The Avengers #167

Jan 1978

Jim Shooter, George Perez

Story Name:

Tomorrow Dies Today!

Synopsis

The Avengers #167 synopsis by Peter Silvestro

Rating:

The Avengers Priority Alarm sounds summoning Captain America, Scarlet Witch and Beast to the communications center where Vision is taking a message from Nick Fury on SHIELD’s space station. A massive spacecraft has just materialized near the station. A call for the Avengers to assemble gathers Thor and Wonder Man, though Iron Man, on the space station as Tony Stark. arrives late causing some friction with Cap. The Avengers land on the mysterious construct and split up to search. After the usual conflict with the inhabitants, Earth’s mightiest heroes meet the Guardians of the Galaxy: Vance Astro, Martinex, Yondu, Charlie-27, Nikki and Starhawk. Thor and Cap vouch for these heroes from the future, having met them before. Traveling to the 31st century, Thor had aided the Guardians in defeating Korvac the Machine Man and now the future heroes have come to this time pursuing the fleeing villain. At Janet Pym’s latest fashion show, the Porcupine and his gang show up to rob the place. Jan becomes the Wasp, Hank the Yellowjacket, and guest Kyle Richmond dons his Nighthawk suit, and together they vanquish the villains. In the chaos, an elegant man called Michael without a word persuades model Carina Walters to go off with him.

Characters:

> The Avengers comic book info and issue index

Review / Commentaries

The Avengers #167 Review by Peter Silvestro (March 19, 2010)

Thor met the Guardians in THOR ANNUAL #6, Cap in MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #5.

The Avengers #167 Review by Rob Johnson (October 14, 2014)

Nighthawk was another villainous pawn of Grandmaster in #69-70, but reformed in Daredevil #62 and joined the Defenders before they met the Guardians. He's still there at this point. Porcupine fought Ant-Man/Giant-Man and Wasp a couple of times in Tales to Astonish, and since then has been a generic member of bad-guy groups. Now he's branched out on his own again, he comes up against Wasp and another Henry Pym ID. It will become apparent next issue that the mystery man (not actually named as Michael until then) is actually Korvac. But it won't be until #175 that we learn who Carina Walters is.

Gerber also invented Korvac in GSDef#3, as 1 of Grandmaster's pawns plucked from time and space. But it wasn't Steve who connected him to the Guardians, and involved the Badoon in his origin, in Th An#6. GotG think Korvac has come back to kill the younger version of Vance Astro to create an alternate timeline where he isn't there to found the Guardians, leaving the future ripe for Korvac's conquest. Vance Astro was born in this era as Vance Astrovik, and got to the 31st Century via suspended animation. The Guardians don't realise that this timeline (Earth-616) was already split from theirs (Earth-619) in Def#16 when Vance Astro met Vance Astrovik and set him on the course which will turn him into the superhero Justice. (Which doesn't explain why they and Korvac would travel back to *this* particular timeline rather than their own.)

This original version of Guardians of the Galaxy began life in Marvel Super-Heroes #18. They were rebels in the 31st Century where Humans are enslaved by the Badoon. Vance Astro led original members Charlie-27, Martinex and Yondu. Captain America and Thing went forward in time to help them in Marvel Two-In-One #4-5. The Guardians came back in time for Giant-Size Defenders #5 and stayed for Def#26. The Defenders went back to the future with them in Def#27-29, where the mysterious Starhawk joined them and Earth was freed from the Badoon. Then they got their own galaxy-spanning series in Marvel Presents #3-12, wherein their last member Nikki joined the team. Then there was Thor Annual #6 where they confronted Korvac. (Most of this, from MTIO#4 to MP#9, was written by Steve Gerber.) (Note that from Thor's POV his An#6 hasn't happened yet - the Official Index places it in the middle of the Korvac Saga. But the Annual was actually published just before this issue, which is why Thor is written as remembering it.)

Thor remembers being brought from space to Earth to fight Graviton (#159-160), Ultron (#162) and Nefaria (#165-166). This time he hasn't been immediately sent back. We will learn in #175 that this was Collector's doing. Unlike Thor, Cap still thinks Iron Man is just Tony Stark's bodyguard. He's been dissatisfied with Iron Man's part time leadership since #164, Cap also automatically takes charge when they enter the big spaceship, so it's obvious who he thinks should *really* lead the team. The 'usual conflict' this time is only Beast against Charlie-27 and Nikki.

George Perez is back on pencils (after John Byrne's Nefaria stint) at least for the 1st half of the Korvac Saga. Wonder Man wears his safari jacket outfit for the 1st time, after his last uniform got ripped to shreds (again) last issue. At least this 1 will stay around for a while. We learn by Beast's offhand thought balloon that Black Panther has left the team. But not for long - he'll be dragged back in #172. Nick Fury says SHIELD's space station is 1 they reoccupied and rebuilt. An editorial comment says that it was wrecked in Uncanny X-Men #100, but that before that it had belonged to SHIELD and was abandoned. A search in the original X-Men Index reveals that SHIELD had the space station in Av#96, then presumably abandoned it and Steven Lang took it over for UXM#98-100. Visually the 3 space stations are indeed extremely similar.

Excelsioring your collection:

Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Main/1st Story Full Credits

Jim Shooter

George Perez

Pablo Marcos

Phil Rachelson

George Perez (Cover Penciler)
Terry Austin (Cover Inker)

Additional Credits

Plot: Roger Stern.

Thor

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