Essential Avengers: Operation: Galactic Storm Parts 1-2
March, 1992
Operation: Galactic Storm, Part 1: IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE
Here. We. Go!
The Avengers event of the early 90s. The one that isn't garbage like the Crossing so nobody really talks about it, except for one specific bit.
Oh, I guess there's also Bloodties. Which is an Avengers/X-Men crossover. I've read that one. All that I really remember about it is that at one point, Black Knight slaps a baby.
BUT, ANYWAY.
The crossover starts with Captain America #398. But more specifically, the crossover starts with a weird dream.
A dream of the Kree homeworld of Hala. A dream of an explosion that kills everyone on the planet. And a dream of Captain America at ground zero only suddenly he has Kree leader the Supreme Intelligence as a head.
A very, very weird dream. That Rick Jones is having.
I don't want to go too much into Rick Jones' status quo. He's supporting cast over on the Hulk book so he's involved in the Pantheon stuff. And that's a whole thing.
Suffice to say, when Rick has a weird dream about Cap turning into the Supreme Intelligence, he doesn't just shrug it off. He goes to ask Delphi (as in Oracle of) what the hell that dream could have meant.
Her simple advice is for him to talk to Captain America about the dream.
Rick is reluctant. He hasn't spoken much to Cap in a few years. He was Cap's replacement for Bucky for a few weeks but things didn't really work out so Rick drifted off to being Captain Marvel's sidekick and then back into the Hulk's orbit.
But he does take Delphi's advice and calls Cap at Avengers Mansion.
Despite it being a wacky dream, Cap takes it very seriously.
As he puts it, the Supreme Intelligence is already known to affect people's dreams across galactic distances. So if Rick is having a dream about him, a weirdly vivid dream, then that's not something to just play off.
Cap arranges to meet with Rick. Not at the Pantheon HQ. Rick doesn't really go into that whole thing with Cap. But at a diner in Benson, Arizona.
At the diner, Captain America meets Rick and they have some small talk. This is apparently the point in continuity where Rick has published his "Sidekick" autobiography. Cap bought a copy but hasn't had the time to read it yet. Cap tries some more small talk, asking how Bruce Banner is doing these days but Rick cuts to the chase.
Rick Jones: "If this dream I had is a message from the Supreme Intelligence, I did my bit by telling you about it. I want out of it from here on. I've had my fill of being a cosmic puppet, and my book is not exactly hurting for a sequel."
Silly Rick Jones thinks he can just nope out of a big, Kree-related event. He was already a huge part of the Kree-Skrull War arc in Avengers back before the book had triple digits.
Life isn't that generous. Comic book narratives aren't that generous!
A giant robot fist smashes through the diner window and grabs Rick, probably specifically because he suggested he not be involved in the story anymore!
Captain America assumes this guy is a new kind of Kree Sentry because they were talking about possible Kree stuff going on. But if Cap could see the cover of his own comic, he would know this is Warstar. A member of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard.
The Shi'ar haven't really interacted much with the Avengers. Sticking to the X corner of things. The only exception I can think of is the time that Hawkeye sexually harassed Deathbird. And he wasn't even with the Avengers at the time.
Anyway, Warstar. Most of the original members of the Imperial Guard were expies of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Marvel's sneaky way to do a crossover with DC without really having to do a crossover. Gladiator is Superboy, for example. But Warstar came after the original intro. They're not a reference to Legion of Super-Heroes. They're a reference to Beany and Cecil. Hence why their non-codename names are B'nee and C'cil.
Anyway.
Captain America leaps through the broken window and shield punches Warstar's arm to try to get him to drop Rick Jones. Then he gets jump scared by the smaller member of the pair, leaping off the big one's back and tazing Cap.
Luckily, Cap is in mid-jumpkick when this happens so he's able to break Lil Warstar's hold before he lands and is grounded enough for the electricity to hurt.
Captain America climbs up Big Warstar's back and into the cavity where the lil one rides and uses that as a perch to start trying to pry his whole arm off.
Since he manages to get Warstar to drop Rick, he tells his former, brief sidekick to take his Avengers Identicard and use it to start his Skycycle and get out of here.
