The Bibliomancer

That aside. One must assume the giant manacles keep Anti-Vision from intangibling and the spiffy visor keeps him from using EYE BEAM.

And the Avengers are all dressed up in Mountain Climbing Avengers-branded fluffy coats.

I like.

Within the secret Gatherer Andean Mountain HQ base, Cassandra is torturing Vision for him attempting to escape two issues ago. Remember how he tried to escape? It was rude and he's being tortured about it.

Cassandra: "Now, now, Mr. Vision, surely you knew it was impolite to try and escape our humble little abode? Punishment will be severe. Let me just increase the pain inducers and see if even a synthezoid can truly cry."

Dammit but well-played flipping that classic Vision-related line to be less a celebration of his humanity and more a punishment of it.

When Vision doesn't react to the torture, Cassandra derides him as a cold robot and boring.

Sloth is a little put out seeing Cassandra have so much fun torturing a prisoner. I guess it hasn't come up before.

Cassandra: "Can I believe what I am hearing? Have you gone mad? He is no victim, Sloth! Or have you forgotten our own Earths, our own timelines destroyed because of beings like him? Have you forgotten our dead? I cannot!"

Provided she's not just bullshitting, there's some real anger behind her sadism. I wish we would learn more about Cassandra's particular Earth.

Magdalene also questions whether there's any point to torturing Vision.

Tabula Rasa jumps in to say that all this torture is what Proctor wants and gasp how could Magdalene cast aspersions on their benefactor!

Magdalene says she doesn't. But she does wonder why its taking so long for Proctor to rescue Swordsman like he promised.

Anyway, then the wall explodes and the Avengers burst in. And they look.

Ridiculous.

Truly the 90s have begun! Ignore all the other times I said that! Everyone is wearing facial buttresses and Hercules is wearing an airplane neck pillow! Captain America and Black Knight are somehow swinging into the room! Black Knight is showing kneejerk disdain for the genre conventions of comics of prior decades! BLACK WIDOW HAS A HUGE FUCKIN GUN FOR NO REASON!

There's even a half-hearted effort to hide feet, like Liefeld would have wanted.

Truly truly it is now the 90s in Avengers.

God, it's so stupid and glorious and stupid.

While the team burst in, Black Knight mentioned that they're doing this for Swordsman and for Vision. Which leaves Magdalene wondering why they mentioned Swordsman in their burst into the room battlecry.

Cassandra goes NEVER MIND ALL THAT!! (probably because she knows that Proctor was trying to have Swordsman killed) and shoots her psychic EYE BEAMS at Black Widow.

But you see: that stupid 90s armor that everyone is wearing? That's actually anti-psionic armor that Black Knight, main character, invented. Neutralizing most of the impact of Cassandra's OP attack.

And then Black Widow shoots Cassandra with the giant fuckoff 90s gun. Which explains why she brought it, I guess.

Crystal finds and pulls Vision away from the torture machines but Sloth hurls a piece of the architecture at her. Crystal is able to seismic the rubble to fragments because she is the AVATAR and you've gotta deal with it.

And then Herucles tackles Sloth right out of the building. Just sends them both falling down to what passes for ground level when a building is built on a mountain top.

Once they hit ground, Hercules starts punching the crap out of Sloth.

Hercules: "This is for the pain thou hast inflicted on my fellows, Gatherer! And this -- is for the Coal Tiger and Marissa Darrow!"

So that's the two buff guys stalemating each other out of the fight.

Up above, Black Knight winds up facing Magdalene. Lightsaber against power lance.

Except: Black Knight is a main character science hero and off-panel he reconfigured his lightsaber to counter her power lance's energy field.

Sure is a lot of convenient shit happening off-pane thanks to Black Knight.

Anyway. This were shaping into a stomp so the room explodes as Proctor appears to shake things up.

Proctor: "You have come to the far places of the Earth, Avengers. My precious seclusion is no more. The time, then, has come for the games and distractions to end. And you, who have ever failed on world after miserable world must now pay the price!"

Sure takes a specific kind of villain to make the superheroes sound like jerks for kicking in his front door after he had sent an imposter to kill a person they were keeping safe.

