Shadow and Flame with Magik

Writer Brian Michael Bendis

Penciler John Romita Jr.

Inker Klaus Janson

Colorist Dean White

Letters & Production VC’s Cory Petit

Cover Dated September 2010

Cover by Jim Cheung and Justin Ponsor

Next Avengers, Part Four of Six

I only own this issue for the Women of Marvel cover.

I want to say that I dropped this and the other Avengers titles soon after this.  I think there were rumors of upcoming crossovers and I just wanted to be done with all of that.

I had six of these Women of Marvel variants in my hands at Hastings, one day, the total would have been around twenty dollars and I was heading towards the register and changed my mind.  I still regret that as two weeks later, they were nowhere to be found.  I’m sure someone found them and didn’t hesitate to purchase them.

Issue opens with Iron Man, Captain America, Wolverine and The Protector in a cave under Central Park.  Captain America is Bucky Barnes, at this point in continuity.  Bucky Cap, as fans call him.  The Protector was a creation of Grant Morrison and JG Jones in the Marvel Boy series, which was intended to be an Ultimate Universe miniseries but it was more stand alone.  I believe that was the story.

They are in the future and Iron Man is trying to caution them for what they might see.  They come out of the cave and see Ultron fighting a swarm of heroes.  Ultron is fighting Kang and I can’t tell which side the heroes are on.  The Warriors Thre are there, Silver Surfer is fighting Kang.  Moondragon, Cyclops, Thing, Doctor Doom, Monica Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers Captain Marvel (Ms. Marvel at the time, previously Warbird) and Juggernaut are all on the scene.   So it can’t be all that far into the future.

Oh good, there is a Previous page.  The Avengers are – Wolverine, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Thor, Captain America, Spider-Woman and Hawkeye are hand picked by Steve Rogers – who is the Director of SHIELD, at this time.  The children of the Avengers have killed Immortus, future Kang (it is complicated) and a young Kang told our then-present day Avengers, that their children broke the future.  The Hulk of the future is responsible for sending Kang back in time.  The Avengers built a time machine.  They run into Apocalypse and his four horsemen.  Half of the team, that we’ve seen now in this issue, are in the future while the other half deal with the Present Day Time Quake.

Washington Square Park.  Right Now.  Thor, Spider-Woman, Spider-Man and Hawkeye are talking to Killraven.  Who Bendis really likes to use in his time travel stories (which now that I type this, he really likes to do – it is a fun way to play with all of the toys in the Marvel treasure chest.  Killraven recognizes Spider-Man back in Marvel Team-Up 45, Killraven is from the future, an alternate future.  He tries to warn the Avengers, an explosion happens and everyone is covered in pink goo.

What looks like an Martian Invasion from World of the Wars, with those giant tripods, are attacking the city.  They are not prepared for a direct attack by Thor.  Good thing that guy is on our side.

Iron Man must be coming out as there are plenty of ads for related merchandise.

Maria Hill is trying to get all of the civilians off the streets.

For Killraven, he met Spider-Man only a few weeks ago while its been years for Spider-Man.  Or whatever the sliding time line makes it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killraven

Looking at Killraven’s Wikipedia page, the Martians are part of his story.

Civilians are shouting at Hawkeye, that makes sense to me, I would be so tired of all of the costume nonsense if I lived in New York City.  How many days of work do people miss, in a given month, due to costume nonsense?  Instead of Snow Days, do they have Hero Days or Costume Days?

Poor Killraven, he went to prehistoric dinosaur times, next to the American Civil War, and stopped in the Present Day.  Killraven’s home is New York City, as well.

Civilians start fighting each other.  They look like they are from Gangs of New York.

There is a great splash page, as the previous page Spider-Woman is hoping the time quake (that’s what I’m calling it) is only affecting a few blocks but we see on the splash page, that it is all across the city.  Galactus is there, to correct all of this – the only way he knows how.

The Future.  Bucky Cap aims to shoot Kang but Wolverine stops him.  Wolverine doesn’t think they need to do anything about the Future.  Iron Man calls it, a break in the timestream.  Which is more words than Time Quake.  Is Time Break, a decent compromise?  Iron Man wants to avoid the big battle in front of them, which is smart, it is a mere distraction.  They need to find their children.  Wolverine smells something and takes a Captain America shield to the face.  The Avengers are taking a beating from a mysterious force.

We see the kids from the animated film, Avengers Next, just took down the Avengers – so they are now in Marvel continuity.  There is a Captain America son, a Black Panther son, a third son with black and orange stripes, an Asgardian daughter and a Hawkeye son.

Future Hulk is going by Maestro – which I like that that is the certain future of the Hulk, or he is a mindless brute.

There is an ad for the Hickman / Epting’s Fantastic Four, hinting at one of the Four is going to die.  This ad has Reed, Thing and Human Torch, implying that Susan is the one who dies.  It isn’t her.

Wolverine is the first to wake up, Maestro greats him like an old friend.  He knew Iron Man would bring some people but he wasn’t sure who would make up the Avengers.  He was not expecting Wolverine.  This Maestro isn’t the dictator we have known in previous versions, he seems pretty jolly.

Maestro keeps hinting that someone is pulling his strings.  Turns out, Tony Stark of this future, told Maestro to send the young Kang back in time.

There is an ad for Incredible Hulks 612, back when Hulk had a huge cast of characters – She-Hulk, Red She-Hulk, A-Bomb (Rick Jones) and Skaar, his son.

Old Tony tells Maestro to hold his younger self.  When the Hulk grips you, you are gripped.  Captain America’s son’s name is James, he is a brunette.

Issue ends with what appears to be Old Tony about to cut Young Tony, that isn’t good.

. . .

The issue has a backup feature  :

Avengers Assemble : The Oral History of the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes

Chapter Six

I really like the concept of this and I saw that they did trade this, which is a pretty fun concept.

Characters interviewed in this chapter are : Hank Pym, Tony Stark, Janet Van Dyne, Captain America, Thor, Rick Jones, Hawkeye, Spider-Man and Namor.

 The story goes from after Avengers 4 with Captain America waking up in then modern age to when Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are about to join the team, issue 16.  This continues in New Avengers 4.