has him ask if Quasar blames himself for Avengers Island being sunk and Quasar doesn't really deny it.

Machinesmith is vexed to hear that an outside security group is going to examine the Avengers Subbasement. If they find the bugs, they'll have to get the mind-controlled staff to plant some more. It'll just be a big hassle.

But he also doesn't have to do anything about it now so he changes the channel to see what else is on.

I like how the scene transitions are framed as Machinesmith flipping around to different camera feeds.

Anyway, Sersi has cornered Jarvis and has gotten him to agree to go to her party too. In fact, the whole Avengers Support Crew is invited. She doesn't do an upstairs downstairs thing. Sersi parties are fun for everyone.

Machinesmith: "Partying with the Avengers? I can't think of anything more boring!"

Fun for everyone except Machinesmith.

But, look, I see where he's coming from. Captain America leading the Avengers. You wouldn't think that wild parties would come of that. But I bet Sersi knows how to cut loose. And She-Hulk, of course. And you know that Beast smoked a ton of weed back when he was an Avenger.

Machinesmith: "Let's see what else is shaking at the manse. Maybe I can tune in on that gorgeous hunk of man-machine... the Vision!"

Okay. Machinesmith is very queer coded.

He finds Vision hanging out with Fabian Stankowicz, where the synthezoid is asking Fabian if he has a life outside of work.

Which would be a rude question but Fabian says this job is everything he's ever wanted. "A place to work, lots of junk to work with, and folks who appreciate what I make."

Vision confides that he sometimes thinks there should be more to his life than just the Avengers but he's not certain what it should be.

Then he does Machinesmith a jump scare by flying directly through the spy bug. And then popping up in the bloodmobile that is the evil trio's base of operations.

Felt it important to show the entire confrontation in case you thought I was misrepresenting how horny this machine man is for Vision.

Anyway, he tries to hack Vision by staring into his eyes. Which doesn't work. Vision has been hacked by the best, i.e. Ultron. You ain't tall enough to ride this rollercoaster, dude.

Then Vision does what he always does and fists a guy. Except Machinesmith had a failsafe system and both him and Vision wind up knocked out.

Mother Night and Minister Blood return to find Vision and Machinesmith intertwined in a heap together.

Machinesmith managed to beam his consciousness into the computers in the bloodmobile. Where he appears as a wire frame on the monitor.

Vision damaged him too badly to re-inhabit his body so he has to have another delivered from Washington. In the meantime, Minister Blood decides to just dump Machinesmith and Vision's bodies in the East River.

Bye forever, Vision.

The next day, Quasar arrives in his secret identity of Wendell Vaughn with his follow security guy Kenjiro Tanaka. Quasar's secret identity is protected by a pair of glasses and everybody privately gives him shit for it.

Somewhere, Clark Kent is indignant and he doesn't know why.

But, anyway, Wendell knows security.

He brought an anti-eavesdropping device with him. When he turns it on, it jams all the bugs Mother Night et al had placed in the Avengers' base.

They flip from camera to camera, frustrated at getting just a blank screen.

This is even more vexing than the bugs being found and needing to be replaced. This means placing any new bugs is pointless. Mother Night wants to order the mind-controlled support crew to destroy the jamming device but Machinesmith points out that would give the game away.

Mother Night: "We must get something out of this! We can't go back to Washington empty-handed! At the very least let's get those insipid civilians to kill themselves!" Machinesmith: "I have it! Everyone's been invited to a party tonight at Sersi's...!"

Geez, these guys are kind of played up as kind of doofuses. Sure, they pulled off hypnotizing the support crew and getting them to plant bugs. But that's just it. They've triumphed... over supporting cast.

Vision almost instantly uncovered their scheming. Quasar thwarted them without even trying. Even their latest evil scheme is more petty spite than the masterstroke of a brilliant planner.

But that petty spite is is to have a bunch of people killed just so they can say they accomplished something.

Petty isn't harmless.

Anyway, party. And more people thinking Quasar is a big dingus for thinking glasses work as a secret identity.

Oh, and I see that Jarvis is still dating the younger girlfriend he got during Inferno.

Well, power to him.

He's also back to wearing the eyepatch. I'm not sure whether he needs it or whether he just wears it to look cool.

Also, Sersi has a really nice party pad and maybe owns the building. Being an Eternal means you can really capitalize on long investments. Also, she can turn anything into gold.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Mother Night, Minister Blood, and Machinesmith arrive in disguise. They hypnotize the kitchen staff, leave them tied up out of the way, and impersonate them.

A DJ, a live band, and a rapper? Wow, Sersi's parties have everything.

