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thebibliomancer · 9 months ago

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Essential Avengers: The Terminus Factor - Second Half

1990

WAR of the GARGANTUAS

Is that the proper plural? Huh.

Halfway into the Terminus Factor I still don't know what factor that is. I guess the real circumstance, fact, or influence that contributes to a result or outcome was the friends we made along the way.

Shrug.

In the first half of this annual event, we covered the annuals for Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor. The Captain America annual had Terminus spore launch out of a volcano and infect some fish. When a town and an Iron Man ate the fish, they became rabid. Captain America lured them up a mountain where the cold cured the infection.

BUT: in the Iron Man annual, Iron Man and Machine Man fought a bear that was also infected by the Terminus-tainted fish. No longer weak to cold, the two heroes have to defeat the Termini Bear with some molten metal. After much struggle to defeat just that one bear, they discover that dozens of other animals have been affected.

In the Thor annual, Iron Man asks Thor to protect San Francisco from a big group of Termini. Thor brings Hercules and then ditches him in San Fran to go out into space and beat up on the original Terminus for a while. Thor gets exposition dumped on and Mjolnir stolen, which OG Terminus uses to return to Earth. Meanwhile, Hercules tries to stop a bunch of Termini that have invaded a nuclear power station to eat tasty radiation. He's not able to stop them before they all combine into one new Terminus. Just in time for OG to arrive.

And that's where we are. The Terminus spores infected animals which ate titanium and radiation and merged into a new Terminus but also the original is back.

Let's get these gargantuas warring.

So where have the West Coast Avengers been while all of this has been happening? Back at home.

Specifically, Hank Pym has been using lasers to bring the robot Human Torch back to life after Evil 'n Crazy Wanda turned him off.

After flaring up like that, Jim Hammond Human Torch turns down the temp and asks if somebody could tell him the date. Only, he has a tendency to wake up decades later.

Jim is told that he hasn't been offline that long and brought up to speed on the Wanda situation. Wanda is fine, Magneto and Immortus were dealt with, and she's taking some time to rest with Quicksilver watching her.

Speak of the devil, Quicksilver shows up and tells everyone there's an emergency summon from Hercules in San Francisco.

Quicksilver: "He claims to have been battling hordes of metallic beasts he calls Termini -- and to need our help. He said Iron Man was familiar with the creatures."

Quicksilver offers to go along and help, despite not being active with the Avengers. And Machine Man offers to help too - he's still upset that they killed his good friend, Imposter Peter Spaulding.

Everyone runs off to a Quinjet, leaving robot Human Torch to muse "Out of cold storage for two minutes -- and we're off and running! My new life as an Avenger promises to be anything but dull!"

In the Quinjet, Quicksilver remembers more of Hercules' message. That the Termini have merged into a single 150 foot tall one. And that it has started fighting another giant guy called Terminus.

That kind of feels important, Quicksilver!

Hercules: "By the Medusa's serpentine locks!"

You can say that again, Hercules!

Although... impressive and terrible sight as it may be to have two giant men fighting through the city... I can't help but notice that compared to the more bestial new Terminus, OG Terminus kind of has a pouting baby face.

Also, the Terminuseses have words.

OG Terminus: "So, wormling -- you are the SPAWN of Terminus -- the MANY who are become the ONE. I have returned from far space, having slain a THUNDER GOD and incorporated his HAMMER into my own body! -- To learn WHICH of us shall inherit the vengeful mantle of our long-dead creator race!" New Terminus: "Then you should have stayed hidden behind some darking star, Terminus -- 'FATHER'! For you have journeyed all this vast distance -- only to face OBLITERATION at the hand of your 'SON'." OG Terminus: "HAVE I? We shall see!"

And New Terminus rips off his tail to use as a lance. Alas and for shame. I kinda liked that New Terminus had a tail. Set him apart from the OG while giving him an equivalent of the lance to use.

Also, is this just the Terminus lifecycle? Based on stuff that happens in this issue and based on how Terminus spreading his spore inside Earth was described last time, I'm pretty sure we can conclude he's never gotten around to trying to reproduce.

And if reproduction means that you have to fight whatever new Terminus wins the race to eat lots and grow big, then I can see why Terminus hasn't spored all over other planets.

Honestly, it'd be more interesting if Terminus wasn't the original Terminus. That this process has happened many times over long eons but since every Terminus seems to have implanted memories, each one just continues on the Terminus mission.

Also, if Terminus is an anti-Celestial weapon that goes to planets that the Celestials have tinkered with and ransacks the place, you'd think that making more Terminuses by sporing the planet before he leaves would be standard procedure. It'd make him like a virus. More and more Terminuses, spreading throughout space and trying to undermine the grand Celestial plan.

But I don't get the indication that's what's up. I think there's only ever been one Terminus, minus the faker the Avengers fought in the Savage Land, and that this is the first time Terminus has bothered to spore.

Anyway, the West Coast Avengers Quinjet lands nearby, to Hercules' elation.

Hercules: "Mayhap they can take me to some vantage point whence I can enter the fray."

I love Hercules and his priorities.

Iron Man asks where Thor is, since he was supposed to be here. And Hercules has to relay that Thor fucked off into space and that OG Terminus has boasted that he killed Thor and ate Mjolnir.

Hank Pym points out that the enchantments on Mjolnir should have prevented that. Like some kind of pedantic nerd, speaking for the readers.

Hercules hand-waves the complaint by saying Terminus is "no ordinary foeman."

Everyone got that? No writing letters complaining about it!

Iron Man laments that he couldn't stop the Termini when they were spores or robot animals. US Agent tells him to stop crying, they're Avengers and they'll bring down those giant space men! He doesn't know how! He just knows that the problem will get solved and the Avengers will be involved!

As it happens, Hank Pym has an idea. He takes out a pair of tiny lenses from his pockets of mystery and then enlarges them to be each bigger than a man.

Then instead of explaining what his plan is, he tells the Avengers they'll see when both are in position.

Hank has Iron Man and Machine Man take one lens southwest of the new Terminus. And Wonder Man and robot Human Torch fly the other to the south southeast of original Terminus.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Avengers get in the Quinjet.

Hercules is hype to be fighting alongside the Avengers again. Not sure how he came back from blowing up along with the High Evolutionary but I'm glad he's here.

Wasp is more negative about the situation but US Agent tells her "The G-Man who appointed me to watchdog this combo want those two Kong-types wasted, so that's what we're gonna do -- period. Somehow."

I wonder when Walker had the chance to get orders from Washington in the middle of all this mess. Maybe he's just speculating.

Also in the Quinjet, Quicksilver comments how fortunate it was that the Avengers were able to find such a capable leader as Hank Pym.

Which just makes Hawkeye bitterly think that he's the one that founded the team and nobody has asked him to become the leader again.

My guy, you ragequit the team. And went to go manage another team. Who I assume you're currently neglecting.

The two lens teams arrive in position. Then there's a bright flash of light and the two Terminuses start moving past each other.

Hank Explains It All. Those lenses create reflection images of the opposing Terminus so both are pursuing mirages.

Which isn't going to fool them for long but it should buy time.

And by won't last long I mean. Like. A page. The more bestial new Terminus switches to more cosmic senses and realizes the ruse.

He immediately turns on Wonder Man and robot Human Torch in a rage and blasts the lenses to smithereens.

Wonder Man zooms up and punches new Terminus in the teeth. He manages to knock out a tooth. Robot Human Torch throws some fireballs. To no effect.

Human Torch figures new Terminus must still have a weakness but it's not fire and ice anymore. He creates a bunch of Human Torch fire duplicates to buy time while he tries to figure it out.

