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Mighty Avengers #31

Nov 2009
Dan Slott, Sean Chen

Story Name:

The Unspoken, part 5


Synopsis

Mighty Avengers #31 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
Last issue Stature gathered together an assembly of Avengers (from the New Avengers, the Young Avengers and the Avengers Resistance as well the Mighty Avengers) to go to Tibet to help fight the Unspoken, who has unearthed the flying Slave Engine which turns Exogen Crystals into a mist which turns humans into Alpha Primitives - the slave race of the Inhumans. (He is an ex-king of the Inhumans who was banished for hiding the Engine away from his people so they couldn't use it on humanity. Since then he's changed his mind and now wants to get back into the good graces of his people.)

Quicksilver and U.S. Agent were already on site with Ban-Luck of GRAMPA, the People's Defence Force and some Chinese troops. But the troops, US Agent plus Collective Man and Lady of Ten Suns of the PDF have already been converted to Alpha Primitives and turned against their comrades Ban-Luck and Quicksilver plus Radioactive Man and Scientific Beast. However when help arrived Justice and Spider-Woman immediately succumbed to the gas, and now Tigra and Wiccan get it too.

Unspoken continues to speak the usual villain rant explaining what he's doing and why. He now says that it was the Silent War (when humans attacked Inhumans, as he puts it) that made him turn against humanity. And Pietro Maximoff realises that makes it *his* fault - it was Quicksilver stealing Terrigen Crystals that initiated the hostilities.

In the Infinite Avengers Mansion Wasp (Henry Pym) returned at the end of last issue from Overspace and his chat with Eternity. Now he tells Edwin Jarvis and Jocasta to tend to the injuries of Young Avengers Hawkeye and Speed (from #28-29 fighting Loki pretending to be Scarlet Witch). He can't wait for Reed Richards to return their call (last issue) so he takes the guns he grabbed and charges out of 1 of the Mansion's many doors to Tibet. Ronin is glad to see him and asks what his plan is. Hank says give him a minute to make 1 up (despite Eternity seemingly giving him 1 last issue).

Wasp contacts Amadeus Cho's Ant-Man helmet. He and Hercules are on board the Slave Engine fighting (well, Herc is) a large robot. Henry sends Cho to turn off the gas. Amadeus runs into 3 human-sized robots. He quickly calculates the angles and throws a coin which hits them all in strategically disabling spots. Then he reaches the heart of the ship where a mountain of Exogen Crystals is being automatically fed into a huge furnace, creating the gas which being continuously pumped out.

Wasp tries a different tack. He grows to giant-size, activates his Toolbot into a laser sword and intends to knock the Engine out of the sky. But Unspoken uses his ability to change his Inhuman power so he too can become a giant, with a laser-fist. They begin to duel.

Down below the just-very-big Stature is fighting foes on the ground with Captain America (Bucky Barnes), Gauntlet, Radioactive Man and Rage. Ronin tells fliers Hulkling, Ms. Marvel, Scientific Beast and Vision to go help Hank destroy the ship. And he tells Cassie Lang to get even bigger to keep out of the low-lying gas. But she's exhausted so he suggests another trick. She shrinks and rides the tip of an arrow he fires . Cap throws his shield to force open a crack in the ship's armour-plating for the arrow to pass through.

Then the gas gets everyone left on the ground (including a so far unmentioned Patriot) except Quicksilver (who whirls it away with his speed) and Radioactive Man (who continues to transmute the gas around him with his radioactivity).

Henry Pym is losing the giant-size duel but takes time to tell Unspoken to stop dwelling on the mistake he made in the past and look to the future. Amadeus Cho overhears this through his comm-link with Wasp and it gives him a plan. He realises that the supply of Exogen Crystals is being continually increased by a chronal ray which is rapidly growing them from little ones. He calls for Vision to come help.

The 4 fliers are fighting 3 Alpha'd flying opponents Justice, Lady of Ten Suns and Spider-Woman. Jonas leaves the other 3 and phases into the ship where he finds his girlfriend Cassie. They run to keep Alphas and robots off Cho (Stature has got her 2nd wind and is big again).

On the ground US Agent has grabbed Quicksilver, but Pietro gets through to him by claiming that he's letting the Commies win. The ultra-patriot turns on the Alpha Primitives and leaves Quickie alone. The speedster then throws a rock hitting the giant Unspoken in the eye. Hercules has gained control of the Slave Engine and turns it so Cho can fire the chronal ray at the Unspoken, rapidly aging him.

