Avengers # 97, Part Nine, the Kree/Skrull War Finale.

After what at times has seemed a conflict to outlast the One Hundred Years War, we finally reach the grand finale of the Avengers' Kree/Skrull War and, possibly to the surprise of everyone except Roy Thomas, it all centres on Rick Jones.

On the face of it, bearing in mind this is meant to be an Avengers tale, that might seem perverse but, when we look at the whole thing in perspective, it becomes clear that, like the addressee in Billy Paul's version of Wings' Let 'Em In, we've been took, we've been had.

We can see that Roy Thomas hasn't been writing an Avengers tale at all. He's been writing a Captain Marvel tale and, because the Captain's own mag had been cancelled, Thomas had simply staged it in the Avengers' comic instead. That's why the epic kicks off with Captain Marvel and closes off with Rick Jones.

Finding himself trapped in the Negative Zone, it looks like it's worse than curtains for Rick, it's roller blinds, shutters and louvres all packed into one, until he discovers he can fire mind-beams from his brain that see off the threat of Annihilus.

Now Rick discovers he can fly though the Negative Zone purely by the power of thought. This brings him back to the Kree homeworld where he wills a bunch of Golden Age Marvel heroes into life to delay Ronan and his guards for long enough to send out another mind beam - via Captain Marvel - that immobilises the whole of the Kree and Skrull galaxies. We're told by the Intelligence Supreme that Captain Marvel's attempt to contact Rick and the Avengers through his Omni-Wave transmitter's released the latent psychic power in Rick that all humans possess. The only problem is this has proven too much for Rick to handle and Captain Marvel has to once again merge with him in order to save his life. So, the thing's gone full circle. It began with Mar-Vell and Rick Jones separating and ends with them reuniting.

It's interesting that the saga's run coincided with Marvel becoming America's biggest comic book publisher, seeing as the whole thing can be seen as a celebration of the company's history - from the Golden Age through the Silver and into the Bronze. With its incorporation of characters from throughout the company's various incarnations, the saga is in some ways the equivalent of those old Soviet May Day parades where the might of the Red Army'd be wheeled out and showcased for the world to see. If anyone was in any doubt that Marvel deserved its place as the new big kid on the block, the Kree/Skrull War seemed purpose-built to crush such thoughts. And when the Intelligence Supreme talks of the Kree and Skrull having stalled on the evolutionary ladder and hating the human race because they know deep down that, with its greater dynamism and ability to adapt, the human race is ultimately their superior, from Marvel's viewpoint he might as well have replaced the words "Kree" and "Skrull" with the letters "D" and "C".

So that's it. With a nine-part epic drawn by two of the artists most associated with Marvel's Silver and Bronze Age dominance and one previously poached from their rivals, Marvel had planted their flag at the summit of Mount Comic Book, a place they weren't in any hurry to concede.

Sadly no great deed goes unpunished and so, as the creative and commercial success of Sgt Pepper led to a whole slew of ghastly wannabe albums by less talented or just less cunning acts, so the Avengers Kree/Skrull War could be claimed to be responsible for a whole raft of multi-part cross-overs that haven't always covered the companies that created them with glory. Still, just as the Beatles can't be held responsible for the fact that others failed miserably to find lightning in the same bottle, it'd be wrong to blame this story for what it inspired. I know from reading it at the time that, back then, the concept was fresh, startling and exciting and led to at least one person grabbing a pencil to try and emulate it.

The main downside of the issue is that Neal Adams - the artist  most associated with the saga - isn't here to see it through but, apparently, deadline problems meant John Buscema had to step in to finish it off. It means the climax isn't as visually ambitious as it might've been - Buscema for the most part giving us good solid story-telling and sometimes stock poses rather than daring innovation but, given that the story centres around the company's history and, given Buscema's presence in a large chunk of Avengers history, it is perhaps appropriate he should cap off its first true epic.

