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Uncanny Avengers #4: Review

May 2015
Rick Remender, Daniel Acuna

Story Name:

Counter-evolutionary part 4

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

Uncanny Avengers #4 Review by (May 24, 2015)
So now we have another origin for Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Originally in Uncanny X-Men #4 they were teen mutants from Eastern Europe with no family. Their 1st origin was in Avengers Giant-Size #1 where Whizzer said his wife Miss America gave birth to them in High Evolutionary's Citadel on Wundagore Mountain. Miss A died in childbirth and distraught Whizzer ran away and left them there. Then in Av#182 gypsy Django Maximoff claimed they were his children. Av#186 joined these stories together and gave the previously canonical version. Miss A's child was stillborn. At the same time a mystery woman Magda gave birth to twins and ran off. HE tried to give the twins to Whizzer but he ran off too, so instead HE gave them to the Maximoffs to replace their own dead children. Simultaneously in UXM#125 readers learnt that Magda was Magneto's wife, but Maggie didn't join the dots until the 1st Vision & Scarlet Witch mini-series. This new origin says the Maximoffs' original children weren't dead but abducted by HE, who genetically enhanced them and gave them back. We could interpolate Whizzer and Miss A's involvement and suggest that HE tried to give the modified twins to them. It's not so easy to explain away the midwife Bova's testimony in Av#186. She had no reason to lie but HE may have fooled her. We have to assume that Magnetos' wife Magda *was* there but HE swapped pairs of twins. Either Magda's children died or they're out there somewhere to be subject of a possible later plotline.

HE's genetic tampering raises the question of whether Pietro and Wanda are actually mutants. Prof X's Cerebro could presumably distinguish between real mutants and people who have been genetically modified in other ways. But he never said that the twins weren't mutants. I have another problem. HE supposedly gave Luminous the same genetic modifications as both Quicksliver and Scarlet Witch, but better. However according to Av#187 some of Wanda's powers stemmed from Chthon. Brother Voodoo's restricted offer to the New Men spirits of the choice between paradise or revenge reminds me of Grandmaster's offer to Kang in Av#69-71 of a choice between life and death - resurrection for his love Ravonna or revenge against the Avengers. And there are probably other examples of this classic dilemma. Scarlet Witch previously restored Wonder Man to life after his ionic form was destroyed in Force Works #1. It was sometime later in Avengers (1998) #2 that she subconsciously brought his energy back together. He hung around in energy form for a while until she fully embodied him in #11.




 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Uncanny Avengers #4 Synopsis by Rob Johnson
Scarlet Witch remembers and regrets she and her twin Quicksilver being rescued as teenagers by Magneto. For a long time they thought he was their father, but Wanda discovered during Axis that it wasn't true. Now they have come to Counter-Earth to seek answers from the High Evolutionary. But he has them captive in forcefields.

He describes them as his failures, and Wanda jumps to the conclusion that he's their real father. But he quickly denies that. Instead he says he took them from their gypsy parents Django and Marya Maximoff to attempt genetic alterations. But he was unhappy with the results and returned them to the Maximoffs, where they grew up thinking they were mutants. Since then he has created a new better daughter Luminous (whom they fought last issue) with both their powers.

Said daughter is leading a troop of evolved rhinos, warthogs, etc against HE's son the Low Evolutionary and the reject New Men he's saved from HE's regular cullings. Part of her team is Sabretooth wearing a control collar. Which suddenly switches off, allowing him to come to his senses. He disposes of the dog New Man holding his leash, and smashes his collar in case it comes on again.

The heroic (since Axis) mutant takes stock of the situation, figures that the animals with the big guns killing indiscriminately are probably the bad guys, and slashes their leader Luminous. Then he saves the LE from a warthog and dives into the fray.

Meanwhile in the Ghost Town Temple Brother Voodoo is communing with the spirits of culled New Men. Some of them want deliverance, and he could send on to paradise. Others want revenge, and he could give them material forms to attack the living. But the power in this place will only allow him to effect 1 spell, and they must choose as a group which 1.

Meanwhile (again) Pietro and Wanda are brought to the evolved-bird scientist who has been experimenting on Rogue. The twins break free from their robot guards, and set Rogue free too. She wants to know what the bird-guy has done to her such that she can't hear Simon Williams in her head anymore. I think birdy suggests that she will now have Wonder Man's full ionic powers. But Quicksilver KO's him, on the grounds that Wanda will be able to bring Simon back as she's done before.

The twins came to Counter-Earth alone, but they aren't too surprised to see Rogue because they've already seen Sabretooth. Rogue tells them she assembled a team to come after them. As well as Sabretooth and Brother Voodoo there's also Captain America (Sam Wilson) and Vision, but they got split up.

They try to break out of the lab, but even Rogue can't break the door down. But then it just opens, and Scarlet Witch senses the work of her ex-husband Vision.

Vision met another android dubbed Eve in #1, and they generated a batch of offspring last issue. It was indeed he who sneaked into High Evolutionary's computer network and opened the door. But Eve tells him that she knew he did that, and she actually smoothed the way for him. But now he must choose between his old loyalties to humans and his new loyalty to his android family. The HE learned about their children last issue, but Eve doesn't trust him so they must leave this world.

Sabretooth is still fighting Luminous and her New Men when she does something to age him - a lot. But HE arrives and tells his daughter he wants Victor Creed kept alive. They return to purging Lowtown, and Quicksilver turns up just in time to stop HE killing Low Evolutionary. Wanda and Rogue join them, and HE is interested in Rogue's ionic powers.

HE raises a load of tree beings as he did in #2. Once again 1 of them is Sam Wilson, who got turned to wood in #1. But this time Cap rebels, raises his shield and shouts "Avengers assemble".



Daniel Acuna
Daniel Acuna
Daniel Acuna
Daniel Acuna (Cover Penciler)
Daniel Acuna (Cover Inker)
Daniel Acuna (Cover Colorist)


Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Quicksilver
Quicksilver

(Pietro Maximoff)
Rogue
Rogue

(Anna Marie LeBeau)
Scarlet Witch
Scarlet Witch

(Wanda Maximoff)



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