Afterwards they use the chronal ray to reverse the lives of those converted to Alpha Primitives so that they become human again without memory of what happened. To avoid legal hassles with the Inhumans the Chinese agree to let the now harmless Unspoken return to his cave with his real Alpha Primitive servants. Clint Barton suggests Hank could use the ray to wipe his own mistakes from his memory, but Pym declines because he's moved on. Ronin also tells Wasp that the 'Scarlet Witch' the MAv has been working with wasn't the real deal. (Pym says he'd already worked that out and had been building up to a confrontation.)

Finally Quicksilver uses a Mansion door to take him to the Inhumans in Attilan on Hala in the Kree Empire that they now rule. He returns the Exogen Crystals to them. But he also repeats the lie he'd used in #24 that all his bad actions since House of M were actually due to a Skrull who'd replaced him leading up to Secret Invasion. Medusa accepts the explanation and they're all friends again. Except that his daughter Luna's power enables her to see the truth. She tells him she'll keep his secret but he's lost her respect.


 

Review / Commentaries


Mighty Avengers #31 Review by (September 19, 2017)
Amadeus Cho, Hercules, Stature and Wasp are in Hulk #601 (where Bruce Banner is confirmed cured of Hulkiness) before the team's visit to Attilan on the last page. In fact Hercules, Quicksilver, Stature, US Agent, Vision and Wasp are in Attilan during Realm Of Kings: Inhumans #1-2 where they'll help defeat Devos the Devastator. p22 of this issue actually overlaps with their last page in that #2. Then in p1-3 of our #32 we'll see Pietro get a medal for his part in the Devos thing, and the team will return home to Amadeus Cho, Jocasta and Jarvis.

As well as Medusa and Luna of the Inhumans we see Crystal (Luna's mother), Gorgon and Karnak. Black Bolt isn't there because he appeared to die at the end of the War Of Kings. They were all last seen in ROK:Inh#2 and will all be in our #32.

The Avengers Resistance members will rejoin the rest of their team in Avengers: Initiative #28 to continue causing trouble for Norman Osborn.

Spider-Woman is now off to her 7-issue 2009 series to hunt Skrulls for SWORD. The other New Avengers members will join the rest of *their* team for her last issue.

Hawkeye, Hulkling, Patriot and Wiccan of the Young Avengers will meet Rikki Barnes, the Bucky from Heroes Reborn, in a tale in Captain America #600. This will lead to a guest shot, plus Speed, in Nomad: Girl Without A World #4. (Stature and Vision remain with our team during this period).

Ban-Luck hasn't been seen again.

The People's Defence Force will return without Radioactive Man in All-New Inhumans #5-6 when Crystal's Inhuman diplomatic mission comes to China. But before that Collective Man will show up in Uncanny X-Men #529-532 taking over a San Francisco Chinatown gang.

Radioactive Man will go his own way starting with the Avengers: X-Sanction mini as a generic villain-group member.

The Unspoken will return as a major villain in the Inhumanity and Inhuman series, and then go on to bedevil the Uncanny Inhumans.




> Mighty Avengers comic book info and issue index

Elektra

Excelsioring your collection:
statue
Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Sean Chen
Mark Morales
John Rauch
Marko Djurdjevic (Cover Penciler)
Marko Djurdjevic (Cover Inker)
Marko Djurdjevic (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Dave Lanphear.
Editor: Tom Brevoort.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Captain America
Captain America

(James "Bucky" Barnes)
Hawkeye
Hawkeye

(Katherine Elizabeth Bishop)
Hercules
Hercules

(Heracles)
Hulkling
Hulkling

(Theodore Altman)
Jarvis
Jarvis

(Edwin Jarvis)
Jocasta
Jocasta

(Jocasta Pym)
Medusa
Medusa

(Medusa Amaquelin Boltagon)
Ms. Marvel
Ms. Marvel

(Carol Danvers)
Quicksilver
Quicksilver

(Pietro Maximoff)
Ronin
Ronin

(Clint Barton)
Spider-Woman
Spider-Woman

(Jessica Drew)
Tigra
Tigra

(Greer Nelson)
U.S. Agent
U.S. Agent

(John Walker)
Wasp
Wasp

(Henry Pym)
Wiccan
Wiccan

(William Kaplan)

Plus: Gauntlet (Joseph Green), Justice (Vance Astrovik), Luna, Patriot (Elijah Bradley), Radioactive Man (Chen Lu), Rage (Elvin Daryl Haliday), Speed (Thomas Shepherd), Unspoken, Vision (Jonas).