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I'm hoping to use this Tumblr to make a reference point for Al Ewing's Marvel and DC comics. I'm aiming to make a post for every issue of every Ewing comic that contains any contextual information that can improve one's experience of the comic, sort of like what House to Astonish does for X-men comics. These should serve as supplements to the comic, something to check while reading the comic if anything is confusing and unclear.

I'm doing this specifically for Ewing for two reasons - he's my favourite author, and his works tend to be packed with reference and callback, so there is more for me to explain. I'll also try to explain some of the more complex and unfamiliar ideas that often appear in Ewing's comics, like tarot or alchemy, but I fully admit I am not an expert in these so this will be limited. I don't actually think this kind of resource is necessary for a new reader to read Ewing's comics - in general I think that if you read actively big two comics tend to do well introducing all the ideas readers need if they're paying attention - but I think it will help ensure a full understanding and a smoother reading experience.

I particularly want to focus on contextualising the specific comic at hand - a lot of Ewing comics heavily relate to contemporary storylines for the major characters and the universe as a whole, so I want to give readers the context people reading the comics when they were first released had.

My current plan is to make a guide for each issue of every Ewing series, plus a post for each series covering the main cast of that series, divided based on when in a series a character is introduced (for example She-Hulk joining midway through Mighty Avengers). I will also give a single character multiple descriptions at separate points should they experience a substantial status quo shift during the run in a different comic (such as Sam Wilson becoming Captain America in that comic between the Mighty Avengers series). My hope is the series-wide character descriptions can contain generalised information, preventing individual issues from getting bloated with those details and instead allowing them to focus on issue specific factors.

I plan to make these in a chronological order, but to fully complete one comic before moving to the next for coherency. I will also cover direct sequels before moving to a distinct comic, even if the distinct comic came before the sequel (eg Captain America and the Mighty Avengers will come before Loki: Agent of Asgard), again for coherency.

General Context - Infinity/Uncanny Avengers

The alien tyrant Thanos has invaded the Earth searching for his son, previously kept secret from him. In pursuit of this goal he attacked the Inhumans, a genetically manipulated offshoot of humanity with incredible powers. This prompted the detonation of the Terrigen Bomb, an Inhuman weapon designed to release the Terrigen Mists which empower the Inhumans across the Earth. The bomb succeeded, and the Mists are now travelling across the Earth awakening the powers of long lost descendants of the Inhumans spread throughout Humanity. Now the Avengers and the Inhumans are trying to find these newly awakened Inhumans to ensure they receive help with their new powers and aren't exploited by any malign entities.

Janet van Dyne is the Wasp, one of the original Avengers with the power to shrink in size and to fly and shoot bio-electric blasts while shrunk. She was an Avenger for years and is one of Earth's most experienced heroes, but seemingly died a few years prior to this when an alien pretending to be Hank Pym, a.k.a Ant-Man/Giant-Man and Janet's ex-husband, manipulated the Pym Particles which allow her to change size to make her a living bomb. In truth, she was trapped in the Microverse, an alternate dimension only accessible via shrinking. After an extended period surviving there by herself, Janet was able to signal the Avengers, who rescued her and brought her back to Earth.

Wanda Maximoff is the Scarlet Witch, a mutant with the power to wields hexes which can manipulate probability. A few years before this story, Wanda lost her mind due to the grief of losing her children and began tapping into dangerous, reality-altering power, a path which culminated in her nearly destroying the Avengers and almost wiping mutants from the face of the Earth. She was thought dead after this, but ultimately her survival was discovered and, after a conflict with Dr Doom, she dedicated herself to redeeming herself for her past failures (though without reality-warping power).

Simon Williams is Wonder Man, a former actor who was transformed into Ionic Energy and, after a short stint as a villain, became a superhero with powers of flight, enhanced physicality, and energy projection. After dying on a mission, he was brought back to life by the Scarlet Witch during her descent into madness, though at the time it was thought that he was always alive, Wanda just recombined his separated aspects. Following this he would remain a standard hero for a time, but would slowly begin to buckle in this face of numerous tragedies and failures for heroes. For a time he came to the conclusion that the Avengers as a whole were the problem and forcefully tried to stop his former allies, but ultimately he came to the conclusion that it was Superheroes' violent methods that he opposed, leading to his becoming a pacifist.

All three are members of the Avengers Unity Squad (shown in the 'Uncanny Avengers' series), an Avengers team dedicated to representing unity between mutants and the rest of Earth's superheroes through a combination of mutant and non-mutant members. In this team, the three have clashed around their complicated histories and conflicting motivations.

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Terrigenesis, the process Inhumans undergo after exposure to the Terrigen Mists, involves entering a cocoon like the one shown.

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Part of the concept of the Avengers Unity Squad was that they were a public facing team, which is likely why Dennis is quite familiar with Simon.

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Lord Gouzar is a tyrant from the Microverse. Janet's inadvertently caused his downfall when she contacted the Avengers to rescue her from the dimension, as the team (including Janet) clashed with and deposed him.

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Simon is familiar with Gouzar as he was on the Avengers team that rescued Janet.

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Page 3 -

Earth-616 Maria was the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D at this time. This is the first time we've seen her as leader of Mondo City, with its previous appearance just seeing it ruled by the Boss Enforcement Council without a singular leader. Her role as Big Boss is a reference to Dredd's Chief Judge, while the Council of Seven is a reference to Dredd's Council of Five.

