Earth's Mightiest Annotations
by Sean McQuaid

AVENGERS (volume 3) # 9
October, 1998
"The Villain Who Fell From Grace With The Earth"
By Kurt Busiek & George Perez
with Al Vey (inker), Tom Smith (colors), RS/Comicraft/Dave Lanphear
(letters),
Tom Brevoort (editor) & Bob Harras (editor-in-chief).

Avengers Assembled: Iron Man, Captain America, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch,
Vision [II], Wonder Man, Firestar & Justice.

Other Characters: Edwin Jarvis, Silverclaw, Triathlon & Moses Magnum.
Triathlon's real name is revealed to be Delroy Garrett Junior.


EXTERIOR COVER
This issue's cover illustration (drawn by George Perez and colored by Tom
Smith) features Moses Magnum scattering Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Triathlon,
Silverclaw, Captain America, Firestar, Justice and Iron Man with his seismic
powers. Thor's face is featured in the cover's corner box, but he appears in
neither the cover illustration nor the actual story. As Thor explained last
issue, he will be absent from the Avengers more often now due to his new
double life as paramedic Jake Olson.


INTERIOR COVER
Events from the previous issue are recapped.


PAGE 1
The Avengers have used undersea equipment before, but this is the first time
we have seen these sleek, streamlined scuba versions of their conventional
costuming. The individualized designs and color schemes are a nice touch.
Iron Man, of course, doesn't need specialized scuba gear since he's sealed
in his armor.


PAGES 2-3 (two-page spread)
Justice at long last makes an observation various readers have been making
for months now--that he was a confident professional with the New Warriors,
but has been acting like an overanxious rookie since joining the Avengers.

Silverclaw's thoughts reveal that she came to the USA to attend college.


PAGE 4

Panel 2:
We get some new background info on Silverclaw, who says she was born with
her shapeshifting powers as a result of being the "daughter of the Volcano
God." If she is literally the child of a god, it's an interesting parallel
to the late Canadian heroine Snowbird. Snowbird was the child of a goddess
and could assume the forms of the animals of the Arctic, while Silverclaw
is purportedly the child of a god and can assume the forms of the animals
of the Amazon. Still, none of this does anything to mitigate the major
coincidence of the Avengers' future butler sponsoring a child who later
turns out to be a super-heroine, something which has led some readers to
speculate that Silverclaw may not be what she seems.

Panels 5-7:
Wanda looking "radiant" this morning is another indication that her most
recent encounter with Wonder Man was sexual in nature, an encounter that
apparently worked off much of Wanda's recent tension. Wanda's thoughts on
the matter reaffirm what her comments indicated last issue: that she did
not consciously will Wonder Man to appear. In fact, he has appeared to her
unbidden at least three times by now (in issues 4, 7 and 8), though she
assumed she had subconsciously initiated his manifestations.

Panels 7-8:
Vision is obviously still preoccupied with thoughts of the scene he stumbled
upon last issue: Wonder Man making love to Vision's estranged wife, Wanda.

The files Hawkeye is asking about may be the Triathlon information he
requested last issue, but they might also be information on the
Thunderbolts; Hawkeye expressed intense interest in their activities last
issue, and rumours of Clint becoming a Thunderbolts regular have been
circulating for some time.


PAGE 5

Panels 1-3:
Vision continues to be distracted by Wanda while Clint admits to his
increasingly obvious dissatisfaction with returning to a subordinate role
in the team after his long service as leader of the western Avengers roster.

Panel 5:
"Nita" is a nickname applied to Namorita Prentiss, alias KYMAERA. Like
Vance and Angel, Namorita is a founding member of the New Warriors. She
is a superhuman clone of Namor the Sub-Mariner's late cousin, Namora,
and has an affectionate familial relationship with Namor. Her powers
more or less duplicate Namor's abilities (primarily flight, enhanced
strength and indefinite survival in either water or air), though she has
since mutated into a form that looks more Atlantean than human. She first
appeared in Sub-Mariner # 50.

