“Not long ago, the Earth was stolen to be used as a cosmic chess board by two cosmic entities, the Grandmaster and the Challenger. As the heroes of Earth fought to protect their planet from the warring factions, the Grandmaster introduced his daughter into the game disguised as a long-lost Avenger named Voyager.
But Voyager, inspired by the Avengers, turned on her father and aided in the Challengers defeat. With Earth restored to its proper place in the universe, Voyager imprisoned the Challenger at the far reaches of the universe, hoping she could reform him.
For a while, Earth knew peace.
But something was stirring in the dark…”
I love these issues. Just to be clear ladies and gentlemen, Avengers : No Road Home is not apart of the main Avengers comics. These are issues with its own contained story arc. Mark Waid, Al Ewing, & Jim Zub have come up with a phenomenal story. Voyager is back and is leading a whole new run towards darkness…
Marvel Comics Presents to you,
Avengers : No Road Home #1
Credits
- Art by
-
Paco Medina
- Cover by
-
Yasmine Putri
NYC
We all have stories to tell.
Scene opens up in New York with Hercules giving a riveting tale of The Amphisbaena, a two headed serpent born of Medusa’s brow, who had terrorized mortal villages until the gods of Olympus struck it down. Let me know if you’ve heard this one…the next page opens up with who he’s regaling this tale to, a New York City police officer. She very politely shrugs him off because well, they’re at a crime scene at a hardware store where an unknown creature has taken it over. Being the ole chap that Herc is, he lends an unwanted hand.
As he enters the building, he hears a computer voice say ‘organic threat detected’ and BOOM! The hardware store aisle explodes. As Hercules charges into the debris riddled store, he is pelted with laser shots. “BACK OFF BEARD-O” yells Rocket Racoon. Wait, what? Rocket just lets Hercules have it. He grabs Rocket and asks if he is some sort of militarized dog. HA-LAIR-E-OUS. Hercules grabs Rocket as he just lays on his weapon. Crick. Crack. Crash! The hardware store collapses.
Hercules emerges from the wreckage with Rocket in tow like a defiant rag doll. As it turns out, Rocket was just trying to shop at the store and everyone freaked out. Totally understandable. Hercules tries to explain it to the officers at the scene as Rocket is prepping a grenade. BLACK! Total darkness.
L.A.
Ah, b-e-a-utiful L.A.. Clint and Wanda sit at a diner eating. Avengers gossip has it that Wanda and Jericho are an item now. Hawkeye can’t help himself. Wanda that’s actually why she’s on the West Coast, they’re looking for a place to live. OooOoooo. Grow up. The Scarlet Which and Brother Voodoo is a heavy hitter power couple. Clint is running the West Coast Avengers in an advising role. Wanda brought Clint a box of goodies. Smoke arrows! Putty Arrow! The classics! Then last in the box is a vial of Pym Particles, you know from Hawkeye’s Goliath days. Sure. Seems like something you need to remember down the road. As they wrap up and ask for the check. BLACK! Total darkness.
Washington D.C.
Monica Rambeau, Spectrum, and Vision hover above the Reflecting Pool in the National Mall. The perfect day. She calls in to Blue Marvel with a drone near by. She calls him Hon. I know she’s friendly….but is there more to it than that? The readings on Vision are good and bad. Dr. Cho and Blue Marvel, Adam Brashear, are in their base in the Mariana Trench. Dr. Cho explains that Vision’s systems are degrading…he’s dying. They are out in D.C. on a perfectly clear day to test Vision’s power intake from the sun. All systems are reading that he’s absorbing energy just fine. Vision knows that to be human is to be finite. He’s tried to be closer to human all his existence.
Monica turns her form into pure energy in order to move into Vision. She’s checking his systems for faults that aren’t obvious from the outside. Dr. Cho knows Vision can take in enough energy to get through whatever ails him as long as the Sun doesn’t go out. BLACK! Total darkness.
New Mexico
Bruce Banner is strolling down the highway. Words he knows, tunes he hums. Black! Total darkness. Banner starts to panic. He starts screaming ‘I’m in HELL’ over and over. The Hulk pushes through. As Hulk fully emerges, Voyager, daughter of En Dwi Gast (Gamemaster), appears. Hulk was needed for a mission. He blames her and the Elders for the darkness. She lets him know that she didn’t cause it, but she knows the creature who did. They frighten her. So does the Hulk. She needs not only strength, but strategy and power. Plenty of Avengers for that.
Dr. Cho says it’s dark in the Pacific Ocean. Moscow is dark…Beijing, London, L.A.. All dark. It’s not limited to Earth. All the worlds Dr. Brashear is in contact with are all dark. The Shi’ar have an energy harvesting station in their sun. Dark. Madness. Terror. Portal opens up. Voyager and Hulk are standing together. “Vision, Spectrum! You are Needed!”
Blue Marvel cannot reach them on the comms. Dr. Cho knows that’s not the real issue. Darkness equals panic. Whole worlds are dark and that’s lot of panic.
L.A.
Clint Barton calls on the diner patrons to remain calm as a portal opens. Voyager, Hulk, and Vision/Spectrum are waiting in the portal. “Scarlet Witch–you are needed…” Of Course, Wanda doesn’t hesitate to remove the spell cloaking her costume. Clint starts babbling about how he can make a few phone calls to the West Coast Avengers…Hulk shuts him down. He’s not needed.
Clint ponders a question to the Hulk about if this was about the whole ‘shooting the Hulk in the head with a deadly arrow’ thing. (See Civil War II). Hulk invites Hawkeye to the mission but warns him not to get stuck alone with him. Clint may have settled things with Banner but Hulk still seems pretty pissed.
Voyager’s thought text is starting to regret inviting the Hulk. But she has one last step to worry about. One last person. Hercules.
The Portal opens with Voyager yet again calling a friend into battle. Rocket and Hulk have a nice moment together. Cute. Herc doesn’t even think twice especially when he finds out the first stop on the mission is Olympus. He hastily makes Voyager open the portal with no information as to why. Hulk grabs Rocket and brings him on the mission.
Olympus
Olympus sits in darkness and ruins. Fire. Stone. Blood. There’s gods crucified, beheaded, missing eyes. There has been no mercy. They will be mounted, but not right now. Hercules finds one alive. His sister Athena. She said it was the Queen of Night and reminds Hercules not to say her name. And then she’s gone.
Hawkeye wants to be filled in on who the Queen of Night is. Scarlet Witch knows the myth, of a goddess woman named Nyx. Hercules says yes and if his father’s stories are true she would have the power to fall darkness on the universe.
The DARKNESS Has come to claim us. NO! Screams Hercules! The team turns around to see Nyx, goddess Queen of the Night. She stands with her hand through the back of Scarlet Witch’s head and her fingers through her eyes. Wanda is dead.
With one final warning, “Your sister was right, son of Zeus. She should have NOT said my name.”
Holy hell. That was vicious. This is going to be an AMAZING run. Team has come together only to lose a member right off the bat. These writers pull no punches.
Beta Ray Greg
9/10
Beta Ray Greg is the Comic Critic for SoBros Network, the ‘Fangtastic 5K 2018 Mr. Irrelevant.’ The man has the single most impressive spreadsheet in existence that is used to document his historic collection. He’s a big time Spider-Verse guy. Follow on Twitter: @BetaRayGreg.
Check out the SoBros Shop. Subscribe to our Patreon. Give us money for no reason. Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter @SoBrosNetwork. Listen on SoundCloud. Watch on YouTube.
