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Selector

Avengers #6

Feb 2013
Jonathan Hickman, Adam Kubert

Story Name:

Zen and the art of cosmology


Synopsis

Avengers #6 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
This is the 3rd origin issue, this time of Captain Universe. The previously-page concentrates on her, reminding us that her secret identity doesn't appear to know what's going on, but the aliens on Mars recognised the Captain as the Goddess of the Universe. We're also shown the newly-created Adam, babbling in Builder machine code.

Now Shang-Chi is trying to unravel CU's 2 identities. The Captain herself describes her origin and life as that of the universe. But Shang-Chi is more interested in what her secret identity has to say. (It turns out he already knows the answers. He just wants to know what the woman inside remembers.)

Shang-Chi tempts her out with some hot pie, which she rambled on about in #3. At first she remembers nothing (apart from things like her mother used to make her pie), not even her name. Shang-Chi supplies that:- Tamara Devoux. The woman doesn't recognise the name, but thinking about it gradually brings up memories of a night-time car crash. And her 6-year old daughter Ella was in the car too.

Meanwhile Sunspot and Cannonball are angry that Spider-Man is eating Sam's specially-prepared food. Spidey isn't his usual wise-cracking self, and brushes off their complaint. They retaliate by saying they don't like his new costume design. But SM just goes to Tony Stark to complain about them and their lack of respect for their elders.

Tamara now remembers her past, and wants to see her daughter. Shang-Chi has to tell her that no-one knows what happened to Ella. But Tamara has been in a coma for 10 years. Until Captain Universe occupied her.

Tamara reverts to Captain Universe in shock. CU explains that she has come to Earth because this planet is the axis of the multiverse. And here the fate of everything will be decided. She took over Tamara's body because the woman was dying, just like CU is (ie the universe is?).

Tony is still trying to write a translation program for the Builder code that Adam speaks. All he seems to have got so far is what he had last issue, that Adam's real name is Blackveil.

Shang-Chi brings Captain Universe with him to tell Stark what she said. But CU starts talking in Builder code with Adam, using his name in Builder code. Tony recognises that, and brags that he's worked out what it means. But CU tells him he hasn't even got that right! The name's not Blackveil but Nightmask.

The Captain makes it so that the Avengers can understand what Adam is saying. And now we hear "The system is broken." (something that CU has said before) and "It's coming. It's here ... the White Event." And there's a blinding white light in the sky.


 

Review / Commentaries


Avengers #6 Review by (February 24, 2013)
We still don't know the connection, if any, of this Captain Universe to the one who's been bopping from body to body since Micronauts #8 in 1979 right up to tangling with Spider-Man and Juggernaut in 2010. Spider-Man doesn't seem like himself because he isn't. He's Dr Octopus in Peter Parker's body, in the storyline that started in Amazing SM #700 and continues in the Superior SM series. I wonder if Earth as the axis of the multiverse has any connection with it being the Nexus of Realities in countless Man-Thing stories? I wonder also if Adam being Nightmask bears any relation to the New Universe hero of that name? The issue ends with a translation system for Builder machine code. As I speculated last time it's a simple substitution code, but presumably that's not how the translation actually works in the comic's reality. Last time no substitution code could have been satisfactory because Adam's name had different 2nd and last characters, which would clash with Blackveil. But Nightmask is OK in this respect. You can use this to translate other pieces of Builder code. For instance an inscription at the bottom of the translation page says "The machine is broken", but without the spaces. And Adam's 1st words in #3 are "Its coming", as in this issue.


> Avengers comic book info and issue index

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(The Boy Wonder)

Adam Kubert
Adam Kubert
Frank Martin
Dustin Weaver (Cover Penciler)
Dustin Weaver (Cover Inker)
Justin Ponsor (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Cory Petit.
Editor: Lauren Sankovitch.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Adam
Adam

(Nightmask)
Iron Man
Iron Man

(Anthony Stark)
Spider-Man
Spider-Man

(Peter Parker)

Plus: Captain Universe (Tamara Devoux), Spider-Man (Otto Octavius).