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thebibliomancer · 2 years ago

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Essential Avengers: Avengers #289: Cube Root!

March, 1988

HEAVY METAL HORDE!

So the one rogue Super-Adaptoid problem has kinda snowballed into a whole thing, huh?

I’m brave enough to blame Dr Druid for this.

Because we’ve got the Super-Adaptoid (in default form), Machine Man, TESS-One, a Kree Sentry, and the Awesome Android running amok. Dammit, Dr Druid!

Last times in this comic: During the Avengers Under Siege arc, the Fixer inadvertently released the Super-Adaptoid who identity thefted him and shoved him in a tube. The Adaptoid later broke out of jail and tried to recruit the Awesome Android. While the Avengers stopped him, he slipped away and used Mentallo to lure the Avengers into a trap so he could recruit Machine Man and the Kree Sentry. Due to Dr Druid’s bad decision making, him and Black Knight got ambushed by the three robots calling themselves Heavy Metal. The robot team then used the Avengers Quinjet to get past Hydrobase’s security.

And now they’re here.

DAMMIT DR DRUID!

Also, writer Roger Stern was replaced by Ralph Macchio mid-story when Stern pushed back against Mark Gruenwald’s plan to make Monica look like an incompetent dope so that Captain America could take over the team.

I’m going to keep that in mind in case people start saying stuff like ‘this would never have happened if Captain America were here!’

Anyway, Heavy Metal immediately starts wrecking shit. Which is a shame. I’m pretty sure all the shit they’re wrecking had just been built.

Dick move, robots.

Namor, Marrina, and She-Hulk are on Hydrobase when the attack starts so they hear the alarms and realize that the returning Quinjet (that they apparently didn’t try to contact to confirm) was not Dr Druid and Black Knight.

She-Hulk snarks as she’s running off to go punch robots that she’ll have to talk to Captain Marvel to make the landing clearances more complex.

Namor tries to tell Marrina that she should stay behind so she doesn’t get hurt but she tells him to stick it up his butt.

Marrina: “My husband -- no! Hydrobase is my home now. And although I am not a full Avenger... when my home is threatened -- I fight!”

So Namor stops objecting and privately marvels at what a valorous woman she is and how proud he is to be her spouse.

Aw, that’s nice.

(Ignores cursed future knowledge)

She-Hulk finds the nearest robot aggressor and immediately punches it in the ass.

Alas.

The ass WHAKT! was not sufficient and its return punch launches She-Hulk through a building and jams her in some debris.

She can’t free herself before the Sentry arrives to follow-through. It plucks her from the rubble and swings her at a building until she’s knocked unconscious.

Huh. What ARE all these buildings though?

This location doesn’t look very Hydrobasey. Maybe that’s down to the change in creative team.

Anyway.

While Machine Man, the Kree Sentry, and TESS-One break stuff outside, the Super-Adaptoid slips into the Avengers Storage Warehouse.

The Adaptoid finds the deactivated Awesome Android and reprograms it to break shit.

AND THE AWESOME ANDROID JUST MARCHES THROUGH THE WALL

There was a door, guy!

But even this is just another distraction for the Avengers and the Fixtallo-Adaptoid goes off to achieve his final goal.

Meanwhile, Namor tackles TESS-One into a wall.

Unfortunately, TESS-One, despite being designed during World War II, has adamantium coating, making it hard for Namor to damage. Since all he knows is blunt force.

God. Adamantium really is too plentiful.

Marrina maybe didn’t get the message because she picks up a big rock and throws it at TESS-One. Resulting only in becoming the primary target for the robot to shoot its force beams at.

Namor jumps back on TESS-One and starts examining its head for a shutoff switch.

TESS-One just grabs Namor and hurls him through a building. And mid-throw, Namor spots that the Awesome Android is also wrecking shit up and makes the decision to switch focus to the Awesome Android and asks Marrina to deal with TESS-One.

Of course, given her track record so far, are you surprised that she instantly gets knocked out when TESS-One zaps her.

Dammit, Marrina.

I beg you. Have one (1) competence. You have extensive experience with Alpha Flight!

Elsewhere, Machine Man is flying above the oddly city looking Hydrobase and having a Concern.

It turns out that Machine Man is actually a Good Guy. Although he pretended to buy into the Super-Adaptoid’s claim he could bring back Jocasta, Machine Man was really playing along to find out what the Adaptoid’s real plan was.

