Avengers Forever
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Avengers Forever is a twelve-issue comic book limited series serialized by Marvel Comics from 1998 to 2000 starring the superhero team called the Avengers. The series won the R.A.C. Squiddy Award for Best Limited Comic Series in 1999 as well as the CBG Award for Favorite Limited Series in 2000.
The story revolves around the "Destiny War", a time travel-based conflict between Kang the Conqueror and his future self, Immortus. It serves to iron out many wrinkles in Avengers history, clarify the history of Kang, and essentially undo much of the poorly-received Avengers: The Crossing storyline of 1995-1996.
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[edit] Synopsis
The Destiny War is ignited when Immortus sends his servant Tempus to kill an apparently critically ill Rick Jones on the moon, knowing that it is the Destiny Force about to manifest within Rick for the second time (after the first time during the Kree-Skrull War) that is killing him. Kang intervenes, and the Kree Supreme Intelligence, to whom Rick had been brought for examination, triggers Rick to use the Destiny Force to call a team of Avengers to him, plucked from time, causing Immortus' forces to withdraw, having failed to prevent what they had come to do.
The team gathered consists of various members taken from different eras. Captain America has been plucked from just after his 1974 adventure (Captain America #176) where he discovered that the leader of the Secret Empire was a high ranking government official. Yellowjacket has been taken from the early 1970s when his alter ego, Hank Pym, was mentally unbalanced. Giant-Man (also Hank Pym, but more adjusted) and the Wasp are both plucked from the "present" (1998) Marvel continuity. Hawkeye has been taken from circa Avengers #100 continuity, while Songbird and Captain Marvel are taken from an apparently alternative future.
In the course of their investigations, which take them to various points in time and Limbo, the Avengers learn that Immortus is serving beings called the Time Keepers. The Keepers know that mankind will eventually go into space and establish the Terran Empire. This will involve wars and the destruction of many alien peoples, with the Avengers at the forefront of the invasions on the grounds of "pacification". The Keepers have charged Immortus with preventing such a disastrous future or else humanity will have to be destroyed. Since Immortus admires the Avengers he resolves to manipulate them and thus delay mankind's space efforts.
At the conclusion, Rick and the Avengers fight by the side of Libra, Kang and the Supreme Intelligence against Immortus and the Time Keepers. The Time Keepers kill Immortus for his failures, and attempt to accelerate Kang into Immortus; however, Kang perseveres and defeats the Time Keepers. Rick burns himself out stopping their plan, and Kang proceeds to kill the Time Keepers. Immortus then splits off from Kang, meaning Kang would never become Immortus. Rick merges with Genis-Vell, the third Captain Marvel, to save his life, and he and all the Avengers return to their original time periods with varying degrees of memory as to what they had been involved in.
[edit] Consequences
As a result of the Destiny War, Rick Jones' injuries were cured (he had been unable to walk), Immortus was separated from Kang's future (Kang was previously destined to become Immortus), and Genis-Vell was reintroduced into an active role as Captain Marvel in addition to bonding with Rick Jones. It also featured a considerable number of alternative futures and versions of Marvel characters, as well as some changes in the timeline (the undoing of the 1950s team of Avengers, for instance). The fate of the Forever Crystal played a major role during Maximum Security.
[edit] Trivia
- The Avengers visit five different time periods - Tombstone, Arizona in 1873; 1950s Southern California; post-war New York in the 21st century; the Terran Galactic Empire of the 26th century; and the end of time.
- Appropriately enough, it is Hawkeye who leads a squad of Avengers back to the Old West of 1873 where he meets a number of Marvel Western heroes including: the Two-Gun Kid, the Night Rider, the Ringo Kid, the Rawhide Kid and Kid Colt. There is also the Black Rider and the duo known as the Gunhawks, though these turn out to be Space Phantoms in disguise.
- In the 1950s, The Wasp and Captain Marvel meet a group of Avengers made up of Marvel Boy, Venus, 3-D Man, Gorilla-Man and Human Robot. This alternative team had originally appeared in What If # 9, published in June 1978.
- The final battle includes characters from both the Squadron Supreme and Earth X, as well as Scargoyle, a character from Kurt Busiek's Astro City universe.
