Random Happenstance

I've mentioned it before, even if I still haven't run back across the issue it's from: I think it's from Waid and Kitson's Legion of Super-Heroes run, wherein Brainiac 5 expresses some frustration that between his two teammates Star Boy and Light Lass, they control one of the fundamental forces of the universe: gravity. I'm not sure if Brainy is more offended that they don't have the theoretical understanding for it, or aren't more useful. Also largely useless: Graviton! And this comic. From 1992, Avengers Unplugged #2, "The Day Gravity Went Wild" Written by Glen Herdling, pencils by M.C. Wyman, inks by Sandu Floria.

Graviton has a new, generic and horrible, costume this issue; and is far more buff than usual today. (The style of the time.) Today he's tearing up Arizona, downing some jets and spinning a ton of other stuff around him. Back at Avengers' Mansion, Deathcry answers the call, and with Hercules she assembles Giant-Man and the Vision to take a quinjet out there. Shi'ar teenage warrior Deathcry had not been on earth or on the team long, but this issue she's picked up a lot of the idioms: she basically sounds like Jubilee, as in, an older white guy writing a teenage girl and kind of halfassing it. When she has to save people trapped in Graviton's spinning vortex, she manages to quite effectively, then initially refuses to go back out for a crying child's pet. Acquiescing, Deathcry goes back out to rescue a kitty, then returns with--a teddy bear? Admittedly, maybe an alien girl doesn't know earth's pets and whatnot, but I think there was a disconnect from the story and the art there.

Even though the Avengers seem like they absolutely could simply punch Graviton in the face, they are hindered in that would then cause him to drop a lot of people and stuff. Moreover, Graviton claims his powers are out of control, due to a recent experiment; but that is a ruse to get access to Giant-Man's Pym particles, which give him mass control. The comic-book science is particularly iffy today; as Graviton then halves his size and mass to increase his power--I don't think he would have much wanted to be three feet tall, right? Still, the Vision uses his density-changing powers, with a boost from Giant-Man, to collapse Graviton to "infinite density and zero volume." Even if that occurred for only the tiniest fraction of a second, I think that would have some negative impact on Arizona, if not this section of the universe. But nope! 

Also this ninety-nine cent issue: a two-page family tree for various Avengers relationships going into the Crossing. Both Thor and Cap appear to be dead and/or dying from the kickoff, so they aren't doing so hot. Deathcry's entry mentions her bond with Hercules, kind of a foster sibling thing, and that she could end the Shi'ar Imperium if she returned. That also wouldn't happen: Deathcry would be killed for shock value/laughs in or around Annihilation: Conquest--Starlord #2. Still, her appearance today as a somewhat vapid teen hero was more endearing than the rabid warrior bitch she was alternately written as. And I usually have a soft spot for Graviton: he was the bad guy in the original West Coast Avengers mini-series, with his also-somewhat generic but still snazzy usual costume. Somewhat tough to have a gravity-themed logo or whatever...Maybe we'll eventually get to his appearance in Thunderbolts, where Moonstone lets him have it for somehow being a loser with powers like those, getting him to up his game.