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Excalibur going dull against living tissue is a new feature - while it has been shown to have healing properties, it has also been used for combat on a number of occasions.

"Shokk" is likely a reference to "Drokk", a made-up swear used in Judge Dredd comics as a rough analogue for "Fuck" (though it is also similar to "Shock" used in Marvel's 2099 comics for much the same purpose).

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Judge Dredd frequently calls others "Creep".

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"Stromm" is likely a reference to "Stomm", another Judge Dredd expletive (this one being akin to "Shit").

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The Genetic Decency Act is a reference to Dredd's Genetic Purity Act of 2079 which forbids mutants from living in Mega-City One.

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"And Mine is a Faith in my Fellow Man" is the next line in 'Between the Wars'. The song is speaking in favour of goodwill and the welfare state, in response to a government more concerned with war and fear of the outsider than care for its people. While it was written in response to the Thatcher government's deconstruction of the welfare state, Ewing is likely using it in reference to the debate around immigration which was becoming increasingly prevalent in the UK at this time, particularly with regards to the Brexit referendum which occurred a few months after this issue (though given the motif of walls throughout the issue it is likely also a response to Donald Trump's promised wall between Mexico and the USA).

Previous Issue

General Context - Secret Wars/Battleworld

The multiverse has been destroyed. For reasons unknown, extra-dimensional entities known as the Beyonders have manipulated reality to bring about the end of all existence and their plan has finally come into effect.

However, one man has managed to combat them. Doctor Victor von Doom collected all the iterations of Molecule Man (the living weapon the Beyonders used to destroy universes) and wielded them against the Beyonders, allowing him to claim their power for himself. This has given him phenomenal cosmic abilities, but even that is insufficient to recreate reality. Instead, Doom has resorted to merging all of the shattered fragments of different realities he could claim into one world - Battleworld.

This compound reality is divided into various kingdoms, each based on an earlier reality. While Doom serves as the total ruler and God of all of Battleworld, authority in each kingdom is distributed to a baron, a previously influential figure from that reality who serves as ruler, and a Thor, a figure given a powerful hammer and the duty of ensuring Doom's law is followed. As far as the inhabitants of Battleworld know, this reality is all that exists - they have no memory of a time before Battleworld, and believe all of existence is Doom's creation. Doom is quite keen to maintain that belief.

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Ho Yinsen was a doctor imprisoned alongside Tony Stark when terrorists captured Tony and tried to force him to build them weapons. In the original story, his medical expertise was essential in designing a suit that could keep Tony alive after a shard of shrapnel was lodged in his body and he sacrificed himself to ensure Tony could put the suit on and survive. This reality resembles one Tony saw in 'Iron Man: Fatal Frontier' #9, although the reality in that issue was seemingly just an illusion.

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The name Rescue has historically been used by Pepper Potts, an Iron Man side character. Its use here is likely a reference to Pott's Rescue suit generally being designed to focus on protection and disaster relief over combat.

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The planet in the sky is indicating that an incursion is happening, wherein the Earths of two realities collide with one another, one of the ways the Beyonders destroyed universes. This means this scene is occurring before the creation of Battleworld.

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The Warzone refers to the kingdom from the 'Battleworld: Civil War' series, so called as it is divided between "the Iron" led by Tony Stark and "the Blue" led by Steve Rogers. Although the region is split, Tony is recognised as its Baron. This isn't the only kingdom to have a Tony or even to have Tony as its baron, as a different Tony is baron of Technopolis (though the Warzone is significantly closer to Yinsen City).

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Hobie Brown in the main marvel universe is the original Prowler. He had a short lived career as a criminal, but quickly turned away from that life and became an occasional ally of Spider-Man. In an early appearance he impersonated Spider-Man to help him hide his identity, which may have inspired his new identity here (as well as Blade's 'Spider Hero' persona from Mighty Avengers). This specific incarnation of Hobie is a new one.

Mondo City is from 'Dark Avengers' #177-182 (there haven't actually been that many Dark Avengers comics, it just inherited its numbering from the Thunderbolts series it emerged out of), wherein it is a dystopic alternate future where all of humanity has become infertile and has to rely on cloning for self-perpetuate. It is governed by the authoritarian Bosses, law enforcement officers created from the genetic material of the Avengers. It is directly based on the Mega-City One from the Judge Dredd comics (which Ewing wrote for prior to his time at Marvel), with the bosses based on the Judges, and is similarly authoritarian. I'll note here that this is one of many cases where a dystopic future prevented in the storyline it is introduced in is later shown to still exist as an alternate universe - marvel has a long history of doing this, and it pops up again in this comic with the Age of Ultron.

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The scene of Spidey dying is new, but it is likely connected to the Spider-Verse storyline. The villain killing Spider-Man is Morlun, a multiverse travelling vampire who hunts Spider-Totems (individuals with spider powers, primarily consisting of Spider-Men and those with equivalent powers) alongside his family, the Inheritors. It is stated that the Inheritors have been killing Spider-People across the multiverse for years, so Hobie's Spider-Man presumably died during that period.

Antonia Yinsen is a new character. A version of her would be introduced into Earth-616 after Secret Wars (who I'll cover once I get to Ewing's New Avengers).

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Dr Faiza Hussain is a NHS doctor who gained the ability to heal people on the atomic level through alien technology and can wield the legendary sword Excalibur. This version of Faiza is from the Age of Ultron, an alternate future of Earth-616, where she inherited the mantle of Captain Britain from Brian Braddock. That occurs in 'Avengers Assemble (2012) #15AU, which I have covered here. That covers Faiza more comprehensively.