Also, hopefully, he's about to explain his motives. The bits and pieces have made it seem obvious that his beef is with Sersi but also that something something Sersis have caused the end of worlds. We've seen that the Gatherers pick recruits from worlds that are ending. Cassandra ranted that its understandable for her to enjoy torture because people like the Avengers have failed all of the Gatherers' worlds.

So explain yourself, Proctor. And explain why your name is 'a person who monitors students during an examination' or 'an officer at certain universities, appointed annually and having mainly disciplinary functions'!

Or perhaps its a given name! Because if its not, its a weird choice for codename.

Explain!

That doesn't get explained right now but Sersi's absence does, kinda.

She's supposedly holding down the fort while the other Avengers are gone. Being the One Active Avenger at the mansion while Dr Pym and "Dr Forster" (how hard is it to remember that his name is Foster?) visit to check out Swordsman.

Swordsman, as it happens, didn't die when Vision fisted him! Happy for you, man. But he was very badly hurt and had to be put into a stasis chamber to keep him stabilized.

Dr Pym: "It's a miracle the Knight was able to jury-rig this system after the fake Vision's attack. Bio-technics is not his specialty." Sersi: "But then Dane is a remarkable man, isn't he?"

God. Everyone get off his dick.

Every writer has a favorite character. But it's not usually so blatant. Black Knight isn't just front and center all the time, with the arc plot involving him very deeply thanks to his weird relationship with Sersi. But Black Knight is also telling the Avengers what to do in fights and he's the one doing all the science and also he's the only one the Kree put a bounty on for the fallout from Operation: Galactic Storm. Dane Whitman is the center of every plot and every solution.

I just want some cast balance, okay?

Anyway. Sersi has figured out that she's not just the designated person who has to be home to let the doctor in to examine the tube Swordsman. She's also here because the Avengers wanted Dr Pym to examine her to see if she's insane.

Kind of a dick move to spring this on her. Kind of a dumb move. If she is insane, she's prone to fits of violence. The Avengers just threw Dr Pym and Dr Foster under the wheels of a truck without seeing if it was moving or not.

Also. Is mental health even Dr Pym's area of expertise? No, not really. But he's a guy who has his own brushes with mental health so it's less that he's going to examine her brain and more offer himself as someone who kinda knows what she might be going through.

Sersi thanks Hank for the offer but has to go answer the door because the receptionist that the Avengers totally have is not working this evening.

In the front lobby area, or whatever, there's Detectives Joseph MacNamara and Tomas Delgado who need to talk to "an Avenger guy."

Remember these two guys? They're investigating the string of random dead people where unstable molecules were found on the latest body. And also the latest body was seen on a date with Sersi I think? Before he died, I mean.

Anyway, Sersi invites them into the mansion to discuss the homicide business they have.

ELSEWHERE IN SPAAAAACE, Empress Lilandra has heard that Kree extremists have gone to Earth to seek revenge on the Avengers for Operation: Galactic Storm.

Hey, and not just on Black Knight specifically! Yay!

Since the Kree are her subjects now and since the Avengers are kiiiiinda allies, Lilandra feels honor bound to Do Something about these Kree extremists. These Kreetremists.

But the Shi'ar Empire is strained almost beyond its means having absorbed a whole other galactic empire. A fleet that once had to guard just one galaxy now has to guard two. I suspect that not a lot of the Kree war machine survived the Nega-Bomb. There's just a lot of stuff to manage right now and not a lot of Shi'arpower to go around.

Therefore: Lilandra has decided to send a Deathbird loyalist to Earth to help the Avengers.

Usually Lilandra doesn't trust Deathbird but she did put her in charge of managing the former Kree empire. But also, I can't help but notice that she's sending one of Deathbird's most loyal supporters far, far away from the Shi'ar empire.

She's not even all that clear on whether this specific as-yet-unidentified Shi'ar will be the Avengers' "greatest ally... or their greatest threat" so it seems less like this is to help the Avengers and more. A non-murdery purge? Of Deathbird's supporters? Send them off to be ambassadors and help allies on backwater planets?

Thanks, Lilandra.

In some fairness, as-yet-unidentified Shi'ar lady does swear that she's loyal to Empress Lilandra "unto death" but that's exactly what a mole for Deathbird would say if Deathbird were still trying to undermine Lilandra.

