Synopsis
Marvel's Voices Infinity Comic #7 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
This issue has a voiceover from Kate Bishop/Hawkeye filling in the backstory. What people are calling the Parallax Stone meteorite fell to Earth 20 years ago when allegedly there were whales singing in the sky (we know it's all true from last issue). The Stone has passed by auction through several private collections until it ended up on display in Venice amid rumours that it had some sort of power. Then people started disappearing, and then the gem was stolen. Kate's friend Eli (Bradley, the ex-Young Avenger named Patriot) alerted her that the 3 museum guards were drained of blood. In the 6 weeks since the theft many rich Italians have vanished after liquidating their assets. And that's why Kate's here in a hooded cloak following a masked woman dressed in a scarlet medieval look.
Now the woman enters a disused church. Through a stained glass window Kate sees a hooded congregation surrounding a man named Domini Visconti. The woman, with the Parallax Stone, confirms that his cheque has cleared and so he can have his 'reward'. Kate discards her cloak revealing her Hawkeye costume and weapons and she crashes through the window unleashing a volley of arrows to take out some of the vampire congregation. She tells the human to run while she despatches more vamps. She recognises them as the Temple Of The Shifting Sun who worship the Demiurge (who ex-YAer Wiccan is destined to become) who they believe can make them Daywalkers - vampires immune to sunlight. She encountered them in West Coast Avengers (2018) where they tried to kill her friend America Chavez. She finishes off the cult by bringing a chandelier full of lighted candles down on them.
But then she's left to face the boss woman, who as she expected is her mother Eleanor Bishop (who was supposedly dead but revealed as a half-vampire in WCA, but without any explanation). Eleanor removes her sun-protection mask and dives forward to suck her daughter's blood. Kate evades her and fires a special arrow which mom catches in mid-flight. But the arrowhead explodes with devastating consequences. (It's contents are an invention of another ex-YA friend Cassie Lang who describes it as liquid sunlight.) Holding her burning scarred face Eleanor pleads for mercy because she can't control her vampirism. But Kate contends that she and husband Derek were villains long before she became a vampire.
Kate guesses that the Parallax Stone enabled the cult to get rid of the bodies. Mom confirms that it opens a rift in space and time, but she also claims that it's what she and the cult always sought, a gateway to a place where they can start afresh. And she says her daughter can't judge her for what she had to do to survive. Kate lets her go and hopes what she says is true. She steps through the portal which closes behind her. Kate is left with the Stone which she intends to return to the museum. She wishes America were here because she knows much more about dimensional portals and the Demiurge. But then the Parallax Stone resolves any questions by vanishing itself.