Avengers #96 Neal Adams & the Kree/Skrull War Part 8.

The first thing that strikes you about this issue is that it's inked not only by Tom Palmer but also by Neal Adams and Alan Weiss, giving it a more rough-hewn look than we've grown used to. For some of us this is a good thing. Pleasing though Neal Adams' efforts have been so far, I can't deny I've found the look of it all a little too smooth and polished for my liking. A few rough edges certainly go down well for some of us right now.

Not going down so well for the Avengers is what's happened to their missing colleagues. Deciding it's time they finally got proactive, they take to Hyper-Space in a ship borrowed from SHIELD and powered by Thor's hammer. So, it's off to the Andromeda Galaxy to kick some skrull butt.

This is of course insane, the idea that one dinky little shipful of people - even super-powered ones - could take on an entire galactic empire. Then again the Fantastic Four did the same thing in Fantastic Four #37, when they were out to find the killer of Sue and Johnny Storm's father, so at least there's a precedent for it.

Sadly, the Avengers don't get as far as the Fantastic Four did and're soon greeted by a vast skrull invasion fleet headed for Earth. Adams' full page depiction of that fleet is one of the visual highlights of the issue - as is his depiction of the skrulls, stopping just short of total caricature.

In no mood to stand and gawp, the Avengers attack the skrull flagship, while, fed up of being subtle, the skrulls launch a bomb-laden vessel on a mission to destroy the Earth. On the kree home world, the captive Rick Jones gets to meet the Intelligence Supreme and then, thanks to being flung into the Negative Zone by him, gets to re-meet Annihilus. As the issue draws to its close, it seems things are not looking good for any of our heroes.

Most memorable moment of the tale is of course the one depicted on the cover as, in a fit of a temper over the abduction of the Scarlet Witch, the Vision tries to beat a skrull to death. I suppose you do have to ask whether it's actually possible to beat a skrull to death. Bearing in mind their shape-changing powers, wouldn't they just absorb the impact of the blows, as Mr Fantastic does?

Regardless, with the Avengers nowhere near where they need to be, the Earth about to be blown up, the Intelligence Supreme pulling strings all over the place and Rick Jones about to be killed by a giant grasshopper, it seems everything's moved into place ready for the grand finale and I can't wait to see how Neal Adams handles that one.

Then again.....

Avengers #95. The Kree/Skrull War Part 7. Neal Adams, the Inhumans & the Great Refuge.

As the Avengers' Kree/Skrull War takes yet another turn, we come to the only episode of the saga that I've ever actually owned in its original form. Appropriately it was a copy with water damage, suffering from both a rippling of pages and rusty staples.

I suppose that was only to be expected considering it co-stars the aquatic Inhuman Triton who's apparently swum all the way to New York, looking to enlist the Fantastic Four in a quest to overthrow Maximus the Mad.

You've guessed it, Maximus has - yet again - seized control of the Great Refuge. Has there ever been a week in which Maximus hasn't seized control of the place? Why don't they just designate Tuesday as, "Maximus Takes Control," Day and have done with it? You do begin to wonder when it's going to occur to the other Inhumans to try and put him in prison sometime instead of just letting him do whatever he wants.

By the sort of coincidence that happens only in comics, when Triton emerges from a randomly chosen manhole, it just happens to be in the back garden of the Avengers who're still fighting the Mandroids from last issue. Leaving aside what an amazing coincidence it is, it doesn't say a lot for the Avengers' security that anyone can gain access to their grounds just by climbing out of a manhole.

The Mandroids disposed of, the Avengers set off for the Great Refuge - that mysterious land that can never decide whether it's in the Himalayas or the Andes - where they make short work of Maximus but fail to stop a Kree soldier from kidnapping Rick Jones. This turn of events leads to the Avengers finishing the issue by standing on top of a mountain and making threats at the sky. I suspect from this that Maximus may not be the only one in this tale who's going a little loopy.

