Synopsis
Avengers, The (1963 series) #337 synopsis by
T Vernon
Rating:
In the Brethren Citadel, erected over the World Trade Center, the Fool takes Thane Ector down underground and into the sewers. There we learn that the two men, the warrior and the weirdo, are brothers, their roles set by biology. Fool eats of the sewage, mocking the Thane for his pretensions to be more than the Celestials created them to be. Then Ector finds himself compelled to crouch and feed on the foul sewage….
In the Controller’s ship, a miniaturized Black Panther, Beast, Quasar, and the Controller, along with Nakka, chief of the primitive race they have found, fly along in a small craft, tracing the Brethren’s progress through the Controller’s museum of life forms. But all civilizations the Brethren have visited are dead and decayed; Quasar suggests that the Collector should have left them alone but the Elder defends himself, explaining that his purpose was to preserve vulnerable societies; Beast notes the irony that preserving them led to their deaths at the hands of the Brethren. Black Panther contacts Hank Pym, full-sized and monitoring their activity. Hank thinks they are getting closer to the Brethren’s point of origin and notes that their spread is similar to that of a disease. Then Hank notices that the Watcher has appeared nearby and realizes they must be on to something….
At Avengers Mansion, the team (Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow, Rage, Hercules, Black Knight, Vision) is present, with Crystal, accompanied by Lockjaw. She explains she has been a problem to her people over the previous few years and now wishes to atone for her actions by joining the Avengers. Cap says she can become a provisional member only until the current crisis is over and the full membership can meet. Black Knight is amazed at the team containing a member of Inhuman royalty and a former Fantastic Four member; Rage only feels more out of place as a street kid from the Bronx. Lockjaw is suspicious of Vision whom he doesn’t recognize since his transformation that turned him white. Nick Fury contacts Cap with autopsy reports showing that the Brethren’s victims have no bacteria in their bodies….
In the Brethren’s citadel, the captive Sersi looks through the scrolls of the Brethren’s history, given to her by Thane Ector; Sybyl Dorn discovers this and is enraged that an outsider is reading their sacred scrolls. Sersi mocks the alien and Dorn tries to kill her, a fight ensues where Dorn shrugs off an eye blast from the Eternal, responding with one of her own. And when Sersi is subdued, Dorn transforms into a brown blob that seeks to engulf Sersi. But Ector arrives and stops her with an eye blast that restores Dorn to her humanoid form. Dorn storms out and Ector checks that Sersi is okay; she asks who the Brethren are and Ector replies that only the Thane and his brother know this secret, revealed to them on the former’s fifteenth birthday—and it is not pleasant, telling her that the Brethren’s creation by the Celestials was a shameful story but they fulfill the purpose for which they were made. He won’t say more….
As Hank studies the data, the Watcher again appears, wanting to say something but restrained by his oath of non-interference. The travelers are growing closer to the Brethren’s point of origin. They fly into one full of monoliths and Beast knows they have found their target—because Nakka has died and decayed in seconds….
CharactersGood (or All)Plus: Rage (
Elvin Daryl Haliday).
