Hello and welcome to another great week in Ye Olde School Café! After my hiatus due to a trip to Washington D.C. last weekend, I’ve decided to swerve away from the X-Men for a short period and focus on Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, the Avengers! I recently acquired a new hardcover, it’s something I’ve been after for some years now, and I’ve finally got it! The Avengers: The Korvac Saga will be the subject of the next couple of weeks, so let’s get right to it! The names Shooter, Wein, Stern, Perez, Michelinie, Mantlo, and Buscema are huge in Marvel’s 1970s and 1980s history, and specifically back in 1977-78, these creators were responsible for this fantastic Avengers story! Let’s get started!
As the mighty Thor streaks across the skies of Manhattan, a feeling of dread comes over him. He sees a policeman in some distress, so he investigates. The officer tells him that a bunch of terrorists are holed up near a nuclear reactor, so attacking in full force would put the city in jeopardy. Thor quickly goes into action and subdues the crooks, but a stray bullet must have hit the reactor (or did it?), as it explodes while Thor blocks the dangerous radiation that billows out. When the police enter the building, they see the crooks, but only a hole in the floor where Thor once stood. They fear him dead, but Thor is actually mystically transported to a ship in deep space. As he’s still a bit groggy from the explosion and subsequent trip, he tries to gather himself, but is quickly assaulted by an unknown enemy. He demands answers, but gets zapped by some kind of ray by his attacker, and ends up floating out in space, unconscious. The attacker doesn’t reveal himself, but does note that he does know who Thor is.
Also out in deep space, we watch as the Guardians of the Galaxy rocket through the cosmos. The team is training a new member (Nicholette Gold), and she is doing a great job piloting their ship, that is until a powerful beam strikes the side of it and nearly crashes them. Starhawk, who had been traveling outside the ship, enters to tell them that this powerful beam must be investigated, so they head towards its origin. On the way, they encounter an iced over Thor, who is just floating aimlessly in space. He is revived, and is recognized by Vance Astro. Meanwhile, back in another region of space, we finally get to see the beings aboard that other ship that blasted Thor and the Guardians. These strange creatures/aliens are all gruesome looking, but obey one named – Korvac. This man watches as his servants get into a fight over basically nothing. He scolds them, then recounts his own beginnings. He tells them of how he was a lowly computer technician that was overlooked by his superiors, but an invasion by the Badoon gave him a chance to put his talents to use. The Badoon worked him too hard, though, and one day he passed out from exhaustion. They blasted him with some kind of ray gun that bonded him with a computer of sorts. Using his hyper fast calculating abilities, he easily developed a way to overcome them and escape. He then was pulled away by the Grandmaster to fight Dr. Strange. He let Strange win so he could then siphon energies from the powerful Grandmaster and start to gain power and servants to do his bidding.
Back on the Guardians’ ship, Thor is finally fully revived, and some quick introductions are made. Thor is aware of the Guardians from an adventure that Captain America and the Thing had with them years earlier. The heroes then plot to confront this powerful new enemy immediately. As they zip through space, they arrive at their destination and teleport down to this strange new planet. They are quickly engaged by Korvac’s guards, though, and the fight is on. Thor and Starhawk race to engage Korvac while the others fight his guards. Initially, Korvac easily defeats Thor and Starhawk with his technology, but then Starhawk recognizes that each time he does this, a device on one of his machines lights up. He tells Thor, who then smashes it, and they go after Korvac once again. He tries several different angles of attack on them, but Thor and Starhawk evade or defeat them all. Korvac tells them that he only needs to keep them busy until a timer runs out on a console, and at that moment his device will cause the Sun to go supernova, and he will collect the energies from it. Thor and Starhawk advance once again to stop him, but this time he hits them with a blast from his mechanical eye and it forces the two heroes to fight each other! The two heavyweights start smashing each other and everything in sight. This doesn’t bode well for Korvac’s plans, though, as they smash the device that was going to detonate the sun. Seeing he is defeated, Korvac teleports away to fight another day.
The Guardians thank Thor for his assistance and then teleport him back to Earth. The policemen are still trying to figure out what happened to him as he appears. They ask what transpired, but Thor tells them that they wouldn’t believe him if he told them, and then he wishes his friends good luck.
Well, that’s it for this week, but stay tuned as next time we’ll see the Guardians again, as they meet the entire team of the Avengers and get ready to fight another threat to the galaxy!
Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net