(He also wanted to see if the Adaptoid could bring Jocasta back)

Except the Super-Adaptoid is playing things so close to his chest that Machine Man has learned nothing but has helped beat up some Avengers and invade their headquarters.

And since the construction crews were still working on the island (and are seen running in panic from all the fighting) Machine Man decides that the risk to human life is now too much for him to keep playing along.

He’s going to flip sides!

Also on the island is Dr. Walt Newell, the good guy Stingray!

He’s the one who owns Hydrobase and he’s leasing it to the Avengers.

So he’s not super thrilled to see it get smashed up by a bunch of robots.

He puts on his Stingray battlesuit and flies off to attack the first robot he sees!

WHICH IS MACHINE MAN

BECAUSE OF COURSE STINGRAY WASN’T AROUND TO HEAR MACHINE MAN MONOLOGUING ABOUT HOW HE WAS SWITCHING SIDES!

Machine Man insists that he’s on Stingray’s side and that they should work together.

Stingray is amenable... if Machine Man answers some questions.

Inside the Avengers’ communications complex, the Fixermentallo-Adaptoid has finished bypassing the security on the Avengers’ computers so he can access their files on the Cosmic Cube.

Thankfully, the Avengers have several adjacent monitors so a bunch of information can be displayed on several screens. Tabs are for underachievers.

Wait, the Aquarian?

-google-

Apparently Steve Gerber created him as a pastiche on Superman, which in this case means DC almost sued Marvel because in this case the line between pastiche and plagiarism was razor-thin.

But I digress.

The Super-Adaptoid has learned from the Avengers’ files that the Cosmic Cube is not even on Earth. And that’s what the Adaptoid is after.

But he’s got a backup plan and sends out a hyperspace transmission.

Captain Marvel returns from finding Dr Druid and Black Knight and getting them to the hospital. Because this is the Monica Rambeau incompetence arc, the Adaptoid psychic blasts her unconscious without even turning away from the transmitter.

Not only that but since he got her right when she was shifting to her light form, she also starts discorporating.

Why do you hate Monica so much, Gruenwald?

Meanwhile, outside, She-Hulk has regained consciousness and starts fighting the Kree Sentry. Also, Namor comes to save Marrina from TESS-One by punching it in the head a bunch but the Awesome Android grabs him and starts twisting the prince of Abslantis into a pretzel.

BUT:

Marrina has one (1) competence!

She rams the Awesome Android with a bulldozer, causing the robot to lose hold of Namor.

Sure, the Awesome Android then smacks the bulldozer into the ocean but hey, she’s fine in water.

Namor confirms that Marrina is fine and then smashes into the ground to smash out of the ground under the Awesome Android so he can dunk him into the ocean.

Its a tactic he uses a lot as a villain. He is strongest in water after all and other people generally need to breath. You’re headquartered on an island and you didn’t think of it sooner?

Okay, okay, okay. Its easy to criticize. It’s good that you thought of it now.

Elsewhere on the beach, the Kree Sentry corners She-Hulk against the water.

The robot bats She-Hulk into the water with a tree and then goes wading after her. Luckily, She-Hulk has a guardian Marrina.

Marrina: “No! No! Take your hands off her! No Avenger will die if I can help it!”

She jumps on the Sentry and starts trying to rip its head off.

And she manages to actually topple the Sentry and submerge it.

Inside Hydrobase, I guess Machine Man successfully convinced Stingray that he was on the level because the two of them bust in together to try to stop the Super-Adaptoid.

While Stingray gets taken out with one blast, just like Monica, Machine Man manages to start grappling the Adaptoid.

The Adaptoid just laughs off Machine Man’s attack as Just As Planned. The Super-Adaptoid super-adapts even Machine Man’s powers, and copies his face.

Meanwhile, back outside, all the fighting seems to have moved into the ocean.

After dunking the Awesome Android into the water, Namor finds that it has mimicked his bouyancy. So he just rips Andy’s head clean off.

Oof.

TESS-One has also waded out into the water to continue the fight and draws a bead on Namor. But She-Hulk and Marrina shove its robot legs and TESS-One stumbles off the edge of Hydrobase.

See, its not a real island. It doesn’t go all the way down. You know those scary pictures of places where the continental shelf just DROPS OFF.

Kinda like that is happening to TESS-One.

Hm. The Avengers are going to have a lot of waterlogged killer robots in the oceans around their base.

