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The Avengers #314

Feb 1990

John Byrne, Paul Ryan

Story Name:

Along Came a Spider

Synopsis

The Avengers #314 synopsis by T Vernon

Rating:

Iron Man arrives at the ruins of Avengers Park where Captain America is conferring with contractor Mr. Withers about repairing and enlarging the site to become the Avengers’ new headquarters. Iron Man speaks of the original building and its design with such familiarity that Cap wonders if Shellhead is telling the truth when he claims to be a new hero wearing the suit—or if he is really Tony Stark as Cap had long suspected. Thor has an enormous ball of metal waste that he is going to fly to a New Jersey landfill, while Cap has John Jameson fly him to the penthouse of Sersi, the Eternal…

…who greets him enthusiastically while decorating her home for Christmas. Cap has a proposition: he wants Sersi to join the Avengers….

As Thor is flying the big metal ball to Jersey, suddenly the universe seems to fly apart, causing him to drop the ball toward a crowded schoolyard. As Thor hastily tries to settle on a course of action, a long string of webbing hits the metal ball and it is swung into the distance. Thor then hurls Mjolnir and it sticks to the ball and returns it to Thor who catches it and puts it down safely. Spider-Man, responsible for the webbing (of course), comes out and reveals he had also experienced that weird inversion. Thor brings Spidey back to Avengers HQ….

Meanwhile, both Cap and Sersi were shaken by the same incident and Cap flies back to HQ with Sersi and the badly shaken John Jameson. Iron Man and Vision are picking up the pieces of the inversion. Sersi uses her psychic powers to try to detect what happened….

At Polydyne, Professor Harker’s experiments have been badly shaken by the inversion. Nebula, disguised as a human, is angry at the interruption. She contacts her mothership and her Rigellian sidekick Gunthar who tells her that the inversion was felt galaxy-wide—that for a brief second, the entire universe winked out of existence. She is amazed at the possible outcomes and enraged that Harker advises caution. On the ship, Gunthar warns about “he,” their common enemy. Starfox, overhearing all this, knocks out Gunthar and tries to send a warning message to the Avengers but he is overpowered by a bigger henchman….

Meanwhile, Cap, Sersi, and Vision are in touch with Hank Pym of the West Coast Avengers, as they try to work out what has happened. Vision’s theory is that something cancelled out the four forces holding reality together so that for a brief span, the universe ceased to exist. Jarvis interrupts with news of Starfox’s aborted warning. Iron Man traces Starfox’s signal to the other side of the moon and he and Vision go to investigate. Thor and Spider-Man arrive just as the inversion strikes again. And again. And again. Cap asks Sersi if she would be able to shield the room they are in and the people within from the effect. When it strikes again, Sersi holds it at bay before she collapses from the mighty effort. Then Spidey points out that the screen showing what’s outside the room is now showing that the universe is now missing….

Review / Commentaries

The Avengers #314 Review by T Vernon (October 11, 2024)

Comments: Part one of five parts. Sersi met the Avengers Starfox, Wasp, and She-Hulk in AVENGERS #246 then helped Cap in CAPTAIN AMERICA #355-357, the Teenage Cap story. The Nebula subplot looks like there’s a chapter missing since issue #312 but it’s all there. Nebula’s Rigellian sidekick Gunthar previously appeared with her in issues #255-260. Cameos by Wasp and Wonder Man.

Review: Now this is more like it. After three issues of supervillains bickering between fight scenes, we enter a mind-boggling cosmic threat. The universe keeps ceasing to exist, causing literal headaches for the Avengers, plus guest-star Spider-Man. And the climactic cliffhanger kicks out all the jams and goes to the extreme. This is a promising opening to a galaxy-spanning adventure and it still has time for smaller-scale action such as Thor almost dropping a giant ball of scrap metal on a bunch of little kids. Not sure why Iron Man is being coy with his identity. Meanwhile, whoa.

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Main/1st Story Full Credits

John Byrne

Paul Ryan

Tom Palmer

Christie Scheele

Paul Ryan (Cover Penciler)
Paul Ryan (Cover Inker)
Unknown (Cover Colorist)

Additional Credits

Letterer: Bill Oakley.
Editor: Howard Mackie. Editor-in-chief: Tom DeFalco.

All stories. Listed in alphabetical order.

Avengers

Captain America
(Steven Rogers)

Hank Pym

Iron Man
(Anthony Stark)

Jarvis
(Edwin Jarvis)

Nebula

Sersi

Spider-Man
(Peter Parker)

Starfox
(Eros)

Thor
(Odinson)

Vision

Plus: John Jameson.

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