Synopsis
What has happened in the previous Annuals of this crossover event?
Silver Surfer An#2 - Surfer accidentally caused the Deviant Priest-Lord Ghaur to reintegrate from the cloud of gas he was left in at the end of Eternals (1985). Ghaur allied with Lemurian ex-queen Llyra, a long-standing enemy of Sub-Mariner, to bring the demon/god Set back to Earth's dimension, from which he was banished by Dr Strange in Marvel Team-Up Annual #5.
Iron Man An#10 - The pair allied with 2 more of Namor's foes:- Attuma, currently ruler of Atlantis, and Atlantean Krang the Warlord. They planned to reassemble the Serpent Crown (which was disintegrated by a Cosmic Cube in the aforementioned MTU AN#5) to help Set. Iron Man and Sub-Mariner fought Attuma's barbarians and also Hydra, and Namor was apparently killed.
Uncanny X-Men An#13 - Ghaur and Llyra, based on Magneto's old island, hired the Serpent Society to steal 4 magic items for them. This brought the Society into conflict with mage Mr Jip, who caused them to have to fight the X-Men. But they did acquire the objects for Ghaur who gave them to Lemurian alchemists to create the Serpent Crown.
Amazing Spider-Man An#23 - Ghaur and Llyra freed Tyrannus from Abomination's body. Spidey and She-Hulk fought the mindless Abomination, and Ghaur marked She-Hulk as the 1st Bride of Set. Ghaur sent Tyrannus to contact Viper.
Punisher An#2 - Punisher and Moon Knight disrupted Viper's plan to turn people into Serpent-Men.
Spectacular Spider-Man An#9 - Spidey and Cloak&Dagger found Tyrannus also creating Serpent-Men. Ghaur got Tyrannus to mark Dagger as the 2nd Bride of Set, and Tyrannus hypnotised Cloak into stealing the magic Book of Kell, and then captured Spidey. A mystery armoured figure watched proceedings.
Daredevil An#5 - Tyrannus had Spider-Man under his control and intended to free Set for his own purposes using the Book of Kell and sacrificing Viper. Daredevil and Dr Strange stopped him.
Now read on ...
The Lemurian alchemists have recreated the Serpent Crown (more powerful than before and now indestructible), Ghaur and Llyra are now ready to attack the surface world. They contact Attuma who sends out forces led by Lord Arno, Krang, Tyrak and U-Man. He is having doubts about the wisdom of this plan, but at least it won't be *him* who dies on the battlefield. As usual in Marvel comics attacking the world means basically attacking the US, and the 4 forces assault Cape Canveral, Fort Hamilton army base, Langley air force base and Shoreham nuclear plant. The Avengers (Captain America, Quasar, She-Hulk and Thor with a visiting android Human Torch and Sersi) monitor the situation.
On Magneto's island the Serpent Crown exerts its influence which is felt by previous wearers. Evil Viper is energised while good Thing, Quasar and Scarlet Witch are weakened. As is the armoured figure glimpsed in SSM An#9.
Captain America has sent out the call for current and previous Avengers to assemble. Iron Man, Scarlet Witch, Vision and Wonder Man of the West Coast team appear. Ex-WCA-er Hawkeye arrives with Black Widow on his sky-cycle. 3 of the Fantastic Four turn up in the Fantasticar (*their* Human Torch has never been an Avenger). Ex-Avengers Black Panther, Captain Marvel and the Gray Hulk have their own individual ways of getting here. Dr. Pym, Mockingbird, Tigra and Wasp arrive late from the West Coast. (Except Tigra can't really be here.)
Cap divides them into 4 squads to tackle an attack site each. Quasar and Thing stay behind because of their illness, but Scarlet Witch claims to be alright. She-Hulk is onboard even though she seems unusually distracted (an effect of the Mark of Set from ASM An#23).
Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman take Black Panther and She-Hulk in the Fantasticar to Shoreham where they will find the army led by Lord Arno (a lackey of Attuma from #154-155 (part of a crossover with Namor and Dr Doom in Super-Villain Team-Up), who won't be seen again after this). Sue Richards makes her team (and the 'car) invisible. They sneak in but then betray their presence by attacking the Atlanteans. She-Hulk is confused and is hit by a blast from Arno. She falls on Sue and they lose their invisibility.
Arno summons his ace-in-the-hole Orka the Killer Whale (originally a lackey of Warlord Krang who got mutated by Dr Dorcas in Sub-Mariner #23 and turned into a giant by the Brand Corporation in our #149 - he's always somebody's weapon). But BP and Shulk take him down, and Arno and his army run away.
Scarlet Witch flies a quinjet to Langley with Hulk, Human Torch, Sersi and Wonder Man to face Tyrak's Atlanteans. Tyrak also débuted as Attuma's lackey in #154-156 but he had a bigger part, not least because Attuma had a device which super-sized him. He continued to work for Attuma in #172 and #278.
The quinjet shoots at the Atlanteans as HT and WM fly out to wreck their gunships directly. Sersi hitches a lift on Hulk's back as he directs his fall through some flying craft, then she transmutes herself into a big rock to do similar. Wanda has landed the jet and uses her hex on enemy craft, but her weakness makes her faint - and Ghaur appears to mark her as the 3rd Bride. Tyrak does his growing thing and stands up to even Hulk and WM, until HT slags his power source. And Sersi gets the Atlanteans to shoot each other by turning half of them into US soldiers.
It's almost an anti-climax when Moondragon pops in with a mind-controlled Rick Jones and in her usual high-handed way uses his latent mental power (see #97 as he ended the Kree-Skrull War) to send the enemy away.
The invaders of Fort Hamilton are led by U-Man. He was invented in the WWII-set Invaders series, but like all Atlanteans he's long-lived so can turn up in the present day here.
Dr Pym took his team on a detour to do some special modifications. They now arrive - Pym and Tigra (who's not really here) in his flying craft called Rover, Hawkeye with Black Widow still on his sky-cycle, and Thor and Wasp travelling by hammer and wing power. Thor does lots of damage until some undepicted weapon blasts him into the water below the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. But U-Man and some of his troop still take the opportunity to escape.
Then Pym takes a tiny gas cannister from 1 of his pockets and enlarges it. He fires the gas at the remaining Atlanteans. Hawkeye adds some special gas arrows, and BW and Wasp fire modified bite and sting. And the army is shrunk to fit in the palm of 1 hand. (See, it didn't matter that Tigra wasn't really here.)
That leaves Captains America and Marvel, Iron Man, Mockingbird and Vision to handle the remaining Atlantean force at Cape Canaveral. After bopping some troops in their individual ways, including shattering breathing helmets, CM, IM and Vision use their rays to heat up the water in the Atlanteans' suits. They flee to the ocean but are followed by the mystery figure. And then a sea monster attacks the troops.
Warlord Krang has been running this show from the safety of his command vessel. But the armoured mystery man finds him, and Krang recognises his voice. (Krang's a really long-time Sub-Mariner villain, dating back to FF An#1 - and in flashbacks to WWII.) The villain is soundly thrashed.
In Atlantis Attuma learns of the failed invasion. He was right to doubt the plan, and thinks Ghaur and Llyra must have had an ulterior motive.
Most of the heroes will reconvene in AWC An#4, but before then Atlantis Attacks will continue in New Mutants An#5, X-Factor An#4 and Web of Spider-Man An#5.
Story 2:- The initiation of Quasar
Script Mark Gruenwald, pencils Mark Bagley, inks Chris Ivy, letters Rick Parker, colours Nel Yomtov, editor Howard Mackie.
The Avengers (Captain America, Gilgamesh, Invisible Woman, Mr Fantastic and Thor) and West Coast Avengers (Dr Pym, Hawkeye, Tigra and Wonder Man) hang around with Firelord, Quasar and the FF's Human Torch after their battle against Super-Nova in #301-303. Cap and Hawkeye both ask Quasar to join their teams. Clint Barton defers to Steve Rogers because Wendell Vaughan is New York-based. Quasar agrees to come to Avengers Island later to discuss the job. But as he flies away he wonders how he'll square it with being Protector of the Universe.