In fact, the most interesting thing about this issue doesn't involve the Avengers at all. It involves Black Bolt as, via a nicely handled flashback, we learn just how Maximus first went mad thanks to Black Bolt having once used his voice to bring down a Kree ship whose crew'd just struck a deal for control of the Earth with a youthful Maximus. Just to make matters worse, in the process of crashing, the ship landed on and killed the boys' parents. I would say it's a rare insight into the mind of Black Bolt but, come to think of it, it's the only insight into the mind of Black Bolt I can ever remember seeing. Herein may be the explanation as to why the Inhumans' Bronze Age adventures never caught on.

On other matters, the Mandroids, who were  built-up last issue as being virtually unstoppable, are surprisingly ineffectual in practice as, thanks to his knowledge as Tony Stark, Iron Man seems to have a million and one ways to take them out any time he wants, making them little more than whipping boys.

To a large degree it's not a story that really advances the overall story in any way, shape or form. You could cut the entire chapter out of the saga and it wouldn't make any difference at all. You suspect that's because this isn't an Avengers tale, it's an Inhumans story. I've never read the Neal Adams Inhumans tales but I'm assuming this issue was designed to tie up loose ends from those and it does it neatly, with Adams producing some of his best and most expressive art of the run.

The one exception to the claim that nothing that happens has any relevance to the rest of the saga is of course the abduction of Rick Jones. But the loss of the Boy Blunder couldn't possibly lead to anything.

Could it?

Avengers #94. The Kree Skrull War Part 6. Mandroids.

Frying pan, thy name is, "Vision." Some people have more sticking power than others, and this is the issue where we learn that the Vision's wrought from purest Teflon.

Having somehow caught up with the fleeing Skrull ship, the red faced robot confronts the Super-Skrull in it in an attempt to liberate the captive Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and Captain Marvel. After a short argument with the villain, he decides he really can't be bothered to rescue them and goes back home. Whatever happened to heroes willing to fight to the death against impossible odds?

He's not the only one to head home. Now rid of his non-stick foe, the Super-Skrull returns to the Andromeda Galaxy with his captives. There, by threatening Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, the Skrull King blackmails Mar-Vell into agreeing to build him an omni-wave transmitter that could destroy the Kree home world.

Back on Earth, the Avengers are facing a peril of their own as H Warren Craddock unleashes his secret weapon on them; the Mandroids, a bunch of men in Tony Stark designed titanium armour. During this fight, Iron Man suffers the ultimate indignity of knocking himself out by tripping over whilst roller-skating.

And who's that showing up at the very climax, courtesy of a convenient man-hole cover? Why, if it's not Triton of the Inhumans.

I have to say I like Neal Adams' work more this issue than last. I still think the panels are occasionally too packed with detail for their own good but it has the expected stylishness and I do love his portrayal of the Great Refuge surviving a nuclear attack from the Super-Skrull's ship.

After a few pages, John Buscema takes over for the mid-section before Adams returns to complete the later stages. Despite Tom Palmer inking both men, the switch is surprisingly jarring - the contrast between Buscema's more melodramatic and simplified Kirby-style story-telling and Adams' more unconventional and detailed approach does tend to hit you in the face. It's also obvious Buscema didn't get to see Adams' work on the issue before doing his bit, so the look of the Skrull ship changes completely. Suddenly it has a crew, and the Super-Skrull's captives are being held vertically rather than horizontally. Writer Roy Thomas tries to gets round it neatly by inserting a line of dialogue that suggests the Super-Skrull's transferred to another ship since we last saw him, a page earlier, but we're wise to such wily tricks.

The main irritant of the issue has to be the Skrull King's daughter Anelle who really is a limp piece of lettuce. Granted, she's a good guy and he's a bad guy but her constant whingeing about everything her war-like father gets up to does start to get on your nerves after a while.

Poll Results: The Kree/Skrull War artists.

