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Avengers #95: Review

Jan 1972

Roy Thomas, Neal Adams

Story Name:

Something Inhuman This Way Comes

Review & Comments

Rating:

Avengers #95 Review by Rob Johnson (January 27, 2012)

The Kree were 1st mentioned in FF#64, when the FF came across the Sentry robot left to monitor Earth. In the following issue the Supreme Intelligence sent Ronan to find out what happened to the Sentry. The Kree then continued in the Captain Marvel stories, as he too was sent to investigate Earth. Ronan's plotting against the Supreme Intelligence was unveiled in CM#16. It will transpire next issue that the Supreme Intelligence has been manipulating events behind the scenes, and his plan will be revealed in #97. According to Young Avengers #11, Anelle fell in love with Captain Marvel and sneaked off with him while he was supposed to be working on the Omni-Wave Projector. As well as conceiving the Kree/Skrull hybrid known as Hulkling, the 2 talked about overthrowing Emperor Dorrek and arranging peace between their races. They tried to persuade Super-Skrull to join them in revolution, but he was too loyal to the Skrulls. However he did pose as CM to allow them time together. Presumably the events of the next 2 issues overtook their plans. The Mandroids will be deployed many times in the future, the next case being Uncanny X-Men #118-119.

Maximus is Black Bolt's brother. Triton calling them cousins is a mistake, but one which I think occurs in some other comics too. The Kree/Inhumans agreement must have survived the crashing spaceship in Black Bolt's memory, and the Kree are now here to implement the alliance. This is why the Skrulls tried to destroy the Great Refuge last issue. Black Bolt shattered the protective dome over Attilan with his voice once before, in FF#59. The Inhumans exit the story at this point. We never see little Joey again, but presumably Black Bolt does bring Gorgon, Karnak and Medusa home. We next see various members of the royal family in FF#129-132, terminating in another of Maximus's schemes to take over Attilan. But before that Black Bolt will join the Illuminati, formed in response to the Kree/Skrull War. Where were the FF when Triton came to them for help. At this time they would have to be somewhere within FF#117-118. At the beginning of #117 Human Torch went to Attilan looking for his love the royal Inhuman Crystal. He found the city ruled by Maximus, but before the dome was erected last issue. He learned that Crystal wasn't there (she wasn't involved in the Inhumans storyline I described above). The FF eventually find her, but at the end of #118 she leaves them again, which will take her directly to Av#104. There is thus a large gap in #116 while Torch searches for Crystal. During some of this time the rest of the FF are with Franklin's nanny Agatha Harkness at Whisper Hill. I guess that's why Triton couldn't find them. But he must have just missed them, because they were back in their HQ last issue.

The earliest Avengers Index suggested that there was a missing adventure after #10 where the Inhumans defeated the Trikon, and presumably got Joey back, somehow leaving BB and Joey separated from the others. This adventure has never been told. But the single-issue Inhumans: The Untold Saga describes how Maximus created the Trikon, in a story which explains why Medusa left Attilan, later followed by the rest of the royal family. And how they all wound up in the pages of Fantastic Four. And the Trikon itself will pop up again in the Stranger's menagerie in Quasar #14. At least this issue resolves the major plotline of the Inhumans' storyline, Maximus controlling Attilan. This follows the tradition begun when #72 dealt with Nick Fury's apparent death left over from the SHIELD series, and took up the Scorpio plotline there and in subsequent tales featuring Zodiac. (And the dangling plotline from Dr Strange's 1st series was continued in the pages of Sub-Mariner and Hulk, leading to the formation of the Defenders.) Amazing Adventures was taken over by the solo X-Man Beast in #11, wherein he mutated himself into the furry version that will become a much-loved Avenger.