At the meeting Steve remembers working with Quasar (as Marvel Man) in CA#228-230 after which Wendell became security chief for Project Pegasus (as Quasar) (see various issues of Marvel Two-In-One). But he hasn't heard of him for a few years since then. Quasar admits that he quit after the Serpent Crown took him over in Marvel Team-Up An#5. Then he flew (takes a long time) to Uranus to investigate where the original Marvel Boy got his Quantum Bands from. But there he learned they were made by the cosmic being Eon and were destined for the Protector of the Universe, which is now *him*. (See Q#2.)
Cap remembers the original Captain Marvel claimed that title too. (Eon gave *him* the job too. But the Nega Bands *he* wore were created by the Kree Supreme Intelligence. However I believe the Nega Bands were based on the Quantum Bands.) Steve thinks being Avenger and Protector are complementary, and Q could benefit from being able to call on the Avengers as Protector. Wendell agrees to try the 6-month trainee period.
He fills in loads of forms, has his background checked and has a physical examination by the team's doctor Keith Kincaid (Jane Foster's husband from Thor's comic). Then he demonstrates his abilities to Cap. He can fly pretty fast using anti-gravity, and create energy projections. He can also use antigrav to lift things, and demonstrates on the whole artificial island.
But then Firelord flies past and thinks Q is attacking the place. The hothead attacks Vaughan and they fight until Cap's shield separates them. When he learns the truth Firelord apologises, but Cap says it gave Q a chance to show of his fighting skills.
Story 3:- Cap's Avengerability analysis
Script Fabian Nicieza, pencils various, inks various, letters Ken Lopez, colours Mike Rockwitz, editor Howard Mackie.
The Avengers communications liaison Peggy Carter and security director Michael O'Brien nag Cap into doing the personnel evaluations of team members he promised. He analyses the strengths and weaknesses of past Avengers, mostly in the order they joined:- Thor, Iron Man, Dr Pym, Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Hawkeye, Black Panther, She-Hulk, Wonder Man, Tigra, Black Knight, Falcon and Quasar. We leave him as he prepares to move on to more, starting with Moondragon.
Peggy Carter worked with the French Resistance in WWII, and she had an affair with Cap. Later she was a SHIELD Agent. Her niece is Sharon Carter.
Michael O'Brien débuted in Iron Man #82, investigating the death of his brother Kevin. Tony Stark gave him Kevin's Guardsman armour, and he became head of security at Project PEGASUS.
Carter, O'Brien and Kincaid are part of the Avengers Support Crew recruited by Cap, but I believe they appear as often in Cap's own title as this 1, if not more so.
Story 4:- The saga of the Serpent Crown chapter 8:- Manifest destiny
Script Peter Sanderson, pencils Mark Bagley, inks Keith Williams, letters Jade Moede, colours Marc Siry, editor Mark Gruenwald.
The Watcher continues the history of the Crown and Set. I haven't got room in the synopsis to summarise the earlier instalments so I've done it at the end of my Comments.
After WWI minor telepath Paul Destine researches the telepathic Ancients, finds the ruins of their Antarctic base and the Helmet of Power. (He travelled on the expedition of Leonard McKenzie who would find the sub-sea Atlanteans now living in Antarctic waters and father Sub-Mariner.) Set puts Destine in suspended animation to increase his power. Destine awakens in the late '50s as Destiny and enacts Set's revenge on the Atlanteans by wrecking their city, killing Namor's mother and grandfather-emperor and sending amnesiac Subby to live as a homeless person in New York, until Human Torch restores (some of) his memory in FF#4.
We learned most of the previous paragraph in Iron-Man & SM #1 and SM#1. Then in SM#7 Paul Destine uses the Helmet of Power to try to become President of the USA but it drives him insane and he sort-of commits suicide. (SM gets to take the Helmet to Atlantis for safe-keeping in #8)