Comic Browser:

Force Works #16

Oct 1995

Dan Abnett, Jim Cheung

Story Name:

Traitor's Gate

Synopsis

Force Works #16 synopsis by Rob Johnson

Rating:

This part of the Crossing crossover continues from AVENGERS: THE CROSSING.

Scarlet Witch and U.S.Agent fly back from the Avengers anniversary reunion in Avengers: The Crossing, where the Witch and Tony Stark came to an understanding about Iron Man undermining her leadership. U.S.Agent tells the Witch about the secret sub-basement he and Century found under Force Works HQ last issue, before Century returned to space. Scarlet Witch has one of the headaches she's been getting since #13.

Iron Man goes home from the party under his own steam. He hires Suzi Endo, a cybernetics expert first seen in #6 during the latest (crossover) fight with Mandarin, away from the Hong Kong office of Stark Enterprises to come work for him in Los Angeles. He wipes many other messages waiting for him.

Century is heading home on the Broker's spaceship. He keeps the freed slaves from killing the Broker because they need him to fly the ship. This story will continue in the Century: Distant Sons 1-shot.

Force Works have a member we've never seen before, Moonraker (Slade Truman), who inflicts corposant fire with his hands. Everyone acts as though he has been a member for a long time. He is Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter)'s lover. Except Julia's daughter Rachel doesn't recognise him.

Several little things that Julia does, like getting orange juice out of the fridge, appear to undo themselves.

The Crossing continues in AVENGERS #391.

Review / Commentaries

Force Works #16 Review by Rob Johnson (April 11, 2012)

The following Comment blocks are in reverse order.

Moonraker's retroactive insertion into history smacks of mass hypnotism or an alternate reality. The rules of time travel as explained by Kang in Avengers Forever #3 say that if someone changed history by having Moonraker join Force Works from the start, then that would produce an alternate reality, and the mainstream Marvel reality would be unchanged. The explanation that will be given in #19 that Moonraker has been moved across from an alternate reality where he *was* a member of Force Works and *was* involved with Spider-Woman doesn't fit into this scheme at all. However once Avengers Forever #8 reveals that Moonraker is a Space Phantom working for Immortus, then there is a solution. Immortus has the Forever Crystal which can change a reality without causing an alternate reality. Of course other stories have included reality-changing effects. If one method, the Forever Crystal, exists for doing such things, then there are doubtless other means too. Moonraker's insertion into Force Works seems to coincide with the opening of the door in the Avengers mansion basement in Avengers: The Crossing. In #19 he says that opponents of Kang inserted him 'at an opportune moment'. Maybe opening the door weakened a barrier. Iron Man goes from here straight to Avengers #391.

This is part 2 of the Crossing crossover, following on from The Crossing 1-shot. It will become clear later that inviting Suzi Endo to L.A. is part of the plot by the mastermind behind the Crossing (Kang or Immortus). Stark does things to further this plot while suffering blackouts. This suggests that he is in one of these blackouts during his scene in this issue. Which would explain why he would ignore his other messages. But not why he would delete them. Moonraker is 'really' Libra, father of Mantis. Except Avengers Forever reveals that he's really a Space Phantom working for Immortus. As such he rates the status of enemy. The weird things happening to Spider-Woman are temporal slippages caused by the temporal anomaly Moonraker. Only Rachel ever seems to take them seriously, in #18.

> Force Works comic book info and issue index

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Main/1st Story Full Credits

Dan Abnett

Jim Cheung

Rey Garcia

Joe Rosas

Jim Cheung (Cover Penciler)
Rey Garcia (Cover Inker)

Additional Credits

Letterer: Jack Morelli.
Editor: Nel Yomtov.

All stories. Listed in alphabetical order.

Century

Iron Man
(Anthony Stark)

Scarlet Witch
(Wanda Maximoff)

U.S. Agent
(John Walker)

Plus: Amanda Chaney, Fisher Todd, Skewer, Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter), Suzi Endo, Broker, Moonraker.

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