Meanwhile, standing on the wing of the Quinjet, Hercules remembers taking down the fake Terminus in the Savage Land and figures he can handle new Terminus the same way.

He jumps from the Quinjet to strike new Terminus in the chest and hopefully rip open his armor but womp womp he just bounces off.

And since he bounced right in new Terminus' path, US Agent says someone will need to do a distraction so Hercules has time to get his senses and get out of the way.

Wonder Man decides to do the distraction because US Agent is kinda out of his depth here.

If you wanted to get US Agent to try something stupid, apparently the best way is by telling him not to.

The Agent jumps from the Quinjet and lands on new Terminus' back. Where he can't do anything at all except try to hang on. Idiot.

Wonder Man: "I learned some time ago, Torch -- the US Agent may be something of a blowhard -- but he's a brave blowhard."

Sure. But it doesn't matter if he's brave if he's putting himself into bad situations just to prove he can and then is an active hindrance to the group effort.

And he is.

He falls off Terminus and has to be saved by Wonder Man.

Meanwhile, Wasp has been left behind to fly the Quinjet. But she decides, eh auto-pilot, and abandons ship. She uses her shrinking to fly underneath New Terminus' armor but just finds him hollow and full of seething energy.

Wasp quickly nopes out of there.

Meanwhile, more Terminus yelling.

New Terminus: "I have wasted time enough -- being led astray by these insignificant human mites. He led me inland -- while my parent was lured seaward -- but I shall swiftly reach him -- and then -- AND THEN -- !"

Now the two Terminuses are heading back at each other.

OG Terminus takes a shot at the Quinjet that Hank Pym and Hawkeye are in. The jet goes into a crash and Hawkeye and Hank Pym have to bail on Hawkeye's sky-cycle.

Hank Pym: "We lose more Quinjets this way!"

I feel like it has become more common recently.

Hawkeye quips that having to replace all these Quinjets is probably responsible for a couple of Tony Stark's bankruptcies.

Terminus is about to walk on a mountainside road heading to Big Sur so Hawkeye shoots a rocket arrow at the big lug. It doesn't do any damage but it does get his attention.

Another lance blast grounds the sky-cycle and then Quicksilver has to NYOOM by to save Hank and Hawk from being Terminally stomped.

Quicksilver is very proud of what a useful boy he is but Hawkeye is just wondering if he can get Tony Stark to pay for him to get a new sky-cycle. And Hank is like good job us, we stopped him from stepping on traffic by making him try to step on us!

Iron Man and Machine Man swoop in for a last ditch effort to keep the OG Terminus from advancing. But Iron Man's "repulsor rays are doing him as much harm as a water pistol" and Machine Man doesn't have anything more potent in his arsenal so he's not even trying. And New Terminus is similarly unfazed by the robot Human Torch's fireballs.

Nothing the Avengers can do can keep the Terminuses from a big, explosive clash.

US Agent says who cares, Let Them Fight. But Hank Pym argues that if Terminus came back to Earth just to fight his grown up son, there's a reason behind it.

AND ALSO, two giant space men punching each other is causing the ground to shake. And California already has enough problems with that!

OG Terminus: "The energy expendirue of us both is now at its PEAK, Terminus-spawn. You have inherited my programming -- and thus you know what that MEANS!" New Terminus: "YES -- !"

OG Terminus knocks New Terminus' lance from his hands and then throws his own lance away. OG knocks new to the ground and then blasts him with some kind of energy.

... Then New Terminus shrinks and OG Terminus eats him.

Yes. Yes, I just said that and yes, it did happen.

Then Terminus glows, explodes, and evolves.

Yeah, remember how all those mini-Terminuses fought each other and then globbed into bigger Terminuses? Well. That. Is. Apparently. How. Terminus. Evolves. Into. Bigger. Terminus? Ultimate Terminus?

Although, if you got two stage-5 Terminuses to fight, you could probably get a Super Ultimate Terminus, or something.

Again, I wonder why Earth is the first time Terminus spread his spores. It seems a natural part of his development is to make more Terminuses and have them merge to get bigger Terminuseses.

Lot of questions being raised. For example: how will the Avengers fight Ultimate Terminus when they couldn't even handle a pair of stage-4s?

Hopefully, by calling in more Avengers. Because Iron Man called the East Coast team and let them know what happened and that Ultimate Terminus is heading East for some reason.

So the two teams are going to meet in the middle and try to kick his ass.

To be concluded... RIGHT NOW.

DESTROY ALL MONSTERS!

You're behind the times, cover. There's only one of them now. One ate the other and then they merged. Like Buu.

Also, way to spoil that Thor isn't dead! Geez!

So, after Terminus ate Terminus and became what several people insistently term Ulterminus or Ultra Terminus, he ditches California and heads East towards St. Louis.

The East and West Coast Avengers teams rush to try to intercept him but know that the big guy just flies faster than a Quinjet. Cap even grouses that they need to update the staple jet for the 90s.

Hank Pym, based on very little evidence, correctly guesses that Ultra Terminus is headed to St. Louis because he wants to eat America from its rough midpoint.

Since Terminus is We Have Galactus at Home.

The West Coast team has Hank Pym, Wasp, Hawkeye, Hercules, US Agent, Machine Man, Iron Man, robot Human Torch, and Wonder Man.

The East Coast team has Captain America, Sersi, Starfox, Vision, Quasar, She-Hulk, and Captain Monica Marvel with her powers restored.

Sersi thanks her for 'tagging along' which Monica objects to, since she's an Avenger too.

Quasar: "The Captain's got a point, Sersi. After all, she was not only an Avenger, but team leader, long before you and I were signed on." Sersi: "And I was an Eternal, Quasar, while both of your ancestors were apes. So what else is new?" Captain Marvel: "I'm not here to play dueling credentials with either of you."

Inside the East Coast's team jet, Captain America is also perturbed that the closest team to St. Louis is... the Great Lakes Avengers.

Captain America: "Lord help us --"

Hey, now, that's not fair. They've been in action a grand total of one times and they really did a good job with it. Sure, they're a goofy bunch but they're not really worth an eye roll at this point!

Honestly, I'm just happy to see them being used. Byrne introduced them with great fanfare and then never really used them for much. And then he left the book but before he did, he had Hawkeye ditch them to come hang out with the West Coast Avengers again.

The poor Great Lakes Avengers are just so excited that they got called into action by Hawkeye and assume that means the real Avengers finally accept them.

The team finds Ultra Terminus floating above St. Louis. Unfortunately, while the GLA is using Big Bertha's private jet and not a Quinjet, legally it counts as a Quinjet and so gets destroyed.

Terminus just. Grabs it while it's jetting past. Leaving the fuselage skrunched in his hand and the jet engines continuing on their journey unburdened.

The Great Lakes Avengers bail out a Doorman portal in the side of the plane and poor Dinah Soar has to lower herself, Big Bertha, and Mockingbird down to the Gateway Arch.

Somehow, after bailing out of the plane, Mr Immortal, Flatman, and Doorman wound up hanging from Ultra Terminus.

Mr Immortal even managed to be hanging from Terminus' helmet and blows him a raspberry.

Which gets him clapped between two giant hands.

Mr Immortal's whole thing is that he's immortal so he laughs it off. Sure, he was basically salsa for about ten seconds but eh, he's got lives to spare.

Ultra Terminus decides he's done with "this superfluity of idiocy!" and decides to focus on the task at hand. He puts a force field around himself and prepares to EAT AMERICA.

(Mr Immortal got dropped but his girlfriend Dinah Soar catches him and flies him down to the arch.)