Warstar is after Rick. Just Rick. Him getting away is the win.
Rick manages to vwoosh off on Cap's skycycle. He's just figuring out the controls enough that he thinks he can swing by Pantheon HQ and go get the Hulk to come and help Cap. But then he's mind-controlled by Oracle of the Imperial Guard into flying into a tractor beam so he can get abducted by the Guard spaceship.
They full on decide to ditch Warstar so they can take Rick and interrogate him to find "the location of our next target", which is some kind of component.
Secret Rick Jones knowledge that the Shi'ar want.
Back down at ground level, Cap is on big Warstar's back and lil Warstar is holding him still for a big punch. Cap twists out of the way and makes Warstar punch himself. His smaller self.
Apparently, lil Warstar was the brains of the operation because the big one stops trying to fight.
Belatedly, Cap realizes that by sending Rick away with his skycycle and his identicard, he now has no way to contact him. Womp womp.
And the first installment of Operation: Galactic Storm ends with the reveal that on Hala, the Supreme Intelligence (deposed leader of the Kree) has created Supremor, a robotic surrogate for himself that has his same green complexion and head tendrils. The first member of the new Kree Starforce. One presumes, a group to be the Kree's answer to the Imperial Guard.
Supreme Intelligence: "Rise, my robotic surrogate, the time has come again when I require a physical repository for my matchless intellect. Thus I impart to you a fraction of my near-infinite life-force! You, Supremor, shall become the first member of the Kree Starforce -- a battalion of the Empire's mightiest champions! The empire has need of champions as it never has before. For we shall soon be caught up in a conflagration that will decide the fate of our proud race forever!"
The Kree. The Shi'ar. Rick Jones and the Avengers, caught in the middle because of secret knowledge buried in Rick's Plot Relevant brain.
But we don't have to wait a month to find out what what because seven parts of this event dropped the same month.
I could have divided this liveblog up into three parts, one for each month that the event lasted. But oh geez, that would have been so much per post. No, I'm going to go with my first idea of bunching in batches that have one Avengers or Avengers West Coast issue.
Speaking of, onward to part 2 and Avengers West Coast #80!
March, 1992
Operation: Galactic Storm, Part 2: Turn of the SENTRY
We jump immediately back into things and find out who kidnapped Rick Jones.
Rick Jones: "The Shi'ar? Tell me -- is there anybody in outer space not scheming to conquer the Earth?" Oracle: "We care nothing about your backwater world."
Ya burnt.
Two random Shi'ar Warship Troopers and Imperial Guard members Oracle (psychic based on Legion of Super-Heroes' Saturn Girl), Tempest (Lightning Lad), and Electron (Cosmic Boy). Interestingly, since the Shi'ar is a multinational empire and the Imperial Guard represents their conquered worlds, Electron is the only racially Shi'ar member of the Imperial Guard we've seen. What with the silly hair.
Between issues, the Imperial Guard holding Rick captive have told him that they need information about Captain Mar-Vell. Rick refuses to spill the beans but. Y'know. Psychic powers. Oracle has them.
Oracle: "If I cannot read your lips, youth -- I shall instead read your mind!"
Using PSYCHIC POWERS, Oracle gets the recap of Rick's history with Captain Marvel. Lured into a cave in the American Southwest by a Captain America hallucination created by Captain Mar-Vell, putting on the Nega Bands he found in the subterranean Kree laboratory he found in the cave, and establishing a psychic bond with Mar-Vell. Traces of that bond still persist in Rick's mind despite Mar-Vell being dead.
Later on, Rick returning to that cave and laboratory with Mar-Vell, when Marv's asshole former boss Yon-Rogg uses the forbidden Psyche-Magnetron for evil purposes. Mar-Vell triumphing over Yon-Rogg and Yon-Rogg being killed when the Psyche-Magnetron seemingly explodes.
(Tangentially, the Psyche-Magnetron exploding was pretty important to Captain Ms Carol Marvel's origin at one point.)
And then later on, later on, the Kree-Skrull War. Which Rick Jones and the Avengers and Mar-Vell were pretty deeply involved in.