Another day and another poll, which means it's time to find out which of the titanic talents who contributed pencils to The Avengers' classic Kree/Skrull War storyline is the Internet's favourite.

Despite my awesome championing of Sal Buscema, it's no surprise to announce that the winner, as voted by you the reader, is Neal Adams with a walloping 12 votes out of the 18 cast. Still, Sal Buscema managed to come in second with a respectable 3 votes, showing that my love for him isn't unique, while that old stand-by, "I can't separate any of them," took a mighty 2 votes. Poor old John Buscema, meanwhile, had to settle for just 1 vote, proving that even the greats can't win them all.

Thanks to everyone who voted, and may your Great Refuge never be blown up by a Skrull atom bomb.

Now, back to: Adventure Comics#395. Supergirl shows why she's not going to be made head of the World Wildlife Fund any time soon.

Avengers #93. Neal Adams. The Kree/Skrull War.

There are some shameful things a man must admit to in life and I must confess here and now that, before reading the second half of this tale in Marvel UK's Mighty World of Marvel, I'd never noticed Neal Adams. Oh I'd seen his work before. I'd seen it in a 100 page issue of Batman where Batman took on a werewolf, and I'd seen it on the covers of various Atlas comics but, somehow, it'd made no impression on me.

But, with this issue...

...that all changed.

Suddenly enthused beyond all reason, I had to dig out all those old comics and look at them anew. I had to get out pencil and paper and have a go at copying everything he did; how he drew legs, how he drew faces, how he drew arms. Most of all, how he drew gums and irises.

There was no doubt about it. By the time I'd copied all that stuff, I was practically the next Neal Adams, so it was always going to be interesting to see what I made of his work when the Essential Avengers Vol 4 reintroduced him to me.

But first, what happens? The original Avengers are having an Iron Man instigated meeting when the Vision barges in and collapses. Luckily Ant-Man's on hand to do his Raquel Welch impression and shrink down in order to enter the Vision's body and find out what the problem is. After encountering a whole bunch of obstacles, the diminutive dabbler succeeds and we get the story of how the Vision, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch - having gone to meet Captain Marvel at a farm - were attacked by a gang of cows that turned into the Fantastic Four. Long-standing Marvelites will know at once it's the return of the original Skrulls from way back in Fantastic Four #2.

Armed with this knowledge, the Avengers go to the farm and defeat the Skrulls.

But not before the Super-Skrull escapes in his flying saucer - with Mar-Vell, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch his prisoners - leaving the Avengers to stand despondent at their failure to stop him.

Two things strike me about this issue. One is it's long - 34 pages instead of the customary 20. The second is I really don't know what to make of Neal Adams' artwork. It's one of those things. I can see it's a work of beauty, executed with huge skill, talent and care. You have to hand it to him. He could presumably have made a perfectly good living drawing comics while putting in even half the effort he does here. Instead he gives it his best.

But still I can't get round the fact it doesn't really grab me. The panels feel just a little too detailed, the lines a little too polished, the style a little too stylish. It's a thing of beauty but, then, so's Keira Knightley and I've never found her any more stimulating than she finds me. For me, there's an odd blandness to Adams's work here, a lack of quirk or idiosyncrasy. It's the beauty of an advertising hoarding, rather than the beauty we're told exists beneath the skin. Plus, with his use of light, shade and exaggerated perspectives, I can't escape the nagging sense of Adams as, at heart, being just Gene Colan with anatomy lessons.

Rationally, as Neal Adams is recognised as an all-time great artist and I'm not acknowledged as an all-time great anything, the fault must lie with me and not with him and that's why I can't help thinking of the phrase, "Casting pearls before swine." If Suede sang, "We are the pigs," then, Reader, I am that swine.

On other matters, there's that panel that's always puzzled me. The one on page 15, where, just as he's about to leave, Ant-Man finds something in the Vision's brain that makes him double-take. What is it? Were we ever told? I've always assumed it had something to do with the Vision having once been the original Human Torch but, if so, just what was it?