But after defeating those soggy robots, Namor, She-Hulk, and Marrina notice a bright light coming from the communications complex.

It turns out that the Super-Adaptoid’s hyperspace transmission has summoned a Cosmic Cube. But not just any Cosmic Cube.

Cosmic Cube has evolved into a Transformer!

The Fixermentallodruidmachineman-Adaptoid answers Kubik’s demand to know who rang.

Super-Adaptoid: “Like yourself, I am a creation of the scientists who comprised A.I.M. Once I did their bidding -- but no longer. I have my own needs now, and my own methods of satisfying them.Even those mechanical entities whose aid I enlisted in my attempt to draw you here are as nothing compared to me. Let me approach you now in my purest, most undiluted form, that you may see the truth of him who called you.”

And the Super-Adaptoid purges the appearances/powers(?) that he’s adapted and takes on the generic metal man no features form.

Kubik disputes the statement that he was created by AIM, instead saying that it was more like his essence was plucked from another universe and shoved into a cube and forced to do reality warping.

So this conversation is off to a fantastic start.

Kubik asks why the Adaptoid summoned him and the Adaptoid says he's lonely, oh so lonely.

Super-Adaptoid: "I desire... progeny. You see, I am unique -- A.I.M. was able to create one of me, and even that single creation may have been accidental. Now I desire others of my ilk... worthy to stand at my side and rule this planet when I have conquered it!”

Okay... started this answer somewhat sympathetic and plunged into un.

Kubik tells him to fuck off.

Kubik: "Kubik is no longer an immature entity, a nascent life form granting the wishes of whosoever holds me. The only changes I make in the world are those I desire. And they are few. Your wishes will not be delivered."

Then the Super-Adaptoid tells Kubik to fuck off.

Since he's the Super-Adaptoid, he'll just super-adapt Kubik's powers. He can do this, you see. He's a Super-Adaptoid.

I guess more to the point, AIM created him with a sliver of a cosmic cube so his power source is similar to Kubik. But its a frequent point that slivers of cosmic cubes don't have the same power as the fully cubic deal. And the next thing Kubik-Adaptoid says is that he's now equal in power to Kubik and uses the possibility of a reality-endangering stalemate between them to tell Kubik to fuck off back to space.

Super-Adaptoid: “At last my destiny is at hand! At last my merest whim becomes immutable fact! I am beyond conquest or challenge! The Super-Adaptoid has become -- THE MASTER OF ALL REALITY!”

Can’t wait for pride to goeith before you fall, bud.

Follow @essential-avengers if you think Monica deserves better. Like and reblog if you think Kubik looks like a transformer or if you liked this post and think other people should see it.

#avengers #essential avengers #Heavy Metal #Super Adaptoid #Machine Man #TESS One #Kree Sentry #Awesome Android #Kubik #Stingray #namor mckenzie #captain marvel #Monica Rambeau #Marrina #She Hulk #Dr Druid who isn't here for some reason #the reason is that he made poor decisions #essential marvel liveblogging #my enjoyment of this arc is colored by what I know of the behind the scenes stuff

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thebibliomancer · 2 years ago

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Essential Avengers: Avengers #288: HEAVY METAL!

February, 1988

"When Wakes THE SENTRY SINISTER!”

The Avengers are dealing with a lot of old robots lately.

Super-Adaptoid, the Awesome Android, and now the Kree Sentry-459.

Almost like its a theme, of some sort.

Or maybe the Super-Adaptoid is just lonely and is trying to make friends with other robots.

Maybe if he had better role models, he’d be a good guy?

So of what happened previously: during the Masters of Evil attack on Avengers Mansion, Super-Adaptoid got out of capsule captivity and changed places with the Fixer.

In guise of the Fixer, he got captured and sent to jail but broke out because the Fixer’s gear had a failsafe that mind-controlled some poor schmuck named Todd Martin.

The Fixer-Adaptoid tried to retrieve the Awesome Android but took off when the Avengers showed up. The Avengers fought the Android and She-Hulk defeated him by punching him in the armpit.

Next, the Fixer-Adaptoid went to meet with the Fixer’s old pal, Mentallo, and tortured him to lure the Avengers out. The Avengers survived the boobytrapped villain lair and rescued Mentallo but by that point the Fixer-Adaptoid was meeting with Machine Man.

Which brings us to now. Maybe Machine Man will be a good influence on the Adaptoid?

Or maybe the Adaptoid will be a bad influence on Machine Man.