The Skrulls captured Mar-Vell and some Avengers. Although Mar-Vell had enough downtime to knock up a Skrull princess (this is Hulkling's origin) he was ultimately forced by the Skrulls to create the Omni-Wave Projector.
The Omni-Wave Projector is a super-advanced Kree communication network. Which can double as a death ray if used by a non-Kree. Imagine if the Internet could punch you to death if a cat stepped on the keyboard. That's what kind of baffling technology we're dealing with here.
Mar-Vell managed to destroy the Omni-Wave Projector he built before the Skrulls could use it to genocide the Kree.
Meanwhile, the Kree Supreme Intelligence brought the war to an end by arranging events so the Omni-Wave would activate Rick Jones' latent reality warping powers. A power that all humans have the potential for, APPARENTLY.
The point being, this is a living example of the Supreme Intelligence's assertion that the Kree and Skrull are at evolutionary dead ends, while the humans can evolve to surpass them. Latent reality warping brain powers. Whenever anyone in comics talks about evolutionary dead ends and bemoaning that X advanced space race is at one, they mean they want brain powers.
Anyway, later on later on later on, Mar-Vell dies of cancer because of exposure to nerve gas. The Death of Captain Marvel is Marvel's first entry in its graphic novel line. And held up as such a well-written way to kill off a character that nobody wants to bring Mar-Vell back, not for reals. Everyone in comics comes back but Mar-Vell just died too well.
Anyway, he was buried on some tiny rock in Saturn's orbit, near Titan.
Most of that was unnecessary information for Oracle's purpose. All she really needed to know was where that cave/hidden Kree laboratory is.
MEANWHILE, on Earth and specifically California and specifically the Avengers West Coast Compound in Palos Verdes, Hawkeye and Living Lightning are training together.
Hawkeye shoots an electricity-seeking arrow at Living Lightning, surprising him and shorting him out. Thankfully, Spider-Woman was nearby and she manages to conjure one of her pink, psi-webs in time to catch him before he lands hard.
This is mostly just a fun training sequence but the point behind it is Living Lightning needs to be ready for this kind of shit. If Hawkeye (not a super genius by any means, despite that time he invented anti-gravity) can make an electricity-seeking projectile, so could the enemies the Avengers face. He has to be prepared to dodge and escape something that homes in on him.
Wonder Man arrives at the compound from some business he was doing in Hollywood and Iron Man calls for them to start the meeting, now that everyone plus Mockingbird is here.
US Agent: "You know, Bobbi, this is my favorite part of being an Avenger --" Mockingbird: "It is?" US Agent: "-- where we all get to sit around a poker table with a big "A" on it, trying to figure out what Iron Man's saying through his voice filter." Hawkeye: "Whadda you know! US Agent made a funny!"
Damn, he did. That legit got a chuckle from me.
It's also interesting because it confirms that Iron Man's unique speech balloon, with the tail that makes some lightning shaped bends on its way to him, represents a voice filter.
And Vision's speech balloons (yellow, with a weird border) have been suggested to represent how his voice is hollow sounding and kind of spooky. There was a brief bit after he learned his secret origin of being the Human Torch with Wonder Man's brain patterns that he got normal speech balloons. Meaning he was talking like a non-spooky guy. The custom balloons came back, though. Too iconic.
And people from the Ultimate Universe talk in a different font which has been called out as a sort of accent.
Anyway. Point being. What unique speech balloons represent is an interest of mine. If there's been any explicit confirmation of how Deadpool's yellow speech balloons sound compared to his white balloons, I'd love to know.
ANYWAY.
Iron Man doesn't get to start his meeting because he receives a call from Captain America. Who is calling from a public telephone. Because he gave his identicard to Rick Jones in the previous part of this event.
You remember.
Captain America is calling Avengers West Coast for backup since they're closer and will be able to respond more quickly than the Avengers East Coast.
Iron Man is reluctant to act as "shuttle bus" service to Cap but he grasps that something big is going on and asks for Cap's location.
As soon as Iron Man gets it, he hands the phone off to Mockingbird and takes off with the rest of the team, leaving her to watch the Compound.
Meanwhile, Cap has to suddenly hang up.
