For whatever reason back in 1992, despite the fact that I was regularly reading
Quasar and
Captain America, and had read almost all of the other books involved for long stretches in the past; I was a hard no on
Operation: Galactic Storm. I think I did buy the conclusion, but other than that I stuck to the titles I was reading and that was
it. Shoot, I think I bought the collection on digital, but I'm still not convinced I've read the whole damn thing. From 1992,
Avengers #345, "Storm Warnings" Written by Bob Harras, pencils by Steve Epting, inks and colors by Tom Palmer.
Above: Cap has been wrong, wrong,
wrong about this, for like
130-some issues. I think it's some kind of old-timey throwback thing, like Cap thinks the Avengers shouldn't have more members than maybe a baseball team. Wrong! Avengers rosters should have like 90 guys. Maybe three do most of the heavy lifting, but so what? Anyway, five chapters in, and this still feels like it's just getting started? In space near the sun, Sersi, Thor, Quasar, and the Vision rescue the scientists from earth's Starcore satellite; and are present when the Shi'ar fleet appears through a wormhole. Earth's sun was something like a crossing point for wormholes, so the Shi'ar could take another one from there to attack the Kree; but they were causing damage to the sun and didn't much care. Actually, the Shi'ar captain is notably uncomfortable that they have to kill the gathered Avengers, but they couldn't risk them being spies for the Kree. However, he's bitten off more than he can chew, as the Avengers capture their ship.
At the gathering of both east and west coast Avengers teams, Captain America is a little upset to hear Sersi threatened to kill the Shi'ar crew, and that the prisoners have been shrunk by Hank Pym for storage! He argues it seems like something the Collector would do, but Gruenwald's Cap sometimes seems to have forgotten how wars are fought. Still, using Quasar to ferry teams around, he proposes splitting into three groups: one going to see the Kree, the other the Shi'ar, and a third to protect earth. The third team being slightly less powerful types--although, She-Hulk and Gilgamesh arguably don't fit that shoe, but Hawkeye doesn't think it fits him, either. And Hank Pym agrees: he knew Clint had faced the Kree in space before...and used to be "
more than just an archer." With a new dose of growth serum, Clint is back in his Goliath harness, and complains to Cap until he agrees to bump USAgent for him. Squeaky wheel, guys, squeaky wheel.
Quasar sends both space teams on their way, then stays to guard the stargate (
Not that one!) but is quickly joined by Her. Yes, I scanned beloved and memorable Her instead of Clint-back-as-Goliath. The panels lined up better, and--look, I like Her, OK? Shut up, that's why! And on the Shi'ar homeworld, Empress Lilandra is visited by her estranged sister Deathbird, who seems to be offering to get things done but help Lilandra keep her hands clean...
That ran 19 chapters? I counted twice, and yeah! Plus I recall
Cap #401 is basically a wrap-up chapter, too. Also this issue, still another Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation; actual number of copies sold nearest to filing date: 173,950. While as usual, that would be a crushing number now; it seemed low for the time? Also, if you haven't seen it, the
Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes cartoon was able to knock Operation: Galactic Storm out in about two episodes--okay, thinking about it, I don't think the Shi'ar were involved, but no great loss. If I recall correctly, that episode has my favorite Hank Pym bit of the series, as Yellowjacket.
You didn't like the timely & admittedly excessively long mega Marvel crossover that didn't even remotely try to hide being influenced by Operation Desert's Shield & Storm?
ReplyDeleteAs a kid I F'N LOVED IT! I guess I was just at the right age to enjoy the whole story even if it ran way longer than it should've.
Seeing as how I hadn't moved to the states yet, I was only able to buy the main participating Avengers books, like Cap, Thor, Avengers, & WCA because the local Stars & Stripes book store didn't sell books like Wonder Man, Quasar, etc.
I only but the Wonder Man chapters of the story after the fact a year later.
Anyhoo, I think the thing that really drew me in was the who draft portion, where despite the official results, you felt encouraged to use your imagination & fantasy-book who you wanted on each team.
USagent definitely got screwed over by Clint with that sneaky play of his thanks to Hank, but at least we got to see that funny scene where he hits on Clint's ex only to be flipped for his trouble.
Have to say, Cap placing Clint on his team was the right call overall, due to how bad that whole portion of the war went. Can't say Mr. hot-headed, right-wing John Walker would've helped the situation, especially towards the end when the Avengers were divided over killing the SI.
That was also another part I enjoyed; sure the Avengers were divided over how to handle the SI, and as you pointed out, this WAS a war and SI was basically Kree Hitler the way he carried out all that genocide on his own people. Something had to give. It was definitely interesting to see who sided with who, notably with Cap & Tony being on opposing sides, foreshadowing Civil War a decade later.
Btw I was totally on Tony's side, even now. You?
I think the only Operation Galactic Storm I've read was the first part of the What If? where the Kree blow up Earth and then the Shi'ar homeworld with an Omni-Wave Annihilator.
ReplyDeleteI don't feel like killing the Supreme Intelligence makes a big difference, since most of the Kree are pretty imperialistic. Even if you get someone in charge who isn't, you're still relying on the Shi'ar to play nice. Sure, with Lilandra there's a decent chance of that, but she gets ousted or murdered every 5 minutes and replaced by genocidal lunatics while Gladiator stands around going, "welp, nuthin' I can do about this, but follow the new boss."
Also, didn't Iron Man have Black Knight do the actual killing? Making someone else get their hands dirty feels appropriate for pre-Iron Man Tony Stark, Mr. "I just make weapons, I'm not responsible for what people use them for," but less so for the guy who went around attacking anyone who had any bits of his armor tech, whether he sold it to them or not.
Cap may be off-base about roster size, but all my favorite Avengers' rosters are 7 characters or less. In theory, it means everyone has to be useful. Hickman had 800 characters on his Avengers, but they hardly ever seemed to do anything, so what's the point?
@CalvinPitt: I'm not sure, but I don't think Tony specifically used Dane to kill the SI, but considering how manipulative he can be, maybe he did, but did it more subtly than normal. I just remember Dane not being sure if he could do it one second, then plunging his neurosword in the SI's brain the next, 100% all on him, at least that how it came off to me.
ReplyDeleteI'll definitely agree w/ you that killing off the SI doesn't hinder someone else just as bad from taking its place. The point was THIS was the main villain of the event (at least that's what we thought until the prologue that reveals Deathbird was probably the villain behind even the SI) responsible for so much genocide that the situation demanded he be dealt with right then & there or else he's commit more atrocities.
I'm right there with you again on the roster size. 7 seems like the magic number, balanced, with there being just enough characters to get readers to invest in their personal & professional lives yeah.
Yeah that What If? was something else.I know for the sake of the What If? Earth had to get jobbed out the way, it did, but goddamn, you can't tell me Reed or someone couldn't detected what was about to happen & save some lives at the very least.