Avengers Annual #17: Review

Nov 1988

Walt Simonson, M. D. Bright

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Story Name:

Prometheus Mutans

Review & Comments

Rating:

Avengers Annual #17 Review by T Vernon (June 15, 2024)

Comments: The Evolutionary War Part 11 (and last). First story: Prometheus was the titan who defied the gods by bringing fire to humanity; “mutans” stuck on the end relates it to mutations, the mechanism of evolution. The Avengers disbanded at the end of AVENGERS #297. At this time, Steve Rogers is The Captain and Hulk is gray. Hulk and Beast are coming directly from INCREDIBLE HULK #350. Yellowjacket (Rita DeMarr) faced the Avengers in AVENGERS 273-277. The original Jocasta was destroyed in MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #93; her head will turn up in IRON MAN ANNUAL #11. Hercules and the High Evolutionary return in THOR #406-408. Yellowjacket refers to “Excedrin headache 356,” a reference to a vintage painkiller commercial. Inks by Mike and Valerie Gustovich. Letters by Bill Oakley, Michael Heisler, Rick Parker.

Review: Well, this is quite a surprising development. The final installment of an eleven-part crossover among several annuals does not require any knowledge of the previous parts. The adventure here is self-contained and wraps up the Evolutionary War event nicely. High Evo is planning to set off the Genetic Bomb; Avengers assemble; they whup his tail and end the threat. And here I was feeling guilty for not having read the previous installments; now I’m relieved that I didn’t have to. And it’s a pretty nice story, for the most part. The very disorganized Avengers are brought together by a computer and sort things out. Yeah, the entire underwater war bit, while epic, feels like padding as evinced by the underwater people providing a distraction off panel then HE’s big ship taking off and leaving them all in the kelp. (I was going to say, “leaving them all in the dust” but then I remembered they were all underwater.) It’s just a leftover from the previous installments of the series that didn’t fit in anywhere else. But the episodic nature of the battle inside the ship is frequently funny until the final confrontation becomes scary then apocalyptic. And the story is capped off with a huge explosion followed by some small talk that didn’t make it into the synopsis. It has a lot of cool bits and that’s what comic books are for.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Avengers Annual #17 Synopsis by T Vernon

Story continues from SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #8.

Prologue: In a secret lab, technicians are trying to recreate Jocasta. She clobbers everyone and makes a hasty telephone call to the Avengers before she is shut down….

At Avengers Hydrobase, the central computer processes this phone call and, since there are no Avengers currently on the roster, sends out a call to the reserve members. The Captain (formerly Captain America) arrives, followed by the Falcon and Hercules, then Hulk and Beast together. Herc then discovers the female Yellowjacket hiding in a closet, claiming the buzzing in her helmet (stolen from Hank Pym) forced her to come there. The Avengers keep her with them as they listen to the recorded call from Jocasta; they recognize her voice and Beast traces the call to a science lab on Long Island. So, they fly a Quinjet out there….

At the lab, the Avengers send Hulk in first and he wrecks the place, keeping one tech relatively unharmed. The man reveals that he works for the High Evolutionary whose scientists are working on the Genetic Bomb, set to erupt at a certain time and speed up human evolution by millions of years. The man’s brain then burns out, thanks to a self-destruct feature. They talk to Jocasta who says the High Evolutionary wanted her recreated to provide certain analytical information on the Avengers. The tech had mentioned activity in the Pacific Ocean so Cap suggests they head to Lemuria as they would be aware of anything unusual occurring in the ocean….

The Avengers arrive in Lemuria to find the city under attack by Atlantean warships. Cap sends Hulk and Hercules to board the Atlantean flagship to explain the situation. They smash in and find Attuma who is not pleased to see them so the two heroes smash their way through the Imperial Guard. Meanwhile, Cap contacts the more reasonable Lord Kro of Lemuria with some questions. Then a massive leviathan warship attacks both Lemuria and the Atlantean navy before Herc and Hulk wreck it. A conference suggests the Leviathan had previously attacked Atlantis to bring the two undersea races together so they could all be sterilized at once. The two undersea forces join the Avengers in the search for the bad guy responsible….

The ships detect unusual activity near the Mindanao Trench and head there to discover a massive floating base. They realize that the ship is headed for Krakatoa where the Genetic Bomb will erupt through the volcano, spreading the contents throughout the world. So, the two navies attack the base as a distraction to allow the Avengers to enter. The heroes move through the base and come upon a temple where the New Men serve as priests leading humans in worship of the High Evolutionary. Cap and Beast concoct a scheme to let the human workers “overhear” how the HE intends for the animal New Men to rule over the humans, leading to their revolt and murder of the demi-humans….

A panicking Yellowjacket accidentally flies into a room full of guards and is shot; Falcon is able to catch her and fly off….

Rebelling guards attack the High Evolutionary who scans their minds to learn what is going on. He orders all decks to be sealed off so the revolt does not spread. He also orders the ship to speed up on its way to the destination so the Genetic Bomb can be detonated all the sooner. As it zooms off it leaves the Atlantan and Lemurian fleets far behind.….

The Avengers regroup in a lab where the High Evolutionary confronts them. Jocasta denounces him and he tears her limbs off. Falcon flies off to find the bomb as HE cages the rest before teleporting back to his duties. Hercules and Hulk twist open the bars with the Beast’s help. Cap decides that to face the HE who considers himself a god, they need a competing god and Hercules is the only one with experience in that department so he is chosen to evolve himself in the baddie’s machine. But Hulk insists he be the one to be evolved and he tosses Herc away. HE returns, having captured Falcon, and fights Hulk who is stronger than HE thought but not strong enough to resist being teleported to the Nevada desert. Herc jumps into the evolving chamber as Cap tries to occupy HE, deflecting the bad guy’s blasts with his shield. Yellowjacket shrinks and flies into HE’s ear to irritate him but he is able to eject and blast her. HE zaps Beast into a stronger cage and takes on the stronger Herc. As they yell challenges back and forth at each other, they fight with Herc continuing to evolve because Beast strapped the machine inside his armor. They keep fighting until High Evolutionary vanishes into nothing—but Hercules keeps growing until he too dissolves into thin air. The Avengers find Jocasta is still alive and she has plugged into the ship’s matter/anti-matter drive. She gives them time to escape to the Quinjet and depart before she blows the ship, the bomb, and herself apart.

Story 2: Beyond Life

Writer: Mark Gruenwald. Breakdowns: Ron Lim. Art: Tony DeZuniga. Colors: Gregory Wright. Letters: Michael Rosen, Joe Rosen.

Aboard his moon-ship and surrounded by Thing, Alicia Masters, Aleta Starhawk, and Moondragon, the gravely injured High Evolutionary is restored to health by the power of Her. He thanks them then discovers that his creation, Counter-Earth is missing. He tracks it across space to discover it being towed away by the Prime Movers of Tarkus, at the request of the Beyonders. There he witnesses the massive power of the Beyonders as they pick up his planet and place it in their museum. Humbled by the experience, he decides to die so he returns to Earth where he lured the Hulk to him, allowing Hulk to smash his armor so he can devolve himself back to amoeba. But after Hulk has gone, the armor reassembles itself and progresses the amoeba back to the human form of the High Evolutionary. At this, he vows to become the one guiding the evolution of the human race.

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