It's that time again! It's time to rejoin the Avengers as they face off against the time-twisting villain Immortus in a battle to prevent him from killing long-time Avengers associate Rick Jones. Immortus saw the man as a threat to the future of humanity due to the power he can access. The power over destiny. The power to take the human race to a dangerous level. The man tried to kill him, but Rick was able to summon a group of disparate Avengers from different points in time to protect him. They fled to Chronopolis, the home of Kang the Conqueror. So, what happens next? Let's find out in Avengers Forever #3!
The cover is a Carlos Pacheco, Jesus Merino, Steve Oliff, and Tony Kelly piece. It's pretty neat. It depicts Kang and Immortus grappling in the ruins of Chronopolis, Kang's home/stronghold. Talk about struggling with yourself, heh heh. What I like about the cover is the use of color. The background buildings and stone are solid white, forcing attention on the figures of Kang and Immortus. I also like that the cover forms a letter "A". It's nice design quirk that makes it stand out.
"City at the Heart of Forever"
Writers: Kurt Busiek, Roger Stern
Penciler: Carlos Pacheco
Inker: Jesus Merino
Colorist: Steve Oliff
Letterers: Richard Starkings, Albert Deschesne
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Editor-in-Chief: Bob Harras
The story begins with this mismatched Avengers charging into battle against Immortus's forces.
This is a point where we get a couple of nice character moments. Hawkeye is struggling due to not having any of his trick arrows at this point, and Captain America is dealing with self-doubt. Speaking of Hawkeye, he manage to foil what he thinks is an ambush.
This is Wildrun. He's a member of the Anachronauts, a group of elite warriors from throughout history. He is also the first in the line of Native American superheroes who've used the "Red Wolf" mantle, having originally hailed from the 18th century. He's the only surviving Anachronaut, the others having been killed by a "time-twisting" explosion. So, where is Kang himself?
Yup, the time-traveling conqueror is getting his personal sphinx ready for something. Remember, one of his aliases was the Ancient Egypt-era ruler Rama-Tut. The Avengers demand to know why Immortus is attacking Chronopolis. Heck, they don't even know why he's still mobile. As far as they knew, Immortus was trapped in a sort of stasis, a "Living Statue" by a group called the "Time-Keepers". This happened in Avengers West Coast #62 (September 1990). Kang basically reveals that was just Immortus tricking the heroes.
As for why Immortus wants to attack Chronopolis? Well, remember in the last issue that it was established that this city touches all points in time? It's able to do that thanks to the Heart of Forever, a trans-chronal engine that allows Chronopolis to touch every point in time at once.
The Heart would also allow Immortus to circumvent a rule of time-travel in the Marvel Universe. In the MU, if you try to change the past via time-travel, you only end up creating an alternate timeline. With the Heart, Immortus can actually change the past...which he'll use to wipe his failure to kill Rick Jones out. Kang is disgusted by this. He sees using the Heart in this manner as a sign of weakness. To him, conquering timelines should be done not through guile. It should be done through combat, through brute force, yada yada yada.
He asks the Avengers to stand with him, and they reluctantly agree. Rick Jones wonders if maybe they're making the wrong choice. After all, Immortus has said Rick having the Destiny Force would lead to a dark future for mankind. However, Hank Pym points out that Immortus has lied to the Avengers a lot. They've battled Kang quite a few times over the years, so they're not blindly trusting him either. It's basically them working with the less worse option here.
It's here we get some nice character interaction between our misfit team of Avengers. Rick tries to grill Genis on what will happen, as he's from the future. Genis's answer isn't satisfactory to Rick as he's not sure if he's from the future that's going to happen. Remember, trying to change history in the Marvel Universe creates alternate realities and all.
Wasp tries to pull Captain America out of his depression, but Hawkeye isn't too worried. As far as he's concerned, Cap managed to get through being "on ice" for decades, he'll get through this. Hank is just hoping they'll get through this whole thing alive. But the quiet can't last forever. Immortus's massive army is attacking Chronopolis, and the Avengers leap into action alongside Kang's army.
The Avengers and Kang's forces fight bravely, but this battle is doomed to end in a loss for them. During the battle, Rick's battle chair is blasted and wrecked. However, he figures out how to access the Destiny Force to heal his legs so he can walk again. They retreat to Kang's citadel. The time-traveler tells the Avengers to take his sphinx time machine and get Rick out of here.
The group make their way to the sphinx, while Kang and his forces hold off Immortus's army as best they can. The conqueror seals off his citadel while he plans to destroy the Heart of Forever. Kang finds himself feeling old. Real old. I imagine that for him, this is a scenario he never imagined. Facing a massive defeat in basically his own home. But before he can do any more rumination, he gets ambushed by Tempus, and Immortus makes his way to the Heart of Forever.
As far as Immortus is concerned, this battle was always meant to end this way. After all, this was all in his past. He takes the Heart, and it causes Chronopolis to literally collapse in on itself like a star becoming a black hole. The Heart, the city, and everyone in it is transformed.
Now that Immortus has the Forever Crystal, he can achieve his goals of not only preventing Rick Jones from fully accessing the Destiny Force, but also keep any alternate timelines from forming due to his efforts. He does not sense the Avengers in the crystal, but that's no problem. They can't stop him, even in their little sphinx...which is now cruising the timestream.
I liked this issue. The strongest part of the issue is the character work that's done here, especially keeping in mind these characters come from different points in their histories. You see it best with Yellowjacket. He is a cocky jerk, which unnerves the then-current Hank Pym. Remember, they're the same man, and Yellowjacket is from a time before Hank's most notorious moments occurred in the early 80s (His smacking Wasp and being jailed for treason thanks to Egghead).
Yellowjacket's reaction to the current Wasp being able to wreck a ship with her stings was pretty funny. I did feel like not a lot happened in this issue, but that's kind of the downside of a miniseries. Some individual issues are going to feel "slower" than others. But we got some character stuff, so I don't mind.
Carlos Pacheco turns in some good artwork, but I still wish someone like George Perez was drawing this. I think a story like this was made for his pencils. It's big and epic in scope, just the kind of thing that would fit him. Still, I like Pacheco's art. Have no complaints.
If you want to read this 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, and wear a mask! Join me next time when we look at the last days of the World's First Super-Team...
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