Avengers #8

2nd story:- This part of Chapter 13 will be reprinted in the Avengers Assemble Oral History Trade Paperback as the whole of Ch13. New Avengers #8, Av#9 and NAv#19 will contain continuations of this Ch13, all set during the Kree/Skrull War. But the book will relabel NAv#8's contribution as Ch14, and Av#9 and NAv#9 will be combined as Ch15. This will obviously affect subsequent Chapter numbering in the book. While welcoming Pietro and Wanda's return (in #75-76), nobody mentions that Wasp and Yellowjacket quit at the same time. Or that Black Panther left in #87-88. The short history of the Kree and Skrulls doesn't mention their first pre-historic meeting on the Blue Area of the Moon, nor the involvement of the Cotati. Bendis obviously had to pick and choose what elements of the Avengers' history he could fit in. Noticeably he will omit the Cotati again by skipping over the whole Celestial Madonna saga in #129-135 and Giant-Size #2-4, where Vision and Scarlet Witch get married and we see the 1st stab at linking Vision to the WWII Human Torch. Next NaV#8 will cover #89-91 where Captain Marvel frees himself from Rick and the Negative Zone, and the Avengers face Ronan of the Kree.

Illuminati #2 showed Reed Richards handing out the Infinity gems to the Illuminati in a meeting. But here it seems only he knows who has what. But also the colours of gems they were given in Illuminati #2 don't match the colours here. Is there a missing story here (and I don't think it's Lockjaw & the Pet Avengers!)? But if Iron Man didn't know who had the Reality and Power Gems, why did he immediately suspect Black Bolt? Because a Skrull took his place at some point? Red Hulk started working for Steve Rogers in Hulk #26. The Inhuman Ertzia isn't dead, as we'll see next issue. For the record, accompanying Steve Rogers are (as well as Rulk) are the rest of the Avengers and New Avengers (apart from Ms Marvel). There are also Black Widow, Valkyrie and War Machine from the Secret Avengers (just how un-secret *is* that team?). But next time it will turn out that Beast, Moon Knight and Ms Marvel are also here.

How would Medusa know where to come? I would expect the signal to her husband just meant "meet us at the usual place". Lockjaw is the Inhumans' teleporting tracker-dog. In Thing #3 it was claimed that he was actually a male Inhuman whose Inhuman-ness happened to manifest in a dog shape. But X-Factor #71 explained that was a lie. Black Bolt 'died' at the end of War of Kings, but he will return in FF#6. I don't think Mr Fantastic has been in contact with the Inhumans since then. He visited the Blue Area of the Moon in Fantastic Four #577, but they don't live there now. Mr Fantastic got the Power Gem from She-Hulk (from Titania who got it from the Elder of the Universe Champion). He used that gem to track the others in Illuminati #2, which places that issue (just) after Avengers Disassembled in 2004. However Attilan, the city of the Inhumans, left the Himalayas (for the 2nd time) in Inhumans vol 3 in 2000, well before then even in Marvel time. So the Black Bolt can't have hidden the Reality Gem in his basement and then forgotten it during the move. He must have deliberately hidden it in the abandoned site. Mind you nobody tells Medusa *when* her husband was given the gem, so she doesn't know that.

This issue is part 2 0f 6. The Illuminati have been around since just after the Kree/Skrull War in Avengers #89-97, but we didn't see them until New Avengers (2005) #7. They were a secret group (Black Bolt, Dr Strange, Mr Fantastic, Prof X, Sub-Mariner organised by Iron Man) dedicated to proactively dealing with such major threats. The New Avengers: Illuminati 1-shot described their foundation and their demise. 5 of them (Prof X was missing since House of M) met to discuss exiling Hulk to space (and eventually to Planet Hulk). Namor resigned over it. Later Iron Man called the remaining 4 together to discuss his proposed Superhero Registration Act. They disagreed and disbanded. (In World War Hulk, Hulk got revenge on Black Bolt, Dr Strange, Mr Fantastic and Iron Man.) The 1st 4 issues of the 5-issue Illuminati mini-series detailed some of the things the group did while it was active, including #2 where they acquired the Infinity Gems. In #5 Iron Man called an emergency meeting of the disbanded group (including Prof X and Namor) to show them the Skrull version of Elektra. Only to find that the current Black Bolt was a Skrull replacement too, signalling the start of Secret Invasion. This is the 1st meeting since then.