Mockingbird is just starting to despair that the Great Lakes Avengers failed to save the world when Hawkeye (and the West Coast Avengers) show up. And ever the guy who knows just what to say, Hawkeye tells her she did a good job as a delaying action, which was all he was expecting, honestly.

Mockingbird: "What do you mean -- 'delaying action'? Is that what our new group is to you -- so much cannon fodder?" Hawkeye: "Now look, Bobbi, I --" Mockingbird: "You probably took all the credit for training them, too -- after you dumped us for the West Coast crowd!"

She's right to be pissed.

The only reason why she was leading these goobers is because Hawkeye was depressed after he rage quit the West Coast team. And then he decided, without consulting her, that they were take over the Great Lakes Avengers. And then the instant it looked like he could slide back into his leadership role on the West Coast Avengers, he ditched the Great Lakes Avengers.

But time and place. As Wasp is quick to remind Mockingbird.

Hank Pym repeats his theory that Ultra Terminus is going to use his lance to drain the entire continent of North America of energy and elements. And when the East Coast team suddenly shows up, Vision seconds his theory.

A dude as big as a double-sized Ultra Terminus would require a good plan to deal with, even with threeish Avengers teams. Unfortunately, Vision estimates Terminus will finish preliminary yum yum eat 'em up probing in a few seconds. There's no time for planning, only for rushing in and punching.

Aw, Dinah got into the big group shot! Proud of her!

Also, I only just noticed that the two coastal Avengers teams initialed their Quinjets.

Meanwhile, out in space, Thor isn't dead. It takes a little more than being stranded in space to kill this tough Asgardian son of an Odin. However, he is stranded in space, which isn't an ideal circumstance.

Luckily, Thor somehow managed to angle his body to slightly influence his trajectory when Terminus yeeted (yote?) him into space. So instead of drifting forever, like some dumb Terminus, Thor collides full force with a small planetoid and gets knocked the fuck out.

Look, this is actually an improvement on his situation.

Back on Earth, the strong, flying fighty guys try to get to Terminus but are held at bay by his force field. The slim comfort is that by forcing him to send more energy out of his lance, they've delayed him starting his meal.

But the energy is shaking St Louis so the non-flying or less-punchy guys are saving people from the effects. Captain America and US Agent blocking falling rubble and directing people where to flee. Wasp blasting falling rubble into smaller rubble. Robot Human Torch doing the same thing. She-Hulk holding up an entire building so people can evacuate.

You know, hero stuff.

Meanwhile, the other heroes have been making not a lot of impact. The punchy guys can't get close enough to punch. And Sersi's powers don't work on Terminus because if they worked we wouldn't have a plot.

Quasar finally suggests that they just try doing what he did last time. Which was that he used the Quantum Bands to create a platform under Terminus and then Quasar and Captain Universe Spider-Man yeeted (yote?) Terminus into space.

I have no idea why that wasn't the first thing he suggested trying. Sure, they don't have Captain Universe Spider-Man but they've got a lot of muscle available between Starfox, Quasar, Sersi, Iron Man, Wonder Man, uh maybe Machine Man can help too. Point being, it's worth a try.

So they try.

And, no. Nothing. Dang it. This Terminus is twice as big as the one Quasar fought and thanks to the square-cube law many times more massive. And growing more massive as Ultra Terminus has basically ignored the heroes trying to push him off the planet. Instead, Ultra Terminus has started eating North America and has grown one hundred feet taller already.

Meanwhile, space.

Thor recovers from landing headfirst on a planetoid, finds that there is a slight atmosphere, and so climbs up on a cliff and starts saying... something.

Back on Earth, the Avengers are back to trying to find a way past Terminus' force field so they can punch him. Honestly, they'd be happy even drawing attention since that might mean he stopped eating America so fast.

Quasar: "Ants! He's treating us like ants -- not even worthy of his notice -- !"

Captain Marvel tries... uh... well, apparently she has new powers. She can surround herself with a "dimensional interface" which lets her fly really fast, hit really hard, and not splatter from the impact. So she flies really fast at Ultra Terminus and hits him really hard... and bounces off.

Wonder Man wrestles Terminus' thumb, trying to get him to drop his lance... but gets flicked away.

Quasar suggests that all of the Avengers hit Terminus at the same time in the hopes that they'll overwhelm his force field.

Sersi: "You sure that will work?" Quasar: "No -- but the situation's getting desperate!" Sersi: "Sounds good to me!"

Oh, wow, they really are just trying anything. What's there to lose?

Everyone hits him as hard as they can and, hey, something happens!

Terminus gets yanked up into the sky and everyone that was part of that last desperate attack gets yanked up too.

Weird.

Hercules mentions that he heard Thor's voice as Terminus et al were getting carried away, although nobody else did. The greek god says that it sounded similar to a prayer Thor made (off-panel) as the two gods were heading to California.

Hank Pym theorizes that Thor was reciting a rune-spell to influence Mjolnir, which Terminus had absorbed. Which seems plausible and everyone just accepts this as the answer.

Terminus and co (Quasar, Wonder Man, Machine Man, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, Sersi, Starfox) get pulled through space towards where Terminus had been stranded at the beginning of all of this.

Thor worries about his friends that got pulled along by his rune-spell and worries that they'll die when they collide with the planetoid. Because Thor's entire plan was to summon Mjolnir back to him and Terminus with it and just slam Terminus into a space rock as hard as possible.

It may have even worked before Terminus merged with Terminus.

Unfortunately, it just knocks Ultra Terminus for a loop. But at least the Avengers that got pulled along on this adventure didn't slam into a space rock as fast as possible.

And with them around, there's extra hands to help Thor with his new plan.

While Ultra Terminus tries to absorb the shattered remnants of that planetoid that he just broke with his face, Thor and the Avengers work together to pry the lance out of Ultra Terminus' hand. Then, Quasar quantum-jump boosted throws the lance further than Terminus can summon back.

Then something weird happens.

Ultra Terminus apparently is very energy inefficient. Since he didn't get to finish his meal on Earth, his body starts cannibalizing itself for energy.

Which, for some reason, causes Ultra Terminus to collapse into a black hole. Which Thor summons Mjolnir out of.

Mjolnir apparently can just survive and escape black holes. Thanks to the enchantments on it. Neat.

With his hammer back in hand, Thor is able to gather the dispersed atmosphere from the destroyed planetoid and create an air pocket for the Avengers.

Iron Man compliments Thor's plan coming together. Getting Mjolnir eaten so he could use it to pull Terminus into space? Probably definitely the plan all along. Don't look at the previous issues and think wow he doesn't look like things are going according to schedule.

Then, the Avengers head back to Earth.

That's one Terminus factored.

So in terms of a big Avengers crossover annual event... Hm... I'd say it was stronger in the first half. When the characters were having to figure out the rules to Terminus' weird life cycle. Termini spores possessing animals and making them aggressive was an interesting turn for a giant metal space dude to take.

But I don't think it gelled well with the Terminus lore exposition dump in the Thor issue. If the guy could always spore, why is this the first time he tried? His evil progenitor race is both central to his motivations and also incredibly thinly sketched.

The first two issues played up the idea that every Terminus life cycle stage would have its own weakness but apparently being thrown into space is a shared weakness between a fully grown Terminus and an Ultra Terminus. And even though it was set up in advance, Thor yanking Terminus into space through the Mjolnir he ate really is just repeating how Quasar and Spider-Man beat him.

Also, if Ultra Terminus doesn't eat for five seconds, he turns into a black hole. Weird survival tactic there.

Also also, this is a minor complaint but I wish that the teams had more of a chance to interact and hang-out. This is the first time we have the West, East, and also Great Lakes Avengers together. And the Great Lakes Avengers basically fade out of the plot as soon as the real Avengers arrive. Not a good use of your Great Lakes Avengers!

