War Machine #18

The disc bearing the label Timely Wisconsin is a clue to Skye's involvement with the Crossing. Despite this apparent connection to Kang's Timely Industries, in #23 Skye will confirm that she is working against Kang, for an unspecified power. This would suggest that the 'he' she mumbles about who sent the monster is Kang. (But next issue suggests it is her master, in order to test Rhodey.) This confusion could just be swept under the carpet by the revelation in Avengers Forever that both sides in the conflict are actually Space Phantoms working for Immortus. However it does also allow an intriguing alternative. No-one has explained what Kang himself was doing while Immortus was impersonating him in this scam. I suppose Immortus could have used the Space Phantoms' trick of sending impersonated beings to Limbo in a coma. But I'm not sure that would work on Kang. We can consider where Kang is supposed to be at this time. He could be 'dead' as seen in Avengers: The Termintarix Objective, or retired with Terminatrix to 1901 Timely as seen in an epilogue in the same issue. Or he could be really retired as Rama Tut II. But instead just possibly the real Kang was working against Immortus (on principle, even if he didn't know what Immortus's purpose was). Maybe *he* was Skye's hidden employer. Whoever she was working for was a villain, so Skye gets listed as an enemy.

I have included this issue and next as preludes to the Crossing crossover because #23 will reveal that Skye is working for Kang's opposition, and the Warwear armour will play a significant role in the conflict. They lie between Iron Man #319 and Avengers: The Crossing because next issue Hawkeye says he's on the way to the meeting Iron Man has called. I have included the issues in the Iron Man Library, even though Iron Man doesn't appear, because the Crossing is fundamentally an Iron Man story. And anyway War Machine is part of the Iron Man family. And because now that I'm Iron Man Librarian I have the power to do whatever I like. Bwah-hah-hah! The team-up mentioned occurred in the flip-book 2nd stories in Force Works #12, War Machine #15 and Iron Man #317. The WWII time travel story was in #15-17. #20 says Matlin Lake is in Canada. The new armour isn't called Warwear until #20.