#brethren

Black Panther and Beast find that the air and soil of this terrarium has ridiculously high concentrations of bacteria and microbes. With Nakka weakened after the Brethren's attack, as were all his people, exposure to the microbe-rich environment killed him off.

Anyway, then goo and twig-like limbs bursts from the ground and try to get real acquainted with Quasar.

He blasts free but his attacker is revealed as a shriveled old man who proclaims "I am Olar, oldest of the Brethren, left here to die -- and I HUNGER!"

Hi, Olar.

Back on Earth, in the Brethren's citadel atop the World Trade Center, Lady Sybyl Dorn sharpens her sword and wishes that the Brethren had never escaped the Collector's ship, had never come to Earth. That everything had stayed the way it had been, with Thane Ector liking her and not some random Earth woman.

The Fool comes in to ask her why she's so glum, chum, and she tells him off for assuming she gives a shit what he has to say. But she also reveals that she's going to call for the Brethren to assemble so they can have a vote of no confidence in Thane Ector.

Meanwhile elsewhere, on top of the Avengers HQ, the Avengers receive the returning Moon team, with their new pal Olar.

Quasar: "Cap, meet Olar, one of the Brethren's more ancient citizens. He was left behind because he was considered too frail to make the escape with the others... as a matter of fact, only our stasis field is keeping the poor guy alive."

And Beast explains what they've found.

The Brethren are, in fact, a purely bacterial life-form! Somehow!

They look and act like a functioning multicellular lifeform but their genetic make-up is "no different than that of a very complex germ!"

I'm no scientist but that seems unlikely.

Hercules: "Then it shall be simple to destroy these noisome creatures now that we know what they truly are!" Vision: "All sentient beings deserve respect, Hercules. Whether their bodies are composed of bacteria... or plastic." Captain America: "Amen to that, Vision." Hercules: "Hmmmm... methinks I have learned a lesson here... if only I didst know what it was."

This has been a very special episode of Avengers.

But what has all this been for if knowing that the Brethren are a very complex bacterial colony doesn't help beat them? They've been kicking your asses in every encounter. Are you going to bust out the Penicillin Cannon or what?

Meanwhile, back at Brethren HQ, the Fool laments that bad things are bad. Thane Ector has lost the trust of his people and is likely to be overthrown.

But then a stroke of good fortune.

Wrapped in some bad fortune.

The Fool has been spying on the Avengers with a camera drone orb. And said camera orb captured the Moon team returning with the Collector and Olar in tow.

The Avengers having Olar in custody freaks the Fool the fuck out. Surely, the Avengers will experiment on him and learn the Brethren's secret shame and reveal it to the universe!

But but but! The fact that the Avengers are working with the Collector, hated jailer of the Brethren, is just what the Fool needs to turn the tides back in Thane Ector's favor!

The little guy scurries off to interrupt Sybyl Dorn just when she's declaring Thane Ector a high traitor to the Brethren for treating an outsider and prisoner as an equal.

The Fool bursts in claims that Thane Ector's plan all along was to gather information on the Avengers because they were allied with the Collector.

Thane Ector takes the news hard, gives Sersi a shove, and declares death to the Avengers and also the Collector.

Sybyl Dorn is classy enough to gloat on her way out.

Sybyl Dorn: "And so he has left you! And is that not a bitter taste? I know, I've tasted it since first he laid eyes on you. But know this well, Terran -- he is Brethren once more!"

Sybyl tells the Fool to watch Sersi while she, Sybyl, goes to join the others.

The Fool confides in Sersi that he doesn't actually care about the Collector but he knew that it would piss off Ector. And he also tells Sersi about Olar and how the secret of the Brethren must not get out.

Sersi: "But I know your secret, little one." The Fool: "Oooooh... how very unfortunate for you."

Meanwhile meanwhile, back at Avengers Mansion, Hank Pym and other Hank, Beast, are analyzing Olar and stressing that treating him like a lab rab makes them no different than the Collector.

I don't think its comparable, really. But whatever.

Anyway, both of them are knocked out by a flash of light and an EEEEEEEE. Then someone off-screen comments that the Avengers are getting too close to the truth and kills Olar so they can't learn anything from him.

Very rude, the true enemy.

I wonder who it could beeeee? If it was the Fool, I don't think they'd keep him mysteriously off-panel. Because we already know that he's more powerful than his lowly status implies and that he really wants to protect the Brethren's secret.

