It's that time again! It's time to join the Avengers in their epic battle against Immortus, the Master of Time! And funky headgear! Last time, our heroes went to three different points in time to investigate a series of anomalies: The year of 1959, the Old West, and a possible future featuring a rag-tag group of Avengers desperately fighting to save a devastated Earth from the Martians. All three groups ran into trouble, so how did it work out for them? Let's take a look at Avengers Forever #5!
The cover is a Carlos Pacheco piece, and it's pretty neat. It depicts the members of both the "present" and "1950s Avengers" reacting to what is clearly Immortus's hand. He just did a magic trick involving a bunch of calendars, and our heroes are far from impressed. Come on, Immortus! Where's the "A" material? Where's the rabbit from a hat? The "saw-in-half" trick? Make an effort, man! You're better than this!
"Past Imperfect...Future Tense"
Writers: Kurt Busiek and Roger Stern
Penciler: Carlos Pachego
Inker: Jesus Merino
Colorist: Steve Oliff
Letterers: Richard Starkings, Albert Deschesne
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Editor-in-Chief: Bob Harras
The story begins with Rick Jones basically watching Temporal TV.
Page 1, Panel 2
The long-time sidekick is feeling a bit of frustration. Thanks to the Destiny Force within him, he's gotten back his ability to walk. He wants to help out. He does understand why he has to stay in the big ol' Time Sphinx. Immortus wants to kill him. And since the Time Sphinx is currently outside the timestream, the temporal tyrant can't touch him. But still, he does want some action.
From here, we join Captain America and Hank Pym in the future where the "Martians" invaded the Earth. The two have joined up with this time's version of the Avengers, presumably the last remaining superheroes in the world. Pym points out that one of their members, a future version of Jocasta (who appears to have the powers of the Vision), is rather pregnant.
Page 3, Panel 3
Thing is, she's chosen to fight since her husband Machine Man had been killed. Hank Pym's curiosity has been piqued by the idea of two artificial sentient mechanical beings were able to reproduce like humans, but there's tripods to take down. So, that's the priority for now.
(priorities)
The heroes have gotten the Skorpsmen on the run. The retreating alien cyborgs flee to their spaceship, and fly off. The Black Panther is infuriated, because he wants to end this war. And the only way to do so is to bring an end to the Skorpsmen and their Martian Masters. Rick decides to check in on Genis and Jan in 1959. It's not going well.
page 7, panel 4
Wasp and Genis try to explain to the 1959 Avengers why they're there, but the group is convinced they want to kidnap Nixon for the Chinese. They fight, but Venus ends it with the power of love. Huey Lewis would be proud. It allows Wasp to explain why they're there, with Marvel Boy confirming it with a telepathic probe. Could have done that in the first place, Bobby Grayson.
Let's check in on 1873, shall we? It's revealed that Kang took Clint, Melissa, and Yellowjacket's time sphere. Since this is Kang from before this story, he has no idea how they got one of his time-spheres, or even who they are. You'd think a master of time would be aware of this stuff. Either way, he blows the mountain, seemingly trapping our heroes. However, much like the supervillain Klaw, Songbird can create constructs of sonic energy, which gives the group a way out.
Page 13, Panel 7
Yellowjacket tries to flirt with Songbird, but Hawkeye puts a stop to that. After all, he's Hank Pym and he's from a point in time when he's about to get married. It's here that we get a visit from some more heroes of the Marvel Universe's Old West era.
Page 15, Panels 1-2.
Meet the Matthew Masters, the Black Rider! Reno Jones and Kid Cassidy, the Gunhawks! The Black Rider first appeared in All Winners #2 (December 1948), created by Syd Shores. The Gunhawks first appeared in Gunhawks #1 (October 1972), created by Syd Shores and Gary Friedrich.
However, Hawkeye is able to convince the gunslingers they're the good guys, too. That night, the six hang out over a roaring fire. Clint is all too eager to jump into the fight against Kang. Songbird tries to talk him out of it out of fear of altering the timeline. Yellowjacket points out that that's impossible without the Heart of Forever.
You see, imagine the Marvel Universe's history is like a river. When a time traveler tries to force it to go in an different direction, all they'll end up doing is creating a tributary to that river. In the MU, trying to alter the past just creates an alternate timeline, basically.
Ultimately, what our three time-tossed Avengers need is Kang's chronosphere back, and Kid Cassidy has a plan for that. The Black Rider and Reno Jones can distract Kang. Cassidy wants to come along with the three Avengers, make sure everything's on the up-and-up. Hawkeye is honored to have him come along. There's just one thing. You see, they're in the year of 1873. Kid Cassidy should be dead now. Kid Cassidy had been killed in Gunhawks #6. The next and final issue of their series would be titled Reno Jones, Gunhawk. Because of this, Reno became the second Black character to have a self-titled series (The first was Luke Cage).
The Avengers ambush the three cowboys and tie them up. Hawkeye figures that they couldn't have known this much about Kang...unless Two-Gun Kid spent a lot of money on telegrams. It's then we make another discovery.
Page 17, Panel 5
They're Space Phantoms! One of these guys first appeared in Avengers # (). It's especially odd to this trio as, well, as far as they know, there was only one Space Phantom. Back in the 1950s, a pair of FBI agents arrive to alert the agents they are aware that Richard Nixon is not really Tricky Dick. They want to confer with the 50s Avengers on how to handle this quietly. Gotta avoid alerting the public, after all.
The group goes to a tent, but then Genis-Vell's Cosmic Awareness goes nuts. The son of Mar-Vell...blasts the G-Men with sparkles, I think. And they turn into Space Phantoms. The 50s Avengers brawl with the impersonators, while Rick Jones warned Wasp and Genis that a crazy time . Meanwhile, Immortus, disguised as a 50s-era US Army General, he shakes his hand with "Richard Nixon", and exposes that he is a Skrull. He then wipes out the timeline with the Forever Crystal.
(Page 21, Panels 3-4)
I can't help but observe a bit of a Crisis on Infinite Earths homage with that imagery. Everything fading to white and all that. The story ends with Genis-Vell and Wasp trying to escape in their chronosphere as the wall of white bears down upon them...
This was a rather enjoyable issue, in my opinion. I can see why it would come off as a bit slow to others. It can't be helped in a miniseries this long. I enjoyed the character stuff here. Hawkeye fanboying over the Western heroes, Cap and Giant-Man fighting a more ruthless makeshift Avengers in a dark future, Wasp and Genis trying to get through to the 50s Avengers that they weren't Communist agents. It's neat stuff.
I wish I was any good about talking about art, because I have so much trouble talking about Carlos Pacheco's. It's very good, but I wish I could go into more details into why I like it.
Sorry about the lack of scans here. I never had a chance to make them. Hopefully, I'll be able to fit them in in the future. If you want to read this story for yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2011 trade paperback Avengers Forever. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves, and each other. Stay safe, stay healthy, stay home, wash your hands often, wear a mask, and get vaccinated! Join me next time, when in honor of Pride Month, we look at a major moment in the life of Northstar...
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