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New Avengers #30

Feb 2015
Jonathan Hickman, Dalibor Talajic

Story Name:

Beyonders


Synopsis

New Avengers #30 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4.5 stars
The previously page goes all the way back to Avengers #7 to show the Builders' Superflow Web being destroyed. And in our own #6 the Sidera Maris invading Latveria for the Mapmakers. And last issue Yellowjacket returned from the multiverse to say he'd found the Ivory Kings, and they are the Beyonders.

In the Wakandan Necropolis Henry Pym tells the assembled Avengers (Black Panther, Black Widow, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Hawkeye, Manifold, Mr Fantastic and Sunspot - later we'll also see Black Bolt and Hulk) about his trip through the multiverse, including some recordings on a crystal. He went looking for Rabum Alal as the source of the multiversal collapse. But instead he found the Beyonders who are destroying universes for their own purpose.

Black Panther is confused about there being more than 1 Beyonder, and they don't look like the 1 he knows about. No-one disagrees with him, but Yellowjacket says the Beyonder in Secret Wars was a young example who modelled himself after humans. The adult Beyonders are beyond our comprehension.

At 1st YJ wandered aimlessly through the multiverse of alternate Earths, including 1 with intelligent dinosaurs, another populated by Ultrons, a 3rd occupied by Mapmakers (I think), and a 4th being destroyed. But eventually he detected a flow of subatomic particles between timelines (at least that's what I think he meant) and followed it to a surviving Superflow station where Builders from dead universes congregated.

The Builders had linked their Aleph robots together mentally into a hive-mind and sent them out to explore what was left of the multiverse. YJ saw an Aleph on the Superstation report that a source of the multiversal death had been found. The Builders prepared to teleport the station to the co-ordinates, using a Manifold who could make that long jump because the the station 'needed' to be there.

Our Manifold interrupts to ask what 'needed' means. He already knows (because Black Swan told the Illuminati) that there are Manifolds in other universes, but like him they can only teleport themselves and other things within their own universe. But Hank Pym now tells him that the better Manifolds have a sense of where something is supposed to be, and can take it there automatically. And the Builders had genetically bred a Manifold who could do such teleporting across the multiverse.

That Manifold took the Superstation to an Earth where the Sidera Maris were waiting for the Mapmakers. (So it seems the Alephs were just looking for a live incursion of Mapmakers.) The Builders and their servants the Alephs and the Ex Nihili wiped out the Mapmakers and the Sidera Maris. But they decoded the brain of a Mapmaker (who we learned in Av#28 are escaped Adaptoids), and retrieved the map of the multiverse. Using this their Manifold was able to jump them to the Ivory Kings.

At this point in Hank's story Captain Britain joins them. He came as soon as he heard YJ was back. He says that the Mapmakers were a trap set by the Ivory Kings. 4 months ago the CB Corps also captured a Mapmaker and examined it. But instead of following the trail their leader Saturnyne devised a beacon as a lure. The Ivory Kings sent a horde of Mapmakers and Sidera Maris to the extradimensional Starlight Citadel. The Corps were wiped out and our Captain Britain lost an eye. But as a last act Saturnyne implanted the Citadel's knowledge in the eye socket and sent our CB home to Earth-616.

Yellowjacket continues his story. As the Builders & co arrived at their destination he was beginning to wonder why the ultra-powerful Ivory Kings hadn't already destroyed the whole multiverse, if that was what they wanted. Then he found the answer to that. The Ivory Kings were opposed by the Celestials, and the trap was meant for them not puny Builders.

Hank saw his 1st Ivory King fighting and killing the Celestials of the universe they were in. The cosmic conflict weakened the walls between timelines, and Henry Pym saw Celestials dying all over the multiverse. Mr Fantastic realises that this explains why the Celestials broke off contact with the Illuminati, as reported last issue.

Somewhere in all this the Builders, Alephs and Ex Nihili were killed, but shrunken YJ survived. He watched as the Beyonders faced and killed higher powers:- Chaos, Order, the In-Betweener, Infinity and finally Eternity. And then they faced the multiverse embodied as the Living Tribunal. That battle ended with LT dead and splintered into 1 facet in each universe.

Then YJ ran home as fast as he could.


 

Review / Commentaries


New Avengers #30 Review by (March 1, 2015)
Dalibor Talajic steps in as penciller for this issue instead of Kev Walker. Perhaps this explains why it's late. The 5 prominently-depicted dead members of the Captain Britain Corps on the cover are Captain UK and Hauptmann Englande (the most frequently seen pair), Spider-UK (the recent addition from the Spider-Verse), and probably Captain England and Centurion Britannus. The cover is pencilled by Alan Davis who has a long association with Captain Britain and the Corps. The cast page correctly highlights Captain Marvel, Hawkeye and Steve Rogers from the SHIELD Avengers, Black Bolt, Black Panther, Captain Britain, Hulk, Mr Fantastic and Yellowjacket of the Illuminati, and Black Widow, Manifold and Sunspot representing the New Avengers. The Cabal (now in the Ultimate universe) and the Multiversal Avengers (off with Thor) aren't here. I was wrong at the end of last issue. The Beyonders didn't follow Yellowjacket home - that was just an image he projected. The Beyonders have never actually been portrayed before - but they have been mentioned occasionally in connection with results of their actions. Thus it isn't unreasonable that Black Panther is surprised that there is more than 1 Beyonder and they don't look like the 1 from Secret Wars. And no-one else present claims to know about them either. Although I would have expected Mr Fantastic to chip in. Reed wasn't with the Fantastic Four in FF#319 where they learned that the Beyonders create Cosmic Cubes and the Beyonder was 1 such, but I would expect they told him about it. However (if I read it right) this new claim that the Beyonder was a young 1 of the Beyonders would contradict all that anyway. Whatever is true of the above, it isn't clear here how Yellowjacket decided that the Ivory Kings *are* Beyonders.

Thanos in his annual #1 ranked the Living Tribunal as top dog amongst the cosmic entities here. But I think this is the 1st time it's been called the embodiment of the multiverse. In #8 Iron Man remembered seeing a dead facet of the Living Tribunal on the Moon, which was never explained until now. I don't think YJ was sent off on his mission that early, so there must be some time-travel component of LT's breakup. Random thoughts not directly connected to this issue. If the Illuminati have taken back control of the Wakandan Necropolis (as indicated last issue) after getting rid of the Cabal (Avengers #40), then why haven't they found Iron Man imprisoned there? Or they have and, like Black Widow and Spider-Woman in #26, they've decided to leave him there. And so far in this future we've seen old Steve Rogers, the Sam Wilson Captain America, the Doc Green Hulk, Superior Iron Man and the unworthy male Thor. But where's the female Thor?


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Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Black Panther
Black Panther

(T'Challa)
Black Widow
Black Widow

(Natasha Romanoff)
Captain America
Captain America

(Steven Rogers)
Hawkeye
Hawkeye

(Clinton Barton)
Hulk
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(Robert Bruce Banner)
Mr. Fantastic
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(Reed Richards)