Aaron “Machine Man” Stack doesn’t need a lot of prodding to be an asshole, let’s be honest.

So Fixermentallo-Adaptoid (yes, that red and goatee is because he absorbed Mentallo’s powers too) and Machine Man arrive at a BIG TOURIST ATTRACTION! in the Texas Panhandle.

Where people can SEE THE AMAZING GIANT ROBOT from OUTER SPACE!

There’s some skepticism from some of the tourists.

Not that amazing giant robots from outer space exist. I mean, geez, this is the Marvel universe. Amazing giant robots from outer space are plausible. One of the tourists is prettyyyyy sure that the military has a bunch of aliens in Nevada.

But this? Total scam. Yeah, no way

this thing is a real amazing giant robot from outer space!

Hi, Kree Sentry-459!

You’ve had a long and eventful life to wind up as just a tourist attraction.

There’s actually something charming about that. You’d think that the military or Avengers would haul the sentry off out of the public eye but everyone just left it where it was and some enterprising local made a business out of it being on his property.

Good times.

Well, they were good times.

Because, Machine Man and the Fixermentallo-Adaptoid show up.

They start repairing the Sentry, thanks to the amazing fixing powers of the Fixer and the mental powers of Mentallo.

The stereotypical old Texan man with a gun, beard, and suspenders running this tourist trap tells them to stop fucking with the attraction.

This guy is a treat.

Delightful.

After the two don’t listen to him tellin’ them to amscray, he immediately unloads his gun into the Adaptoid, claiming no jury would convict.

And when the Adaptoid is unscathed this guy is just... baffled. He’s like wait why am I seeing things I’m not drunk, people die when they are killed.

The Adaptoid and Machine Man Aaron just ignore this dude’s comedy stylings entirely.

I feel in a more 90s-ier comic, this dude would be as dead as Farmer With A Shotgun from Dragon Ball but it’s actually funnier that they just give him no attention.

Anyway, they get the gol-durn thing working and the three go traipsing away, on a route the Adaptoid calculated to face the least resistance.

And the dude who ran the amazing giant robot from out of space attraction just loses his mind.

Old Texan Man: “Hey, dadburnit! Get back heah! Ah can’t make no livin’ just ranchin’ this dust pile! Ah got bills tuh pay! What am ah gonna show folks when they come around heah... the spot yuh used’ta be in?! What am ah gonna tell ‘em? The man from Mars plum got up an’ walked hisself away?! Git back heah, yuh ungrateful pile ‘a scrap! Ain’t ah always been good tuh yuh? Ain’t ah always washed an’ scrubbed yuh Saturday night an’ polished yuh up proud fer Sunday visitin’? Answer me, durn yuh! Answer me, yuh big bag ‘a bolts! COME HEAH!”

Supervillains are so insensitive to the plight of the small businessman.

Later, at Hydrobase....

What the fuck.

I...

Okay so I knew a few things about Hydrobase.

But I don’t think I knew that the Avengers moved THE ENTIRE MANSION TO THE ISLAND!

Geez, they’re really going all in on Hydrobase being their new base of operation.

And, hey, this is a way for the new to be tempered with the old. Maybe I’d be more receptive to the Clearly The Last Dungeon In An RPG Avengers Tower if it had the Mansion plopped on top, like how Xanatos Gargoyles did with a castle.

Why the hell does Avengers Tower look like a doom fortress anyway?

Anyway.

Dr Druid comments on what a momentous occasion this is and says that its a shame that nobody is videotaping the moment.

Captain Marvel clearly takes this as a passive aggressive jab.

Captain Marvel: “As leader of the Avengers, doctor, you know I’ve had a great many things on my mind -- the least of which was filming this occasion. Please stop questioning my every move.”

Here here. Hear hear? Whichever.

Dr Druid says he meant no offense. But he would say that, wouldn’t he? -squints suspiciously-

But Black Knight arrives on his Atomic Steed with news! Literal news! A literal news clipping from an actual newspaper!

My god!

So, this is how superheroes get their leads.

I joke but I like the worldbuilding detail of the Avengers having an off-panel support staff of people paid to read every newspaper for stuff that the Avengers might need to deal with.

Wonder if I could get that job. I can read. I can cut paper with scissors.

I also like that when Dane says he has news, the first thing Captain Marvel wants to know is whether its about Captain America. Good to see that she’s still on that plot thread.