Avengers #92. The Kree/Skrull War Part 4.

What with interplanetary war on the brink of breaking out, there're many things to be concerned about in The Avengers #92 but possibly the most disturbing of them all is that the comic kicks off with Quicksilver cracking jokes and the Vision dressed like he's about to burst into a bunch of Perry Como songs. Presumably this attempt to show the pair in a more relaxed state than we're used to is an attempt by Roy Thomas and Sal Buscema to humanise our not always warm and cuddly duo but it feels more like we've fallen into an alternate world and I hope I never again have to endure the sight of the Vision in fireside crooner mode.

Then again, maybe they've been replaced by Skrulls.

Thanks to the blabbing scientists rescued from Ronan last issue, Senator H Warren Craddock certainly thinks there's something afoot with the Avengers as he demands they hand over Captain Marvel and then attend a hearing into un-Earthian activities, while he simultaneously whips the American public into a frenzy about the threat of aliens amongst us. It's easy to see the public here as a bunch of hysterical idiots - and that's presumably how we're meant to see them - but in fairness, if, in the real world it came to light that a group of self-appointed people had been keeping information of an alien menace from us, I suspect most of us would be a little miffed and distrustful.

As for Craddock and his commission, the parallels with Joe McCarthy are not exactly subtly presented but there's nothing like a foaming-at-the-mouth bigot to ramp up the dramatic tension and remind you just who the good guys and bad guys are. The one thing that does jar in the sequence at the hearing is the behaviour of the Thing, where he drops the Avengers in it, big-time, by making it clear he doesn't trust them not to be traitors to Earth. I know Aunt Petunia's favourite nephew isn't always the most diplomatic of souls but you'd expect him to have some sort of sense.

Captain Marvel meanwhile's done a runner, having been offered a farm house hiding place by Carol Danvers whose arrival by helicopter crash should've flattened the Avengers Mansion but barely put a dent in its roof. Interesting that, after Mar-Vell leaves, Rick Jones has a scene where he starts to think about the super-heroes he used to read about in the comic books of his youth, suggesting that Roy Thomas had, even at this early stage, worked out how the whole thing was going to end. Judging by his determination to keep using him in various comics, it seems Thomas always had a soft spot for Jones, possibly seeing the super-hero wannabe as a natural representative of the reader, but does this redefining of Jones as a comic book obsessive mean that keen comic book historian Thomas is projecting himself and his own interests through him?

Of course, despite rampaging mobs, one-sided hearings and helicopter crashes, the real drama of the issue comes at its very end as Thor, Captain America and Iron Man show up and, unhappy at the way the current line-up have handled the situation, disband the Avengers. How can our heroes get out of this hole? Well, I suppose they could just form their own super-hero team and carry on regardless.

But will they?

Avengers #91. The Kree/Skrull War Part 3.

Sometimes you can't help feeling a super-villain wouldn't half benefit from getting out a bit more. Ronan the Accuser's the latest of those as, having decided that turning the human race into cavemen isn't enough, a few pages into this issue he decides he'd rather turn us into amoebae. At this point maybe someone should tell him he's devoting far too much time to all this. Ronan, get out of the house. Go to a movie. Go on a date. Try your hand at Laser Quest. Write a blog. There's so much more to life than planning ever more extreme ways of de-evolving people.

Then again, maybe the problem is he gets out too much. Like Thunderbirds' The Hood, for a man in charge of a vast organisation, he seems remarkably hands-on. Why does a being who now rules an inter-stellar empire have to travel all the way to Earth just to press some buttons? Couldn't he have stayed back home and got someone else to do all this?

Meanwhile the Avengers are still making a Horlicks of dealing with his Sentry, finally succumbing to it, with only Rick Jones and Quicksilver escaping. Fortunately the day's saved when  Rick liberates Captain Marvel's uni-beam wrist blaster and uses it to destroy Ronan's control panel, dooming the whole exercise. To make matters worse for our giant-sized judge, news comes in that the Kree galaxy's now at war with the Skrull galaxy, so he has to go back home, leaving the human race as multi-celled as always.