I do think it was better than Evolutionary War and Atlantis Attacks. It cleared the low bar. But it didn't reach the level of great. Ah, well, there's always next year to try again.

Next time, more West Coast Avengers.

Follow @essential-avengers because if you don't, Terminus may shoot his spores inside another volcano. We can't prove he won't. Like, reblog, and comment. All that stuff prevents Terminuseseses.

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thebibliomancer · 1 year ago

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Essential Avengers: Atlantis Attacks Part 2

1989

Geez, Set, why does mom let you have seven brides?

Anyway.

Last time in half-ish of Atlantis Attacks, the annual event: I covered the Silver Surfer, Iron Man, X-Men, Amazing Spider-Man, Punisher, Spectacular Spider-Man, Daredevil, and Avengers annuals.

Silver Surfer accidentally resurrected the Deviant Priestlord Ghaur out in space. Ghaur returns to Earth and allies with Lemurian Llyra to reconstruct the Serpent Crown and summon Elder God Set.

As part of this plan, Ghaur makes an alliance with Attuma-controlled Atlantis and gets him to agree to attack the surface world to keep the heroes and military from interfering with the greater plan. An Atlantean force trying to sneak through the Panama Canal unfortunately runs into Iron Man and Namor who are dealing with Hydra narcotics schemes. Namor is on the Hydra ship when it blows up.

Ghaur hires the Serpent Society to retrieve several mystical artifacts in order to rebuild the Serpent Crown. Despite some body-switching shenanigans caused by the owner of one of those artifacts and the involvement of the X-Men, the Serpents technically succeed and construction of the crown begins.

Also as part of the plan, Ghaur frees Tyrannus from Abomination. Tyrannus goes on to free Viper from jail so they can collaborate on a scheme to use a drug addiction cure to turn people into snake people. The Abomination body goes on a rampage and is fought by Spider-Man and She-Hulk. She-Hulk gets knocked out in the fight and Ghaur marks her as one of the Brides of Set (collect all 7).

Punisher and Moon Knight wind up investigating the Save Our Society organization that's the front for the drug addiction cure that turns people into sneople. The heroes team up and shut down Viper's operation.

Spider-Man investigates another Save Our Society facility and discovers them turning people into sneople. But he gets brainwashed by Tyrannus' CHARISMA EYES. Dagger gets kidnapped and marked as another Bride of Set and Cloak gets forced to steal a mystic tome for Tyrannus. Tyrannus orders the sneople to kill Cloak but he's saved by a mysterious armored figure.

A wandering Daredevil is recruited by Dr Strange to shut down the main Save Our Society compound, out in the countryside. Tyrannus attempts to backstab Ghaur by summoning Set first but summons a different snake demon and gets eaten. Dr Strange cures all the sneople, turning them back into people. A brainwashed Spider-Man was in this and barked like a dog.

Attuma finally gets around to the titular Atlantis Attacks and sends four Atlantean armies to attack four locations in the US. The Avengers must everyone they can, split into four teams, and defeat all four of the armies. During the fighting, Ghaur marks Scarlet Witch as the third Bride of Set. Attuma has yet more forces available, though, and readies them to attack New York City.

Also, the Giant-Sized Serpent Crown has been created by Ghaur and Llyra, which will enable Set to manifest his essence on Earth.

A lot has happened but the seven-headed snake god isn't summoned yet and there's still the New Mutants, X-Factor, Web of Spider-Man, West Coast Avengers, Thor, and Fantastic Four annuals still to cover.

Will Atlantis Attack some more? Why wasn't this event given a name more representative of the story? Is anyone going to wear that Giant-Sized Serpent Crown?

Let's find out.

Here be MONSTERS!

So the New Mutants. They've lost some peeps since the last annual. And they're being watched by X-Factor now instead of Magneto.

Apparently they had an adventure recently where they found the Horn of Doom and squabbled with Namor about it.

And the Horn of Doom is what concerns this annual.

Lord Ghaur is a fervent New Mutants reader so he saw that adventure. He wants that horn and all he has to do is wait until Namor stops guarding it.

Which is accomplished when Namor is apparently blown up by Hyrda!

So Lord Ghaur sends Deviants Coal, String, and Spike to steal the Horn from Namorita, Namor's cousin.

Despite the help from New Atlantean Mutants Sharkskin, Undertow, and Eel, the Deviants get away with it. And because Lord Ghaur chose his trio of stooges for their superficial similarity to Sunspot, Warlock, and Wolfsane, Namorita and co go pick a fight with the New Mutants leaving Ghaur free to toot as he pleases.

Lord Ghaur isn't just a rare horn fancier, though.

Remember how Tyrannus said a sacrifice was needed to summon Set? Well, Lord Ghaur has decided to sacrifice Atlantis.

The real reason he made an alliance with Attuma and got him to send all his armies to attack the surface was so nobody would be left to defend Atlantis when he summoned a giant sea monstrosity that smashes the place up, kills a lot of the people, and poisons the waters around the city.

I suspect Ghaur also summoned the monster that ate one-quarter of the Atlantean army in the Avengers Annual.

Anyway, the New Mutants and Namorita's group Surf, manage to bury the monster in an undersea trench and the Horn of Doom gets broken in the chaos, but Lord Ghaur has the sacrifices he needed.

Huh. This event is more accurately called Atlantis Attacked, amirite?

X leads to X so the next annual is X-Factor.

I MUST GO DOWN TO THE SEA AGAIN...

The bunny on Attuma's head is really mad.

Do you think he learned that Atlantis got smashed while he was gone?

I wonder why he's blaming Jean.

The short answer is no. He doesn't seem to know yet and/or it hasn't happened yet. This part of Atlantis Attacks is focused on a different part of Ghaur's plan.

His plan to get his boy Set lots of brides.

The story starts with Marvel Girl Jean Grey in a trance and being yoinked through the air with a tractor beam.

Ghaur just has the technology to do that. That would have been useful to employ at several other points of this story but let's just ignore that.

Beast is clinging to her as she's yoinked and he manages to get her to disrupt the beam so both tumble into the ocean.

Attuma is in the area, attacking a water purification plant as part of his attack on the surface world and recognizes Jean as the hot girl who wouldn't give him the time in some other story. So he brings her back to his grotto and instructs his dudes to kill Beast.

Beast is saved by his former fellow Defender and Attuma's daughter Andromeda and they team up to go save Jean. Who they find being drowned by Attuma because she once again told him to fuck right off.

Beast takes Jean to the shore but she's still very drowned. Lord Ghaur projects his head to the area and tells Beast he's the dude that tried to tractor her earlier but also Jean's best shot at not dying.

Reluctantly, Beast stands by while Jean is zoomed away.

Andromeda stayed behind to challenge Attuma for leadership but got her ass kicked.

Lord Ghaur also takes her over Attuma's objections. Probably out of spite for Attuma trying to take Jean.

So Bride of Set count up to... She-Hulk, Dagger, Scarlet Witch, Marvel Girl, and Andromeda with Storm suggested as a possible target?

We've got five so far. I wonder how far from a full set of Brides of Set we are.

That's mostly what happens, overarching plot wise. Ghaur collects two brides, the Atlantis attacking continues, and Attuma hasn't heard about Atlantis Attacked yet.

And between the New Mutants Annual and this, the Deviants being Up To Something is becoming known to some of the heroes.

Next up is... WHY DO YOU NEED SO MANY BOOKS, SPIDER-MAN? FFS!

WARZONE: NEW YORK

"At last! It finally happens!"

Is that poking fun at how little Atlantis Attacking there was in this Atlantis Attacks event?

