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Selector

Avengers #290

Apr 1988
Ralph Macchio, Tom Palmer

Story Name:

The World According to the Adaptoid


Synopsis

Avengers #290 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
The Super-Adaptoid has met Kubik, the sentient Cosmic Cube and absorbed its powers, rendering it a master over reality like its forebear. SA locks the AvengersShe-Hulk, Sub-Mariner, Marrina, Captain Marvel—in transparent boxes, along with his former ally Machine Man. He then converses with Kubik who desires to stay and observe, so SA teleports him into the center of a black hole. SA resumes his original form, a featureless humanoid model with a sliver of the Cube within, revealing his plan to create a new race of Adaptoids to replace every living human on Earth, reigning as the Supreme Adaptoid. Left alone, Machine Man summarizes the story thus far for the Avengers. Captain Marvel exerts her energy to take on a fully material form. MM tells them of a trick her learned from a book by Henry Kissinger on the domino theory and so he tumbles against the other cubes, pushing them into a line and out the door…

…where they see the giant form of the Supreme Adaptoid, smaller Adaptoids pouring from his chest and across the world, seeking out humans to duplicate and replace. On their way back from the West, Black Knight and Doctor Druid see this from the Quinjet. Druid tries to throw a cloak of invisibility over themselves but a pair of Adaptoids see through this illusion and attack. The two heroes battle these creatures who are slowly absorbing their powers but BK’s Ebony Blade is enough to destroy them. Too late, Supreme Adaptoid has spotted them and encloses them in transparent boxes like the others. BK tries to cut his way out with his sword but the cuts just close up again. They discuss their options and find very few….

In the Andromeda Galaxy, Kubik emerges from the black hole Super-Adaptoid sent him to and ponders its options. SA must be stopped but a direct confrontation will destroy all of reality so it must find an intermediary—and it has one in mind. The former Captain America, now just The Captain, is riding through the countryside when approached by Kubik which explains the situation and Cap instantly agrees, figuring the means to defeat the Supreme Adaptoid may lie in the fact that it was created to destroy Cap. Kubik teleports Cap to Hydrobase where he is instantly detected by SA and imprisoned in another cube. Cap reveals that he has come to challenge the SA who has never fulfilled its original programming by killing Cap; SA insists it is beyond the influence of any programming—but Cap sows the seed of doubt by suggesting becoming the Supreme Adaptoid may also be part of his programming. SA creates an Adaptoid and orders it to replicate and kill Cap. The two battle, the Adaptoid slowly becoming another Captain with all of his skills and knowledge intact. While they battle, Dr. Druid has an idea and asks SA what he plans to do once he has replaced all of humanity with his own kind…and SA doesn’t know, thus demonstrating a lack of imagination. SA doesn’t care, considering conquering the Earth a result of imagination. But Cap has defeated his duplicate so SA shrinks down to become a Captain duplicate and as they fight, Cap points out that, without the knowledge that it will die, it is doomed to a pointless immortality—and this causes the Supreme Adaptoid to collapse. Kubik frees the Avengers, pays tribute to Captain America, and removes the sliver of Cosmic Cube from the Super-Adaptoid so this problem will not be repeated and departs….


 

Review / Commentaries


Avengers #290 Review by (April 20, 2024)
I forgot to credit T Vernon with the synopsis.

Comments: Part five of five parts. Story takes place at the time when Captain America had been stripped of his title and was operating independently as “The Captain” (see CAPTAIN AMERICA #332-350). Stingray is seen unconscious on the floor where he landed last issue; he otherwise plays absolutely no part in the story, totally ignored by the characters and the writer. The Super-Adaptoid is next seen in storage in Avengers Hydrobase in CAPTAIN AMERICA #354 (along with TESS-One, Sentry 459, and the Awesome Android); it somehow falls into the hands of Doctor Doom who activates it and sends it after the FF in FANTASTIC FOUR #336. Machine Man’s book recommendation: Years of Upheaval by Henry Kissinger (who had died just a short time before I wrote this). The letter page includes one by future Topeka, Kansas, comics shop owner Kraig Knowlton.

Review: It started off unpromisingly with the main villain being the Fixer, a less interesting version of the Wingless Wizard, but this story arc has really amped up the stakes with the villain becoming the Cosmic Cube. To quote Ron Burgundy, that escalated quickly. So how do you defeat a nearly omnipotent being? Well, this conundrum actually pops up from time to time in comics and it always depends on demonstrating some sort of lapse of logic on the being’s part (see e.g. “The Changeling” in STAR TREK: TOS) causing it to break down. So then I must be honest: I didn’t understand how Cap defeated Supreme Adaptoid by telling it that immortality would be boring. Confusing but not a devastating defeat—what if SA had responded with the obvious answer viz. that it would then explore and colonize the universe, which would likely never get boring? But whatever he said worked and humanity lives happily ever after, at least until the next cosmic menace comes along.



> Avengers comic book info and issue index

Elektra

Excelsioring your collection:
DIAMOND SELECT TOYS Marvel Premier Collection: Avengers Endgame Captain America Statue, Multicolor
Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Tom Palmer
Tom Palmer
Christie Scheele
John Buscema (Cover Penciler)
Tom Palmer (Cover Inker)
? (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Plot: . Layouts: John Buscema. Letterer: Bill Oakley.
Editor: Mark Gruenwald. Editor-in-chief: Tom DeFalco.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Black Knight
Black Knight

(Dane Whitman)
Captain America
Captain America

(Steven Rogers)
Doctor Druid
Doctor Druid

(Anthony Ludgate Druid)
Machine Man
Machine Man

(Aaron Stack)
She-Hulk
She-Hulk

(Jennifer Walters)
Sub-Mariner
Sub-Mariner

(Namor McKenzie)
Super-Adaptoid
Super-Adaptoid

(Super Adaptoid)

Plus: Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau), Kubik (Cosmic Cube), Marrina (Marrina Smallwood McKenzie).