Shadow and Flame with Magik

Writer Rick Remender

Artist Daniel Acuna

Color Artist Dean White

Letterer VC’s Clayton Cowles

Avenge the Earth Part Four of Five

I haven’t really been paying attention to this title since issue fifteenth.  From what I can gather, the twins – Eimin and Uriel, seem to be winning.  To stop them, the Avengers have sent their consciousness back in time.  I can’t figure out which ones did this.  I know Scarlet Witch isn’t one of them, as they have to explain to her the new plan.

The Past, a.k.a. Now.  Wanda and that lousy jerk, Simon, are in bed together.  For me, it feels like I haven’t missed much as chronologically, this takes place right before 15.  In that issue, Wanda successfully teleported all the mutants to a different planet.  Next, Rogue killed her and was then killed by one of the horsemen.  That event may have happened in an issue around 15.

So Wolverine, Sunfire and Rogue come into their bedroom, not kill Wanda and start course correcting time.  Which is great as now the embargo on Rogue appearing in other titles should be lifted.  Though what the in-story reason is, is beyond me as she would have been alive during those events.  Maybe she was just outside the panel.

Also, Wanda looks so strange without her silly headpiece thing in her hair and no red coloring to her hair.

Rogue reveals that it is Wolverine and Sunfire are the ones who moved their minds to the past.  They must have access to movie Days of Future Past Kitty, as that is something that character can do.

The look on Wanda’s face when Rogue tells her that Rogue killed her in the original timeline is pretty dead on.

Meanwhile, the proper Avengers are forming a plan to stop the Celestial from destroying the Earth.  Iron Man is about to go into the entire plan when Doctor Doom not only sums it up with a mere sentence but also insults him.

Captain America shows up, tells Iron Man that the plan doesn’t work and offers a new plan.

The plan is for Rogue to absorb the powers of all the Avengers.

One change that also happened is that Thor didn’t kill Uriel.  The twins recognize that time has been changed and they try to figure out how that was even possible.

Another fun twist is that the Wasp was originally at the Tachyon Dam where the Grim Reaper is guarding it.  Wasp couldn’t kill him, so that mission failed.  Luckily, this time, they sent Wolverine.

Cut to the Jean Grey School.  Back when Kitty was still there, so we know this story takes prior to Battle of the Atom.  For those who track that sort of thing.

Thanks to my pal, SlickNickShady, for the scan!

I like how Wanda is about to explain the why of the situation and Rogue shuts her up with a simple “these are my friends, they will just do it.”  Of course, the X-Men do just that and Rogue now has the abilities of both the Avengers and the X-Men.

Thor as taken back his axe that started this whole mess.  The axe was used originally by the twins to kill a Celestial and use its energy source to enable their entire plan.  It takes a lot of energy to teleport all of the mutants to a new planet.

Rogue is sent to stop the latest Celestial from stepping onto Earth.  She is able to hold up one leg.  Tony has no confidence in her, the jerk, and Captain America tells him that Rogue is only half of the solution.  Just then, Sentry (also one of the Horsemen) lifts the other leg.  Which I’m not sure if I buy that Sentry equals the strength of all of the X-Men and the Avengers but I suppose now that he is one of the Horsemen, he doesn’t lack confidence or any of his phobias so he has access to all of his strength.  But still, it took Rogue pages to establish her new (temporary) strength level and he just shows up out of nowhere.

Thor now cuts the Celestial’s head, as it is distracted now.

The heroes are about to win when (two words that should not be read aloud together! – go ahead and try.  It sounds awkward to my ears) Kang shows up.  The plan was to have this new energy go to a dying star when Kang intercepts it.

For some reason, I had thought this was the final part of the storyline (that has been going on for an impressive ten issues or something like that) and thought this was going to conclude when this new hiccup happened.

Thor is now missing and victory may not be at hand for the heroes.

Kang now has all of the Celestial energy and is truly now Kang the Conqueror!  Nothing should be able to stop him, especially not his adopted twins.  So I bet they work together with the Avengers to shut Kang down, as enemy of my enemy and all of that.

As Kitty (or Magik) 0nly appear every six issues or so, who knows if I will get the next issue but this one felt pretty epic.  So much happened!

. . .

This was the other comic that I should have reviewed last month.

Happy Columbus Day!  Glad he discovered Cuba, it lead to bigger discoveries.  I haven’t had Columbus Day off since the fourth grade.  The school system made it a non-holiday for the first time in years from what I gathered.  Going forward, up to juior high school, it was always iffy if other students will show up on this day.