I don't really blame her for sending this lady off on a space errand. I just wish space jerks would stop dumping their baggage on Earth.

But it is what it is and we'll see what it is whenever this lady gets her big, dramatic introduction.

Anyway. We had a main plot going on.

Main character Black Knight tells Proctor he doesn't care for his vague hints about the arc plot and that the plot is going to wrap up here and now with the Avengers kicking his butt, probably.

Anti-Vision: "Would you listen to that?! He's threatening you? Talk about chutzpah!" Proctor: "You dare make light of this, synthezoid?! You, who led them here? You betrayed me, Vision... and that I never take lightly!"

And then Proctor EYE BEAMs Anti-Vision in half.

Lasers his right across the waist. Plastic flesh all drippy from melting. Kirby krackle spurting out instead of blood.

Anti-Vision protests that he did the job he was sent to do but Proctor interrupts him before he can explicitly say 'I killed Swordsman' in front of Magdalene. Proctor... uh... does something. Probably more eye beams. And decapitates Anti-Vision.

Black Knight: "Stop it, Proctor! We didn't bring him here to be killed!"

Little late, guy.

Maybe he's not dead. Synthezoids can be mangled pretty badly and then rebuilt. But still, little late to complain. He's been decapitated.

And also, why didn't you leave him outside? Or: why did you even bring him?

If you can block his powers, which obviously you can since he didn't just float into the ground and fuck off, you could have left him at the Mansion and gone to check out his intel without dragging him along.

That was dumb, Dane.

Anyway, Magdalene threatens Black Knight not to approach Proctor but he's already Batmanned her powers and knocks her back because his lightsaber has a new refraction field.

Cassandra gets mad at Black Knight's confidence and wants to kick his ass but Proctor calls dibs.

He force pulls Dane's lightsaber away from him and then one hand neck choke lifts Black Knight off the ground.

Getting awfully Darth Vader all of a sudden, Proctor.

And Proctor is VERY UPSET that Dane has the black and red Gann Josin eyes. THIS MEANS THAT SERSI IS CHEATING ON HIM!

Black Knight: "Sersi?! What's she got to do with this?" Vision: "Proctor claims to be our fellow Avenger's husband." Proctor: "I AM her first love! Her only true soulmate! And thus, I know with every fiber of my being that she must die!"

He's doing a bad job making it sound like this isn't about being dumped or whatever.

Although I'm still pretty sure that he's taking out his grievances with an alternate universe Sersi on the 616 Sersi because he's bad at emotional regulation.

Also. An aside. But. At first I thought the Gann Josin eyes were pretty cool. It was cool to find out what that was about after seeing the weird eyes in later comics and seeing Dane's perfectly normal eyes in earlier comics. And it's interesting that such a huge life-changing thing that was forced on Dane without his informed consent left such a visible mark on him.

As seen here, he can't really hide that he got shotgun married to an Eternal.

But seeing Dane ins his excessively 90s Mountain Combat Slash Anti-Psionic Armor with the facial buttress, I'm realizing something else.

Oh my god. Harras made him into Gambit. The eyes, the forever stubble, the headgear that covers the sides of his face but not the top of his head.

It's common fan knowledge that Harras brought a lot of X-Men energy into Avengers but I didn't realize he was trying to capture the aesthetic of Gambit to try to replicate his popularity? Gambit and Black Knight have very different stuff going on. I hope I'm just seeing patterns but god. That 90s armor is making me wonder.

Anyway.

Proctor: "I know of what I speak, Avengers... I have seen this act played out many, many times before, and I have seen enough death of worlds... I tell you -- she must be killed!" Black Knight: "Sorry, Proctor... the Avengers are not in the business of murdering people!" Proctor: "Really? Shall I remind you, then, of the Supreme Intelligence, or even poor Anskar of Polemachus?"

With Black Knight's hero line, he rushes at Proctor. With Proctor's effortless counter-argument, he easily backhands Black Knight away from him.

And... geez... whoops. Turns out that when superheroes kill, they kind of let random jerks like Proctor pull out the 'yeah what about' card. Black Knight has already sided with the group of Avengers who decided killing is sometimes okay. Kinda handed the villain that card, Dane and others.