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The Shield is a giant wall at the bottom of Battleworld which separates the rest of Battleworld from the monstrous Annihilation Wave, Zombie Horde, and Ultron Armada. It's a consistent plot point across various Secret Wars series that those who break Doom's law are sent to the Shield to guard and maintain it, with it being taken as inevitable that one will die in this duty.

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War Machine is likely named after James Rhodes' superhero identity, although it lacks any particular resemblance to him. Boss Magniconte is based on the obscure character Giovanni Magniconte from marvel's New Universe (a project in the 80s where Marvel tried to create a new comics universe with entirely new characters). Boss Frost is based on Emma Frost, a psychic from X-men comics, but is likely also a reference to Judge Anderson from Judge Dredd, who is also psychic and is probably the second most iconic Judge from the series after Dredd himself.

The Overseer gun is a reference to the Lawgiver from Judge Dredd, the gun wielded by all judges which famously has six firing modes. The phaser round may be a reference to the armor-piercing ammunition Dredd makes frequent usage of.

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Psionic Division is a play on Dredd's psi-division.

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Boss Cage is from the previously mentioned Dark Avengers comic, where he began as a loyal Boss but ultimately helps the heroes prevent the Mondo City timeline from occurring. He's a clear expy of Judge Dredd.

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"Shop thy Neighbour" is the title of the third episode of the British TV drama 'Boys from the Blackstuff', a show which focused on the lives of five recently unemployed men and how the lack of social support affected them. It's often considered one of the most prominent media critiques of the Conservative Government led by Margaret Thatcher. That particular episode may have been chosen due to the presence of benefit fraud officers within it, more direct representation of government malpractice, or becuase the name is a generally recognisable play on the Biblical phrase "Love Thy Neighbour". "Learn to Love Your Law" may also be a play on a Biblical quote, in this case "Oh, how I love your law" (directed towards God) from 'Psalm 119:97'. The skull symbol on the building may be a reference to the Punisher's logo. Finally, the title of the issue comes from Billy Bragg's son 'Between the Wars', but I'll comment more on that next issue.

Previous Issue/Next Issue

Avengers (2013) #34.1

Avengers Assemble (2012) #14AU

Avengers Assemble (2012) #15AU

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"Exterminate" is the catchphrase of the Daleks from Dr Who, a race of techno-organic beings dedicated to the elimination of all other life in existence. Between that motivation and their saltshaker design, they're quite similar to Ultron-1.

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Carol Danvers is the current bearer of the Captain Marvel title. She's a human empowered by interaction with the alien Kree, which gave her flight, enhanced physicality, energy blasts, and the ability to absorb energy of any kind. Prior to acquiring powers Danvers was in the US Air Force, and remains a Major in the organisation. At this moment in time, she had a brain lesion which meant using her powers to fly could be seriously harmful for her.

"Stiff Upper lip" is a British term meaning to remain stoic or positive in a challenging or depressive scenario. "Four Weddings" refers to the movie "Four Weddings and a Funeral" - Carol may be comparing the man to the film's leading actor, Hugh Grant.

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The backstories referenced are - the Hulk (gamma bomb), Steve Rogers Captain America (Super-Serum), Carol herself (the psyche-magnitron is the Kree device that gave her powers), and Captain Britain (becoming Captain Britain typically involves choosing between the Sword of Might and Amulet of Right, though one becomes Captain Britain regardless of their choice).

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As far as I know the idea of the sword and the amulet being one and the same is a new one. The idea that Excalibur is the Sword of Might is a more complicated one - there are comics which say they are one and the same (particularly comics featuring Lionheart, a Captain Britain who wilded Excalibur) and the Sword has generally been portrayed embedded in a stone, clearly alluding to the story, but other comics distinctly state they are different swords (likely to separate the sanctified Excalibur from the Sword's nature as the darker equivalent to another object). To be frank, its not continuity breaking and it benefits this comic to conglomerate the two, so don't pay it too much thought past that (plus its sort of fitting, given that Excalibur has a history of being combined with other swords, not originally being the sword in the stone).

Faiza Hussain is the current wielder of Excalibur in Marvel, taking it up in the 'Captain Britain and MI13' series. She was a medical doctor who was empowered during an alien invasion and ended up encountering Excalibur due to said new powers, resulting in her learning she was its destined wielder. Alongside Excalibur's mystical abilities, she herself is a "living scalpel" having the ability to disassemble things into their component parts and manipulate said parts while they are disassembled before putting them back together. It is unclear whether this ability can be used aggressively, as Faiza has only been seen using it to heal people, though she has utilised its paralysing effect against foes. She has used Excalibur as a Superhero name.

The NHS refers to the British National Health Service, which provides free medical service (unless the medical service applies to teeth or eyes, in which case the bastards make you pay).

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Computer Graham is a new character invented for this comic, as are the villains he mentions fighting, but Bedroom Coders were a real thing. As the comic describes, they were kids in the 80s who wrote and distributed their own computer games. They're a decently well-known cultural touchstone in the UK, though one that has faced critique in recent years for being overly romanticised. Faiza knowing him is a reference to her generally being a bit of a Superhero fangirl. "I Love the 80s" was a British TV show from the 2000s which examined the pop culture of the 80s - as far as I can tell, it never covered bedroom coders.

