Avengers (2017 series) #672

The opening page has Spider-Man (Peter Parker) of the Avengers blurring into Spidey (Miles Morales) of the Champions, and they both seem to be saying that someone powerful is coming and the Earth is doomed. I don't think they're talking about what happens in the rest of this issue.

Avengers Falcon (Sam Wilson) and Vision are rescuing people from a burning building in New Jersey alongside Vision's daughter Viv Vision (a Champion). Vizh says they've got everyone out so Viv disobeys his orders and dives into the flames to help the firefighters. She startles 1 of them and then turns diamond-hard to protect him from falling beams. And then she carries him to safety.

Father and daughter have a difference of opinion. She says she saved the fireman. He thinks the experienced fireman wouldn't have got into difficulties if she hadn't distracted him. She disobeyed his order and didn't stop to consider all the possibilities. Angry Viv flies away. Sam suggests Vizh was a bit harsh. Vision doesn't want parenting advice.

Viv flies to Austin Texas and ghosts through a wall into the Champions' Olympus Station HQ. Hulk (Amadeus Cho) is talking down to Nova (Sam Alexander) about a satellite that is just taking up its position on the opposite side of the Sun to Earth. In her Genius In Action Research Lab in New Jersey Wasp (Nadia Van Dyne) is watching the same transmission with Spider-Man (PP). Hulk and Wasp don't believe in the existence of Counter-Earth because it would have measurable effects on the orbits of other planets. Nova and Spidey say they've *been* there, and so have others. High Evolutionary lives there. Amadeus and Nadia suspect visitors 'there' were transported to another solar system.

The transmissions from the satellite do indeed show nothing where C-E is supposed to be. But then they see a fast-moving large meteor appear out of nowhere. Spider-Man contacts Vision who has calculated that its trajectory will make it strike Earth. He, Viv and Hulk separately come to the same conclusion - it will hit Lexington Kentucky in 51 minutes with enough energy to wipe out the Western Hemisphere.

The teams both assemble in Lexington with 2 minutes to go. (The Avengers add Hercules and Thor (Jane Foster). The Champions also include Cyclops (the young 1 from the past), Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan) and the MM Spider-Man.) They agree that they'll have to employ a multi-stage approach to slowing and destroying the meteor. But Falcon gives the orders, upstaging the Champs' leader MsM.

He sends Nova and Thor as the 1st line of attack. Then he and Viv carry a Spider-Man each and join the other fliers Vision and Wasp as the 2nd line. Cyclops Hercules, Hulk and Ms Marvel are left on the ground. And Herc notices his large club (or mace) has vanished. (We won't get an explanation this issue.)

The atmosphere has started to slow the meteor but not enough. Thor throws her hammer at it and Nova slams into it which slows it some more. The Spider-Men spin combined webbing which slows it some more until it breaks through. Wasp sows a cloud of Pym particles in its path but the meteor mysteriously disappears. However when it soon returns it has shrunk some. Finally Vision blasts it with his solar beam which only knocks chunks off - 1 of which hits *him*.

There's only the ground crew left. Cyclops does his version of the Colossus/Wolverine fastball special by using his optic beam to power Herc and Hulk into the air to smash the remaining rock with their fists. He tries using his optic blast directly against it, but now its heading straight towards him. So Ms Marvel grows tall with extra-large hands and she just grabs the rock - and then drops it to miss Scott Summers.

The teams gather together with a job well done. Viv carries her father who is slowly healing himself. So now the 2 sides find time to bicker about their performance, particularly how the Avengers treat the independent junior team.

But then the Pym particles wear off and the meteor expands to full size again. Thor detects a high-frequency vibration. And Viv reports that news is coming in that the tallest buildings in the world are all vibrating and shaking themselves apart.

Falcon takes charge again to split them once more into groups. He sends Nova and Wasp to the Shanghai Tower, and Ms Marvel, Spider-Man and Thor to the Lotte World Tower in South Korea. He wants Spider-Man Jr, Vision and Viv to deal with the Burj Khalifa in Dubai while Cyclops and himself take the One World Trade Center in Manhattan. But Vision says he and Viv seem to work better apart, so Sam Wilson grudgingly swaps Cyclops for Viv. He leaves Hercules and Hulk to investigate the meteor.

After Herc reminds Hulk how they were a team when he was just Amadeus Cho, (in the Incredible Hercules series after World War Hulk when Cho's previous pal Hulk had reverted to Bruce Banner and surrendered to SHIELD) they just plan to both hit it. But the rock explodes before they can do anything. And a huge minotaur steps out.

Continued in CHAMPIONS #13.



There's a 3-page primer at the end of the book.

Page 1 + 2.1 cover the origin of the original Avengers when Loki accidentally brought them together to fight the original Hulk. The rest of page 2 shows various versions of the team fighting various foes:- Against the Skrulls with the original Captain Marvel in the Kree-Skrull War. Against an army of Ultrons. As the New Avengers in their 1st adventure the breakout from Ryker's Island. The 3rd page is an 'Avengers Assemble' pinup with a rather eclectic mix since it includes eg Nadia-Wasp alongside Banner-Hulk.