Random Happenstance

It's time to once again ask, was this comic next to my scanner because I intended to blog it, or did it just land there? (Or hop up there itself?) From 1994, Avengers #370, "Delta Force" Written by Glenn Herdling, layouts by Geor Isherwood, finishes by Al Milgrom and Tom Yates.

I was expecting Harras and Epting on this one, but they may have taken a couple off after the X-Men Bloodties crossover. The regular plotlines seem to be moving forward, though; and the art is pretty close to the book's usual for the time. Though I did catch one more cartoony expression on Cap, side-eying the Black Knight complaining about the West Coast Avengers disbanding. An injured Sersi, missing an arm, has crash-landed, seemingly from space; in the secret base of the Deviant Kro. How could this have happened? Well, the team deploys to answer a distress call from "Deviant Lemuria," but very quickly is caught flat-footed by Deviant "brain mines." (I'd love to stop saying "Deviant" but probably won't be able to this post!) The Deviant priest is pleased with their haul, although Black Knight and Giant-Man are sent to the arena, since they were plain humans. The Deviants also have brain-mined Varua, of the Young Gods, and she gathers blood from the prisoners for a sacrifice to--something. We don't find out yet, since Sersi is able to fight off the mine, but catches a blast from the "dispersatron." Deviants know, "the only way to slay an Eternal is to completely disintegrate the molecules!" Hurt, Sersi was left with few options: the WCA were gone, her own Eternals didn't trust her; but she had heard Kro was working with the government to integrate Deviants into society. A surprisingly progressive program! That also explains Kro's somewhat unstylish suit. Kro checks the "Delta network" for Deviants that could help them, putting together a crew including a few familiar faces like Ransak, Karkas, and Red Bull! We remember him from Thor #290, but while he was a wrestler in that issue (and another Deviant is a wrestler here) today Red Bull is living a Shazam-style arrangement with an autistic Mexican boy. Kro even tags in his own kids, who can combine to form Tzabaoth! (I had to look that up, since I was pretty sure I knew who the mom was, though she may have used a surrogate?)

Still, when Sersi leads the "Delta Force" to rescue the Avengers, Cap tries to warn Sersi it was a trap: the brain mine hadn't completely released her, but compelled her to gather her team and lead it to the slaughter! (Shades of Giant-Size X-Men #1!) Worse, the blood she had lost had been enough of a sacrifice to bring back Lord Ghaur, and now he had gathered the pieces he needed to conquer the world... I had thought Ghaur had been left dead since Atlantis Attacks, so...surprise! I think this ran only another issue, so I'm not sure that's enough space to give all the Delta Force something to do.