Captain America: "Now look, Avenger, I've got to go tackle Warstar again -- they've put themselves back together --"
Mockingbird has no idea what that means and considers that between being made to watch the HQ, having to watch her ex Hawkeye and Spider-Woman being chummy, and this, maybe she should have stayed in Detroit.
HEY. IF THE SITUATION IS DIRE AND YOU NEED MORE HANDS.
MAYBE THE GREAT LAKES AVENGERS?
Seriously. The bad thing about Byrne leaving the book is that the Great Lakes Avengers as a plot thread just gets dropped. I want to know. Can you show me? I want to know how they're doing.
Later, the Avengers West have picked up Cap off-panel and he's explained that Warstar is one dude that's two dudes. Warstar ditched before the Avengers arrived so he's in the wind now.
The Avengers are able to track the card Cap gave Rick so they just hope that the aliens that abducted him didn't dump the sky-cycle and identicard somewhere.
Meanwhile, the Shi'ar Imperial Guard trio and also Rick Jones arrive at that one important cave. The upper levels were destroyed by the explosion that killed Yon-Rogg but the lower levels are intact.
Despite the Psyche-Magnetron being the thing that supposedly exploded and that being in the lower levels.
It's kind of weird that after all this time, it didn't actually explode and is actually in great condition and Mar-Vell was just a dumbo who assumed it exploded. Whatever.
But as part of the Psyche-Magnetron being strangely intact is that other stuff around it is strangely intact.
Including Kree Sentry #372 who has been here the whole time.
Number #372 helpfully explains why he never showed up prior times this cave was visited.
*Ahem* You see, he was programmed to activate only if someone entered the Psyche-Magnetron chamber while no Kree officer was present. AND THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THAT'S HAPPENED SO NOW #372 GETS TO DESTROY THE INTERLOPERS!
Since Oracle's psychic powers are useless against the Sentry's machine brain, Tempest passes off the component they scavenged from the Psyche-Magnetron. The one thing they came here to find. Given to Oracle so it won't get damaged in the fighting.
Electron and Tempest start flying around and blasting at the Sentry and he blasts back. A stray shot almost hits the hypnotized Rick Jones. But the Shi'ar don't give a fuck, considering him expendable at this point.
But Captain America doesn't consider him expendable and Captain America is here now!
(Turns out Rick had stashed the identicard in his jacket pocket so Cap was able to track him.)
And it's not just Captain America. The Avengers West Coast are here!
Iron Man identifies the big robot as a Kree sentry and the Shi'ar identified the Shi'ar as Shi'ar so now the Avengers know what they're dealing with.
Captain America: "Wonderful! Are we in for a Kree/Shi'ar War this time?"
It sure looks like it. I don't know why it's happening. The Skrull/Kree War had its origins explained. But what have the Kree and the Shi'ar have against each other?
Oh, and Warstar just. Shows up!
I cannot stress enough the just here now-ness of Warstar more than him just being there now.
He snuck away from that diner fight and has been following Cap while he was following Rick.
So Warstar can keep pace with a Quinjet, that's what I'm hearing.
Living Lightning, who isn't up to date on all this cosmic stuff, asks which side the Avengers are on.
Meanwhile, the Shi'ar grab Rick Jones and cheese it so Cap tells Lightning and Wonder Man to save his boy!
Meanwhile, Hawkeye, US Agent, and Spider-Woman fight the Sentry. The Kree Sentry doesn't really care whether he's fighting humans or Shi'ar but maybe he should care more about the Shi'ar being looted the place and the Avengers having just shown up.
Meanwhile, Captain America is, once again, fighting Warstar. This time with Iron Man.
(Iron Man is pop culture savvy enough to spot the inexplicable Beany and Cecil reference and throw a reference back at them.)
In the fight, Iron Man smashes lil Warstar into the cave wall, which incapacitates big Warstar. Cap quickly explains that the two dudes are linked, somehow, before throwing his mighty shield to cause a cave-in to bury the big Warstar.
Warstar somehow escapes the cave-in and legs it and Captain America decides to follow them.