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Captain Britain is the mystical protector of Britain, empowered by the mage Merlin and his daughter Roma. He is connected to the magical realm of Otherworld, a realm at the centre of the Multiverse where Merlin and Roma come from, and the multiversal Captain Britain Corps, which consists of a legion of Captain Britains from across the multiverse. Brian Braddock was the main Captain Britain at this time. His powers were originally contained in a sceptre he wielded, then in his costume, before finally being contained within his body. He has enhanced physicality and the ability to fly as well as a force field. These are contingent on his confidence and belief in his own righteousness - when fighting for a cause he doubts, Brian's abilities decline.

Brian's school is the Braddock Academy, revealed in the 'Avengers Arena' series. That series consists of a series of superpowered youths being trapped on an island and forced to fight each other, with some of the cast coming from the Braddock Academy. Outside of the students shown in that series, there isn't much known about the Academy - for example, Mel, the student shown in this issue, is a new creation.

Dane Whitman is the Black Knight, wielder of the Ebony Blade. Its a dark sword, often positioned as something of a negative counterpart to Excalibur, which tends to draw power from the user's negative and destructive emotions. This feature makes it dangerous to use for extended periods of time, as the user risks falling to the sword's dark influence.

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"Chav" is a generally derogatory term for a working-class person while "Scrounger" is a derogatory term for someone who lives off the work of others rather than working themselves. Its effectively saying that rather than drawing from the user's general malice, the Ebony Blade specifically draws from British malice towards the working class.

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Oberon is the King of the Fairies of Otherworld, a group who occupy a section of the Realm. As far as I'm aware he's never been directly connected to Brian's powers, but he is allied with Britain and draws power from the same wider source as Brian. Tony Wilson was a record label and TV and Radio presenter, Bagpuss is the titular character from a children's show from the 70s, and the Ashes is a cricket series which occurs regularly between England and Australia - in effect they serve as representatives of British pop culture.

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The comment that this isn't the real Ultron may allude to one of the earlier twists from Age of Ultron that the main Ultron isn't actually involved in the invasion, as he is living in the future to avoid being attacked directly to end the conflict.

20 GOTO 10 is a two line loop used in early BASIC programming (the kind used on the Commodore 64) which could be used to endlessly loop a command.

A-levels are the advanced levels of schooling in specific subjects taken in the the UK taken by students aged 16 to 18.

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Faiza and Dane had a romance in 'Captain Britain and MI13', the series where Faiza was introduced.

Previous Issue

General Context -

Avengers Assemble was a series with a variety of authors which told stories about a number of Avengers. The different stories contained within don't connect to each other, so you don't need to worry about having to read other issues to understand this one. Only this issue, #15, and #20 are by Ewing, so they're the only ones I'll cover.

Age of Ultron was a 2013 event in which the villain Ultron, a robot created by founding Avengers Hank Pym a.k.a Ant-Man, finally succeeded. Having evolved to a point where he overcame his insanity, typically Ultron's Achilles' heel, he launched a surprise attack across the Earth and effectively conquered the planet. Given his loathing of mankind, it's only a matter of time before Ultron eliminates the species if he isn't stopped.

While the main series primarily focused on a plan to prevent this ever having occurred via time travel, the tie-ins to the event tended to focus on how this world came about (the event itself beginning after Ultron's conquest) and different characters' reactions to the dystopic setting.

Natasha Romanoff is a Russian spy trained in the Red Room programme and empowered by a mimicry of the Super-Soldier Serum who defected. Following her defection, she has served as both a spy, frequently working with S.H.I.E.L.D, and a Superhero, most often working with the Avengers but also being a member of other teams like the Champions of Los Angeles.

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The Champions of Los Angeles is a Superhero team from the 70s which included Black Widow alongside a rather eclectic cast of heroes. Richard Fenster did PR for that team in their original series, while George Smith is the Stunt-Master, formerly a Daredevil and Ghost Rider villain (Ghost Rider being the John Blaze, typically called Johnny, Natasha mentions, and a stuntman prior to becoming Ghost Rider) who became an actual Hollywood stuntman and minor hero. As far as I can tell he didn't appear in the original Champions series, so the mentions of him being present are new. The new Stunt-Master may be a reference to a plotline about the reappearance of the Stunt-Master from Waid's Daredevil, especially as the later parts of that run take place in San Francisco like this comic.

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The last time George was in costume was 'Avengers (1997)' #11, wherein he crashed into a magical barrier created by the villainous Grim Reaper attempting to destroy it. That issue plays it as a joke, but clearly its more impactful here.

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A longstanding feature of the ID cards given to Avengers to identify them as members of the team is that they can be used to alert members to threats the team need to face.

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Ultron is typically a silver colour - the gold design is a unique form from this event.

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"Submit of Perish" is a recurring phrase from Age of Ultron which sort of functions as Ultron's catchphrase.

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The tube-like Ultron design on this page is based on Ultron-1's appearance, meaning the form Ultron had when he was first created (as seen in 'The Avengers' #58).

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The "Skrull Invasion" refers to the Secret Invasion event, where the Earth was infiltrated by the shapeshifting aliens known as the Skrulls.

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Marc Spector is Moon Knight, a former mercenary who turned against his group and was killed but was revived by the Moon God Khonshu. He's historically been characterised as mentally unstable, although at this point in time exactly what condition he had was somewhat unclear (later stories have firmly established his having DID). Jerry Hunt is a minor S.H.I.E.L.D agent.