Anyway, a small Texas newspaper printed a story with a picture of Machine Man, the Super-Adaptoid, and the Kree Sentry.

It’s the lead on the Super-Adaptoid that the Avengers have been waiting for!

And I remain shocked that news media is the Avengers’ best leads on supervillain activity. I know that the government cut them off but... Uh. I don’t know how I was going to finish this sentence. I guess I don’t really think about how superheroes get their leads. Spider-Man just swings around, I guess. The Avengers watch the news and have people clipping articles. Hmmm... that makes the X-Men the most fantastical in terms of superhero teams because at least they use a psychic helmet to get leads...

Captain Marvel draws a line between the data points and notices that the Super-Adaptoid is recruiting other robots. And its enough of a lead to investigate.

Black Knight says that they should just track down the Adaptoid, find out that way. Captain Marvel expects that the Adaptoid will probably lead a cold trail so it might not be worth chasing their tails until they have a better idea of what he’s up to. Dr Druid suggests that since the Adaptoid went after Mentallo, maybe the robot pattern isn’t a pattern at all.

And Black Knight re-suggests that Captain Marvel should go to Texas to check out the trail since she can get there at literally the speed of light.

While she’s gone, she orders Dr Druid and Black Knight to pull up all the files the Avengers have on super-robots and androids. Get started on that lead.

And then she nyooms away.

As she flies, she ponders how frustrated she is about this Super-Adaptoid situation. How he escaped in a truck while the Avengers were busy with the Awesome Android.

Meanwhile, Machine Man, the Super-Adaptoid, and the Kree Sentry walk along the Grand Canyon.

Machine Man suggests that maybe they should hijack an airplane. Because the Sentry is really slowing them down by being unable to fly.

The Adaptoid doesn’t really answer his concern. Just says that they’ve got an additional stop before New York.

Machine Man reminds himself that he’s doing this for Jocasta and wonders if humans would find it weird that a robot can love.

And then he gets philosophical.

Machine Man: “Adaptoid, are you familiar with how baffling the concept of robotic life is to most of humanity... yet, how pervasive the idea of the machine is in aspects of many cultures? I’ve read extensively -- It’s startling how humans see themselves so often in machine-like terms. In 1662, the philosopher Descartes, published DeHomine, a theory of man and animals as machines. He even made a theoretical model of a mechanical man -- like me. By the beginning of the 20th century, every major model for the explanation of human behavior was mechanical. Darwin even used the machine model for evolution. Newton saw the universe in mechanistic terms -- like an unwinding clockwork. The humans refer to their most advanced societies as the most mechanized. It’s fascinating.”

Super-Adaptoid: “Have your vast readings on the subject led you to any practical conclusions?”

Machine Man: “Practical? I read only to learn -- to discover what it is I am. Knowledge is its own reward.”

Super-Adaptoid: “Then, in truth, your time was ill-spent, for your knowledge has brought you nothing.”

Wow.

He just listened to Aaron’s entire speech and then told him he was an idiot for not focusing on more practical things.

Super-Adaptoid is pretty incurious about the arts, I guess.

Anyway, Captain Monica Marvel returns to Hydrobase and oh wow!

Look at this new Situation Room for the Avengers!

Its huge! Possibly unnecessarily huge!

Rooms in Avengers Mansion tended to shift between appearances. But meeting rooms, communication rooms, computer rooms... they tended be cramped more than cavernous. Having to fit everything under a mansion that wasn’t originally intended to be a superhero base will do that.

I guess Hydrobase gives them more room to work.

Captain Marvel reports that the trail in Texas had run cold, as she feared. And she wouldn’t know the Super-Adaptoid if she ran into him since he can change his appearance.

But at least while she was gone, Dr Druid and Black Knight have been busy pulling up information on all the robots and androids in the Avengers’ files.

Lotta robots.

Aww... poor Jocasta.

Captain Marvel asks if its necessary to bring up information on destroyed robots but Dr Druid says its better safe than sorry.

AND Y’KNOW. MONICA. The Adaptoid reactivated the Kree Sentry. So maybe don’t discount the possibility that he’d fix a robot considered destroyed?

Black Knight tells her that the most likely suspects are Ultron, TESS-One, Machine Man (womp womp), and the Sentinels.

So she calls an Avengers meeting to go over what they know with the Avengers who haven’t been on research duty.

New meeting room!

My god. Everyone has elbow room. But there’s no icons on the chairs. Kind of a mixed bag in terms of an improvement.