Panels 6-9:
Firestar confesses her power problems to Wanda, and says that she has
already informed Cap of her situation (something readers had been wondering
about since Warbird was kicked out partly because she tried to conceal the
state of her powers from the team). The potential ill effects of Firestar's
powers have been known to readers since her days with the New Warriors. What
solution Wanda could possibly offer to Firestar's problem is as yet unknown.


PAGE 6

Panels 5-6:
Cap recounts the events of last issue.


PAGE 7

Panels 2-4:
Apparently, Vision's holographic form can double as a video display.

How Triathlon learned of and broke in on the Avengers communications waveband
is a mystery for now since, as Iron Man points out, he only met the team for
the first time yesterday. Triathlon's predecessor, 3-D Man, was a member of
the 1950s Avengers, but there is no known connection between the operations
of the 1950s Avengers and the present-day team.

It's somewhat surprising that Cap, Iron Man and Vision have all failed to
note Triathlon's similarity to the 3-D Man since they all saw a detailed
audio-video account of the founding of the 1950s Avengers in What If? (v1)
# 9. Cap even regarded 3-D Man as his counterpart in the earlier group.

For ideas on another possible connection between Triathlon and the Avengers,
see the annotations for Page 10.

Panel 5:
The X-Men are a team of mutant adventurers dedicated to the education and
protection of mutantkind and the defense of humankind from evil mutants and
other paranormal menaces. They were founded around the same time as the
Avengers and the two groups are longtime allies despite occasional
adversarial relations due to the X-Men's outlaw status. The Beast, a
founding member of the X-Men, is also a longtime member of the Avengers
and last worked with them in Avengers (v3) # 1-4. The X-Men first appeared
in X-Men (v1) # 1 and currently appear in two ongoing series of their own:
X-Men (v2) and Uncanny X-Men (formerly X-Men [v1]).

APOCALYPSE is a longtime recurring foe of the X-Men, a centuries-old
geneticist, sometime tyrant, would-be world conqueror and mutant
shapeshifter who is obsessed with natural selection and the survival of the
fittest. As such, he has instigated or participated in a variety of crises
and disasters designed to inflict mass fatalities in hopes that only "the
strong" will survive in the world that he hopes to rule. Apocalypse first
appeared in X-Factor # 5-6.


PAGE 10
Triathlon recounts his background and origins, including an intimation of why
he chose the alias Triathlon (in addition to his triple-strength powers, he
was a track & field athlete who won three Olympic gold medals). The Triune
Understanding organization's origins, membership and goals are unknown, but
they obviously have some connection to the 3-D Man since they use his emblem
as their symbol, and since they helped Triathlon develop superhuman powers
similar to the powers of the 3-D Man.

Sharp-eyed reader John Warren was the first to point out that 3-D Man and
Triathlon aren't the only Marvel characters who have worn the Triune
Understanding symbol: another such character is new Avengers liaison
Duane Jerome Freeman, who is seen wearing the TU symbol in Avengers (v3)
# 4-5. If Triathlon is a composite being like 3-D Man, then it's possible
that Freeman may be part of Triathlon. At the very least it's likely that
Triathlon and Freeman are connected somehow, if only by their apparently
shared membership in the Triune Understanding. If the TU knows everything
Freeman knows, then it would be understandably easy for TU member Triathlon
to access the Avengers communications wavelength as he did.


PAGE 14

Panels 2-4:
Cap says Iron Man is their heavy hitter with Thor gone (true enough), and
Wanda feels guilty about not conjuring up the more powerful Wonder Man,
something she decided to stop doing last issue. And if anything, her
passionate interlude with Wonder Man seems to have increased her reluctance
to conjure him up, since she says she doesn't know if she should feel glad
or scared about Simon's return--the most obvious indication to date of
Simon's resurrection having ominous overtones. For more on this, see the
annotations for page 21.

Panels 6-7:
Vance mentally reminds himself to settle down, another indication of the
fact that he's become aware of his overeager attitude and is finally making
an effort to rein it in.


