Essential Avengers: Avengers West Coast #67: "CONVERGING TRAJECTORIES"
February, 1991
By Avengers
BETRAYED!
Okay, so Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and Tigra have been turned into robots. Tigra still having normal hair is weirding me out. Because she's covered by fur and that turned into metal. Quicksilver's ridiculous hair is covered by the logo so I can't tell if its metal or not. But I just want some consistency.
Anyway. We continue the Reaper and the Robot arc. Which seems to be about Grim Reaper, now a life force guzzling zombie, and Ultron, a robot.
Last times, Wonder Man learned his brother was alive again and killing people to stay alive. He's got a bee in his bonnet about it, believing that every person the Reaper kills is his responsibility for not stopping him. When the Avengers had different priorities, he stormed off to look for Grim Reaper alone.
Meanwhile, the Avengers are investigating robot farmers and helicopters secretly spraying stuff at night that seems to be giving people a case of skin turning into metal.
Hawkeye got the idea to check an abandoned subway tunnel and went off without telling anyone. Quicksilver and Tigra tailed him (without telling anyone where they were going) and then they discovered and got captured by Ultron.
Who is going to spray them with spray that turns them into robots.
Archie Robotnik, eat your heart out.
Ultron has a lot to say about life and such. But his plan to turn mankind into robots is well on its way, with his robot farmers putting the roboticizing compound on wheat and his helicopter spraying it over residential areas at night.
Currently, he only has a few hundred people fully converted into robot puppets. But every day, that number multiplies.
Ultron has some of his robot puppets stage a street brawl to lure Iron Man into a fight, just to see how well they hold up in a fight with a superhero.
I love Tony thinking "they haven't managed to do me any real damage" a second before getting hit with an entire street light.
Anyway, once Tony starts actually trying, he knocks out the three roboticzied humans in fairly short order. And then he's at a loss of what to do with them since they're the victims here.
Ultron is pretty satisfied with how the fight went, even though his dudes lost. Because his mental control over his robot puppets, his andrones, is so complete, he experienced the fight as if he was there in person.
Meanwhile, Grim Reaper has been spying on Ultron's monologuing and was startled to hear that Ultron was going to turn humanity into robots, leaving him no one to feed on.
He's been sneaking up behind Ultron this whole time but Ultron knew he was there.
Ultron lunges at Grim Reaper, who lashes out defensively and manages to cut the adamantium of Ultron's arm.
Ultron finds that a bit fascinating. I'm guessing it's because magic. The scythe is magic now and sidesteps durability.
Having his arm cut doesn't really hinder Ultron because he has auto-repair. A healing factor if you will. Adamantium plus healing factor. Hmm...
He's a better Wolverine than Wolverine. And what he does isn't pretty.
Ultron realizes that Grim Reaper is dead now and decides that he may as well test out some theories he has about the Reaper and his scythe having developed a symbiotic relationship.
Using his laser eyes, which he has, why wouldn't he?, he fuses the scythe to Grim Reaper's arm so it can't be removed. Which the Grim Reaper actually likes.
Ultron: "You who are dead yet 'live' -- and I who am the ultimate synthetic embodiment of life -- we shall make quite a team, Reaper!"
Grim Reaper: "Yes, Ultron. Quite a team."
Ah, I see. I said Ultron wouldn't like turning the world into robot puppets because he wants someone to monologue to. If Grim Reaper is joining him, then he'll always have someone around to talk at.
Grim Reaper explains that he needs to murder someone every 24 hours to keep 'alive' and Ultron says he would offer him one of the three Avengers but their transformation into robots is too far along.
Later and elsewhere, Dr Pym and Wanda have come to UCLA to borrow their new super-computer. Dr Falk, who I guess is in charge of it, isn't keen on letting superheroes get involved in an academic institution and doesn't even care how important the reason is. But someone over her head has authorized it so she just tells Hank he has five hours.
What Hank wants to do is to study the scrap of the robot farmers he and Janet encountered and the metal flakes that stuck to US Agent's gloves when he confronted that protester with the metal rash, and see if he can establish a connection.
You know, the usual superhero thing. I wonder why he needed the UCLA super-computer. Don't the Avengers have top-of-the-line lab equipment?
Anyway, Hank starts doing some science and Wanda starts feeling like a third wheel. Without her powers, there's not a lot she can offer the team and wonders whether she should even stay on the team.
But while she's musing on that for an hour, Hank makes a breakthrough! He's fairly certain he can cure the metallic rash, if the case isn't too advanced! With light, of all things!
Then the three roboticized Avengers burst in through the skylight and backhand Hank unconscious.
Wanda realizes that they're not in their right minds and yells at Quicksilver not to let someone turn him into a murder.
