Avengers #3: Review

Jun 2018

Jason Aaron, Paco Medina

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Story Name:

Where space gods go to die

Review & Comments

Rating:

Avengers #3 Review by Rob Johnson (July 1, 2018)

We've still got Legacy numbering on the cover underneath the actual number. This #3 is also #693. Our schedule seems to be 3 issues every 2 months and the September solicitation shows #7-8 ie #697-698. This pattern should mean November is the opportunity for a cover with #700 writ large on it.

Paco Medina and Juan Vlasco are the main pencil/ink team on this issue taking over from Ed McGuinness and Mark Morales & Jay Leisten who did #1-2. But the old team is credited as well. However the only pages I can say with any certainty were by them are the opening 2-page Ghost Rider/She-Hulk bit, and maybe the 1st page after that with Loki and 3 heroes.

I'm repeating my last issue recap of recent She-Hulk history with added detail. She almost died at the beginning of Civil War II. When she recovered in her 2107 Hulk series Jennifer Walters transformed into a bulky grey angry fairly-inarticulate She-Hulk. In her 2018 Legacy series Jen regained control of her She-Hulk persona and reverted to the big-but-normally(-ish)-proportioned green and articulate version with Jen's personality. That's also what she seemed like in the recent Punisher #224. But in this series she's become a green version of the grey She-Hulk that is a separate being like the usual Hulk/Banner setup, and we don't know how that happened. I must also point out that the just-published Deadpool #1 has a scene with the heroes of this series having a meal together as the Avengers, obviously happening after this story-arc, and She-Hulk is back to normal.

From Our Blog:

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Gwen Stacy: Classic Beauty

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Avengers #3 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

The Final Host of Celestials has arrived and various people who will be the next group of Avengers are battling the results. And Loki seems to be behind it all.

Reluctant allies Ghost Rider (Robbie Reyes) and She-Hulk have just destroyed an infestation of large alien beetles in Los Angeles. The dead Celestial Eson teleported Shulk here from New York and continues to talk in her head. It tells her to smash her way deep underground. GR gets in his demon car and follows her down.

Back in NYC Loki confronts his brother Thor along with Captain Marvel and Iron Man. He denies responsibility for what's happening - the Final Host is going to destroy the Earth but it's all Odin's fault for what he did in prehistoric times. Loki just arranged for it to happen now.

Captain Marvel has some warp grenades which she was going to use to send the Final Host into the heart of the Sun. Loki magics them out of her hands and up to where he floats in front of the Host. Their seems-to-be leader holds Eson's head in 1 hand and Captain America encased in a force globe in the other. Steve Rogers manages to throw his shield through the globe to hit the grenades, setting them off. The Host disappear, and Carol Danvers fears they and CA are now inside the Sun.

In the centre of the Earth (surely not really the centre) Black Panther and Doctor Strange are fighting more of the alien beetles. Their foes are gaining in power - they seem to be feeding on something. Then She-Hulk and Ghost Rider join them.

Captain America has survived his trip to the Sun because Loki is keeping the heat at bay. The Host survive also because they can. Cap sends a comms message out to tell his allies what's happened. Then he throws his shield at Loki despite the fact it's only the Trickster God keeping him alive. The Asgardian catches the shield and says the Avengers fight against the Host is futile. And they all prepare to leave.

Captain Marvel is in contact with the Alpha Flight satellite and learns that Steve is alive, but also that the Dark Celestials have have exited the Sun unharmed and teleported to an unknown destination. Meanwhile it seems that the rain of dead (not Dark) Celestials has stopped.

Tony Stark complains that Carol's Alpha Flight aren't doing their job in countering alien threats. Incensed Danvers says they'll do it if Stark stops interfering. Stark asks if she's going to put him in a coma again (snarky Civil War II reference). Thor tells them to stop bickering - that's not what Avengers do. CM and IM vehemently agree with each other that they're *not* Avengers.

The argument is interrupted by the arrival of Panther and Strange with GR in his car, with Shulk in the boot. T'Challa tells Carol and Tony that the Avengers are needed. We're spared the response.

The Host and Loki are at the North Pole with CA in chains. More of the beetles crawl up out of a hole. Steve tries to appeal to Loki's good side which has manifested occasionally. The Asgardian God says his perspective is so far above Cap's, and from that perspective he *is* the good guy here. He points to the Fallen Celestial who is also here, and reminds us of stuff we learnt in the Marvel Legacy 1-shot. That Celestial was ill when he came to Earth a million years ago, but instead of helping him Odin and friends buried him in South Africa. Loki found him and revived him. Now the God takes Cap in their bubble down the beetle hole to the centre of the Earth - to the root of the infection.

The not-Avengers compare notes to get the bigger picture. Carol is disturbed to see a large green angry semi-articulate She-Hulk. She thought Jennifer Walters had got over the effects of Civil War. Tony thinks they have enough complications and doesn't trust the unfamiliar Ghost Rider. Panther thinks the giant insects are the immediate threat because other heroes (he mentions Captain Britain and China's People's Defence Force) are dealing with the destruction caused by falling Celestials, and they can't locate the Dark Celestials. Dr Strange thinks they need an expert on Celestials.

Captain Marvel and Black Panther will head to the Alpha Flight station with a dead bug to find out what they are. Iron Man intends to take Dr Strange to consult the Eternals (who Strange seems never to have heard of!). Thor disappears in a flash of lightning with She-Hulk. We see them in Old Asgard seeking answers from Odin. Ghost Rider is left alone next to Eson's body. He has a small piece of 'Dark Celestial tech' from somewhere and he's going to use his Hell-Charger like a bloodhound to find them. They drive off across the ocean.

Deep underground (presumably the centre of the Earth again) Loki shows Steve Rogers a dead(?) humanoid form that he says is the root of the problem - and the father of all Avengers (and presumably of all other superhumans) - the Progenitor.

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