PAGE 15

Panel 1:
Magnum flattens Iron Man with ease--not surprising given the fact that
Magnum has been portrayed as far stronger than powerhouses like Colossus,
but still perhaps a bit of a disappointment for Iron Man fans since
there have already been reader comments about shellhead not being the
sort of team power player folks expect of late. He fails to resist Morgan
Le Fay, he gets knocked around by Power Princess & Whizzer, and now he's
sent sprawling by Magnum. None of these things are all that implausible--but
as Cap says, Iron Man is considered one of the team's power players.

Panel 2:
Hawkeye admires Silverclaw & Triathlon in action, foreshadowing a possible
changing-of-the-guard as a longtime Avenger who's thinking of leaving the
team eyes two prospective Avengers recruits. Hawkeye used to be one of the
Avengers most opposed to new recruits--but as he himself said in issue 4,
he's accustomed to thinking like a leader now. When he sees impressive new
talent in action, he sees that talent as a potential addition to his team.

Triathlon's short sleeves become long sleeves in several panels, notably
this one. The short sleeves are the correct representation, but I actually
rather like the long sleeves.


PAGE 16

Panels 3-5:
Wanda speaks of how she's been tapping into energy fields lately and
manipulating them without realizing it (as she did in issues 3, 5 & 6), and
now she consciously applies this energy manipulation effect for the
first time by blocking Magnum's connection to the Earth.

Panel 7:
Says Wanda, "I'm doing it! I'm beating him--without Simon! I'm beating him!"
Wanda has often leaned heavily on the support of others--her brother Pietro,
her estranged husband Vision, her mentor Agatha Harkness, her erstwhile
lover Wonder Man, and her fellow Avengers in general. As such, it's
understandably important to Wanda that she can stand on her own in the face
of adversity.


PAGE 17

Panels 6-9:
Wanda is unconscious, but Wonder Man comes to the rescue anyway.


PAGE 18

Panel 1:
Until now, the Avengers had assumed that Simon could only appear if Wanda
conjured him up, but his appearance while Wanda is unconscious proves that
his recurring existence does not depend on her willing him into being. This
raises a question, though: if Wanda being unconscious doesn't prevent
Wonder Man from manifesting to fight Magnum, why did Wanda being knocked
unconscious cause Wonder Man to dissipate during the team's battle with
Imus Champion? Perhaps Champion didn't seem to present an immeduate lethal
threat to Wanda the way Magnum did. See the page 21 annotations for further
thoughts on all this.


PAGE 21

Panels 1-3:
Moses Magnum seemingly dies yet again, as he has in almost all his previous
appearances. Given his track record of cheating death, odds are Magnum will
return.

Panel 5:
Justice blames himself for not saving Magnum, but Firestar reassures him,
as she did last issue, that he isn't responsible for everything.

Panel 6:
Simon disappears again and Wanda resolves to do whatever she must to
unearth the true nature of Wonder Man's current existence. Since she's
thinking about leaving the team to concentrate on this quest and is absent
from next issue's cover, odds are she'll be taking a leave of absence to
concentrate on the Wonder Man mystery, which is supposed to reach a climax
in issue 11.

For some time now, there have been hints that something's not quite right
about the back-from-the-dead Simon. Consider...

1) If Wanda wanting Simon back or feeling needy was enough to bring him
back, why didn't he reappear sooner?

2) In issue 5, Wanda seems to have a sense of foreboding about the prospect
of Simon's return being an ongoing thing, worrying that "he's not done with
me yet." A confused Hawkeye asks why Simon's return would be a bad thing, but
an Avengers priority signal cuts off the conversation.

3) Vision's appearance causes Wonder Man to disappear in issue 7 when Vizh
informs Wanda that the team is about to depart. After a pregnant pause,
Wanda thanks Vision for "warning" her, another subtle suggestion that
Simon's presence may not be altogether benign.