And then Dr Falk comes in yelling about the racket so robo-Quicksilver throws Wanda into Dr Falk, knocking both women out. The three roboticized Avengers then start trashing the lab.
This is why Dr Falk didn't want to let superheroes use the equipment!
But Iron Man, US Agent, and Wasp rush in for the rescue!
Iron Man called the other two and had them assemble on Hank's location after taking those random andrones to the hospital and having them checked out.
He warns the other Avengers not to let themselves be hit. With the andrones having a lot of their meat replaced with metal, getting hit by them is like getting run over by a tank.
Wasp wants to hear ideas for how to stop the androne Avengers without hurting them and Iron Man isn't sure they can be stopped.
And I see where he's coming from. The three formerly normal andrones he fought weren't really a match for him but they were tough. And if you combine superpowers with that... That's just scary.
But also, Iron Man doesn't want to hurt his friends. Especially since they're under someone else's influence.
Meanwhile, US Agent is okay with fighting an androne Hawkeye. He would have preferred to punch the flesh and blood version. Because US Agent has a chip on his shoulder the exact size and shape of the Grand Canyon.
And also he punches a metal man in the face and goes ow my bones.
Wonder Man shows up to help. And hopefully is ready to accept that this whole robot farmers thing was something that needed looking into.
Simon flies past, snagging Tigra off Iron Man's back by the hair and then flies her into Hawkeye.
Meanwhile, Iron Man tests out his new magnet function.
He just lifts Quicksilver off the ground so he can't go anywhere.
Kind of the logical weakness to a guy whose whole thing is running really fast.
I give it props for a fun device for Tony just to have already equipped in his armor.
Hank recovers from being backhanded and yells at Iron Man that light is probably the answer. So Iron Man configures his chest uni-beam to blast out different kinds of light radiation until he hits the right one.
Infrared light knocks the andrones the fuck out! It doesn't cure them but Hank thinks maybe the right frequency of infrared might do it.
He's kinda just guessing, though. He didn't even know infrared was the key until five seconds ago.
I assume that the uni-beam shoots out concentrated infrared but it's still a secret weakness for Ultron's big plan to turn humanity into robots. Isn't infrared everywhere?
Wanda asks Simon whether he's still looking for his brother. And Wonder Man says he is. But if his brother is looking for whoever is turning people into robots, then Simon can work the same case and probably run into Eric.
Dr Falk comes out to yell at the Avengers some more and the funniest thing is, they don't even react to her.
Just completely do not respond to her.
Because, it's not a productive line of accusation to humor, honestly.
Iron Man starts trying different frequencies of infrared to try to cure Tigra, Quicksilver, and Hawkeye. But he despairs that there are an infinite number of frequencies and it could take years to get the right one by random guessing.
And by trying over and over again, Iron Man is straining the uni-beam. If it burns out, it could take days to get equivalent equipment.
But talking about the odds makes Wanda wish that her powers could come back, even if for just a second. Just long enough to alter the probabilities of finding the right frequency to yes.
Wanda waves her hands around and scrunches her face in CONCENTRATION and maybe it works!
There could have been ambiguity if Dr Pym hadn't yelled 'ah ha, the Scarlet Witch must have altered probability to make it more likely that we'd succeed.'
Ffs Hank, you don't always have to be right about everything.
So, I guess Wanda's powers are back? Everyone is acting like that's the case.
Although, the infrared-ing was only mostly successful. Hawkeye is left with a metal hand. And he even grouses that he wishes that they left him a brainless robot puppet so he wouldn't have to be a freak with a metal hand.
Punch him in the future, Winter Bucky.
The three dingbats, Tigra, Hawkeye, and Quicksilver don't remember running into Ultron, finding his lair, all of that.
Hank wants to use the UCLA computer to figure out which infrared frequency worked to cure the metal-izing.
Does... Does Iron Man's armor not track that information? That's an odd choice.
Dr Falk yells that the Avengers can't use the super-computer again but Iron Man goes nuh uh, we have special Avengers priority so yes we can.
This again makes me think that the East Coast Avengers had their charter revoked but the West Coast Avengers didn't. What an odd decision.
Anyway, Dr Pym can't shake a worry that whoever (Ultron) is behind the metal rash will strike before they're ready and will change a large number of people into robot slaves.
BECAUSE HANK ALWAYS HAS TO BE RIGHT ABOUT THINGS. He is exactly right.
Ultron is planning to hit the Rose Parade.
And Grim Reaper is planning to start a human farm, so he'll always have a private stock and a breeding population.
What a story this is.
Next time, switching back over to the Avengers for their dealings with the Tetrarchs of Entropy and to see if the reserve squad does anything.
Next next time, more the Reaper and the Robot.
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