And yet what I notice most is how thrilled She-Hulk's date is.

Steve Rogers (secretly Captain America) arrives with his lady friend Rachel Leighton and immediately gets in trouble when Sersi gloms onto him and asks how close a friend Rachel is.

Rachel Leighton: "Sersi... what an interesting name. Is that your first name or last?" Sersi: "Like Madonna and Cher, I only need one name. Save the last dance for me, Stevie!" Rachel Leighton: "You come to this 'lady's' parties often?" Steve Rogers (Captain America): "I swear this is the first."

-sitcom laugh track-

As might be expected from a guy whose dream job is sitting and tinkering with mechanisms all day, Fabian Stankowicz doesn't quite know what to do with himself at a party. But he's happy to enjoy the free food.

Then Mother Night disguised as a waitress mind zonks him to come to the kitchen in five minutes.

God. Just let the man enjoy a meal!

Off-panel, the trio of dastardly no-good-niks must have zonked every member of the support crew to come to the kitchen because scene change, they're all in the kitchen.

Mother Night tells the hypnotized crew that enemies of the Avengers have infiltrated the party and are up to no-good. For some reason, we can't tell the Avengers this, we gotta take matters into our own hands.

With these guns neuronic neutralizers which are not guns at all.

And two minutes after the support crew returns to the party, Mother Night will 'reveal' their enemies.

So, that's somehow more grim than when the villains were just going to make the crew kill themselves. They're going to hypnotize them into killing as many people as possible at the party.

The Avengers, thankfully, are mostly quick on their feet.

Quasar sees Jarvis pull a gun on his girlfriend, Glory Garsen, thinking she's the Crimson Cowl, so he quases the gun away. Captain America wrestles the gun away from Michael O'Brien. Sersi just turns Fabian's gun into one of those toys with the "BANG!" flag. Who I guess is Gabriel Jones, based on the cast list, wrests the gun to the side before Peggy Carter can shoot him.

The mostly though is that She-Hulk doesn't reach John Jameson before he shoots his date.

Whoops. Four out of five ain't bad?

Mother Night and Minister Blood hear the gunshots and figure mission accomplished, now time to skeee-daddle.

Except, Vision suddenly intangibles into their path.

They try to claim they are simple caterers but without hypnotic disguises, these two are the most dramatic people for a mile. Vision's robot brain can't be hypnotized and he's not buying it.

And when they try to knife and/or kick him, he has to explain what intangible means. And then he fists them.

Back at the party, the support crew have been apprehended and they've also gone into a daze. Leading to suspicions that they've been hypnotized.

It also turns out that John Jameson's date, who he shot, has not been shot. All the bullets in all of the guns were blanks. The woman actually just fainted, probably because someone pulled a gun on her and the gun made a loud gun-shooty noise.

Vision arrives with Minister Blood and Mother Night to Explain It All. Well, most of it all. He doesn't actually know who these two are.

But Cap does! And since he recognizes them as Susan and Melvin Scarbo, hypnotists, it confirms the idea that the support crew was hypnotized.

Sersi has her priorities and decides to ask why Vision isn't dressed up for the party.

Vision: "I don't believe I was invited, Sersi." Sersi: "Jarvis didn't give you your invitation?"

So that clears that up!

Vision was invited but he was too on the bottom of the river for several days to be informed!

He only recovered night of the party and found the bloodmobile parked outside Sersi's building. Since they were smuggling in guns, Vision used his SOLAR BEAM to sabotage the bullets (hence why they were blanks) and then just. Waited around to see what their evil scheme actually was.

He was curious.

But it worked out. Nobody got hurt and the baddies got caught in the act.

Captain America: "You used good judgment, Vision. Sersi, I recommend you tell your guests the party's over. We're going to have our work cut out for us clearing our crew's minds of post-hypnotic suggestions." Sersi: "Oh, I think these hypnotists will be more than eager to cooperate, Steve. That is, unless they want to be turned into furniture. Zuras, how I hate party-poopers!"

You mess with Sersi's parties at your own peril.

So, that was a fun decompression issue. Avengers between adventures and unwinding at a party. Some excitement happens but Vision had it handled.

Next time in the Avengers book, the introduction of Rage. But next time on Essential Avengers, the Terminus Factor.

Follow @essential-avengers because if you don't, I'll feel bummed. And maybe like and reblog?

#avengers #essential avengers #mother night #minister blood #machinesmith #the vision #captain america #quasar #a guy in glasses who is definitely not quasar #sersi #michael o'brien #edwin jarvis #fabian stankowicz #john jameson #peggy carter #she hulk #sersi throws the wildest parties

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