Next Issue

General Context - Secret Wars

We've reached the final incursion - the last realities remaining are Earth-616, the main marvel universe, and Earth-1610, the Ultimate marvel universe. They're set to collide and it doesn't seem like there's much to stop it - the heroes of both worlds fight to destroy the other and maybe save everything, but it doesn't look like either side is going to win. There are a few desperate plans being launched to try and survive apocalypse, but even if they work they'll save a couple dozen people at most. Its all over. How do you want to spend your last few hours?

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Tony trying to arrest Luke in his home is from a Civil War tie-in, specifically 'New Avengers' #22 (which Ewing also referenced in the first issue, isn't that nice).

Tony's acting like this because he was one of the few heroes not to get inverted back in AXIS, so he's still turned evil from that - on a wider scale there's a question of how much of his actions are because of his being inverted, but in this case I'm willing to say that's the reason since this issue was mentioned during the AXIS tie-ins. Notably the She-Hulk issue mentioned is pre-inversion, but even there Tony mentions his legal team functioning like a machine without needing direct intervention from him.

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They're alluding to the Defenders here, a classic marvel team who tend to be more fluid in their members and core concept than the Avengers. Implicitly, this is setting up the sequel to this story which uses the Defenders name.

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More or less all the details on the final clash to save the world comes from 'Secret Wars (2015)' #1, but this issue should be able to stand on its own.

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The Maker is the Ultimate Universe's version of Reed Richards who turned evil after various traumatising events. Ultimately, he dedicated himself to the improvement of Humanity, which for him meant heavy genetic engineering and the extermination of everyone 'inferior' to the "Children of Tomorrow" he created. Notably, of everyone on the Ultimate Earth he has the most knowledge about the Incursions as he's teamed up with Earth-616's Cabal, the group from Earth-616 who took up the task of destroying alternate Earths when the Illuminati refused to do so.

The City is a special, enclosed region which the Maker created in order to do his experiments within. Its a sentient city and contains all kinds of advanced technology, with which it can act effectively across the world.

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Wong is (at this point in time) Dr Strange's manservant - he's not previously been shown to know Kaluu, but they do run in similar circles.

Previous Issue/Next Issue

General Context - Secret Wars/Last Days

Months before the events of this story, T'Challa, the Black Panther, witnessed an incursion event, wherein two alternate Earths entered a collision course with one another. In response he gathered the Illuminati, a group of heroes who had previously united to try and pre-empt potential threats. This incarnation featured Iron Man, Mr Fantastic, Beast, Black Bolt, Namor, and Captain America. Together, they tried to prevent the threat of the Incursions, but after their first attempt prevented an incursion but destroyed the Infinity Gems, they took Cap out of the group due to his moral opposition and mind-wiped him to prevent him acting against them.

They continued to try to prevent the incursions while keeping them secret from the rest of the world, but ultimately failed. They finally splintered when faced with the possibility of destroying a world colliding into their Earth - every member but Namor refused to pull the trigger, and ultimately the rest agreed that they were unwilling to do so. This led to Namor teaming with a group of villains to form the Cabal, who were willing to destroy other worlds, while the remaining members of the Illuminati were exposed by Steve Rogers, who regained his memories during the Original Sin event, and forced to go on the run.

While on the run they've been trying to stop the Incursions through any means available, but have come up short. The facts are looking increasingly clear - everything is going to end.

This story occurs in the middle of a timeskip in Hickman's run - things like the world knowing about the Illuminati and the incursions change over the course of that timeskip, and thus over the course of this comic.

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There's an 8 month timeskip in Hickman's Avengers after the Original Sin tie-in where Steve regains his memories. Based on page 17 of this comic, the only part of this comic which shows an event which also occurs in Hickman's Avengers, this scene is about 164 days before Hickman's post-timeskip stories , putting it pretty early into that timeskip.

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The Illuminati formed adjacent to Brian Michael Bendis' original Avengers run, with the Hood storyline mentioned occurring later in that run. Steve leaves out the fact that at the time of that run he knew the gems weren't destroyed, and was involved in hiding them again.

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Steve is sort of wrong here - the Illuminati did plan to destroy a world, but when the time came refused to do it with the exception of Namor. Steve's not the lone hero he's selling himself as.

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Steve wielding the gauntlet and getting mind-wiped occurs in 'New Avengers (2013)' #3.

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Awilda is Ava's sister and Rey is her son - between the Ayala family members Gideon Mace killed and the respective downfalls of Hector (Awilda's brother, shot by police after being falsely convicted of a murder) and Angela (Awilda's daughter, brainwashed by the Hand) they're well aware of what the superhero life can do to someone. This is the first time we see their dynamic with Ava directly.

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"Vox Populi" is Latin for "Voice of the People".

Peter Corbeau is a physicist who has appeared in a number of different series.

The "Stamford was an inside job" poster behind the conspiracy theorist refers to the Stamford Incident from 'Civil War' wherein the city of Stamford was destroyed by the villain Nitro in a conflict with a group of Superheroes. It contributed to the passing of the Superhuman Registration Act that story centres on.

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"We, the People" is the phrase that begins the preamble to the United States of America Constitution.

Previous Issue/Next Issue

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Nextwave only contains the events Monica mentions, not the explanation that they were occurring in a different reality - that's from this comic (and I think this panel is the first explicit explanation of that, though I may have missed something because people say the reveal is in #6 even though that seems to just confirm Nextwave is canon, not how). Also don't trust the editor's comment on Nextwave's quality, its an acquired taste (one I haven't acquired).