Bit late now that the Avengers Annual made a big deal about the Atlantis Attacking.

Ah well.

The Fantastic Five of Mr Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Ms Marvel the Sharon Ventura version, Human Torch, and non-powered Ben Grimm with no Thing exo-skeleton join forces with Spider-Man to fight off the Atlantis Attacks when Atlantis Attacks New York City.

Where did Atlantis get another whole army?

Attuma probably scraped together whoever they had. All those guys we saw swimming towards Avengers Island at the end of Avengers Annual were probably actually grouping to attack New York.

Some US soldiers comment that the Atlantis Attacks is pretty underwhelming (ha) because the military forces on the scene outnumber the Atlantean forces. Even no-powers Ben Grimm can contribute by just punching dudes.

Atlantis blew its load on the attacks in the Avengers Annual.

Then Attuma pulls out his trump card.

A VERY BIG SEA MONSTER.

Since this is a Spider-Man annual, the Fantastic Five get knocked out by the monster in various ways so Spider-Man can be the hero who figures out how to knock-out the Atlantean controlling the monster and then lure the monster out to sea.

While Invisible Woman is trying to rouse an unconscious Reed, Lord Ghaur shows up and abducts Sue to be one of the Brides of Set.

WE GOT SIX BRIDES!

Lord Ghaur also has his Lemurian allies blow Atlantis the fuck up.

I thought it was already destroyed by the big monster. The city trashed, the waters poisoned, and the people dead or scattered.

Did people come back just to get blown the fuck up?

This is the first time the event majorly steps on its own toes.

I thought it was clever how the villain plan had several different aspects so that different annuals could each progress the story in a different way without contradicting each other.

It doesn't help that blowing up Atlantis is an afterthought in an issue that is otherwise about Spider-Man (and the Fantastic Five) fighting an Atlantis Attacks of New York.

The New Mutants Annual focused on being just about Lord Ghaur's plan to destroy Atlantis using the Horn of Doom, hiding Deviant involvement and distracting its defenders by sending them after the New Mutants instead.

If he hadn't intervened in the battle to try to stop the New Mutants and Surf from stopping the monster, nobody would have known he was involved.

Here, a Lemurian ship blatantly blows up Atlantis.

Anyway, after Spider-Man leads away the monster, Attuma tries to rally his troops but then news breaks that Lemuria underwater nuked Atlantis.

The army is so demoralized that they flee back into the ocean and Attuma is so broken by how he was played by Ghaur that he doesn't resist as the heroes capture him.

So this issue: continues the Atlantis Attacks, secures another Bride of Set, gives Spider-Man yet more time in the spotlight that he apparently needed, blows up Atlantis again.

It also had a fun conceit where the narration was journalist Trish Fox covering the events and constantly yelling at her coworker Todd Tremaine for being the worst human being alive, I guess.

Time for more Avengers!

"Gather Now Ye 7 Brides!"

So seven brides total. Lord Ghaur got pretty much everyone but Storm by the last annual and he gets Storm between issues somehow in time for this.

He probably just yoinked her through the air like he did for Jean. Kinda makes him look like a fool chump for visiting in person all the other times.

Lord Ghaur discovers Dagger is blind, to his irritation. He specifically needs her powers so he can't just replace her.

He's also pissed because the plot has abruptly shifted. It turns out that the real sacrifice wasn't sending a monster to destroy Atlantis or nuking it. It would have been if the humans slaughtered the Atlanteans during their Attack.

If that's the case why did you blow up Atlantis at all? Why is it a sacrifice if you're not even the one who did the killing?

This is stupid.

This feels like destroying Atlantis twice. The event stepping on its own toes.

With the end approaching, all the plot threads that each annual was able to pursue independently has to come together and that's where clashes between what the various authors think the story is come into play.

But Lord Ghaur has a backup plan to summon Set even if destroying Atlantis twice over didn't count for some reason.

Over at the Avengers West Coast Compound, the Avengers are meeting here instead of at Avengers Island for some reason.

I'm telling you guys, enjoy the island while it lasts!

The meeting only has Captain America, Thor, the Vision, the Wasp, Wonder Man, Iron Man, Beast, Quasar, and special guest Sersi.

The rest of the Avengers are dealing with the Serpent Cult and giving any Atlantean Attacks stragglers a boot towards the ocean.

Vision reports that Scarlet Witch has been missing for eight hours and its a trend of superheroines being abducted. Thanks to Beast, they have a name and face to put to the abductions: Ghaur of the Deviants.

While Vision goes over the situation, Wonder Man glares at him and thinks about what an emotionless prick Vision is, not even sounding like he cares that his wife is missing.

Asshole! You're the one who refuses to help fix his emotions!

Anyway.

Since the Deviants are involved, Captain America asked Sersi to sit in on their meeting. Eternals are the best at punching Deviants.

The Thing show up. Although given what was said in the Web of Spider-Man Annual, this is Ben Grimm in a the Thing exo-skeleton.

Somehow, between annuals, Reed Richards learned that the Atlanteans were double crossed by the Lemurians and that the Atlantean army was supposed to be killed in the fighting against the surface dwellers, which would be a blood sacrifice that would summon Set.

So now that didn't happen, Reed is worried that the various missing superladies are a backup sacrifice.

As the god guy here, Thor exposits a little about Set. How he's an elder god even older than the Asgardians. How he's a real dick who is always causing problems or evolving snake people or making Serpent Crowns.

Thor even mentions that everything the heroes have done during this event will be moot unless Set is banished to the nether realms. And he suggests that he do that.

Alas, we're losing Thor for the rest of this issue. But only because he has to go punch Set in the face in his own annual.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, the Brides of Set have been sent on a scavenger hunt.

(Something that is pretty horrifying is that the Brides aren't brainwashed. They're aware of what they're doing, they hate what they're doing, and yet they are compelled to follow Ghaur's will.)

She-Hulk and Andromeda have been sent to the Altar of Neptune's Wrath. An ancient place of worship to Neptune until Atlanteans started worshipping Set instead and Neptune got mad and smote the place.

After Neptune got big mad, he left a big mad sea-beast to guard a fragment of Set's life force that was left behind.

She-Hulk finds the life force and starts to pry it from the altar but aggros the sea-beast.

Meanwhile, Jean Grey visits the Museum of Cultural Antiquities in Chicago and finagles her way into a tour of the vaults.

I think Ghaur gave her some Lemurian treasure to pass along to the museum as a donation so she would look like a big donor. Then she asks to make sure the security is up to snuff.

But after the curator opens up the vault, the Invisible Woman bonks him in the back of the head with an invisible sphere.

The two grab the lens of power from the vault and invisible take off past the guards.

Elsewhere meanwhile, She-Hulk fights the sea-beast and is spotted by a fishing boat. It makes an SOS and hearing about a green woman fighting a giant octopus is enough to get the Avengers assembled.

Iron Man flies from the Quinjet to blast at the sea-beast fruitlessly.

He also muses about how rough it is that he has to pretend not to be Tony Stark to the Avengers.

While still not really explaining why.

Iron Man electrocutes the sea-beast, which causes it to flail the tentacle grasping She-Hulk above the water. Iron Man activates underwater mode and goes underwater to offer to help She-Hulk and she punches him in the face.

Wonder Man flies out and punches the sea-beast, to not much effect.

Beast asks Sersi to use her transmutation powers to just end this fight but she says she can't. Trying to change something that big would be so much of a strain that it'd kill her.

Hello another thing that keeps Sersi's powers from just being the win button.

The problem with abilities that are so powerful that they either work or don't is that there's no middle ground so the character might just sit on their ass, not helping.

SERSI.

