By Jake Weatherill from Lewisham Branch
The multiverse is approaching its end at an accelerated rate. The Illuminati see the death of everything coming, with nothing they can do except maybe delay the inevitable for a little longer. There is light. There is dark. There is life. There is death. And it’s down this rabbit hole we tumble.
 |
| Jake's Copy of Avengers |
Volume 2 of the omnibus is very heavily stacked in the favour of the Avengers rather than the New Avengers, so be warned they will get the bulk of the coverage here.
Which provides a nice segway into what's going on with The Avengers. First up for our intrepid heroes is we focus on the aftermath of Ex Nihlo's Origin Bombs.
We go to the Savage Land (a primordial land in Antarctica filled with tropical plants and dinosaurs) with a small team to assess the impact of the Origin Bombs on the environment. A race of Zebra People have evolved at the landing site who seemingly need no sleep, no food, no air or well, anything really. Hyperion suggests trying to educate the Zebra People (who appear physically to be little more than children) and show them the benefits of teamwork.
The lessons are at best a mixed bag. Spidey's lessons on trust involve him sneaking up from behind to attack the kids after offering them a treat (Superior Spider-Man is superior for a reason), Hawkeye and Spiderwoman let the kids climb some rocks as they catch some rays. Thor initiates a quest for his group to find the 'Stone of Destiny', a piece of rock he chucks up a mountain, to then proceed to drinking. So yeah, it's kinda going ok, but not amazingly.
Right up until the kids get abducted by some weird flying monstrosity. Along with the assistance of a very obscure character called Garokk the Petrified Man the kids are found and the Avengers Assemble to take on a classic Fantastic Four Villain.
After that we start to get to the juicy stuff.
 |
| Entry for Destiny Stone from A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology in Oxford Reference Online |
A flash of light. The instrument for change. The Last White Event is here. Ex Nihlo's artificial human Adam perceives it before it happens, letting The Avengers know what it is when it hits. The White Event was triggered by The Builders (an ancient alien race who played a massive part in nurturing and producing life throughout the Multiverse) who live in The Superflow.
The Superflow is a bit more abstract to explain, but the best I can do is say it was kinda like the nexus of the multiverse, allowing the builders to travel between realities. Keyword there is was. The collapse of The Superflow causes The Builder in charge to trigger The Last White Event. The White Event bestows upon Earth a planetary defence system called a Starbrand, while Adam becomes a Nightmask, a role which is to ease the transition of earth from one phase of its existence to another.
Except this hasn't quite worked out as intended. The White Event, like everything, was broken, damaged. What it did unleash was systems from an older universe before ours. The Nightmask. The Starbrand. Things earth should not have, yet here they are in all their glory.
The Avengers find themselves hunting for The Starbrand but fortunately for them they don't have to look too hard as The Starbrand has been activated at a college with cataclysmic results. Kevin Connor was not the intended recipient, yet that doesn't really matter to universal powers beyond your control. Unable to contain the mass of energy overtaking his body, the expulsion flattens the college, killing all but Kevin. The biggest question facing the Avenger here is Kevin going to be the Earth's saviour? Or its doom? A hero? Or A World Killer?
 |
| Jake's Copy of Avengers |
After the resolution of The Starbrand conundrum we get a brief interlude to check up on The Illuminati in The New Avengers. Things are tense between T'Challa and Namor. This is largely down to Namor flooding Wakanda and heavily damaging their capital city, killing countless Wakandans, during the Avengers vs X-Men event. Incursions, Earth's in the sky and the death of everything does however sharpen one's focus. As war rages between Wakanda and Atlantis, Namor gives T'Challa an unexpected olive branch. Peace, if T’Challa can convince his sister to agree.
 |
| Jake's Copy of Avengers |
Back to The Avengers. Post White Event the world is in chaos, but not because of that. Signals being transmitted by the impact sites of The Origin Bombs is interfering with communications around the globe. The Avengers go to have a look at the various sites. As Ex Nihlo was ultimately trying to awaken the Earth's consciousness, each Origin Bomb was tailored for a specific purpose. Self-Awareness, self-defence, replication, communication, etc. As the Avengers find themselves fighting the planet itself, a signal is sent out across the cosmos, to the edge of the universe. And it is received.
Here we see Hickman playing around with obscure characters (like Garokk) and introducing concepts (such as the White Event) from other comics lines Marvel have done and working them into the mainstream universe. What we're starting to get a sense of here is just how ambitious Hickman is being here. He tells us all along that Tony and Steve are building a machine, but it actually acts as a potent metaphor for what he is doing here. You can't quite get the scope of it just yet, but you get the comprehension it's going to be world razing and redefining. Slowly but surely things are starting to fall into place.
It's an Avengers World, but the system is broken. Everything dies. Next we go to Infinity, and beyond....
Comments