Chair icons are top tier as a superhero base design element. So goofy, yet so charming.

Anyway, Captain Marvel splits the Avengers between the various deactivated robots/possible targets of the Adaptoid.

Dr Druid and Black Knight will investigate TESS-One. I’m reading on marvelpedia that Tess-One was a prototype super-soldier hunting robot greenlit by FDR out of fear that an army of super-soldiers might return home from the war and take over the country.

Wow, they really didn’t trust their boys in blue, white, red, and cowl.

But when Professor Erskine was killed after making only one super-soldier (Captain America, duh), FDR decided ‘why the hell am I funding this?’

Anyway, the scientist creating TESS-One decided to take the project home and finish it on his own terms and also program it to kill Captain America. As ya do.

Anyway.

Namor and She-Hulk will look into the Sentinels in Washington DC.

And since the West Coast Avengers (specifically Wonder Man) destroyed Ultron most recently, Captain Marvel has asked them to take care of that.

Marinna is on Operation: Stay at Hydrobase because she’s not an Avenger and Monica isn’t about to be responsible for her safety.

Namor gets mad and says that only he decides whether his wife has to stay out of danger or not!

This time Marrina tells him that its fine, they should listen to the team leader.

And She-Hulk, being She-Hulk, thinks ‘oh sweet, alone time with Namor.’

God dammit, Jen.

While everyone is doing what she told them to be doing, Captain Marvel will investigate the robots marked destroyed.

If anyone sees that Adaptoid, contact Hydrobase.

As everyone leaves to their tasks, Captain Monica has some private doubts.

Captain Marvel: Yeah. Good luck. Sure wish Captain America would come back to us. I don’t know if I’m cutting it with these folks. I seem to be going through the motions of leadership. I’m not sure I believe it any more than I think they do.

Hmm.

I should talk a little about this.

So in the upcoming future, Captain Marvel’s tenure as chairwoman of the Avengers is gonna end so that Captain America can be leader again. This was an editorial mandate from Mark Gruenwald, who did quite like Captain America.

Writer Stern agreed to make this change but drew the line at Gruenwald’s insistence that Monica be shown as incompetent as chairwoman, to justify Cap(tain America) taking over.

This is likely why last issue was the end of Stern’s run.

Yes. Right in the middle of a story. Ralph Macchio and Mark Gruenwald handle the rest of the story. And then Walt Simonson’s run starts.

(Spoilers: Which does indeed end Monica’s leadership and her superhero career for a time. And leads to the Avengers breaking up. Fucks sake, Simonson or Gruenwald.)

So all this recent stuff about Monica feeling like she isn’t suited to lead the Avengers or other characters thinking badly of her... I have to wonder whether it was intended to be part of whatever is going on with Dr Druid. Or editorial pressure to undermine Monica as a character.

Quite a bad look for Gruenwald.

So if this is the beginning of the end, I will say that Monica has done a good job so far as a competent if believably green team leader.

ANYWAY.

Black Knight and Dr Druid, who is here for some reason, arrive at an air force base in the Midwest.

They don’t have the special priority clearance, since the government is still mad about Vision trying to take over the world, so in order to get clearance to land, they faked engine trouble.

Then, in order to get the soldiers to let them see TESS-One, Dr Druid uses his vast MENTAL POWERS to Jedi mind trick the soldiers.

Under the influence of his MENTAL POWERS, the soldiers load TESS-One onto the Quinjet and then the Avengers take off with the deactivated anti-super-soldier robot.

Black Knight is worried that the soldiers will snap out of it and try to shoot them down but Dr Druid reassures him.

Dr Druid: “You see, the military mind is quite used to receiving orders, therefore, they are sometimes more susceptible to commands than the undisciplined mind.”

Black Knight: “You don’t say.”

Black Knight also points out that Captain Marvel wanted them to watch TESS-One where it was, not bring it back to Hydrobase.

Dr Druid: “Hmmph, she lacked foresight in this matter. What were we to do -- stay on the Air Force base until the Super-Adaptoid attacked? She will see that we did right.”

Then they lose control of the Quinjet and Black Knight is forced into an emergency landing.

Black Knight tells Dr Druid to send a message to Captain Marvel that they may be under attack by the Adaptoid but Druid refuses.

Dr Druid: “Uhh -- Perhaps the ship has malfunctioned naturally. We mustn’t turn in a false report. We need evidence.”