This is part 7 of the Kree-Skrull War. The title is based on Ray Bradbury's "Something wicked this way comes". Neal Adams is back on interior pencils, but this time John Buscema does the cover. The Inhumans stories Triton and Thor refer to appeared in half of the split book Amazing Adventures, in particular in #5-8. Those issues were coincidentally pencilled by this issue's artist Neal Adams, who even had Tom Palmer for inker on the 1st one. And 3 of the 4 were written by Roy Thomas. After that the Inhumans (without Triton and without Roy Thomas and Neal Adams) took over the whole book to fight Magneto in #9-10. #10 ends by saying that the Inhumans story will continue in Avengers #95, and the Avengers Indexes all say that this issue follows that one. But fitting this issue in with Amazing Adventures might not be as straightforward as that. When Thor met Black Bolt, Gorgon, Karnak and Medusa in AA#8 it wasn't the real Black Bolt. The real deal was still amnesiac with Joey. The 4 Inhumans were only reunited during #9-10, during which episode BB regained his memory. But Joey was separated from BB early in #9, and was taken by 3 glowing spheres that the Inhumans fear and call the Trikon. Now BB and Joey appear together in Av#95, and BB doesn't have amnesia. At the end BB and Joey return to the US to bring the other 3 Inhumans home. Noticeably it doesn't say they have to *find* them first.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Avengers #95 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

Last issue Triton the amphibian Inhuman arrived at Avengers Mansion to find the Avengers under attack by SHIELD Mandroids, under the direction of H. Warren Craddock whose Alien Activities Commission accuses the Avengers of collaborating with the Kree, because of their association with Captain Marvel.

The Mandroids have the Avengers on the ropes, when Iron Man (secretly their designer Tony Stark) disables them with well-judged blasts of electricity. The Avengers then turn their attention to Triton.

The Inhuman explains that he came to New York seeking help from the Fantastic Four, to prevent a war between his people and humans, but the FF are out of town. He now asks the Avengers for aid.

Triton tells how his king Black Bolt went to San Francisco to study Inhumans and determine how to integrate the Inhumans into the rest of the world. But Black Bolt's cousin Maximus gained expanded mental powers, with which he remotely gave Black Bolt amnesia and took control of the Great Refuge. And Maximus believes Inhumans should rule the world.

Triton and 3 others of the royal family escaped and went to San Francisco to find their leader. Triton got separated from the others, and has arrived here. Thor mentions that he recently tangled with Black Bolt and the other 3 in California.

The Avengers want to go find Black Bolt, but Vision thinks they should go after Captain Marvel, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch who have been abducted by Skrulls to the Andromeda galaxy. He tells them he saw the Inhumans' city enclosed in an impenetrable barrier last issue.

The Avengers decide to split up, and Vision chooses the teams. Captain America, Goliath (with his growing power running out since last issue) and Rick Jones will go to San Francisco, while Thor will take the other powerful members Iron Man and Vision into space.

The designated team flies to California by quinjet where they find no-longer-amnesiac Black Bolt and his young human orphan friend Joey. The whole lot then fly to the Great Refuge.

On the way Black Bolt remembers back to his youth, where he overheard Maximus (now significantly referred to as his brother) meeting with a delegation of Kree faithful to Ronan the Accuser. The Kree said that when Ronan became leader of the their empire they would return to take over the Earth, and let their creations the Inhumans rule it for them. (Ronan wrested control from the Kree Supreme Intelligence in #89, so the time is now.)

Black Bolt further remembers how he used his vocal power to cripple the Kree flying saucer as it left. In panic brother Maximus lashed out with his mental power, but as a side effect made the Kree pilot lose control. The saucer crashed, killing their parents. This was when Maximus became 'the Mad'.

Meanwhile back in New York the remaining Avengers have been attacked again by the Mandroids. When they defeat them again, more easily this time, they discover that the men inside are unconscious, and the suits have now been operated by remote control.

Vision has now had a change of heart. He realises that he let his love for Wanda direct the mightiest Avengers towards saving her, when the Earth is in peril from Maximus and the Kree. So now he tells Thor to take him and Iron Man to the Great Refuge via a Mjolnir space-warp.

Once there Thor tries to penetrate the barrier dome surrounding the city. But Mjolnir just passes through it and then returns, with no effect. Then the quinjet arrives, and Black Bolt shatters the dome with his voice.

The Avengers face an Inhuman army. But a whisper from Black Bolt shatters Maximus' mental spell, and the army switches sides. The Avengers attack Maximus and some Kree allies. The Kree flee in their saucer, but not before grabbing Rick Jones. Maximus returns to a child-like state.

At then end of the issue Black Bolt prepares to return to San Francisco with Joey, to bring his cousins home. And the captive Supreme Intelligence on the Kree homeworld surveys the scattered players, including Captain Marvel building an Omni-Wave weapon for the Skrulls to save the lives of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch (as seen last issue), and watches his plans coming to fruition.