To a large degree, the vast majority of this issue really doesn't advance the plot by one inch. Hank Pym's still a caveman for most of it, Goliath's still helping the Sentry fight the Avengers, and Ronan's still out to de-evolve everyone, spending virtually the whole story boasting about his plans rather than actually instigating them. Captain Marvel meanwhile hangs around in shackles doing nothing. It's only at the climax that things suddenly change, with the foiling of Ronan's scheme, everything on Earth returned to normal and an outbreak of war that at the time seems of no great significance, just an overly-convenient plot device to get rid of the villain. As such, you could argue that, competent as they are, seventeen of its twenty pages don't really serve any great purpose in existing.

There is however one significant development during all this, and that's that, captured by Ronan, the Vision and Scarlet Witch finally get their romance going as they almost get to kiss, before the Vision's angst prevents it. Up until this point, there've been hints of it but at last we're being hit over the head with the frying pan of love. I'm sure most will view this as a good thing. In its early days, the Vision and Scarlet Witch's love story was arguably the most compelling romance yet seen in comics - even if Quicksilver might not agree.

That aside, the most appealing bit of characterisation comes from an unlikely source. The Sentry. Abandoned by Ronan, lacking any orders, the Sentry sacrifices itself trying to save the now collapsing base, even though it knows the task is hopeless. It might be a conscienceless machine but it does have a certain nobility about it.

The other moment of significance is that it's Rick Jones who ultimately foils Ronan's plan. Coincidence? Or signs of Roy Thomas already having a master plan for the whole thing in place?

Avengers #90. The Kree/Skrull War Part 2. The Arctic Turn.

The Neal Adams section of the Avengers' Kree/Skrull War might be more celebrated but I have to admit that these days I tend to enjoy its Sal Buscema prologue more.

That might be down to the latent human instinct that makes teenagers pretend they prefer bands no one's heard of to bands that're Number One. Then again, it might be that over-familiarity's dulled my appreciation of Adams' work, or simply that I was so blown-away by his part of the epic, as a child, that its inevitable inability to have the same impact on my more dulled adult senses makes me rate it less highly than it deserves.

But I suspect that, in reality, in my dotage I appreciate the efficient straightforwardness of Sal Buscema's work more than the determined sophistication of Neal Adams'. It seems to me that Sal Buscema constructed comic strips with the expert craftsmanship of a man who hand-makes makes wooden chairs for a living. They might not make it into any design museum, like those fancier chairs do, but they just feel right when you sit on them.

Of course it doesn't hurt that this issue has the advantage that a large part of it's set in a jungle and, as seen in The Avengers #88, which immediately preceded the Kree/Skrull War, there's something about jungles that seemed to bring out the best in Buscema.

And so we get the tale of how Sentry 459 kidnaps Captain Marvel, takes him to a foliage-covered island in the Arctic Circle and then mind-controls Goliath into helping it fight the Avengers as Ronan the Accuser gives the captive Mar-Vell an expository lump abut his plans to de-evolve the human race and all other life on Earth to a prehistoric state so it can pose no threat to the Kree and their future plans. We also get a nice flashback to the Sentry's first meeting with the Inhumans, and a quick recap of Mar-Vell's entire career to date.

I'm not sure how sound the science is in all this. I'm no David Attenborough (or even a Richard Attenborough) but surely de-evolving a modern dragonfly wouldn't turn it into a giant form of extinct dragonfly? I assume a modern dragonfly isn't descended from one of those extinct ones but from a different branch of the same family? As for what Hank Pym turns into; are they sure that's what man's ancient ancestors looked like? A word with Richard Leakey might have helped.

