Superior Avengers # 4

 By Mark Rodriguez

Doctor Doom has brought forth what he calls the Superior Avengers, heroes hailing from a future where his rule proved beneficial to mankind. However, these heroes actually villains that come from a timeline ruined by Doom and secretly plan to take him out. The new team was called in to deal with Graviton, which also got the attention of the real Avengers. As the teams fight among themselves, Vision fires a blast that goes right through Ghost, leaving everyone surprised.

 

"Panopticon" opens with a flashback to the era Anno- Doom + 128 as a mother shields her child as everything is destroyed around them. Ghost shows up, blasting people and telling them to return to their cells or be dealt with. Ghost asks the woman where she is going with the kid. The mother calls her a psychopath, and Ghost says she is powerless to stop her.

Suddenly a giant monstrous version of Annihilus appears saying that Doom's era has ended and his era has begun. Ghost is distracted by this and the woman starts to grapple with her, pulling off her respirator. The kid asks his mother what she's doing. Her mother says she won't let anyone hurt him. Annihilus prepares to attack both Ghost and the woman as they struggle against each other.

 

Back to the present, in Detroit, Vision laments having killed Ghost. Killomonger asks Captain Marvel if they're playing to raise the stakes to the death. Vision determines that Ghost is actually a non-sentient drone, a decoy. Doc Ock is angry that Vision hacked into her drones. Killomonger tells Onslaught that their priority changed to finding Ghost.

Onslaught freezes the Avengers and Graviton in place. Malekith plans to kill Iron Man and Killmonger says it's not sporting if he can't fight back. Vision says they have no right to call themselves Avengers. Killmonger says they are the Superior Avengers and if Vision attacks them, she'll have Onslaught give his teammates brain hemorrhages. Doc Ock boards the ship and tells Abomination to take them back to Latveria since they have to get to Ghost.

 

Meanwhile in Doomstadt, Doom's son Kristoff watches the fight and comments that it'll be easy to paint the Avengers as the aggressors. Just then, Ghost appears behind him and grabs him, phasing through the floor and taking along for the ride. She slams him into the ground.

Ghost phases her arm through Kristoff's chest, telling him not to move. Kristoff warns her of the level of torment that his father would unleash on her. Ghost says she doesn't want to kill him, but rather she wants his help. Ghost unmasks herself and tells him that the Superior Avengers aren't what he thinks they are, just like she isn't what they think she is. She says her name is Ava Starr. The real Ghost was her jailer for most of a decade, until Doom's demise gave her the chance to kill her and escape. Kristoff is confused and Ghost tells him that Doom is dead in her era.

 

Ava explains that Kritoff's Time Platform brought found a future where Doom clung to power as long as he could, at the cost to the world. His acolytes would eventually betray him. These would be the Superior Avengers. Kristoff thinks she is lying and trying to get them to turn on them. Ava says she is risking everything and any of the Superior Avengers can kill her with minimal effort. She did terrible things to maintain her cover. She tells Kristoff he needs to know who he was brought to his father's castle... and into his bed.

Killmonger was one of the many orphans created during Doom's regime. She caught Doom's eye and rose in the ranks, no matter who she had to crush to get there. She's driven by revenge as much as Ava is, but it much crueler.

Doctor Octopus is the last heiress of a royal family Doom hasn't wiped out. Doom encouraged her scientific aptitude and gave her metal arms he kept in a storage room, presumably from the original Doc Ock.

Malekith was created by Doom in a sense. When he attack Asgard he drained the husks of All-Black the Necrosword and Undrjarn The All-Weapon, but needed something for them to inhabit. It's not clear if they latched onto the soul of the actual Malekith or something that thinks he is, but his bloodlust is even higher than Malekith in his prime.

Onslaught emerged from the ashes of the second Krakoan Age which led to the death of mutantkind. Onslaught is pretty much the personification of mutant death. 

Abomination was born in a sect of Doom-worshippers and only joined Killlmonger's coup because he considered a test of faith towards Doom. He wears the mask because he is ashamed that his face isn't scarred like Doom. He is mostly kept around by the others because he's a useful idiot.

The original Ghost was Doom's prison warden. Ava had been imprisoned since she was 14, but once she had a son, it became unbearable for her. Ghost created a Panopticon so she could savor every indignity the prisoners suffered. Ava dreamed about paying her back until she finally got the chance to cave her head in.

