Synopsis
Avengers: No road home #8 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
This issue has 2 storylines running in parallel:- 1 back in the Hyborian Age, the other now on the planet Euphoria. Towards the end they merge as the Avengers in the Hyborian Age follow Nyx to present-day Euphoria. I'm going to separate the 2 lines, and since we end up on Euphoria I'll do the Hyborian story 1st.
In previous issues Hulk gained the power of 1 Night Shard in Nightmare's Realm and Nyx took the 2nd from the Avengers in Hyborian Shadizar. Both were then able to detect that the last Shard was on Euphoria in the present, and headed there. Along the way 3 of Nyx's children were killed, and she left the last 1 Oizys to deal with the Avengers in the deep past.
In Shadizar Spectrum, Hercules, Scarlet Witch and Vision watch as the tangible ghost of Conan's lost love Bêlit stabs him in the chest. I guess she's really a manifestation caused by the serpentine Oizys, Goddess of Misery, but that doesn't stop Conan bleeding or Bêlit being thrown back by Vision's solar blast. Then Hercules attacks her while Conan frees himself from Oizys' coils by biting her nose! While the Barbarian tries to force Oizys to heal his wound the snake feeds on his despair and uses it to turn Bêlit into an exploding despair bomb.
Spikes of despair penetrate the bodies of the Avengers. Wanda Maximoff sees her lover Jericho Drumm as a zombie. Probably-immortal Monica Rambeau sees her energy-self surviving past the death of the Earth, when everything she knew and loved was gone. Dying synthezoid Vision sees the future grave of his 'daughter' Viv.
Throughout all this we've had Herc's thoughtover as he considers his life of violence and death (like Conan's). Now despair undercuts the rage against his Olympian family's murder by Nyx that had fuelled him so far, and he prepares to give up. But then he sees Voyager also affected by long contact with Oizys, and he drags himself over to help her up. And suddenly he sees Oizys as a small pathetic creature, and crushes her underfoot.
The team gradually regain their feet. Conan wants vengeance on Nyx, but Hercules urges them to concentrate on stopping her hurting others. Voyager's long time spent with Nyx and Oizys means she can sense where the Goddess of Night has gone. And her portal ability can take them all there.
Meanwhile last issue Hulk got Nightmare to send him, Hawkeye and Rocket Raccoon to Euphoria. Hulk told Rocket it was for a vacation, and Clint Barton accompanied them because he didn't trust Hulk. Now we learn (from *his* thoughtover) that Hulk knew this was where the 3rd Night Shard was, and expected Nyx to be here too. And ominously his thought tell us that he wants the 3rd Shard for himself because *he* wants to be the 1 to end the world, not her. Nyx of course wants *his* Shard too.
Hulk tells Rocket and Barton to run away. He has no reason to want the Raccoon dead, and Hawkeye is just useless. This of course stings Clint into action. He and Rocket fashion a crude bow and some arrows, 1 of which has an anti-matter warhead Rocket just happened to have on his person. Nyx tangles both arrows in her tangible darkness. But they provide the distraction which enables Hulk to grab her and hurl her away.
Hawkeye searches his pockets making another attempt to find the vial of Pym particles which he couldn't locate in #5. Interested Rocket asks if they only work on humans (No), and if they could shrink Nyx (Probably not).
Nyx returns and Hulk revels in the chance to use the power he gained from his Night Shard to beat her in hand to hand combat. But the Goddess of Night uses a different tactic. At the beginning of this series she plunged the universe in darkness. Now she dispels her spell in 1 spot and lets a shaft of sunlight strike Hulk. And the current Immortal Hulk can only exist in darkness, so he reverts to Bruce Banner who continues to think he's still in Hell where he and Hulk were in Immortal Hulk #10-13.
Nyx takes from him the power of the 2nd Night Shard. But she again sees the old house floating on a rock in space that she saw last issue. And the keyhole indicates there is light inside it, which she feels impelled to investigate.
At this point the Hyborian Avengers turn up, including Conan. Voyager collapses from the effort of such a long jaunte through space and time. And all over the universe the stars go out.