Avengers #27: Review

Nov 2019

Jason Aaron, Ed McGuinness

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Story Name:

Starbrand reborn Part 1: Riot in the prison galaxy

Review & Comments

Rating:

Avengers #27 Review by Rob Johnson (December 13, 2019)

We're now seeing another of the predictions in Free Comic Book Day 2019: Avengers. We're in the Ravenstarr prison galaxy looking to rescue Gladiator. We have the Brood-Thor and Captain Marvel with her Binary look. She-Hulk doesn't (yet) have Cr'reee on her shoulder and Captain America doesn't (yet) have a new look and new name Captain Corsair. (At the time I thought these were alternate-universe versions.)

This is not strictly-speaking the Black Widow we knew. *She* died during the Secret Empire event and this is a clone with all her memories. But the relevant databases are treating her as a continuation of the original.
I think we'll find later that her big box contains a (or the) War Machine armour.

The Starjammers fell into a black hole along with many other heroes in Guardians Of The Galaxy (2019) #1. Silver Surfer got them out in SS: Black #1. Since then they were captured by the Universal Church Of Truth in later GOTG issues.
They weren't in their ship when they fell into the hole but presumably it was nearby and got sucked in along with everything else. Maybe it then emerged through a white hole to be here.

The rest of the SS: Black mini-series turned Surfer into the all-black version we see here.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Avengers #27 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

6 days ago the Shi'ar Majestor Gladiator was called to an emergency in their artificial prison galaxy Ravenstarr. He's now in 1 of the guardian stations being told what's up. A short while ago an explosion occurred inside the galaxy. The containment shields held but a dreadnought was sent to investigate. They lost contact with it and a single escape pod returned with 2 screaming crew members. They have starbursts burned into their foreheads and Kallark can detect that their internal organs are decomposing. He puts them out of their misery with an eye-blast.

The escape pod had a stowaway, a Brood convict, who snarls insults at the Majestor (in Brood language) including a threat that "murder star will brand you". Gladiator kills him too.

The source of the explosion appears to be an automated ship bringing new prisoners. Kallark will fly personally to check out what happened to the dreadnought. He suspects he knows the source of the problem and leaves instructions on who to contact if he doesn't return - the Avengers.

5 days ago they've got the call and Captain America is gathering the team in their Avengers Mountain HQ. Blade is not thrilled to be going into space. Ghost Rider (Robbie Reyes) is excited and terrified. She-Hulk has a new costume that Black Panther designed to keep her gamma emissions in check, which Captain Marvel thinks is a good idea because gamma explosions are a bad idea in a spaceship. SHulk only grunts in reply but inside is thinking about the Starbrand. The reported forehead brands make Cap (and Kallark I presume) think the Starbrand is involved somehow. The last Starbrand wielder on Earth died (Marvel Legacy 1-shot) during the Celestial Final Host invasion that gave Jennifer Walters her *current* She-Hulk look.

They're short-handed because T'Challa has gone to Turkey to find out what's keeping Iron Man. (And we see him discovering the 'fossilised' IM helmet that took Tony Stark back to 1 Million BC in #25.) So Cap has called in Black Widow who he figures can handle *whatever* they come up against. Thor passes carrying a box containing something Natasha Romanoff says she's 'borrowed' from the absent Tony. Meanwhile the Boy-Thing makes a cameo app offering her a rose.

And soon they blast off for Shi'ar space ...

... but now 5 days later we find them in trouble. Their spaceship is ensnared in magnetic webs, and they've been floating shipwrecked for 3 days. Power is almost gone and oxygen is leaking. Captain America is alone inside the ship with Thor who has been turned into a Brood alien. The Thunder Brood's obsessing over his hammer which proves he's still worthy as long as he can lift it. She-Hulk is on the outside of the ship fighting off alien prisoners desperate for a way out. Yesterday it was Dire Wraiths and War Skrulls. The day before it was Badoon. Today it's Brood. The other Avengers aren't here. Black Widow, Blade and Ghost Rider were lost in space when Brood Thor caused a hole in the ship. Captain Marvel left yesterday to look for another craft.

Suddenly Carol Danvers returns with a working ship that used to belong to the Starjammers. She found it emerging from a white hole which also caused her old Binary powers to reactivate. But this is the point at which Thor finds that Mjolnir will no longer allow him to lift it. And he turns all Broody and attacks Steve Rogers.

The 3 missing Avengers are in GR's Hell Charger car. They can't contact the others. Blade the half-vampire is dying from the effects of the local red suns (he's not affected by our yellow sun's rays). And Robbie is trying to outrun the now-jet-black Silver Surfer.

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