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The accident mentioned is from 'Avengers' #293-294, wherein Monica attacks a Leviathan by turning into electricty but hits the water, causing her energy form to scatter. She disappeared and when she returned was physically frail, seemingly having aged substantially, and lacked her powers. It's a notable incident in Monica's history as the point where she stopped being the Avengers' Chairwoman, even after her powers returned.

As far as I could find Monica's mom is still alive, although she hasn't appeared in a comic in years. The next page suggests this is a Nextwave thing but I couldn't find any references to her there either, although that may be my mistake.

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The Skorpion Gate was shown in #9 of the previous series, though it got its name here.

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Kevin also first appeared in #9 of the previous series, though he was a lot worse off then.

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The Danger Room is a reoccurring location in X-men comics. It's a specially designed room that used hard light holograms to simulate a variety of opponents and situations for the purposes of training. There's been a number of iterations of it (one of them came to life, calling herself Danger) but they tend to follow that basic concept.

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Over in the pages of Hickman's Avengers, the Avengers have split over the topic of the Incursions and Steve is leading the hunt for the Illuminati, the group who first learned about the Incursions and kept the knowledge secret from the rest of the world. The "them" Steve refers to are presumably the Illuminati.

Previous Issue/Next Issue

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W.E.S.P.E are from the previous series, being fought by Blue Marvel for one panel and supplying Max Brashear with tech. It bears mentioning that their leader Evald Skorpion was dedicated to the complete annihilation of all existence in his last clash with Adam.

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Textile was Cortex Inc's signature product in 'Iron Man: Fatal Frontier' - it was a pair of glasses that could interface with the user's brain, which combined with a holographic display to ape the capabilities of a mobile phone. Tony prevented the product launch by deleting all of Cortex's data on their products, and later exposed their collaboration with A.I.M to substantially damage their reputation.

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Wernher von Braun was a Nazi rocket engineer who was famously brought to America in WW2 to work on rockets for them in Project Paperclip (a project where around 1,600 Nazi scientists and engineers were brought to America for similar purposes).

Elisha Gray is the man who allegedly first invented the telephone, with the story going that Alexander Graham Bell (the main typically credited for inventing the telephone) stole the invention from him and somehow won the legal case about whose patent counted.

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Outside of the basic Beyonders (who were continuing to be expanded on in Avengers and New Avengers) we don't know about the categories of being from Beyond the Quantrell Beyonder mentions. Given that the Beyonders almost always act as a group in Hickman's work, its hard to even guess at the purposes these different classes may serve.

We'll get back to the mention of Monica shortly.

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The "Chthonic Powers" presumably refers to Chthon, an Elder God who embodies Chaos and has a strong connection to powerful and dangerous magics (being the creator of the Darkhold that frequently appears wielded by malicious mages).

Satannish is one of marvel's Hell-Lords (a number of powerful demons in competition with one another about which is the true Satan) and thus a potent source of magic. This potency comes at a cost and power channeled from him tends to be hard to control.

Cytorrak is one of the Octessence, a group of powerful magical entities who clash about which of them will conquer Earth. He is an incredibly malign entity, but his bands (typically referred to as "Crimson Bands") are a very common spell for Doctor Strange to use.

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Spidey's "Luke Fantastic" comment is referencing the Fantastic Four, who gained their powers when cosmic rays penetrated the space vessel they were in.

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Spidey is referencing The Beyonder from the original Secret Wars stories, who was a being of godlike power who, after having his power stolen and returned in the original Secret Wars, sort of just wandered around the marvel universe in 'Secret Wars II'. He took a human form for the first time during that, and as part of his acclimation to that had to be taught about pooping by Spidey in #2. 'New Avengers (2013)' #30 explains that he was a child unit, hence his more playful nature compared to the calculated destructiveness of the Hickman Beyonders.

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To reiterate what I've said in earlier issues, the idea of the Beyond Corporation and the events of Nextwave not being real are from this series (building on Nextwave's intended non-canonicity and some other series having characters confused by the mention of its events). Ewing's also explaining why some characters were so different in Nextwave with the comment about them coming back harder and stranger (Elsa Bloodstone in particular is unrecognisable, not even having the same hair colour).

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Monica wearing a trenchcoat is directly taken from Nextwave, though it was brown there rather than black (not complaining mind you, the black looks better).

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General Context -

Between this issue and the last, #29 of 'New Avengers (2013)' was released. That issue occurs months later than the focal issue in-universe due to Hickman's Avengers having an eight month timeskip, but its still relevant as that issue is the first to identify the main antagonists of Hickman's Avengers, the extradimensional beings bringing about the end of existence, as Beyonders. You may be able to guess why that's relevant.

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The Jean Grey School was the current school where the X-men (or at least some of them) were teaching young mutants - its named in honour of Jean Grey, who was deceased at the time. Spidey was recruited by Wolverine to occasionally teach there due to the two's friendship and Wolverine's belief that Spider-Man's focus on responsibility could be a positive influence on the students. He was particularly focused on students the faculty worried were at risk of becoming supervillains (the at-risk students, so to speak). As a side note, the series referenced is the origin of the famous "I don't want to cure cancer, I want to turn people into dinosaurs" scene.