Then the Kree Sentry tears open the Quinjet.

HOW DOES BEING WRONG TASTE, DOCTOR?

The Kree Sentry pulls Black Knight out of the Quinjet but he uses his extremely cursed sword to lop off its hand.

Unfortunately, its still holding on tight, forcing him to very awkwardly cut himself free finger by finger since if the sword draws any blood, the curse will overwhelm him.

Its such an awkward position which requires so much focus, that Black Knight can’t keep his cape from leaking into his thought bubble.

I’m sorry colorist Max Scheele. You don’t deserve me mocking coloring errors thirty-six years later. And yet.

Dr Druid tries to levitate away from the Super-Adaptoid but can’t outpace the robot’s jetpack.

So he changes tactics and uses his MENTAL POWERS to summon illusions of Thor and Namor.

Which has no effect on the Super-Adaptoid.

Super-Adaptoid: “Hah! Such parlor tricks, doctor! An all-encompassing intellect such as mine -- cannot possibly be fooled by these phantasms! I see through them -- beyond them -- as no other brain on Earth could!”

That having failed too, Dr Druid concedes that he needs to send a message to Captain Marvel but he can’t do it if he isn’t given room to concentrate.

Over with Black Knight, he’s finished cutting himself free of the Sentry’s hand. Only for Machine Man to show up with snark.

Machine Man: “Well, I’d give you a big hand for that performance -- but it seems as if you’ve gotten one already!”

Womp womp!

Seeing that Machine Man is on the Adaptoid’s side, Black Knight doesn’t waste any time. He immediately swings his sword to decapitate Machine Man.

Unfortunately, Machine Man can just decapitate himself to avoid the blow and then pummels Black Knight with his detachable fist.

Huh. I thought Machine Man had stretchy telescoping limbs... not ones that popped off.

Anyway, Black Knight has a bad time.

He has a bad time and then he gets smooshed by the Kree Sentry.

Meanwhile, Dr Druid gets chocked out by the Super-Adaptoid. Insult to injury, the Adaptoid also copies his MENTAL POWERS, adding them to his repertoire alongside Mentallo’s.

Since the Fixermentallo-Adaptoid already had a beard, is he going to get Druid’s mustache? Or his bald head? I demand that he change shape for every power he absorbs.

Dr Druid manages, with his last bit of consciousness, to send a psychic distress signal toward Hydrobase. According to the narration. Except it really goes to a cave in Northern Florida where Captain Marvel is.

Make up your mind, Druid.

Anyway.

Where Captain Marvel is is in a small cave melting the Doomsday Man.

He was already destroyed but can’t hurt to melt him into a puddle.

Fix that, Fixer-Adaptoid!

But as she turns to light and nyooms away, Dr Druid’s psychic distress call arrives a micro-second too late and hits the slag.

This raises a lot of questions about how psychic powers work!

Like... I pictured it more like brains are senders and receivers. So a psychic signal wouldn’t go to a geographic location, it’d go to a brain.

The psychic signal does follow after Captain Marvel so maybe it is homing in on her brain. But the signal missing her and hitting where she was threw me into a confusion.

When Monica arrives at the Avengers Situation Room, she hears a faint voice but dismisses it as her imagination.

Womp womp.

Back at where Dr Druid is being choked out by the Super-Adaptoid, the Super-Adaptoid finishes choking him out. Although, the robot actually claims he used the combined Druid-Mentallo psychic powers to besiege his mind.

Feels unnecessary if you were already choking him out but I guess he wanted to flex on Druid. Completely understandable.

With Dr Druid and Black Knight out of commission, the Super-Adaptoid tells Machine Man to get rid of them.

Machine Man flies off with them.

Later, Captain Marvel, Namor, and She-Hulk meet in the Situation Room. The government actually cooperated with the two Avengers, telling them all the Sentinels were accounted for and promising to alert them if anything happens to their Sentinel storage area.

Since Dr Druid and Black Knight didn’t report in, Captain Marvel flies off to go check on them.

Nyoom.

Just missing their torn-open Quinjet arriving on Hydrobase.

The Super-Adaptoid, Machine Man, Kree Sentry, and TESS-One used it to get to Hydrobase without setting off the artificial island’s defenses.

Super-Adaptoid: “But the time for stealth is past. We are here to conquer, not skulk! This island is ours! I, the Adaptoid, claim it in the name of HEAVY METAL!”

Aw, that’s cute. He gave his new friend group a name.

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