So it's either someone completely new to the plot or the obvious culprit.

Anyway.

The Brethren start flying out of their citadel in the millions (the story very much hasn't suggested they had that kind of numbers before...), leading Jarvis to sound a priority alarm one alpha to gather the Avengers.

In the assembling, Rage and Hercules discover that Beast, Black Panther, and Dr Pym were attacked. But they don't have time to dig into that because Thane Ector lands outside the mansion and shakes the ground in his rage.

Thane Ector: "Come out of your fortress, Avengers! And bring the cursed Collector with you! Come out and face the righteous wrath of a people enslaved! Or do you hide in terror, trembling before our assembled might? DO YOU HEAR ME?!"

Captain America: "We hear you, Ector -- and, by the way, the Avengers fear no one."

The Collector has wandered out onto the front lawn with everyone else despite the Avengers telling him to stay inside.

And Thane Ector sees doddering old man Collector, confirming for him that the Avengers must die for working with him.

Hercules: "I say thee most assuredly nay, creature of germ and things most foul!"

Herk gets some good punches in and also some good disses, saying Thane Ector is no warrior what with being made of bacteria.

This just cheeses off Thane Ector and he eyebeams Hercules and yells "THANE ECTOR IS A WARRIOR BORN!"

Ector then tears up a huge chunk of the ground - bowling over Beast, Rage, and Black Knight - and chucks it at Iron Man.

Thane Ector: "I had almost come to admire you Avengers -- but at last the scales have fallen from my eyes -- and I see you for the base creatures you are!"

He's on an awfully high horse considering what a dick he is.

Meanwhile, Crystal and Vision fight some of the Brethren mooks. Mostly off-panel. The book does not seem to want to portray the Brethren most of the time except the named ones.

This is especially wild since supposedly millions of Brethren were on their way to Avengers Mansion. That is not supported by the numbers we actually see.

Vision notes that as Thane Ector gets more worked up, so do the rest of the Brethren, suggesting some kind of group consciousness.

Black Widow is left to hang back and protect the Collector.

Man has the power primordial. I don't think Black Widow can protect him better than he can protect himself. But anyway, seeing a woman bodyguarding the Collector just enrages Thane Ector more, who accuses the Collector of hiding "among the skirts of women."

Thane Ector is not a very socially conscious guy.

Captain America jumps in between Thane Ector and Black Widow, saying that sure the Collector wronged the Brethren by keeping them imprisoned but killing him won't solve anything or redeem the years spent imprisoned.

Captain America: "We know a little more about your people. It's time for the killing to end. There's a chance for understanding now."

... But they murdered their way through space before the Collector imprisoned them. They're not doing bad things because they were wronged. They're resuming the bad things they were already doing.

Thane Ector: "Understanding, Captain America? Was that what I heard in Hercules' taunts? Admit it! Our origins disgust all thinking men. Our presence sickens you. You recoil from our very touch. How could you deny it? I felt the same things when I first learned the truth! But the Brethren must be more! I must be!"

Thane Ector punches Captain America out of the way, eyebeams Black Widow, and then corners the Collector.

And beats seven kinds of shit out of him.

Ol' Ector has some grievances.

Captain America tells the Avengers they have to stop this blatant elder abuse but if the Avengers could stop Thane Ector, they wouldn't be in the situation they're in now.

The blue guy vows to the Collector that he's going to end him but the Collector's eyes start glowing and he corrects Thane Ector. This isn't where it ends, but begins.

And then he explodes.

Sending all the nearby Avengers tumbling away through the air and confused about what's happening.

Uatu shows up to not interfere by explaining everything.

Uatu: "It was the pulling aside of the curtain. The end of deception and the revelation of truth. Beware, Avengers, for things have not been as they seemed. And, alas, even a Watcher may be led astray."

And the smoke clears, revealing, at last, the true enemy.

Uh, the Collector.

In a dumb, powered-up form with stupid spikes coming out of his head and also Kirby Krackle all around.

No surprise he's the true enemy, once the cover suggested that there was more to this arc than just punching the Brethren. The arc is called the Collection Obsession.

The Collector let the Brethren escape on purpose! And pretended to be a doddering old man! He schemed it all, so he could wipe out the human race!

For collection reasons, probably! I mean, it's gotta be collection reasons! Otherwise you're using collection guy as a generic enemy!

Next week, finishing this story off. And then figuring out what to do about Avengers West Coast because the issue I was working on was removed from Marvel Unlimited.