Savage Avengers #1: Review

May 2019

Gerry Duggan, Mike Deodato Jr.

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Story Name:

Chapter 1: Once upon a time in the City Of Sickles

Review & Comments

Rating:

Savage Avengers #1 Review by Rob Johnson (May 18, 2019)

As an Avengers enthusiast I figured I'd try this new title out.

Elektra is on the cover but not in this issue. However she *was* in Free Comic Book Day 2019 Avengers following her own trail towards the City Of Sickles.

The Hand may be working for the Sickle Priest here but he says he has united several cults. The guards at the City Of Sickles all seem to be women in Ancient Egyptian garb.

The Venom symbiote started operating independent of any host at the end of Venom (2019) #12. In that state it's appearing here and also in War Of The Realms issues of its own title and others.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Savage Avengers #1 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

Famous opera singer Saviano is kidnapped by Hand ninjas and transported through a gateway to the City Of Sickles in the Savage Land. The Sickle Priest beheads him (with a sickle of course) and pushes his body into a literal pool of blood with corpses floating in it. He says they are filling the bowl with the finest artists, thinkers, etc. What he really wants is more warriors, but he'll make do for the moment with a bewigged judge who is the next victim. This is all done to summon Jhoatun Lau to Earth at the upcoming celestial conjunction.

In a mountain above the city Conan the Cimmerian is fighting more Hand ninjas. He's been in the Land for some weeks since the end of Avengers: No Road Home, and he's lured here by the rumours of a treasure. Dodging swords and throwing-stars he's killed most of the ninjas when his own sword strikes metal. He's embedded it in the skull of a man we know as Wolverine, who comments that *he*'s just killed the last of them. Retrieving the weapon begins a battle of sword and adamantium claws.

Conan loses his own iron blade but continues with a ninja's sword. Logan isn't trying to kill the stranger but Conan has no hesitation in running him through. But Wolverine just removes the blade and hands it back. The battle continues until both men fall off a cliff to the city below. They slow their fall and survive.

Conan grabs another sword from a handy rack. The 2 warriors part with mutual respect, Conan to find his treasure and Wolverine to look for Saviano. (We learned in Free Comic Book Day 2019 Avengers that Saviano used to smuggle oppressed mutants for Wolvie in his private jet. Now Logan has followed the trail of the Hand here to repay the debt.)

(FCBD 2019 Av also mentioned that the cult has found the 3rd Eye Of Agamotto, which sounds like the amulet Conan is after.) However Conan merely comes across a caged Venom suspended over what appears to be a sleeping copy of the Sickle Priest.

Meanwhile in Madripoor Doctor Voodoo is investigating the disappearance of powerful gang bosses. He's come to see Ma Yun whose son is 1 of them. But it turns out she's betrayed him to the Hand in return for the promise of her boy's return. However Jericho Drumm has come prepared with a Hand Voodoo doll ...

... which doesn't do him much good because we next see him over the blood pool in the hands of the Priest, who takes time out to explain that there is a planet beyond Pluto which is in conjunction with Earth once in a millennium. The next conjunction is soon when the sect will summon Jhoatun Lau, the Marrow God to take them to his Temple In The Stars. When this was attempted at the last conjunction the sacrifice was not sufficient and all the summoners were slain.

Then Wolverine bursts through yet more Hand warriors to save Jericho. But the Priest slits DrV's throat and Logan is assailed by a hail of arrows and stars. As the Hand restrain the mutant, even more Hand bring in 3 coffins as bait for another warrior ...

... and we see Punisher discovering that the bodies of his wife and children are missing from their graves.

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