Iron Man switches over to the Sentry fight, where Scarlet Witch's power of probability causes a seam to burst on the giant robot, exposing a weakness.
US Agent leaps with his own mighty shield to try to pry the rupture open wider but gets robo-backhanded for his hubris.
Iron Man goes to check that US Agent is alright while the rest of Team Fight the Sentry continue to fight the Sentry.
Maybe Scarlet Witch's power affected US Agent, too, because when the robot slapped him across the room, he landed in a pile of random advanced technology, including what seems to be a weapon they can use against the Sentry.
Meanwhile, higher up in the cave, Living Lightning and Wonder Man catch up with the fleeing Shi'ar.
Living Lightning and Electron start blasting electricity at each other, while Wonder Man and Tempest lock hands. Wonder Man's ionic energy apparently shorting out the anti-gravity tech the Imperial Guardsman has instead of a flight ring. Warstar tries to sneak up on Wonder Man but Captain America throws his mighty shield and all who accidentally step on the shield must yield.
Wonder Man hoists the dude and tells Cap to keep chasing after Rick.
Back down a level, various Avengers still fight the Kree Sentry.
Hawkeye manages to tie the robot's legs with a bola arrow. Which amusingly, he self-deprecatingly calls a bit old-fashioned. Then, Spider-Woman "glomps" up the Sentry's eyes, causing him to trip. But the Sentry's eye lasers cut right through Spider-Woman's psi-webbing and then trap Scarlet Witch and Hawkeye in a cube.
This is, apparently, something that Kree Sentries can just do. Eye laser something something collodial atoms creating transparent boxes.
Iron Man and US Agent show up, wielding that weapon Agent found. The Sentry definitely reacts with alarm at what they've found, declaring that a Sentry can't surrender. So if he can't destroy the intruders that have intruded, he's going to have to destroy the entire outpost.
So the two blow a hole in this chest.
With the Not-Proton Cannon.
I really did wonder if it was meant to be a reference but the dates just don't line up for that.
Meanwhile, Living Lightning wins the electricity duel against Electron. And this makes him feel confident in his place with the Avengers, even though he's the new kid on the block, "the barrio boy they let in on a whim." Because he beat an alien stormtrooper guy at his own game so he must be Avengers material!
Happy for you, Miguel.
Also, meanwhile, Wonder Man keeps beating up Warstar, who is having the worst day. And Captain America football tackles Oracle, finally saving Rick.
Oracle goes 'why the fuck are we fighting the Avengers?', uses her MIND POWERS to take control of Living Lightning and make him shoot some distracting lighting, and then the Imperial Guard cheeses it with the Psyche-Magnetron component.
They really could have saved themselves some grief and just ditched Rick with the Avengers.
Anyway, the outpost/cave is also shaking because the damaged Kree Sentry is doing what he said he'd do and taking the outpost out. The Avengers also decide to cheese it before the place collapses.
Despite getting Rick back safe and sound, the Avengers aren't content to just let the Shi'ar get away with whatever they're currently getting away with. None of the Avengers on the ground can chase them into space. The Quinjet they have isn't space capable and we're not yet at a point where Iron Man casually flies into space without some modular gear. So Cap places a call for some backup.
To Quasar.
Hi, Quasar! It's been a bit since you were relevant to this liveblog!
Quasar manages to easily locate the Shi'ar ship and even though it's traveling 80% light speed, he's sure he can catch up.
But the Imperial Guard ship docks with a much bigger Shi'ar ship which then creates a wormhole and jumps through.
When Quasar tries to follow, he's hit with a black solar flare from the Sun. And then the wormhole closes, leaving Quasar feeling the fool.
ALSO, teasing the next part of the event, someone is at Mar-Vell's tomb for some reason doing something! And that will be relevant to part 3 in Quasar #32. Which is coming next post!
Remember, my liveblog is covering this event in chunks from Avengers issue to Avengers issue, whether that be East or West.
Next time, on liveblog, I'll be looking at Quasar #32, Wonder Man #7, and Avengers #345.
But for now, sleep.
Follow @essential-avengers because who else is talking about Operation: Galactic Storm in the year 2025. I hope just me. Like and reblog and comment.