Kristoff says Doom can never hear of this, he would know the Time Platform didn't function as intended. Ava says she hid among the crew for months and asks if he didn't think they had their own agenda. She says he is a means to an end and if he interferes with their plan, they will stab him in the back like they did his father. Kristoff asks what they want. Ava says they are collecting magical energy as they are building an Arcane Warhead. Kristoff asks why they need it for. Ava explains that Doom took all magic from their era with him when he died. Without the Sorcerer Supreme to keep the monsters at the gate, something worse than Doom has found its way in.

We flashback to Ava quickly putting on Ghost's costume as she tries to figure out how it works. She tells her son to stay close by. Unfortunately, one of the Annihilus bugs forces its way into the kid's mouth and takes over his mind. Ava tells Kristoff that she's not sure if she can save her son, and even if the Superior Avengers do take out Annihilus, they'll destroy the world fighting over power afterwards. She laments that her best chance lies with the monster that created the atrocity in the first place. She needs Doom's help.

Kristoff says his father will know he failed. Ava asks if he values his pride over the fate of an entire world. She slaps him and tells him that his 'lover' Killmonger made it clear that if they can't get enough magical energy undetected, they will tear the world in half to get what they need. She says he has to face his father as a man, or let him find out by himself when the Superior Avengers backstab him.

Elsewhere, in the Superior Avengers private chambers, still in Doomstadt, Abomination confirms he has seen no sign of Ghost. Killmonger says they have no idea when Ghost switched herself with a drone and they will have to assume she sold them out to Doom. Doc Ock says that the Scarlet Witch overcharged her metallic arms and if she doesn't discharge the energy soon, they might have to deal with Hex Nukes. Killmonger says Ghost was the gateway to the Negative Zone. Doc Ock says she wouldn't rely on third party technology and replicated Ghost's portal on day one.

 

Onslaught asks the others what the plan is if Ghost does indeed run to Doom. Killmonger asks Onslaught if he can track down Annihilus' brain waves. Onslaught asks what devious thoughts she's concocting. Killmonger says they can use Annihilus as a gun aimed at the right target. They can use this as an opportunity to justify themselves as they bring a much greater threat to Doom's hands.

Meanwhile in the Parliament Building of Wakanda, Princess Shuri is pleading her case to Prime Minister Folasade that Doom's rule means an end to their country. Folasade says it's one thing for them to stand alone in a world of other nations, it's something else to see the globe unite under Doom. Just then a portal opens in the sky as Annihilus and his insects attack the people.

The people of Wakanda prepare to evacuate. Folasade tells Okoye that the Dora Milaje will leads the city's defense. Just then, Abomination appears on the big screen and says they detected the problem in Wakanda and the Superior Avengers are standing by to assist. They only need to say the word, and the word is Doom. 

My Thoughts- 

So this was an interesting turn of events. While we were expecting some sort of double-cross with all these villains working together, I never thought it would be coming from another person impersonating one of their ranks. The cover shows Ghost manipulating the crew like puppets on strings, but we find out that she's doing so as a calculating bad guy, but as an undercover good guy.

We find out that the Ghost we saw wasn't the real one, but one of her prisoners that killed her and took her place. She is out to save her son, and possibly the world, because she knows her teammates will still destroy everything even after they defeat Annihilus.

That explains why Ghost is always in costume and never unmasks like the others do. While at first I wondered how the others would never suspect her just... never unmasking for months, we see that for the original Ghost, the mask was also a respirator so it makes sense she would keep it on.

We get a bit of backstory of the members of the crew, since Ava has access to all of Ghost's files on them. I do have to say, Abomination really is a useful idiot. How can someone be so blindly devoted to Doom and yet not bat an eye when the people he's hanging with constantly talk about how much they hate Doom and want to kill him. I am curious how much more we're going to learn about these guys, especially Onslaught.

We also find out that Doc Ock isn't so much as following the original's mantle family-wise, but more Doom gave her the robot arms I guess named her after him

I am confused on them bringing in Annihilus, since he's supposed to be their major problem back home. Like of they kill him here, wouldn't that solve their problem and eliminate the need for the Arcane Warhead? Either that or this another version of Annihilus, and not the one from their era. 

We'll see what happens next issue as the cover suggests that Killmonger will finally make her move on Kristoff.