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Parker Industries is a corporation set up by Otto Octavius as Peter and continued by Peter himself - at this point in time Peter was known as the designer of Spider-Man's technology, so when he started his corporation he 'hired' Spider-Man as his bodyguard. Serval Industries is the corporation that set up the X-Factor team from All-New X-Factor (X-Factor being an X-men spin off team with a history of outside backing, originating as a government-backed team). The Avengers' exact relationship with Tony Stark varies, and its rarely as simple as Tony outright owning the team like Quantrell suggests, but Tony tends to own the copyright for the name and frequently provides funding and equipment for the team (for example the Avengers Mansion originally belonged to him).

Page 8 -

The Double Six Oil Refinery is fictional and introduced in this story.

The Spanish translates to "For you, my love, I would study the most boring crap" and "Don't get romantic, we're working".

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General Context -

AXIS is over! After a variety of schemes by the inverted heroes, the uninverted heroes and inverted villains were able to unite and reverse the inversion by casting the spell again. The inverted villains also released footage claiming that they tricked and manipulated the heroes to explain their actions while inverted, which has someone protected their reputation but has not fully healed the doubt the public now feels towards their heroes.

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The guy that got shot in the head is Terry, the Plunderer's henchman from the first issue.

The two stories about Steve Rogers are 'Streets of Poison' ('Captain America' #372-378) where he gets hooked on a drug designed to exploit his Super Soldier Serum, and the notorious Capwolf storyline 'Man and Wolf' ('Captain America #402-408) where he is transformed into a werewolf when searching for the hero Man-Wolf.

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It feels worth mentioning the impending destruction of all existence from Hickman's Avengers - sounds awfully similar to what Kaluu's describing.

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Detectives Lowe and Carver are from the previous series - they interrogated Kenny Driscoll in #7 after Falcon captured him in #6.

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S.W.O.R.D are an organisation primarily from X-men comics - they're effectively the space version of S.H.I.E.L.D. That primarily means handling extraterrestrials and monitoring any who make their way to Earth, but they also generally watch for any strange ongoings in the Solar System. Ganymede is Jupiter's largest moon.

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Quote from 'Captain America (2013)' #25, the issue where Sam gets the shield.

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Page 7 -

Ultimo is one of a series of alien robots who destroyed the species that created them and set off to torment planets across the galaxy. Its a recurring Iron Man villain, hence Tony's awareness of it and ability to use it to his advantage.

Page 9 -

The Wasp's distaste for She-Hulk is likely an intentional inversion of their typical dynamic, as the two tend to be close friends.

Page 10 -

Wanda has access to a staggering range of abilities via magic, but the original nature of her abilities was probability manipulation, and that aspect has persisted throughout her history.

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The Qlippothic Realms seem to be new (perhaps an intentional choice to support Kaluu's implication that they're obscure even among magicians), but the name is derived from "Qlippoth", a term from Jewish Mysticism. The literal translation of the term is husk, but it also refers to the group of evil spiritual forces which stand in opposition to the positive sefirot. Those who've read Immortal Hulk know Ewing will return to this concept in a big way.

Page 18 -

Machinesmith is a villain with the ability to possess and control any technology he comes into contact with. He wasn't imprisoned at the time of this story, but his memory banks were destroyed so he wasn't a threat (although that wasn't common knowledge so the lie does work).

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The plan is to drain the Wasp of her Pym Particles (the special chemicals which allow the Wasp and Marvel's other size changers to change size) and use them to shrink any dissidents to subatomic size, removing their threat. Given that this requires Janet permanently be locked in a machine draining her Pym Particles, she doesn't love it.

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As the name suggests, Secondary Terrigenesis is a second occurrence of the Terrigenesis process which gives Inhumans their powers, typically achieved through a second exposure to Terrigen. Among the Inhumans it is known but taboo, as the transformations it causes are even more drastic than standard Terrigenesis, which is already capable of complete bodily transformation. With that said, it is capable of producing incredibly powerful individuals. The membrane surrounding Quickfire's hand seems to be some variation of the cocoons which typically form around Inhumans undergoing Terrigenesis. Given the quasi-mystical nature of Terrigen, it would take an incredibly powerful being to mimic its effects.

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Outside of Blue Rush, The Fast Five are new. All of their names come from pre-existing terms - "talk a blue streak" means talking at great length, a gold rush is a discovery of guild that attracts miners, Silver Ghost is a model of Rolls-Royce car, a green light is authorisation to go ahead with something, and the redline is the maximum speed an internal combustion engine can operate at without being damaged.

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Auntie Monica is a nickname for Monica from Nextwave - it's probably appeared earlier this series but it only occurred to me to note it now.

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The Purple Dimension is a mystical realm with a history of being used by Marvel's mystics for trapping their enemies. It is ruled by the tyrant sorcerer Aggamon, who has enslaved all its occupants. I wouldn't trust Kaluu's word on it being pleasant (in fact I question whether it even a year cycle equivalent to Earth's).

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HYDRA is an large organisation of Nazis and Norman Osborn is a wealthy business owner who secretly acts as the Green Goblin (wearing a rubber mask) wherein he causes mass death and destruction - they're more or less the epitome of evil and wealthy.

Page 18 -

Genosha is where the battle against Red Onslaught in AXIS happened - it was a former mutant island whose occupants were killed en masse which Skull chose as his base because of his sadism.