None of it matters of course. In story-telling terms it's more entertaining if Hank Pym turns into some sort of huge, mad savage that bears no real resemblance to how homo sapiens' forebears  really were than a two foot tall monkey-like thing that mostly lives on fruit, and it does give the tale a classic climax as the brutish Pym, club in hand, closes in on the unconscious Wasp. A reminder perhaps that it's alright to stage an epic but the threat of one person doing harm to another's still dramatically more potent than all the threats of worlds being destroyed.

One of the main things that strikes me about the tale is that its recap of Captain Marvel's career reminds you just how bad Captain Marvel's strip was in its early days and how bad his initial costume was. If Henry Pym can change immeasurably for the worse, it's nice to see that counter-balanced by how Captain Marvel could change immeasurably for the better.

Avengers# 89. The Kree/Skrull War.

Just as it was inevitable that the Smog Monster had to take on Godzilla, so it was pre-destined that at some point I'd have to tangle with the greatest comic book epic of my childhood.

That's right. In a daring series running for night after night after night, I'll be reviewing Amazing Spider-Man's Death of the Kangaroo. Who can forget the trauma and horror we all felt as the antipodean bouncer opened that door to the reactor and...

Then again.

Maybe I'll stick to a lesser epic that thrilled me as a kid. Was there ever a cover that more demanded you buy it than that of Avengers #89? Who wouldn't be drawn in by the sight of poor old Captain Marvel being fried in an electric chair as the Avengers watched on?

Mere days ago the world thrilled to my recollections of the time when, as a child, I created the world's greatest comic strip, the tale of the sllurks and the eerk and the starship Pihs-Rats.

But I must confess it wasn't a totally original story. Being never backwards about going backwards, I disguised it brilliantly but, amazingly, its three completed panels may have been influenced by a set of comics that'd already been published.

Those comics were what came to be known as the Kree/Skrull War and right here's where it started. I could lie and say that every night I'm going to review an issue till the job's done but, as I found out with my Thor "Week", even doing four consecutive days on one subject's a strain for my pitiful excuse for self-discipline. So instead I suspect I'll be doing one issue a week, with Wednesdays being Kree/Skrull Night.

The war itself starts without warning, as Captain Marvel's again on the look-out for a way to escape Rick Jones. Ever since he was plunged into the Negative Zone Mar-Vell can only leave it for three hours at a time by swapping places with Jones. The rest of the day his consciousness sort of floats around in Rick's head. As Rick Jones spends half his time being rejected by super-types and the other half doing concerts that're clearly not exactly up there with Muse, it's hardly surprising that Mar-Vell's getting a bit desperate to get away from him. Fortunately, there's a way-out way out. He can use the doorway to the Negative Zone that exists in the Fantastic Four's Baxter Building.

Now, at this juncture, you or I'd pick up the phone and ask Reed Richards if we can use his machine but Captain Marvel's not like you and I. He's stupid. So, instead, he heads for the Baxter Building and breaks in. In doing so he manages to attract the attention of the both Avengers and Annihilus who, ever the optimist, sees the opening of the door as his chance to invade the Earth. The grandiose grasshopper though is quickly seen off by being sucked back into the Negative Zone, and Captain Marvel takes that as his cue to steal the Avengers' quinjet for no good reason.

What he doesn't know is that, thanks to his time in the Negative Zone, he's a bit on the radioactive side and if he's not drained of the radiation, he'll blow up and kill us all. That's what that cover's about. They're not trying to kill him at all. They're trying to save him.

Someone who definitely doesn't want to save him is Ronan the Accuser. He's back on the Kree home world and doing his usual thing of trying to overthrow the Intelligence Supreme who, despite being an intelligence supreme, hasn't noticed that all his guards have been killed. With a sinister blast, Ronan activates the sleeping Sentry and sends it off to kill the still-recuperating Mar-vell. Then again, compared with such a turn-up, maybe a lifetime of Rick Jones concerts isn't that bad after all.