Superior Avengers # 3

 By Mark Rodriguez

Doctor Doom has taken over the world, and to prove his way is the right way, he has brought forth heroes from a future where his reign ended up making humanity flourish. However, these Superior Avengers are not heroes, and the world they came from has been ruined as Doom took all forms of magic down with him. What are they planning during this visit to this past timeline?

"Tales of a Scorched Earth" opens in Doomstadt as Killmonger and Kristoff finished their private bedroom encounter. Kristoff asks if he can call her something else besides Killmonger after what they did. She says it's the only name she has left. Kristoff agrees to keep this between them to maintain team unity. Killmonger says she would not want to disappoint Lord Doom after everything he's done for her.

She has a flashback in the timeline Anno Doom +116 as Killmonger and her crew arrive at Wakanda, which is still standing. One of her teammates say even if they can get past the killing field (which is crawling with Doom Sentinels), they don't know if the Wakandans will take in refugees. Killmonger is sure they will take them in. One of them is carrying around a Doombot head that helps keep them invisible to the Doom Sentinels.

As the team gets closer to the gates of Wakanda... the Doombot transponder runs out of power, and the Doom Sentinels notice them. One of them fires a blast that kills most of the team. Killmonger runs towards the gate, yelling that she denounces Doom and is seeking refuge.

 

Back to the present, Killmonger is finished getting dressed and Kristoff asks if she could tell him something about her timeline. He just knows that Doom's rule still prospers. Killomnger says that is not true, and learning anything more could threaten his timeline. Just then Doctor Octopus (the female version from this team) calls in for an Avengers Priority Alert.

Doc Ock says that another Raft escapee, Graviton has started problems in Detroit after some police accidentally found his hideout. Kristoff says he will monitor them remotely. He advises Killmonger not to take Graviton lightly as he has caused trouble to the other Avengers more than once. Killmonger says it's the Avengers' problem for allowing their foes to continue to trouble them more than once.

Later on, the Superior Avengers Quinjet heads towards Michigan as Killmonger warns the crew about Graviton's powers. His abilities must be dealt with upon engagement or he can crush them all. Doc Ock tells the team that it seems someone else is after the Raft escapees. Killmonger says this confrontation was inevitable.

The Superior Avengers arrive to engage with Graviton but the original Avengers, this time consisting of Iron Man, Captain Marvel, Storm, Scarlet Witch, Vision and the Sam Wilson Captain America also show up. Graviton feels flattered that it will take more than one team of Avengers to take him down. 

 

Captain Marvel tells the Superior Avengers that they are here to take down Graviton and not let him run amok while the heroes waste time fighting each other. Killmonger says that Graviton is coming with them and there is room in Doom's Dungeon for all who oppose his benevolent rule. Storm remarks that she pities what Killmonger considers to be benevolence. Graviton says if they're not going to pay him the proper respect, they can leave, as he unleashes a wave of destruction that knocks everybody back.

Killmonger tells Onslaught to shut off Graviton's brain functions. Graviton is dealing with the Scarlet Witch. Wanda tells the villain that is not bound by his physics, and Onslaught asks her what she is bound by and calls her 'great betrayer'. 

Wanda notices that Onslaught is wearing Magneto's helmet and she asks if she knows the great man she is mocking by wearing that. Onslaught says he is the psychic death song of mutantkind and the final gasps of the X-Gene. Onslaught says that Wanda's family has sealed their fight. Wanda uses her powers to tear Onslaught apart, telling him not not speak of her family.

Doc Ock says the level of arcane energy expelled by the Scarlet Witch overcharged her energy bank in less than a second. She thinks Onslaught is right, and Wanda can be used to charge the Arcane Warhead all by herself. Just then Sam Wilson flies in, telling her to keep her arms to herself. Abomination smacks Sam with his shield, sending him flying back.

Abomination and Sam trade blows, as Sam remarks fighting men in green armor using shields gives him bad memories of Secret Empire. During the fight, Sam smashes Abomination across the face with his shield. Abomination says he wants him to mangle up his face to match that of Lord Doom so he no longer has to hide his unblemished face in shame. Sam pauses and realizes that Abomination is 'that kind' of messed up.