4) Wanda conjures up Simon for battles, but she never consciously initiates
her off-duty contact with him. In issues 4, 7 & 8, Simon comes to her on his
own initative, to Wanda's surprise and confusion. These events foreshadow
the latest issue's revelation, the fact that Wonder Man can manifest on his
own without Wanda summoning him in any way.

5) Creepiest of all: outside of combat, Wonder Man only appears to Wanda
when she's alone. In issue 4, he's about to manifest but disappears when
the Wasp enters. In issue 7, he appears to Wanda but disappears when Vision
arrives. In issue 8, he comes to Wanda only after she's alone in her room.
Whatever Simon's intentions are toward Wanda, he seems to have something to
hide. And if issue 11's cover is any indication, it may be something
sinister...

Panel 7:
Hawkeye, watching Silverclaw, Firestar & Justice, muses on how "together"
they are despite being so young, and decides that the future of the Avengers
looks bright, making what he's "going to do" easier--further foreshadowing
of the fact that Hawkeye's probably leaving the Avengers, and he's feeling
better about it since the team has such promising new recruits on hand. 


PAGE 22

Panels 2-3:
Silverclaw is going to Empire State University, a prominent school in the
New York of the Marvel Universe. Its notable alumni include Peter Parker,
a.k.a. Spider-Man.

Panel 4:
Triathlon departs saying the Avengers are good people, and that he'll be
glad to help them if they need him--a further indication of a potential
place in the team for the new hero.

Panel 5:
Behind Justice we can see a portrait of inactive Avengers member the Beast,
last seen in Avengers (v3) # 1-4. The "Robbie and Dwayne" mentioned by
Firestar are probably Robbie Baldwin and Dwayne Taylor, alias Speedball
and Night-Thrasher. Like Justice and Firestar, Speedball and Night-Thrasher
were founding members of the New Warriors. Unlike Justice and Firestar, they
remain active members of the Warriors at last report. Speedball is a
costumed adventurer who gained bizarre kinetic energy powers after a
scientific accident. He first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man Annual 22 and
briefly starred in his own ongoing series before appearing as a member of
the New Warriors in most of their ongoing series. Night-Thrasher, a wealthy
youth who devoted his skills and resources to battling crime after the
murder of his parents, was the original founder, financier and leader of
the New Warriors. Like the Warriors, he first appeared in Thor (v1)
# 411-412. He appeared in most of the New Warriors ongoing series, though
he was forced out of the team for a time after criticism of his leadership.
He has since returned to the group, and has presumably resumed his
leadership role in the absence of alternate Warriors leader Justice.
Night-Thrasher formerly starred in a limited series and his own short-lived
ongoing series.

Panels 6-7:
Vision inquires about Wanda's injuries, and her reply is somewhat more
civil than she's been with Vision lately, a promising sign. Since Wanda's
finding the Wonder Man situation increasingly creepy (despite its sensual
fringe benefits), Vision may not be looking so bad by comparison. 

Wanda mentions wanting a bowl of Hawkeye's "five-alarm chili." When I asked
several noted Avengers scholars about the origins of this reference, they
all blanked on it--including Kurt Busiek himself. "I don't recall [where
Clint's chili prowess comes from]. I just have it in my mind that Clint is
good at both chili and barbeque (though his expertise at BBQ is not an
opinion shared by all
those he subjects to it)." Tom Brevoort jokes that Clint's chili recipe was
willed to him by the late Oliver Queen (DC's original Green Arrow being a
longtime chili enthusiast), and perhaps Queen's chili hobby is part of what
planted Clint's chili recipe in the mind of a Marvel writer or two.

While there are many references to Clint's BBQ skills, the only prior
reference to his chili that I could think of without exhaustive research
was in War Machine # 7 (where Clint served Jim Rhodes some of his super-hot
chili). Neither Kurt nor the other Avengers fans I consulted know exactly
where Clint's chili habit comes from for certain.

Panel 9:
As several issues of Avengers have foreshadowed, Hawkeye is leaving the
team; and while his note says he'll return (as he usually does), there are
indications that he may find a new home with another Busiek-scripted
superteam in the near future...