Anyway.

When one win button doesn't work, maybe another will.

Vision intangibles inside the sea-beast and lodges semi-tangible in its heart. Which knocks the monster the hell out.

Hopefully it doesn't... uh, drown? If sea-beasts that seem to be octopus-esque can drown?

The Avengers regroup and Iron Man pulls an unconscious She-Hulk from the water, who he stunned when she kept trying to rip his armor open.

Back at Lord Ghaur's base, Andromeda returns with the magical ball that is a piece of Set's lifeforce.

When they were beset by sea-beast, Andromeda took the ball and ditched She-Hulk to keep the guardian busy.

Lord Ghaur sees the logic in it but comments that he's down a bride now and the plan once again seems to be unraveling.

It had so many moving parts and so many of those moving parts were thwarted by superheroes who had no idea of the bigger picture.

The sneople production was cut off by Moon Knight, Punisher, Daredevil and Dr Strange.

The Avengers, Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man thwarted the Atlantis Attacks part of the story and then didn't brutally slaughter all the Atlanteans like was apparently necessary.

Monstering Atlantis was somewhat thwarted by the New Mutants and then blowing it up apparently had nothing to do with anything.

At least the plan to reconstruct the Serpent Crown and collect Brides has gone mostly right.

But if there's only six wives then there's only six wives. Set will have to deal.

Meanwhile, She-Hulk is still under compulsion to return to Lord Ghaur and she is very hard to keep contained.

Sersi comes up with the idea of just let her go. And then follow her to Lord Ghaur's lair and rescue all the kidnapped ladies.

And since Sersi says she can keep a telepathic lock on She-Hulk that Ghaur won't be able to block, Captain America okays the plan.

Meanwhile, back at Lord Ghaur's lair, he's slapping Dagger.

He's kind of a dick like that.

He needs her to focus her light daggers into the thinnest possible beam and she's finding it very difficult without being able to see what she's doing.

Jean Grey and Invisible Woman return with the Lens of Power and Ghaur reveals what this backup plan is.

To focus Dagger's life energy light daggers through the lens to invigorate the piece of Set's life force.

That will allow Set to manifest despite the sacrifice apparently not happening. Supposedly apparently.

As a back-up plan, this seems easier actually than hoping that humans will kill a bunch of Atlanteans for you. Why wasn't this Plan A?

Lord Ghaur: "Before the hour is struck, we shall see a new age aborning in the world! Set will rise! And I pity the power, human, Deviant, or Eternal that dares to stand against him!"

Speaking of standing against, the Avengers. The Avengers everyone!

Sersi shows off a fun use of her powers by transmuting the whole team (minus Iron Man and Vision) into water-breathers so they don't need extra gear to sneak into Ghaur's underwater base.

Once they get there, Iron Man knocks.

While Sersi changes most of the Avengers back to air-breathers, Iron Man and Vision get started knocking people on their asses and fisting them.

But before long, the Avengers encounter Bride Storm who blasts Cap with lightning and hurricane force winds indoors.

Cap bounces his shield all over the place before Storm blocks it with lightning.

... Can lightning knock something in motion away? That's weird.

But the shield bouncing was a cover for Wasp to sneak in while Storm's attention was drawn. Wasp blasts Storm who is knocked the hell out.

And standard disclaimer that she was fighting from the inside and that's why it was so easy to beat her.

Wonder Man belt jets ahead and punches the Lens of Power into bits, thwarting Ghaur's plans right when the Set orb was just a little bit short of life energy.

UNLESS... unless he can get comic bullshit to work for him?

Ghaur grabs Scarlet Witch and runs off with her, commanding the other Brides to stop Wonder Man.

He places the Set orb on the dais he long preached the Age of Set.

Lord Ghaur: "Come, woman! Use your power to change the shape of reality, to warp the fabric of probabilities! MAKE THE ENERGY INJECTED SUFFICIENT TO THE TASK!"

The Set Orb begins to expand.

Beast runs in with an iron gauntlet and fists the orb, hoping that iron's known power against the mystic will come into play here. But the Orb explodes, flinging him.

As the Brides chant "he rises!" Set is reborn on Earth.

Uh oh, twelve annuals in and Ghaur has succeeded in bringing an Elder God back to Earth. And only two annuals to fix this mess.

We'd need an act of god!

Oh, wasn't Thor off somewhere?

SET ASCENDING

Yes, he is.

Thor grabbed Quasar and the Thing due to their past exposure to the Serpent Crown and went to go see Dr Strange.

Where they'll be going, you need to be magical, a god, or have exposure to the Serpent Crown to survive. And these two are the only ones Thor could find since Scarlet Witch is under Ghaur's sway, Namor blew up, and Viper is untrustworthy.

Where are they going? Right to Set's home address to take the fight directly to him.

Problem:

Thor's group arrives right at the end of the last issue, when Set manifests on Earth.

(Thor points out something I didn't notice. Seven Avengers went on the mission to stop Ghaur, echoing Seven Brides, and Set the Seven Headed. That's a fun detail.)

The Avengers aren't the type to just not fight an Elder God so they all throw their best attacks at Set. But nothing they try even gets Set to blink. Even Vision bounces off when he tries to do his intangible thing.

Thor insists they need to pull Set back into his own dimension before he gains a real foothold on Earth. And since Set's seven heads are completely clogging the dimensional hole he's coming through, that leaves only one way to get into Set's dimension.

Through the mouth.

(The Avengers see Thor and Co. fly right into an Elder Snake God's mouth and Cap decides uhhhhhh well they must have a plan.)

Team Thor forces their way down Set's throat and all the way as far as they can go and then they force their way past that.

They emerge in Set's domain and so does Set except yanking him back into his own home from the inside out has kind of left him... inside out.

Thing: "Yecch! What a revoltin' development this is -- an' I do mean 'revoltin'!"

Well said.

Thor and Co. try fighting Set but he's an Elder God. You have the Sorcerer Supreme, the God of Thunder, the Guardian of the Universe, and Ben Grimm in a Thing exoskeleton here and its not enough.

If Dr Strange tries his hardest, he can manage to still be overwhelmed by one of the heads. Out of seven.

Things get worse when Set silently screams at the intruders in his domain, screams that threaten to drive them insane.

Thor just up and ditches. Mjolniports away.

But to a purpose. He went to speak with Gaia, his mom and another Elder God. To ask for her help against Set and specifically help contacting Atum, the Sun-Being who can turn to Demogorge, the God-Eater.

This is a lot of lore to suddenly throw in. Which is why it was part of the history of the Serpent Crown back-up stories that have been in each annual.

I already had to split this post in two so there wasn't a good way to go over all that lore so I just decided I'd bring it up if it were relevant.

And here it's relevant!

When Set was running amok on primeval Earth along with Chthon, Gaia got big mad and created Atum, who ate some of the Elder Gods to power-up into the Demogorge.

This was what frightened Set and Chthon into their dimensional hideaways.

We've got Set running amok again so can Atum help??

Gaia can't help with that. Set entering the world has imprisoned her.

So Thor whirls his go-anywhere hammer and goes to the Sun.

Except Atum says he can't help either because when he becomes the Demogorge, he can't stop himself from devouring. It would be trading one problem for another and besides, he hates himself like that.

So Thor annoys Atum into eating him.

Good job, Thor?

Good job. When the Demogorge shows up in Set's domain, he has Thor's head because Thor's willpower has taken over.

(He's done that sort of thing before, when the Destroyer armor ate him.)

It's a limited time thing before he's fully absorbed and digested, though, so Demothorge gets busy kicking Set's ass. And Set's ass has nowhere to flee because he's already in his bolt hole.

