It was Immortus all along!

[iamrman]

Avengers Forever #7.

The time-crossed Avengers have captured a Space Phantom, who is kind enough to blab about Immortus's big plan.

So, long story short, Immortus has been messing with the Avengers to stop mankind from going in to space.

Comments

[phantomfo]

Space Phantom: "So you see, we're responsible for the entire marriage saga between Wanda and Vision, Iron Man killing the Supreme Intelligence after Galactic Storm, and the Crossing."

Hank: "My god, it's insidious. I bet you even caused my own infamous breakdown."

Space Phantom: "No, that was all you. Don't use us as an excuse, wife beater."

[mazway_75]

I really loved that as a good step to Busiek showing Hank taking more responsibility.

[cainofdreaming]

"We had to do this to stop you Earthlings from becoming a ruthless space empire."

"So, like the Kree?"

"Umm, I guess."

"Or Shi'ar?"

"Yes."

"Skrulls? Brood? Spartoi? Troyjans? Majesdanians?"

"Okay, okay. I get it! It's not the best motivation!"

[iamrman]

The next issue is a massive info dump about the history of all the Kangs. I was intending to make a post about it, but Kang's history is too complicated to cut down to 8 pages. I needed a lie down after reading it myself.

[scorntx]

And that was about twenty years ago, before Young Avengers happened (never mind that Kang the Conqueror miniseries the other year).

Kang's history is now so convoluted it cannot be stored on digital media lest it comes alive and tries to take over mankind, and can only be put down on paper, which is kept in a secret room lined with a special metal.

[iamrman]

Oh, God. I had forgotten about those. It gets worse!

[jlbarnett]

actually they explain why. Cause of a thing called the Destiny Force, which is what Rick Jones used to end the Kree-Skrull War, they'd be able to put out a truly unstoppable empire.

[scorntx]

Well, that was a lot of exposition...
(I mean, I do like a nice convoluted explanation sometimes, but that is a lot to take in one go...)

Looking at these, and having seen more of Immortus's hijinks, it does seem more and more like the final episode of Loki season 1 was actually pretty true to the character in the comics.
Namely, everything comes to a grinding halt as he explains just what exactly he's doing.

Come to think of it, it's been a while since we've had an "Immortus stops what everyone's doing to explain how what he previously said he was up to was a lie, and this time is the real truth about his FIENDISH MASTER PLAN!(tm)" moment.

(I'm betting he's the reason Moira Mactaggert doesn't speak with a cod Scottish accent no more. All part of the plan...)

[iamrman]

That does make me feel slightly more positive about the end of Loki's first season. Massive info dumps are indeed in-character for Immortus.

[jlbarnett]

I loved Avengers Forever

[mazway_75]

Man, I am in awe of how Busiek took all these confusing and conflicting storylines and crafted a tale that actually sounds logical and even an air of "oh, yeah, this was always the plan" and such. Good work explaining so much down to "yeah, using Kang as an excuse for Hank's breakdowns was a bad one."

[zylly]

Honestly, that’s the one element I was unhappy with. I liked giving Hank a get out of jail free card, but looking at it with a lot more life under my belt, I can see how blaming it on Kang’s interference is awfully dismissive of real life abuse.

[steverequin]

First page, second panel. That is Lex Luthor riding Doc Ock. It's a scene from the first Spider-Man / Superman crossover.

[iamrman]

The appendix at the back doesn't actually name Luthor. It refers to him as a 'distinguished bald gentleman'.

[laughing_tree]

Re-reading this, what makes it work is that Busiek and Stern never lose sight of the characterizations amid all the info-dumping: Cap is currently disillusioned so he reacts to hearing about the terrible events of the future, Hawkeye is hurt to learn he doesn't get together with Wanda, etc. Yes, it's an info-dump, but the characters are interacting with it in ways that make them feel alive.

[zylly]

“Goodness, I’ve gone crosseyed!”

But seriously, this was an excellent attempt to iron out (heh. Pun not intended.) a lot of connected but contradictory story elements that had popped up over the years. Retcons on top of retcons on top of retcons… solved by the retcon that the inconsistencies were the point.

The “Immortus is not infallible in working towards his goal” does a LOT of heavy lifting, but actually manages to work.

[scorntx]

It does make Immortus's claims of being behind a lot more easy to take than the usual "I was behind EVERYTHING!" moment, when a lot of his plans are damage control for the last plan.

Though it is a bit odd that the guy who is supposed to be an older and smarter Kang is so shabby at long-term planning.
(Then again, it is one of Kang's traits that he's more into the conquering than the administrating...)

[blues32]

Hey, when you get older, the long term planning slips a little bit.