#necrodamus

Back in the spooky catacombs, Black Knight finally remembers that he has a lightsaber. He wrestles loose of Red Guardian, original modern Black Knight, and Baron Zemo and pulls out his lightsaber.

This has the added bonus that now he can see. This has the downside that now he can see the grim specters that are trying to eat him.

Nathan Garrett, Black Knight: "Surrender, Dane Whitman... and we will wait until you are dead -- to consume your flesh!"

Dane doesn't quite like that proposal so starts wildly swinging his lightsaber at them. I don't think he manages to hit a single one, though. They're nimble for being so emaciated.

Unfortunately for Dane, all that effort split his stitches and re-opened his Raza-wound.

Double unfortunately, the smell of fresh blood drives the three shambling undead into a frenzy. They lunge at him and Red Guardian manages to sink his teeth in through the chain mail or whatever Black Knight has going on.

Elsewhere, in the catacombs, Vision is still being aggressed by Necrodamus and Amenhotep. Their magical nature lets them attack him when he's intangible. But he finds that his SOLAR BEAM (shot out of the eyes instead of the usual forehead blast) is effective against them. Creatures of the shadows abhor sunlight.

But it's not enough to defeat them.

Vision: "It would appear that this battle has resulted in stalemate. I can accomplish nothing by continued combat. Logic, then, would dictate -- a strategic withdrawal."

And then he just fucks off, intangibling through the ceiling.

Elsewhere, the Star Stalker and Count Nefaria double team Hercules. And not in the fun way. He gets some good hits in but it doesn't matter. Every time he makes headway against one, the other gets him. And in the end, they beat him unconscious and get ready to eat him.

Elsewhere elsewhere (these catacombs are roomy), Crystal desperately struggles against Inferno.

Since he's a fire guy, she tries to put him out with ice. But he's too hot to be stopped by that. And I guess she can't just control him with her power over fire. It would be too convenient if that worked.

Since ice isn't working, Crystal decides to collapse part of the roof of the catacombs to bury Inferno and then freezes over the pile of rubble to try to seal him underneath.

But the iced over pile of rubble steams and Inferno's hand bursts free.

Like a horror movie monster, he's coming back for one last scare!

Elsewhere elsewhere elsewhere, Sersi is fighting Nebulon.

Her eyebeams just make him stronger as he absorbs the energy from them. So Sersi changes tack and uses her matter transmutation abilities and turns Nebulon Zombie into a non-zombie rat.

But he just turns back to his bipedal undead state.

Nebulon: "An interesting form. However, I prefer my own."

So Sersi tries a couple more times, just in case!

She turns him into a pig and a frog. Unfortunately, she doesn't turn him into a newt so I can't make the obvious joke.

Anyway, Nebulon's shapeshifting hard counters Sersi's transmutation powers.

It is funny to have Nebulon just POIT! back to normal. But I feel like compared to the ending of the previous issue where the Legion of the Unliving just swarmed over the Avengers, no fancy powers, no frills; we've kind of gotten back to the usual superpower battles.

The horror vibes are slightly less immaculate.

Anyway. Grim Reaper is still watching things play out on his scrying flame and then Vision comes up behind him and does him a startle.

One wonders whether there's a hot key for closing all of your tabs on the scrying flame.

Vision: "I have come to attempt to reason with you." Grim Reaper: "Synthetic fool! You shall suffer the torments of --" Vision: "Enough. Your power over me is limited. As I am not truly alive, I cannot die. I am incapable of fearing you as you desire."

Vision is just here to poop on Grim Reaper's entire parade.

Grim Reaper says shut up, his revenge is totally logical and cool and he's going to get revenge on the Avengers for murdering him.

Vision: "You were not slain by the Avengers, Reaper. You took your own life. Thus it is illogical to assign blame to any other than yourself." Grim Reaper: "Liar! I was murdered!" Vision: "Incorrect. I was present at the event. You learned to your death, consumed with guilt for the evil you had done." Grim Reaper: "I... I... remember... AAAAA!"

Suddenly, in the catacombs, the Legion of the Unliving stops trying to murder the Avengers and turns their gazes upwards.

Undead Black Knight: "The Reaper..." Count Nefaria: "... has lost his grip on our souls..." Nebulon: "We are free!" Inferno: "Free to seek..." Unquiet Dead: "... VENGEANCE!"

And the Legion leaves the catacombs for the Reaper's fire TV room and start tearing him apart despite his demands for them to obey him.

Despite the conceit that the new Legion of the Unliving were all people who would want revenge against the Avengers, they weren't like-minded peers of the Grim Reaper. They were his thralls. And even the ones that did have beef with the Avengers are far more mad about their peaceful afterlife being disturbed.

AND VISION JUST STANDS BY AND WATCHES. Like he said. He don't give a fuck about any of this.

The Avengers chase after the Legion and then just stop and watch them beat the shit out of Grim Reaper.

Partially out of shock but also I think they realize that there's just nothing they need to do here.

And then a giant hand crashes through the wall and grabs Grim Reaper.

Lloigoroth: "You have disappointed us, Eric Williams!"

You know.

I actually appreciate this happening.

It adds a touch of 'low budget practical effects' to this horror story. Why have an Elder God be a hand with eyes in the fingertips and a mouth in the palm? Where does that arm go? Eh, who cares. The important thing is that we can portray it with a little make-up and forced perspective.

Someone just sticking their hand in front of a camera and Grim Reaper's actor going aaaiiieee and pretending to be grabbed.

Wonderful.

Lloigoroth: "You have the will to power -- but not the grasp to retain it! We are displeased."

And then Lloigoroth eats Grim Reaper with his palm mouth.

Not sure how they did the practical effects on that but it looks neat.

Lloigoroth pulls his hand self back through the castle walls, the castle starts collapsing, and an interdimensional vortex just happens to happen and flushes the Avengers back to that cave from the first part of this story.

And the Avengers really have a 'well, that happened' attitude towards it.

'Huh, we're back where we started.'

Black Knight: "Who wants coffee? I'm buying."

Like, really. How else do you react to everything that happened?

Vision tries to make a point that Grim Reaper caused his own death by deluding himself and then caused his afterlife undoing through that same tendency to indulge in delusion but none of the rest of the team are interested in pondering the character beats of it all.

They just want to be done with one of the weirder nights in Avengers history.

I have to say. Len Kaminski did a good job on this fill-in three-parter. A Grim Reaper story I don't want to endlessly complain about. With some good horror vibes and some silly elements because this is comic books.

Next week, we're back to alternating between East and West Coast Avengers. And the Avengers West Coast is crossing over with Wolverine. For some reason.