Avengers #2: Review

May 2018

Jason Aaron, Ed McGuinness

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Story Name:

Still Avenging after all these years

Review & Comments

Rating:

Avengers #2 Review by Rob Johnson (May 27, 2018)

Jay Leisten helps Mark Morales with the inking.

In Marvel mythology the Celestials kick-started the intelligence that would lead to the human race (as well as directly creating the Eternals and Deviants). Loki's words here suggest that there's more to the story than that.

She-Hulk was severely injured at the start of Civil War II. When she recovered she headlined a new Hulk series in 2017 where Jennifer Walters transformed into a savage grey She-Hulk. In her Legacy issues #161-163 she went back to being green. But now it seems she still has the anger issues.

Loki carries a Sceptre here which looks much like the 1 his film version had, which contained the Mind Stone. The comics version doesn't have an Infinity Stone. It was created by King Loki in the Loki: Agent of Asgard series and the current Loki got hold of it at the end.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Avengers #2 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

Loki provides a voiceover for this issue. He shows us Captain America, Iron Man and Thor (Odinson) reunited and charging into battle in an Avengers quinjet last issue. His comments suggest that he deliberately provoked the Final Host of the Celestials (by waking the Fallen Celestial in the Marvel Legacy 1-shot) in order to stimulate the creation of a new Avengers because he needed them to save what he describes as "this ailing reality".

Again from last issue he shows Black Panther and Doctor Strange fighting large alien beetles underground (hatching near where the Fallen Celestial had been sleeping), and Ghost Rider (Robbie Reyes) fighting similar beetles above ground. And Captain Marvel stopping a (normal) Celestial, Eson the Searcher, from falling on Manhattan. (The arrival of the Final Host was preceded by a rain of dead or dying ordinary Celestials.)

In East LA Ghost Rider tells Robbie's brother Gabriel Reyes to stay safe inside and then races off in his Hell Charger (Robbie's transformed car). Loki muses that it is fitting that the current GR be involved (since the 1st such was with Odin in 1 million BC when they 'killed' the mad Fallen Celestial (Marvel Legacy again)). It's a pity the current Starbrand is dead (killed by GR in ML - the 1st SB was also in Odin's gang in 1M BC).

Meanwhile Eson has landed in the Hudson River with his head near jogging Jennifer Walters. More of the alien beetles emerge from or over the body and their attack causes her to transform into She-Hulk. This version is bulky and green, inarticulate and savage. And she stamps on the bugs with the appropriate cry "Hulk squish!".

Cap is flying the quinjet shooting at 1 of the Final Host standing in the River while Shellhead and Thor are flying independently. Tony Stark's onboard AI can't find any chinks in its armour so Thor just attacks its head and gets swatted away for his trouble. Stark says the Celestial reads like a colony of thousands of different lifeforms. Loki hints that superheroes, or maybe all mankind, have inherited the madness of the mad Fallen Celestial, or maybe of the Celestials. (Maybe. We're running in cryptic mode here.) And the Final Host are the cure.

She-Hulk is fighting the alien bugs when Eson shows he's not dead yet by squashing them. Then he speaks to her in her mind, also talking about a cure. And he teleports her away. Ghost Rider's car usually talks to him (the spirit which makes him GR actually inhabits the car) but now it's clammed up. Suddenly She-Hulk is ported in front of him and the car hits her.

Cap and Iron Man are attacking another of the Final Host, with equivalent lack of success to the 1st 1. Steve Rogers thinks they need to find a way to get the Celestials into space and then the world can lob nuclear missiles at them. Tony Stark thinks they should get hold of Jean Grey or the Eternals and try to communicate with them. Maybe they aren't actually hostile.

Captain Marvel flies in bringing a stunned Thor back from wherever the 1st Celestial's blow sent him. She also signals the Alpha Flight Space Station to teleport down some Omega-Level Warp Grenades set with the Sun as destination.

Enraged She-Hulk starts to tear the Hell Charger apart but Robbie knows it will just regenerate. And it blasts her with hellfire. So she turns on the Ghost Rider instead.

CM and IM gain some height to use the grenades. Carol Danvers explains that her team managed to siphon of some hyperspace energy from the warp holes the Celestials came through. These grenades will use that energy to send them into the Sun. But FH2 grabs Captain America's quinjet and does something which causes Cap great pain. Thor heads in to get Steve Rogers out of the way before they use the Warp Grenades. And Eson is up and punching FH1.

In LA Ghost Rider and She-Hulk are duking it out when the Hell Charger grapples Shulk with some chains and hauls her away. Robbie tries to persuade her he's not an enemy but Shulk replies that *everyone* is her enemy. But Robbie suggests she rethink that as the ground bursts open and they're surrounded by more alien beetles. (These bugs all glow green. Does this mean gamma radiation?)

Eson is flagging against the 1st of the Final Host, who is suddenly wielding a scythe. CA tells CM to ignore him and use the grenades. But Carol, Tony and Thor are all wracked by punishing energy.

The voiceover wonders exactly what the Avengers have to avenge. Unlike him who has been ostracised by his family and hunted all his life. And if it wasn't for him the Avengers wouldn't even exist. And that's when we finally see that the voiceover guy is Loki. FH1 has Eson's decapitated head. And Loki's working with the Host to avenge a great wrong and correct the mistake the Celestials made 1 million years ago. And this involves global extinction.

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