Synopsis
Avengers: No road home #9 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
In #1 Nyx, Greek Goddess of Night, caused darkness to engulf all worlds in the universe, and Voyager assembled a bunch of mostly Avengers to combat her. Before we continue with the adventures of that team we start with a 1-page/panel view of some other Earth heroes in New York, co-ordinated by Blue Marvel. He sends Toni Ho (still claiming to be head of the good AIM which she renamed RESCUE in Avengers #690) and Wasp (Nadia Pym, head of her own team GIRL) to restore power to the city. He sends Pod-2 (presumably Aikku Jokinen in new armour) with Gomi and Bill The Lobster to prevent WWIII. He keeps America Chavez and Living Lightning with him. And he's in contact with Black Panther whose Avengers are handling the vampire problem.
Nyx has been hunting the 3 Night Shards to restore the full power that Zeus stole from her. Voyager's team have been trying to stop her. She has gained 2 of them, and now all the combatants, including Conan the Cimmerian who they picked up along the way, are on the planet Euphoria to fight over the last piece.
Suddenly the the avatar of Euporia appears as a glowing green female plant-being and admits that she has the 3rd Shard. But she says the warring group are disrupting her aim in life, to keep her inhabitants happy by fulfilling their desires. She asks each of them to tell her why they desire the Shard.
Hercules wants it for the good of the universe to stop Nyx' endless night. But Euphoria teases out a more personal goal. Herc says he's been trying to be a hero worthy of his legend. He gave up drinking but couldn't curtail his boasting. But now he doesn't care about his reputation, he just wants to help people.
Hawkeye says maybe getting his full hearing back, or maybe just to be 20 again. But then he settles on having 1 perfect shot.
Spectrum needs light because it is fundamental to her power. But she no longer wants the immortality that power grants her.
Scarlet Witch too wants the light. To be able to see Nyx when she claims vengeance on her (for blinding her earlier, amongst other things).
Nyx too wants vengeance for the centuries of exile by Zeus. (But she's already killed him and his Olympian family.)
Euphoria detects great sadness in Rocket Raccoon who says he wants just 1 thing he ever did turn out right. And suddenly he finds a cannister he forgot that he stole.
Synthezoid Vision says he's dying like his 'wife' and 'son' before him (in the 2016 Vision series). But he's content because it makes him more human.
Conan is indignant about that. Dying doesn't make you human, raging against death does that. What he wants is for Vision to fight back.
And Bruce Banner's desire is to die, which Euphoria won't grant.
Nyx now demands the Night Shard or she will destroy the planet to get to it. Euphoria says she allowed them to fight on her surface last issue, but she won't let harm come to her denizens. But she's driven to try to please them all.
At this point Hawkeye fires an arrow into Nyx' eye, which he declares to be his 1 perfect shot. Wanda Maximoff pulls light from multiple parallel timelines and feeds it to Monica Rambeau, who struggles to contain that much power. Vision merges his body with her energy form (again) to help her, and his Spectrum-powered punch staggers the Night Goddess.
Voyager creates a portal to get other Avengers close enough to Nyx to hit her. Rocket opens his cannister and swallows the pills inside. Hawkeye recognises it as the container of Pym particles that went 'missing' a few issues ago. Master thief Rocket obviously stole it. (Though where either of them kept the large cannister in their costumes is anybody's guess.) He's now very large and leads a charge of Conan, Hercules, Scarlet Witch and Voyager through the portal where he stomps Nyx with a giant foot.
Herc has Nyx' arms pinned but Euphoria lets her have the final Shard. Nyx breaks it open and now her godly power is complete. She bowls Euphoria and all the Avengers aside. But then she sees the mysterious old house that she's had visions of in the past 2 issues. And now she knows where it is, and it's the birthplace of everything. From there she can remake the universe. And she leaves to go there.
But Voyager recovers and reminds Euphoria that she never asked about *her* desire, which is to be an Avenger. Euphoria says only Voyager can make *that* happen. And Va Nee Gast summons her power with a cry of "Avengers assemble!" and creates a portal for the team to follow Nyx ...
... and they find themselves in Long Island next to the mystery house. Rocket points it out as the only place that has light, but it seems to be resisting their presence even as it allows Nyx inside. Conan makes a dash for the door and dissolves away before he can get to it. Bruce Banner says he can't be here on this holy ground, and he too dissolves into nothing.
Wanda casts a protective spell and the remaining heroes try to force their way through an immense resistance. Hawkeye and Rocket are the next to go, but Herc grabs the doorknob as the door tries to close and holds it open for Vision. Scarlet Witch is still there supporting their efforts but I don't know what happened to Voyager. Spectrum is still within Vision but she gets ejected. Vizh phases through the door (so why did Herc need to keep it partly open?) and it shuts, ejecting Hercules backwards.