Storm says this conflict only benefits Doom and she's tired of seeing him triumph. She says she will end this now as she brings the lightning to Malekith. Malekith says he can smell Asgard in the echoes of Storm's blood. He says this is why All-Black and Undrjarn fizzles at her touch. 

Iron Man grabs onto Graviton and asks if either of the Avengers team wants to help out. Captain Marvel socks Doc Ock back and tells Iron Man that she was doing something weird to Wanda. Killmonger tackles Captain Marvel out of the sky and down to the ground. Captain Marvel says she's punching above her weight class. Killmonger says not to talk to her about what she can overcome.

Killmonger flashes back to when she finally made it to Wakanda, only to find it deserted with corpses lying everywhere. Killmonger is in disbelief and asks if the Black Panther didn't protect his people. She ponders that the others were right to doubt, it seems there's no place safe from Doom. She asks if Doom left Wakanda standing as some sort of trick or joke, a way to prolong the murder of what little hope people would have left. She grabs onto the Black Panther's mask and says it's time for her to play a new trick.

Back to the present, Captain Marvel blasts Killmonger off of her. She's surprised that her sword was able to cut the side of her neck. Killmonger says she uses an andamantium blade that was meant for the Black Panther, but it cuts her just fine. Captain Marvel asks the team if anyone can help Iron Man since Killmonger is starting to piss her off.

Vision flies in to help Iron Man, while warning Captain America that he detects some sort of anomaly within Abomination. Ghost fires a blast towards Vision and tells him to stop. Vision blasts her with his eye beams. It seems the beams blasted right through Ghost. One of his teammates asks Vision what he just did to Ghost. Vision is confused as his blast was not configured to be a lethal blow.

 

My Thoughts- 

So things heat up as the Superior Avengers fight against the originals. We get to learn a tad more of the characters here and there. Abomination continues to show of his twisted loyalty towards Doom, even wishing his face was as disfigured as that of his false idol. This issue got into Killmonger and her origins as she took the role after she found what was left of Wakanda. I really want to know exactly what is making Abomination so devoted to Doom, while also working with a team that is seeking to topple him.

Malekith seems to be using both the super powerful symbiote All-Black as well as Undrjarn the super powerful All-Weapon at the same time, hence why his body is half black and half gold. Both the symbiote and Undrjarn can take any shape needed, so that explains why Malekith is so malleable. Other than Onslaught and his psychic power, Malekith might be one of the most powerful members of the team.

 

Onslaught seems bent on ending mutantkind, but it seems his origins stem from the Scarlet Witch's family. The odd thing is that Onslaught literally looks like a skeleton wearing the outfit, as if his mind stayed alive by sheer will while the rest of his body deteriorated. 

With so many characters flying around and whatnot, it seems the artists and story-boarders couldn't keep track of everybody. It looks like Doctor Octopus tried to sap the magic energy out of Wanda when she attacked Onslaught... but that seemed to happen off-panel. Then we see Captain Marvel attack her because 'she was doing something weird to Wanda'. I would have liked to have seen her actually trying to drain the magic out of her so the scene would make better sense visually. 

Speaking of which, so Wanda apparently destroys Onslaught and no one really bats an eye, but everyone is flipping out about Vision potentially killing Ghost? Or rather, if people did react, we didn't get a chance to see them since there was barely enough page time for everyone.

 

Graviton was barely in this, he felt like even less of an afterthought than Diablo did last issue. It's such a shame that sometimes comics can be so limited due to only having so many pages and panels. In this case, we got to see Killmonger's origins, so we did need some pages devoted to that. I just feel an animated version of this would have been a wilder and longer fast paced battle as both Avengers teams fight each other while Graviton is using his powers to try to take all of them out.

We'll see what happens next issue as the cracks will start to show among the team members. I expect a lot of clashing between Killmonger and Abomination since they seem to be on dangerously opposing sides when it comes to what they think of Doctor Doom.

Also gawd damn Doctor Doom. Doom Sentinels? He doesn't mess around when it comes to ruling the world.