The Demothorge rips Set to pieces and then flings each head into a different dimension.

Gonna make it harder to come back from.

The Demogorge seems to finally absorb Thor so the Thing, Quasar, and Dr Strange prepare to try to beat Thor out of the guy.

But he tells them to HOLD and horks up Thor, reverting back to Atum.

In all his history of eating gods, he never ate one as noble as Thor. He was willing to sacrifice his immortal life for the sake of the mortals of Earth. And frankly, that's far too noble for Atum to stomach (complimentary) and it allowed Atum to keep the Demogorge's hunger under control.

Good job, Thor!

Set's dimension starts imploding without a Set to keep it stable.

Thor and Co. rush towards the portal but it's collapsing too.

But luckily Lord Ghaur screws up.

The time difference means its only been a few moments since Set was shoved back through the portal. So Ghaur assumes Set is trying to come back through. So he uses his own energy to stabilize the portal.

Ghaur: "I can help him reach the Earth again! By the Celestials! Instantaneous success! The fragment enlarges -- with it, the portal -- and through that portal I see -- "

Dr Strange, Quasar, Thor, and the Thing pop out of the portal.

Ghaur: " -- something I would rather not see."

Womp womp.

Ghaur tosses a blackout bomb and immediately flees with the Seven Brides.

It's an odd feeling where the evil scheme of the whole event has been thwarted (summoning Set) but the mastermind behind the scheme is still at large.

So they're going to go beat the shit out of him. Since Dr Strange can mystically track him and all.

Thor: "And when we do find Lord Ghaur, cringing in some far corner of the planet he betrayed to the serpent Set -- not all the grotesque godlings of Deviant Lemuria shall shield him from our righteous wrath!"

Which brings us to the conclusion of this whole thing.

for CROWN and CONQUEST!

Oh, hey, Namor is alive again. Neat.

And ignore that Tigra. I'm pretty sure she's a figment of your imagination. The real Tigra is tiny and in a terrarium.

All the Avengers and also the Fantastic Four and also Dr Strange gather in two Quinjets and an "amphibious Fantasticar" - which is clearly a submarine just call it a submarine -head towards Lemuria to bring this to an awesome conclusion.

While many of the Fantastic Avengers are ready to set to the task with grim purpose, Dr Pym and the Thing are pretty sure that this is just wrap-up.

After all, Thor and Co. from last annual already blew Set up so what does Lord Ghaur have left up his sleeve?

(A giant Serpent Crown, but who's counting?)

Weirdly, when Ben recaps the event (only stuff he would have some way of knowing, naturally) he mentions that the New Mutants beat up U-Man when he attacked Avengers Island.

We did see U-Man and some Atlanteans heading towards Avengers Island at the end of the Avengers Annual. And the New Mutants Annual was the very next part of the event. But neither U-Man nor Avengers Island appears in it.

Did wires get crossed? Was that what the New Mutants Annual was supposed to cover but it decided to show the destruction of Atlantis instead, conflicting with the destruction of Atlantis shown in Web of Spider-Man?

I have no idea.

I think the destruction is better in New Mutants and Lord Ghaur definitely says that the destruction caused by the monster he summoned counts as the needed ritual sacrifice. So if New Mutants instead was about them fending off an attack on Avengers Island by U-Man, the event would technically make more sense...

Anyway.

Over at Llyra's stronghold, she and Lord Ghaur make a plan to go down fighting, protected by their loyal Lemurians and Deviants.

It's less of a plan and more spite, honestly.

Which is why Ghaur pulls a plan out of his ass.

It is very maybe possible that if they spin the Brides of Set around really fast above the crown, the Giant-Sized Serpent Crown will absorb their essences and that could re-unite Set's heads and let him manifest.

Plan A of build giant Serpent Crown and sacrifice a huge number of people to summon Set felt appropriately Elder God-ish.

Plan B of Actually Dagger can just shoot energy through a lens at an orb to summon Set, we don't need to kill thousands of people felt easier.

Plan C of spin some women around until Set unexplodes is hilarious and desperate.

Lord Ghaur plans just devolve into wackiness over the course of this event.

I'm not even convinced that this will actually work. But it probably will kill some or all of the Brides and I like some or all of them so the heroes should stop this anyway.

But if it does work, how annoyed do you think Set will be? They're going to summon him into a world with no snake people cultists, no brides, and with him getting exploded the first time he poked his head through the door.

Even if Ghaur and Llyra succeed, they're not going to get rewarded by Set. Today has been hell on him.

The Avengers land in Lemuria and charge forward to have a big, exciting fight scene against Llyra's Lemurian army. Meanwhile, a shadowy figure sneaks off the Quinjet, having stowed along.

We can rule out it being Tigra, as she is not in this event.

The big Lemurian army is able to keep the Avengers and Fantastic Four and so on away from the room with the giant Serpent Crown because heaviest hitters Dr Strange and Thor are exhausted from fighting Set last annual. Also, there's just a lot of Lemurians.

I'm going to brush past most of the fighting. Some of it is cool but I don't need to do a blow by blow.

I will highlight Sersi's contribution though.

Where she calls the Deviants dogs and then is so pleased with her wordplay that she starts turning Deviants into dogs.

You and your sense of humor, Sersi.

(Does she turn them back later? Does she get them adopted into a good family?)

Llyra worries that the heroes will manage to fight through their armies before they finish spinning the Brides so she brings out the big guns. An enormous gun. A really big infra-sonic cannon.

BUT SUDDENLY NAMOR IS ALIVE AND KKRRUTTCHES THROUGH THE DOOR AND STARTS WRASSLING THE GIANT CANNON!

Turns out he wasn't dead. He was lying low, letting them think he was dead, and disguised as that mysterious armored figure who kept showing up.

The Fantastic Four (because Sue is missing and we've still got Reed, Johnny, Sharon, and Ben) help Namor tear the cannon apart.

But they can't get through the door to where Llyra, Ghaur, and the Brides are. Door is adamantium or something. Walls too, so don't get any bright ideas.

But Namor has a very good idea.

An underwater door that's unguarded because Llyra thought Namor dead.

While Namor and the Fantastic Four are swimming toward it, Namor exposits to a captive audience. The Fantastic Four can't really join the conversation because the water pressure will kill them.

He confides in them how much Llyra has taken from him. His bride, his cousin, and his father. So he very personally wants to rip open this secret sea entrance because Pride but as he struggles with it, he admits he actually needs some help and he's no longer ashamed to ask his friends, the Fantastic Four for it.

The Thing and Ms Marvel (the Sharon Ventura one, I'm not sure if she's called She-Thing here or not) help Namor get the hatch open just a little bit. And Mr Fantastic can fit through that gap and pry the hinges open from the inside. Getting them all inside before the water pressure pills wear off.

(I'm sorry but I'm going to assume they're the giant suppository ones from Futurama.)

The Fantastic Four and Pal Namor zoom through the hallways. Namor tries to give a history lesson about Naga of Lemuria who found the Serpent Crown centuries ago but Ben tells him to shut up.

That stuff is never going to be applicable in real life.

The heroes and Namor rush into the chamber with the giant-sized Serpent Crown and the whirling women, much to Ghaur and Llyra's dismay.

Llyra sends her guards to delay them but Ghaur tells her that the two of them will have to tap into the power of the Serpent Crown.

Namor lunges right at Llyra but she touches the Crown and shoots EYE BEAMS at him.

Ben in the Thing suit ruins up and starts punching the spinny thing but Ghaur waves his hands like a wizard and shoots mind control beams at the Fantastic Four, Fantastic Forcing them to fight each other.

Like with She-Hulk earlier, they're aware what they're doing and don't want to fight each other but are compelled by Ghaur's beams.

