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The Avengers #323

Sep 1990
Fabian Nicieza, Rik Levins

The Avengers #323 cover

Story Name:

The Crossing Line Part Five: One World's Not Enough For All of Us

Synopsis

The Avengers #323 synopsis by T Vernon
Rating: 4.5 stars
The nuclear holocaust devastates St. John’s Bay, Newfoundland, enveloping the Avengers, Alpha Flight, and People’s Protectorate heroes….

Several heroes (Captain America, Red Guardian, Vostok, Vision, the terrorists minus the two leaders, civilians) discover themselves in an eerie limbo full of living energy beings. They manage to congregate. Cap is contacted telepathically by Fantasma; she is part of a group (Sersi and multiple civilians) in a fiery realm; Sersi uses her Eternal powers to keep the flames at bay and lower the heat to tolerable levels but it puts a severe strain on her. Fantasma and Sersi link their powers to contact Shaman who is indeed responsible for the current situation. He drew everyone and the deadly fallout into his mystic pouch where they are scattered among various dimensional planes. He can save them if they manage to draw the various planes together but he can’t hold everything much longer….

In the energy realm, the energy beings start attacking the refugees; Vostok energizes a piece of metal debris to act as a lightning rod attracting the beings. Fantasma taps Sersi’s powers to locate the others….

In a watery realm are Quasar, Crimson Dynamo, Perun, Puck, Diamond Lil, Madison Jeffries, Tyrak, and Orka, plus civilians. Fantasma explains the situation and the urgency of creating a nexus to draw them together. Tyrak balks, not believing them; Perun shouts some sense into him. Jeffries says that if he had his Box armor, he could create a kilometers-long metal tether line to draw them together. Vision sees the Box armor in the energy dimension so he and Vostok set out to recover it while Sersi draws the energy dimension towards herself….

Fantasma locates more survivors in a desert realm, including Guardian, Stingray, and U-Man plus civilians and directs them toward the nexus….

Cap and his group pilot the Quinjet for five minutes, which feels like two days and reach the dimensional locus where they can join Sersi’s group in the fire realm. Sersi must let down her shields to make contact and they are drawn together. Then the water realm pours in with its survivors. Box creates a long tether to hold them all together and Sersi envelops everyone in individual protective sheaths while they search for the remaining people. Finally, all of them are gathered and Shaman can start bringing people out of his pouch. But the first group of civilians out of the pouch are instantly consumed by radioactive fallout. Shaman shouts to stop sending people through. As the reality that they cannot leave the pouch sinks in, suddenly Sersi is overwhelmed by a psychic force and curls up into a ball. Then the Combine appears, terrorists Prokvitch and Strokov melded together, offering to help them return to their home….

Characters:

Alpha Flight
Avengers
Captain America
Orka
Perun
Puck
Quasar
Sersi
Vision
Vostok
Plus: BOX (Madison Jeffries), Crimson Dynamo (Dmitri Bukharin), Diamond Lil, Fantasma, Guardian (Heather MacNeil), Red Guardian (Josef Petkus), Shaman, Stingray (Walter Newell), Tyrak, U-Man.

Story #2

The Man and the Wolf

Writer: Mark Gruenwald. Penciler: Brad Vancata. Inker: Mickey Ritter. Colorist: Joe Rosas. Letterer: Ed Lazellari.

Synopsis

By T Vernon
Rating: 3 stars
Captain America’s designated pilot John Jameson is taking a test drive of the secret underground railway and enjoying it. At the secret dock he exits the train and spies a shiny object on the floor. Picking it up, he discovers it is the Moon-Stone that once changed him into Man-Wolf—which was destroyed. The stone leaps to his throat, triggering the transformation into the vicious predator. Man-Wolf invades the HQ, rushing upon and attacking his fellow Crewmembers. Then a mysterious voice calls on them by name to arise and gather on the courtyard; the villain (it’s Mother Night) gloats that now she knows their darkest secrets, they are in her power forever….

Characters:

Jarvis
Peggy Carter
Plus: Fabian Stankowicz, John Jameson, Michael O'Brien.



> The Avengers comic book info and issue index


 

Review / Commentaries

The Avengers #323 Review by (December 13, 2024)
Comments: “The Crossing Line: Part 5 of Six: Ground Zero!”—Cover. First story: First appearance of the Combine.

Second story: John Jameson became Man-Wolf in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #125, turning furry intermittently until finally cured in PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #3; he joined Cap’s staff as personal pilot in CAPTAIN AMERICA #358. Mickey Ritter contributed to the pencils.  

Review: Didn’t see this coming: the big kaboom has destroyed the island and the first few pages depicting this are very eerie and intense, capturing the disorienting event. And then everything goes science-fictiony with the various characters spread among several dimensional realms and trying to reunite and escape the big magic bag. It’s that last part that seems weird if not comical. But then to have everyone escape a nuclear blast, some make believe solution has to be found. Yes, it’s all nonsense but the question is, “is it good nonsense?” And it is, assuming we can go along with it. Fortunately, I could and did so I had fun. Your mileage may vary.

Second story: The least interesting of the back-up tales. Whereas the other members of the Avengers Support Crew have to face personal demons, John Jameson’s challenge is to not turn into a werewolf. But he’s been there before and presumably can deal with it.

Elektra


Excelsioring your collection:
statue
Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Main/1st Story Full Credits

Rik Levins
Tom Palmer
Nel Yomtov
Paul Ryan (Cover Penciler)
Tom Palmer (Cover Inker)
Unknown (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Bill Oakley.
Editor: Howard Mackie. Editor-in-chief: Tom DeFalco.



Thor

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