Captain America points out that it was kind of stupid to just rush at Proctor alone when we don't know what he can do. And Dane decides, here and now, that he's going to punch Captain America in the face for being a little condescending.

COVER IMAGE ACHIEVED! In spirit. They were dressed less stupid on the embossed cover.

Black Knight: "I am so sick and tired of you lording over the rest of us, Rogers! Who died and made you king of the hill, huh? Who?!"

C'mon, Dane. You know if someone did die and name Steve king of the hill, he would decline because he does not believe in kings.

(T'Challa gasps, offended)

(Namor also gasps, also offended)

(Black Bolt gasps, a mountain collapses)

He does not believe in American kings. He's friends with several kings. Point being, if that hill were in America, he would not king of it!

Anyway, Dane is really going off on Cap for something that's... like. Broadly an interpersonal criticism you could have of the guy but he hasn't been around enough recently for it to be bothering Dane this much. And it's not like Steve came on full Rogers when he came back to the team.

This is really stupid to be doing here and now. If Proctor were less mysterious and agenda driven he could take so much advantage of this sudden in-fighting.

Dane continues to yell that the Avengers don't need Cap to babysit them. Based on nothing, Crystal determines that these aren't Dane's thoughts, they're Sersi's and that Dane is being affected by his PSYCHIC RAPPORT with her.

Black Widow goes cool, either way he needs to calm down. So she removes her big honking glove off her anti-psionic armor so she can use the Widow sting and zap Dane. Nothing like a zap to get someone to calm down or at least knock them out. The Widow's Sting is basically a comic book taser.

Dane does come to his senses, after he wakes up from being tazed. He says he doesn't know what came over him, that he was just suddenly so mad.

Proctor: "Thus, the madness spreads, Avengers. This is but the briefest taste of what is to come. His mind is assimilating that of Sersi's. I, too, remember that agony, for it almost destroyed me. Beware, Dane Whitman, she is far, far gone. To meld with one such as she is a most dangerous thing."

Okay. Proctor votes that Dane's sudden jerkassery was caused by Sersi being insane. That's two votes for that possibility.

I would take that with a grain of salt. The man is very mad about her dumping him or whatever. He may not be a reliable character witness.

Anyway.

Black Widow decides to hear him out. Because she's the pragmatic type. Proctor says he's driven by the fate of the world. Okay. Prove it. How dangerous is Sersi?

Proctor decides to prove it by showing his secret, special friend slash informant. "The sole survivor of his timeline, and my link to all realities."

Proctor pushes a button on a random computer console that was thankfully not destroyed in the fighting thus far. A section of the floor opens up and something rises up through the new opening.

Hercules, because he and Sloth have rejoined the rest of the cast: "What trickery is this?!" Proctor: "No deception, Avenger... merely He-Who-Dreams, who guides me through the tangled branches of time. Branches that inevitably, inexorably lead back to you."

And Proctor's secret, special informant?

A Watcher, from another universe.

Proctor: "His name is Ute... a Watcher of a parallel universe. He came to Earth of that dimension to record its final hours and became, instead, a victim of that awful apocalypse. I found him there amidst the rack and ruin, broken in body, his alien brain deeply damaged... and yet he lived! I marveled at the hardiness of his race... and pierced his far-seeing mind, Avengers, to seek out those o ther worlds that would yield me my Gatherers. For, you see, I am not without gifts of my own. Sersi destroyed that world, Avengers! In that timeline and in others as well! And she will in this, the prime reality. It is inevitable... it is destiny! Unless you kill her now! For no being should have such power!"

Okay! A Watcher. That makes sense. Watchers watch planets but that's a self-appointed task and the least of what they can do. Uatu the Watcher frequently gets bored and watches alternate realities so he can narrate What Ifs. The man loves superheroes so much that the fifty different ongoing comic books going on at a given time isn't enough superhero for him. So Proctor having a Watcher and thus insight into the multiverse makes perfect sense.

Not a fan of Proctor just dropping the pretense and calling 616 the prime reality. Yeah, everybody knows that its the main reality, the one that matters the most. But we're supposed to pretend its just a random one out of an infinite multiverse. Hence the random number maybe-of-the-Beast.