It gets violent too. Also, melodramatic.

Human Torch: "This is -- tearing me apart too, Reed -- only my flames keep burning away -- my t-tears!"

Over with Namor, Llyra tries to tempt him with illusions of Dorma and Marinna. The wife Llyra killed and the other wife that turned into a sea monster and Namor killed. Namor can bring one back to life! All he has to do is punch the one he doesn't want!

(It is, of course, a trick. Namor chooses neither and discovers that if he had punched he'd have killed a captive Namorita, who got captured off-panel after the New Mutants annual.)

Ghaur complains that Llyra is dicking around with Namor instead of helping him because the Fantastic Four aren't killing each other fast enough and he's getting worn out!

Llyra can't come help him because she's made Namor really mad and her eye beeeeams are only just keeping him at bay.

So Ghaur decides. Fuck this, actually. He taps deeper and deeper into the Serpent Crown's power. I guess he's given up on bringing Set back and just wants to kill these dudes and Sharon.

But tapping so deeply into the crown summons... Naga of Lemuria?

Dammit, if only Ben hadn't interrupted Namor's history lesson!

(Naga was covered in those history of the Serpent Crown back-up stories. All you need to know is that Naga was too much of a dick to his most loyal soldiers and one stabbed him. But I guess his soul or spirit or ghost got eaten by the Crown.)

Ghaur and Naga fight over the crown and their perfectly symmetrical violence destroys them both.

For some reason, Ghaur will be back. And in Avengers so I'll have to care!

Llyra also vanishes right in the middle of getting choked by Namor. She doesn't know what's happening and neither do I. Because her next appearance is in a book that doesn't have a synopsis on Marvel wiki.

That's part of why I do this liveblog. A lot of Avengers issues didn't have much of a summary and I wanted to know what happened.

Anyway.

Now that the Fantastic Four sorta technically won the day by being bad at killing each other until another bad guy showed up and took care of the one they were fighting.... the rest of the heroes finally break through and into the crown room.

Also, the woman wheel stops spinning and the Mark of Set vanishes from all their necks.

When Ben suggests tossing the giant-sized Serpent Crown down a crevice that formed during the fight, the former Brides all charge forward in unison and push the sucker in.

Where it explodes. And the explosion seals the crevice.

That's a weird thing for it to have done.

Beast asks why the ex-Brides were able to act in unison like that and Dagger says the wheel spun them into a hive mind but only for long enough to push the Crown.

That's a weird thing to establish and throw away!

Why did you need to justify them acting together?

(Also, funny moment. When Ben Grimm sees all the Brides together he goes 'hey that one looks like Storm, exactly like Storm, but clearly its not because she's dead.' This is important because the X-Men have turbo faked their death and won't even tell the loved ones they left behind they're alive. Can't casually spill the beans in a big crossover.)

Reed asks what Namor is going to do now. Atlantis was double destroyed and its people have once again scattered to parts unknown.

This happens to the Atlanteans so, so often.

That was even the status quo when he first appeared in Avengers. That's why he had so much time to hassle them. His people had abandoned city and he had nothing else going on in his life.

Namor decides he's not going to try to find and reunite his people. He doesn't say so but they chose Attuma over him. Fuck them.

(And when the missing Atlanteans plot point gets resolved, its going to turn out that they once again unite under Attuma. So fuck them!)

Instead, Namor is going to just hang out with Namorita, who is his whole family now.

Namorita, on the other hand, tells Namor she's going to college but he's free to visit.

Womp womp.

As everybody disbands back to whatever they were doing, Robot Human Torch and Captain America take time to muse on how Namor was a moody loner back in The War while Torch and Cap had Toro and Bucky. But now they don't and Namor has Namorita.

Which seems to misinterpret the dynamic here. Namor said he's going to follow Namorita around because he has nothing else going on and she's going to do college.

Not everything is about you and your life, Cap.

So that was Atlantis Attacks.

I'll give it this much: it was definitely an improvement on Evolutionary War.

Evolutionary War had three issues that tried to actually move the plot forward. The X-Factor Annual, where the High Evolutionary debated his philosophy with Apocalypse, the West Coast Avengers Annual where we learned he was building a big ol' evolution bomb, and the Avengers Annual where a rag-tag group of Avengers learned about the scheme and managed to thwart him by shooting their friend Hercules with dangerous evolution radiation.

Most of the event spun its wheels or was very unclear on what the High Evolutionary was actually trying to do. It really seemed like every writer got to decide that for themself so by the end, the whole story felt very inconsistent. The need to somehow give the Punisher a reason to be involved led to a weird drug subplot that ran through several of the annuals.

Atlantis Attacks tried to have each annual contribute to the story. Resurrecting Ghaur, showing the beginning of the Atlantis attacks, Marking a Bride, collecting mystical artifacts to reconstruct the Serpent Crown, having a weird drug subplot...

Oh, dammit, they did it again!

The Tyrannus stuff that runs through Amazing Spider-Man, Punisher, Spectacular Spider-Man and Daredevil really feels like an unnecessary subplot to get drugs in the story so Punisher has a reason to be involved.

Trying to come up with a story that involves every single annual runs into the problem that the fate of the world stuff that can unite every hero is an odd fit for the Punisher. Because the plot is brought down to his level instead of him up to the plot.

Unlike when other parts of his plan failed, Ghaur didn't really bother trying to come up with a Plan B for losing all those snake people so I guess they weren't really necessary to the scheme.

There's also the problem where Atlantis gets destroyed twice as a sacrifice but then it turns out that wasn't the sacrifice, the sacrifice would have been if the US military and superheroes had slaughtered all of the Atlantean soldiers. So why blow up Atlantis at all? Why choose a method of sacrifice that's so out of your control?

And the New Mutants fighting U-Man on Avengers Island gets referenced but never happens in the event, making me think that someone got the wrong script sent to them.

So, Atlantis Attacks has problems.

It tried harder to tell a story that would unite all the annuals of a year and it stumbled.

I'm going to give it points for trying and improving on the last attempt.

And in the early parts of the story, I was legitimately surprised by how okay it was. Excited to try to piece things together from how each annual progressed the overall plot.

I like how instead of just constantly winning, Ghaur keeps suffering setbacks and switches to a backup plan. I think a lot of events would just make the villain win all the time until he grasps the villain ball at the end so he can actually be defeated. But here, Ghaur is defeated because the heroes just kept coming and he ran out of plans and wound up destroying himself. Or rather, a snake ghost destroyed him but whatever.

And I like how the obvious end boss Elder God Set is defeated in the penultimate issue, leaving Ghaur scrambling with a backup backup backup plan that seemed based on more wistful thinking than anything.

The next year's annuals are broken into smaller events. Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, West Coast Avengers, and Avengers telling one story rather than trying to come up with a story that fits every book being published.

The Spider-Man Annuals get to tell their own story, instead of having a disproportionate share of a company wide event.

The X-books and Fantastic Four revisit Days of Future Past for their annuals.

And Punisher, Daredevil, Hulk, and Silver Surfer share a story for theirs. Now that grouping is a bit eclectic.

Telling smaller events with fewer books is probably a smarter idea and easier to write a good story for. It is also much easier for me to cover.

I thought Evolutionary War was tough. Atlantis Attacks nearly killed me.

AND WHY WAS IT CALLED ATLANTIS ATTACKS WHEN ATLANTIS ATTACKING WAS NOT THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE PLOT AND DIDN'T EVEN HAPPEN UNTIL HALFWAY THROUGH THE EVENT??

Follow @essential-avengers. Like and reblog maybe. Brain fried, can't think of silly ending text.

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