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All-New All-Different Avengers #6: Review

Feb 2016
Mark Waid, Mahmud Asrar

Story Name:

(no title given)

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

All-New All-Different Avengers #6 Review by (March 13, 2016)
The cover is yet another homage to Avengers #57.

I don't think this has anything to do with the recent Kang story arc in Uncanny Inhumans.
But we have just seen a firewall across the future in New Avengers. However I thought that was created by Demiurge to stop time travel to/from a particular time later in this century. Maybe it was bigger than that and nothing to do with Demiurge? Or maybe the firewall here is different because it only affects Kang?
And Gryphon wants to travel 2000 years ahead.

Previously we've mostly seen Gryphon moving things through space (eg making Thor's hammer jump past Warbringer in #2). But he did open a time portal to future Chitauri in #3. (And summoned what seemed like ghosts in that issue too.)

Mjolnir lost its time-travel powers in Thor #282. But it can do other timey-wimey stuff, as when it created a stasis vortex to keep Black Knight alive in Av#300. But maybe Gryphon just wanted the plain old super-energy of the mystic mallet.

Tony Stark wonders if Gryphon can reach back in time to alter their brains. Isn't this what Immortus supposedly did to *him* that led to him becoming evil for The Crossing?

As I predicted this issue has cured Vision and (at least temporarily) got rid of Gryphon, clearing the stage for the Avengers to get involved in Standoff.




 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

All-New All-Different Avengers #6 Synopsis by Rob Johnson
Mr Gryphon of Qeng Enterprises has been exposed as Kang the Conqueror. And Iron Man, Spider-Man and Vision are the only Avengers left to fight him and the multiple Equinoxes who keep popping out of portals from the future.

Except Gryphon now claims he isn't exactly Kang. A 'glitch in the timestream' has split Kang into multiples. And this copy is trapped in this century by a time firewall. He says he can still move things and other people through time, but he can't time-travel himself.

So he's decided to make the best of a bad job by creating a 'dynasty' in this era, with a plan that will last 2000 years. His initial move was to recruit Radioactive Man (Free Comic Book Day 2015: Avengers) and Cyclone (#4). He also used Warbringer to get him a Chitauri artefact (#1-3) which would have allowed him to time travel, but the Avengers destroyed it.

But then Gryphon unveils his other secret weapon, as Vision blasts Spidey in the back.

We now turn to New Jersey where teen Kamala Khan is waiting for a bus home after getting fired from the team as Ms Marvel last issue. She hides her face (secret id issues) when equally-young Nova flies up to say he's been fired too. And he blames both things on Vision. (Vizh framed MsM for endangering bystanders, and Nova got canned for standing up against him. But Nova was already suspicious because of the way the android blackmailed him in #3.)

The young girl says they must warn the Avengers. Nova turns away as she changes into her costume. (Which basically involves turning her tabard/dress inside out to reveal the zig-zag lightning sign and adding the sash and eye-mask.) Nova flies them back to Manhattan.

Where Gryphon is still explaining his plan. After losing the Chitauri artefact he hatched the current plot. 1st he reached back (which must be different enough from travelling back to not be stopped by the firewall) a little way in time to Av#0 where Vision was removing his emotions, and inserted some commands of his own. Vizh got Ms Marvel and Nova dumped and sent Captain America and Thor into the future via 1 of Equinox's portals during the battle last issue.

And most significantly Thor's hammer was left here in the present for Gryphon to take.

In the near future where Cap and Thor have gone, without Mjolnir Thor has reverted to Jane Foster who's dying of cancer. Sam Wilson shields her from attack by Equinoxes and flies her to safety.

In the present Gryphon knows he can't lift the magic hammer, but he can siphon its energy. Vision stands guard while Equinoxes keep Iron Man pinned down. But Cap's bird Redwing slashes Gryphon's face and Miles Morales KO's an Equinox. And  Nova and Ms Marvel arrive to join the fight. IM uses the distractions to bash Vision.

In the future Cap reasons that Mjolnir must still be where they last saw it. So he flies Jane there and she tries to summon it to her. But they are hit by an Equinox blast and Jane is unconscious. Sam uses his shield to ward off more blasts.

In the present Spider-Man pretends to have defected to the Qeng Dynasty, and webs MsM and Nova up, while Shellhead and Vision duel overhead. Then Spidey KO's 1 Equinox which he identifies as the present-day original. And all the other copies vanish.

As he unwebs his team-mates he explains that he figured by taking out the original Equinox there would be no Equinoxes to come back from further along his timeline. And he identified the present-day 1 as the only 1 who was surprised by his 'conversion' - the only 1 who hadn't seen it already.

The Equinoxes also wink out of existence in the future where Jane and Sam are. So Cap is free to put Jane's hand on the hammer.

In the present Vision pushes his immaterial hand into Iron Man's chest to reach his heart. But Tony Stark uses the connection to invade the android's AI and reboot it with a backup copy from the Avengers datacloud.

MsM, Nova and SM are trying to break through a force-field Gryphon has erected around himself. The Golden Avenger joins them, but they're still not succeeding. Until they're joined by Cap's shield and (especially, I guess) Thor's hammer. They've come back from the future.

His defences down Gryphon goes on the offensive and makes them experience multiple parts of their timelines simultaneously. He also comments that time paradoxes like this give him a migraine. But Vision ghosts up from within the ground and attacks him. As they battle in the air Vizh vents his anger. And Thor decides to give Gryphon an enormous time-paradox headache by slamming the 2 Mjolnirs from different times together. The result sends the villain hurtling into the timestream (maybe).

The reboot got rid of Gryphon's meddling in Vision's brain. But it also restored his emotions. Filled with remorse the android begs forgiveness of Ms Marvel and Nova. And then leaves to be alone for a while. But he'll be back.

Spidey tells Thor she'd better leave the current hammer where it is so it's there for her to find in the future. She doesn't like the idea but Cap says they'll keep it safe. Shellhead just wonders what's to stop Kang from messing with any of their brains in the past.

In an epilogue Sam Wilson visits Jane Foster at a chemotherapy session to give her support.



Mahmud Asrar
Mahmud Asrar
Dave McCaig
Alex Ross (Cover Penciler)
Alex Ross (Cover Inker)
Alex Ross (Cover Colorist)


Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Captain America
Captain America

(Steve Rogers)
Iron Man
Iron Man

(Tony Stark)
Spider-Man
Spider-Man

(Peter Parker)
Thor
Thor

(Odinson)



> All-New All-Different Avengers: Book info and issue index

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