And also, having a Watcher doesn't actually prove that Sersi was behind those disasters. You're still functioning on 'just trust me, bro' levels here, Proctor.

IF we believe you, the fact that Sersi rendered a Watcher comatose is pretty scary. IF. And also, Watchers are always going comatose. The entire Watcher race started spontaneously dying because they'd come to believe that existing at all was interfering so got depressed and just dropped dead.

They got better because for cosmic beings dropping dead and popping alive are equally easy impulses to follow. BUT MY POINT IS. You've proven nothing except that you have access to a Watcher.

Oh. And then Uatu shows up and answers Proctor's claim that no one should possess the power that Sersi does with a "Yes, and you are proof of that, Josin Proctor."

Doesn't say anything else. That would be interfering. He just pops up with a 'NO U' zinger so everyone knows that he's Watching this and therefore this is a Significant Moment.

(Watchers are TERRIBLE at not interfering.)

Instead of interfering (further), Uatu just stares at Ute.

Hercules, who is back for some reason even though he tackled Sloth out of the building, calls Proctor on his bullllllshit.

Hercules: "Thou doth speak of salvation and of life! But I call thee -- liar! For it was thee who did send the false Vision to our home to kill thy own follower, the Swordsman!" Magdalene: No! This is not true! By the rings, Proctor -- tell me it cannot be true!" Proctor: "Ahh, Maggie... I cannot. In all the centuries since Sersi left me... only you made me forget my pain. I could not lose another love." Magdalene: "YOU PIECE OF FILTH! You don't understand the meaning of the word! If Philip is dead, I swear you will pay!"

The whole situation with Swordsman and Magdalene really undermines Proctor's credibility. Because he's such a guy that will go to extreme lengths of petty spite over a woman dumping him, its hard to credit his claims against Sersi without... proof? Other than "just trust me, bro."

Anyway, Magdalene attacks Proctor because he's an entitled dipshit.

Proctor just no-sells the attack and blames the Avengers for this. Truly and really.

Proctor: "I do not blame you, Magdalene. It is the Avengers who have destroyed everything."

Guy. The Avengers didn't make you try to assassinate one of your own subordinates because your girlfriend dumped you. And. Like. They didn't make you immediately confess to it. But he blames the Avengers being here at all here and now for Magdalene being mad at him.

Well, whatever.

Proctor activates the secret HQ self-destruct sequence because a secret HQ hidden in the mountains has got to have a self-destruct sequence. Who has ever heard of a secret HQ hidden in the mountains without a self-destruct sequence?

The Avengers rush Proctor, assuming that he's going to make his getaway. But he doesn't he just lets them grab him. And then he flashes his eyes, calls Black Knight his 'poppet' and makes Black Knight stab him with his lightsaber.

I thought that the lightsaber defaulted to non-lethal though. Like. It shouldn't be that big a deal to stab someone if its turned to non-lethal.

Black Knight. Were you being so edgy earlier to Cap about 'the Avengers changed, old man' that you preemptively switched the lightsaber to kill?

That's on you, man.

Anyway. Whether it was set to kill or not, it doesn't matter. Proctor declares this ain't over and teleports away. Or becomes one with the Force? He disappears anyway.

HMM. So Proctor can control Black Knight to some extent. Maybe because they were both made into Gann Josin. Does that have ANYTHING to do with Black Knight's fit of rage earlier?

We don't see Proctor's eyes during that entire fit of rage so maybe he was doing the thing. Like I said, its hard to trust when he says that it was totally Sersi, bro, just trust me, bro! When he's so mad that she apparently dumped him.

Anyway. The self-destruct sequence is counting down still.

Cassandra begs Proctor not to abandon the Gatherers but he's already fucked off.

Uatu fucks off, too. But he interferes one more time by telling the Avengers that "the danger is not yet over, Avengers! Nor is fate inevitable."

The Avengers and also the Gatherers decide they also need to fuck off. They run towards one of the giant holes in the wall that offer an easy exit but the base explodes before we see whether or not they made it out.

