Avengers #7: Review

May 2017

Mark Waid, Phil Noto

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Story Name:

(no title given)

Review & Comments

Rating:

Avengers #7 Review by Rob Johnson (May 25, 2017)

We don't hear most of Doom's explanation of his recent past - in particular what caused his change of heart. *We* know that it was his experiences in Secret Wars III. But of the Avengers present only Spider-Man and Thor went through that. The rest died when the multiverse was destroyed and rebuilt. There's the big unanswered question of what everyone else thinks happened then, and in the long lead up to it with the Incursions. I'm pretty sure they don't think the universe was destroyed leaving only the Battleworld of Secret Wars, so they wouldn't understand Victor's story.

I'm not at all sure why Vision was excluded from the mission. A synthezoid would be out of place at the girls' camp, but Norse and Greek gods are OK?

At the end Nadia wonders what the Chronosite was after. Sam says lots of stuff in their archive has travelled in time. I would point out that so have they in the previous 6 issues. But I'd also guess that Avenger X's tomb is a leading contender, if only for fictional logic purposes (Terry Pratchett's narrativium).

#1 ended with a page of glimpses into the near future of this title. Future Vision from #5-6 was 1st. Dr Doom leading the team was 2nd (his words there match this issue's cover dramatically saying he's taking over the team longterm, as opposed to just hiring them for a job inside). And the 3rd element was Avenger X bursting free from her grave.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Avengers #7 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

The Avengers are fighting a flying brainless protoplasmic mass with multiple mouths and tentacles outside their Parker Industries Baxter Building HQ. It has Captain America (Sam Wilson) and Hercules in its grip. Herc hits it hard and it drops them. Thor (Jane Foster) carries them to the ground before hurling her hammer which splatters it into goo. But it reforms, until it is dispelled by the Flames of the Faltine.

However it's not Dr Strange who uttered the spell but Iron Man (Victor von Doom). He explains that the creature was a Chronosite that feeds on things displaced in time. And he wants the team to do a job for him.

The immediate reaction of most of the team is to attack Dr Doom. Except Wasp (Nadia Pym) who's in awe of his scientific genius, and of his combining it with magic. She invites him in for tea. Victor von Doom accepts and tells them the tale of what he's been doing recently. How he's now turned good and taken up the vacant role of Iron Man (in the pages of Infamous Iron Man). Spider-Man (Peter Parker) voices the common belief that he's trying to trick them - but he has no answer as to why his Spider-Sense isn't warning him.

Victor apologises for all the wrongs he's done them in the past. He reiterates that there is a problem that he needs the Avengers to solve. He especially needs Nadia, which sends her into another fangirl frenzy. There have been recent magical disturbances in New York State (which Vision confirms). Doom has tracked the source but he can't go there for fear of endangering innocents. The Avengers are still suspicious but are willing to go along for the moment.

Doom magically transports them to the site (except Vision who he deems would be out of place). Cap protests that he should have consulted the team before doing that. Thor takes it as a personal insult.

Their target is the Susan Storm Camp for Girls' Leadership. Cap wonders why Victor is afraid of teenage girls. Wasp interjects that she knows some very dangerous teen girls (members of her GIRL squad in Unstoppable Wasp). Doom replies that he doesn't want to endanger the legacy of Invisible Woman, who since he saw the light is now someone dear to him. If he went in as himself he'd cause panic.

This is why he needs Wasp to scout out the land. Nadia overrides Sam's objection because she was capable enough to escape from the Russian Red Room. Victor invokes the Images of Ikonn to disguise her in the right uniform, and casts a communication spell so they can stay in touch.

Nadia joins various groups of girls in their activities looking for clues, and eventually lights on a cabin where 5 girls are sitting around some candles. They each have very specific ideas of powerful futures, including 1 becoming President. Nadia agrees to help them, which turns out to mean becoming a sacrificial victim to complete the ritual that will ensure their fates.

Wasp finds she can't use her shrinking power. The girls tell her that a spell stops the victim from escaping. But Nadia shouts "Avengers Assemble" and her teammates smash through the cabin wall. Doom accompanies them as the girls gain magical armour and weapons. They reveal that they are Champions of Anamelech, a Moon Demon who Dr Doom has angered in the past.

Victor takes Wasp outside while the other 4 try to hold off the girl warriors without hurting them. 1 of them calls on a Chronosite. Doom can't use the Flames of the Faltine in the small cabin space without endangering the girls as well. But Wasp persuades him to channel the spell through the shrinking ray projectors in her gloves. This gives him the accuracy needed to only hit the Chronosite.

Then another spell banishes Anamelech's influence, including the magic armour and weapons. But the girls' leader is being dragged away by the spell too. Victor thinks that is justice, but Nadia rescues her.

We learn from Doom's thoughts that he had an ulterior motive here to study Nadia Pym. He had learned that the evil agency WHISPER (see lots of issues of New Avengers (2015)) believed that she would become an evil genius (which explains why they were after her in All-New All-Different Av #14). Victor's vendetta against 'mad scientists' (see Infamous IM) made her a target. But he is now convinced WHISPER was wrong.

Next day Nadia and Sam are looking at stuff in the Avengers' basement archives when they spot the gravestone of Avenger X (that we saw materialise here last issue). Cap doesn't recognise it. And suddenly it cracks open as glowing arms emerge.

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