Page 21 - A quick summary of the "Real Avengers" - alongside Cap and Iron Man, there's Odinson (Thor who is not worthy to wield Mjolnir and thus has abandoned his original name), Scarlet Witch (chaos magician historically prone to mental instability but now stable), the Wasp (a founding avenger with the power to shrink, fly while shrunk, and shoot blasts of biokinetic energy), and Medusa (queen of the Inhumans with prehensile, super-strong hair). They're all inverted.

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General Context - Axis

After the Death of the powerful Telepath Professor Charles Xavier, his mind was stolen by a clone of the Nazi Red Skull (Johann Schmidt), who used it to steal Xavier's telepathic powers. After conflicts with some of Marvel's heroes, the Skull evolved into the Red Onslaught, a more physically powerful psychic entity, and used his abilities to unleash "World War Hate", wherein he ignited people's grudges and grievances to turn them against each other and create violence across the world. This prompted a reprisal from various parties and, after some complications, a coalition of the Avengers, the X-men, and various villains defeated Schmidt through an inversion spell, cast by the magically proficient Dictator Doctor Doom and chaos magician the Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff). This spell gave Xavier control over his mind again, with which he could stop all the harm the Skull had been causing.

However, the spell was quite potent and it seemed to stretch beyond its intended target. Every hero on the island (including Sam Wilson and Luke Cage) had their morality inverted, transforming their selfness and goodwill into self-interest and cruelty. They've not wholly abandoned their prior heroic roles, but they've reevaluated their methodology and their overall goals.

Also Sam Wilson is now Captain America and Spider-Man isn't Doctor Octopus, greater detail on the character post.

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Ben Grimm (The Thing of the Fantastic Four) killing someone refers to an ongoing plotline from 'Fantastic Four (2014)' where he was thought to have killed the villain The Puppet Master - at the time of this issue Ben was incarcerated for this crime, though he claimed innocence.

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Soraya is a new character.

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The process which put Doctor Octopus into Spider-Man's body actually flipped their minds, so Peter was in Otto's body as well - this is what he's referring to with "the me in his body". Prior to Otto's body dying, Peter pleaded to Otto to act as a hero like Peter had, which partially motivated Otto to become a superhero with Peter's body, which is what Peter means when he says he gave Otto the idea to be Superior Spider-Man. The question of whether it was Peter in Otto's body or an Otto who thought he was Peter is a new one, previous comics seem to take it as a given that it was Peter. This primarily occurs in 'Amazing Spider-Man (1998)' #698-700, the set-up issues for the first Superior Spider-Man series.

Otto threatened to have Danielle taken away in #5 of the previous series.

'Atlas Shrugged' is a book by Ayn Rand which serves as the centre of Objectivist thought, an ideology which prioritises self-interest and self-advancement over all other motivations and thus promotes laissez-faire capitalism as the best system for achieving those goals. John Galt is a character within the book who effectively serves as the ideal, self-motivated Objectivist man. This all naturally comes into conflict with Superhero comics, where selflessness and acting for the betterment of others are generally presented as the foremost moral traits (as a side note, Objectivists are wankers).

This applies particularly to Spider-Man due to his co-creator, Steve Ditko, being a dedicated Objectivist. Spider-Man yelling at protesters is presumably a reference to 'Amazing Spider-Man' #38 (Ditko's final issue on the comic) where he does exactly that. The nature of comics from them makes it uncertain exactly how much of that was Ditko, but the story that goes around is that Ditko's original idea for the panel was Spidey being annoyed by contemporary protesters (I've seen it suggested they would have been protesting the VIetnam War) before Lee's words turned it into Spidey getting annoyed at them protesting for no reason. Either way, Ewing's almost certainly referencing Ditko being an objectivist.

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The "Cortex Lunar debacle" refers to Cortex Incorporated's involvement in 'Iron Man: Fatal Frontier', where Iron Man prevented the launch of one of their products and damaged their reputation being revealing their collaboration with A.I.M.

"Beyond" is a very particular term in Marvel - in the context of this story it brings to mind the Beyond Corporation who ran Nextwave, while on a wider scale it brings to mind the Beyonder from Secret Wars, an alien being with effectively total control over reality. The idea of actors outside of all existence is also worth noting.

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The Plunderer's brother is Ka-Zar, sometimes called Lord of the Savage Land, an area in marvel's Antartica where a small pocket of existinct lifeforms, primarily dinosaurs and their ilk, have been preserved. All the stuff about Plunderer being present for AXIS is new.

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Tony was another of the heroes present for AXIS, so he;s also been inverted. The idea of him owning the Avengers trademark is a longstanding one, though the idea is normally that he owns the trademark to prevent malicious actors abusing it and isn't particularly litigious towards other heroes.

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The alpha, beta, and gamma power levels here are likely based on the power classifications used for mutants in X-men comics which similarly use the Greek alphabet. These classes are ill-defined, but base on the examples here I'd guess gamma refers to people around or slightly beyond peak human physicality, beta refers to people distinctly beyond human capacity, and alpha refers to the peak of standard superhuman ability (X-men comics notably also have an omega-level typically reserved for mutants at a singular level of power, so alpha may be somewhat defined by being below that). This is still vague and somewhat questionable as a ranking (e.g. Ava has achieved an incredible level of power when channelling the Tiger God and Víctor has achieved a far greater power-level with sufficient-chi), but that second aspect may be an intentional flaw to highlight the failures of Sam and Tony's approach (notably Ava and Víctor's most impressive moments came with the other empowering them).

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Mighty Avengers (2013) -

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Captain Britain and the Mighty Avengers -

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