(I assume they made it out. The Avengers, I mean. Each one of the Avengers here goes on to do things. The Gatherers? I'm less sure. Magdalene has future appearances. This is Sloth and Cassandra's last appearance. Maybe they'll be mentioned later but I'm assuming they got exploded. Kind of a shame. We never really learned much about them and they're supposed to be Avengers of alternate worlds. Wasted potential.)

The issue leaves the fate of the Avengers as a cliffhanger and epilogues on Sersi back at Avengers Mansion.

UNFORTUNATELY, there is some circumstantial evidence that maybe Proctor wasn't talking out of his ass.

Because when Hank Pym asks who was at the door earlier, Sersi is vague on it.

And we see that the two detectives have been turned to stone and dumped into the ocean.

EXACTLY LIKE SERSI WOULD DO TO DISPOSE OF A BODY.

Although. Couldn't she turn someone into gas and then just turn on a fan and disperse them? That seems like it would be even easier and more thorough at hiding the body.

But it would make for a less shocking last page.

So. Um. Circumstantially, this doesn't look great for Sersi. Kind of like how that guy she was with ended up dead and unstable molecules were found on the body? Now some police detectives last seen talking to her have been Medusa'd.

Doesn't look great.

I said at the beginning of the post that this was an extra length issue. The main story was longer than usual but instead of trading cards disguised as a back-up story, we get various pinup images.

Including this image of a full Avengers vs Gatherers fight, contextualized as a training exercise that the Avengers are running. With holograms or something, I dunno.

I would have liked to see this fight but it seems unlikely now that Magdalene hates Proctor and that Sloth and Cassandra have maybe exploded.

I do hope Cap gets the chance to throw his mighty shield and bonk it off Proctor's dumb face, though.

Another one of the pin-up images is a team shot of the Anachronauts, demanding that readers demand a limited series about them. They were from that Citizen Kang crossover. And they were mostly bland. I can see why readers have not demanded a limited series about them. You guys needed to sell yourselves better in your first appearance.

Anyway.

This isn't the end of the Gatherers storyline. But with Proctor being revealed to the Avengers and some of the Gatherers getting their last appearance here, it's definitely a turning point.

So far: I'm intrigued by the Gatherers as a team that thinks they're the heroes but let themselves revel in sadism and pettiness. Its hard to trust they've got the greater good in mind when Proctor and Cassandra are such jerks.

Something is clearly up with Sersi. Possible the Mahd My'ry that Ikaris and the others were worried about. And Sersi's shotgun wedding to Black Knight has seemingly only ruined Dane, not saved Sersi.

The big reveal in this issue was actually that Proctor had access to Watcher knowledge and that he has the power to force Black Knight to stab him.

But: there's a lot of wasted potential in the idea of multiverse survivors coming together to stop a serial universe killer when we're not really learning a lot about these alternate universes or the Gatherers themselves. We got some good material about how Gatherer Swordsman differed from the Swordsman we knew. And some implications about Creep Vision. But nothing solid about the rest, so far.

And the run has lost me somewhat on how blatant it is that Black Knight Dane Whitman is the main character. As I said earlier, every writer plays favorites but I prefer the Avengers as an ensemble piece where everyone has their own stuff going on. And lately it seems everyone else on the team are just backup dancers to the Dane Show Starring Dane.

He comes up with all the stratagems and inventions. He leads the team in the field. The big villain has personal beef with him personally and with his mandatory wifegirlfriend.

None of the Avengers should feel Just There and unfortunately Black Widow feels as Just There as can be.

Spread the narrative importance around a bit. Remember how Anti-Vision hated Captain America specifically? And Swordsman didn't trust Vision for a while because of his experiences with Vision on his Earth? More of that. The Gatherers can be fleshed out by having beef with specific Avengers, leftover baggage from their own universes.

These are just some suggestions way, WAY after the fact. But who knows. Bad comic plots get recycled all the time. Morrison recycled Byrne's racism goo plotline to get John Sublime. Bendis recycled Darker Than Scarlet to ruin Avengers.

Maybe someone someday somewhen will do the Gatherers Again.

Prolly not though. And I've yet to see how it will actually end. This was just the... opening act? Midpoint?

We'll see.

We'll see maybe next week because I'm sticking with the Avengers book for a few issues more.