Avengers (2023 series) #31

The background to this series has been a competition between Kang and Myrddin to reach the Holy Grail of time travellers - the Missing Moment. But last issue ended with the Avengers learning that Myrddin *is* Kang. This issue we see in flashbacks how the Kang/Myrddin duo happened, and our team hardly appear in their own comic.

Kang The Conqueror looks back to his latest defeat by the Avengers (#24) aboard his flagship King Lear, which was engineered by Myrrdin (and the Grandmaster) for his own purposes. Now he takes his apparently usual consolation by getting drunk in a bar. It was in a similar state that he 1st resolved to seek the Missing Moment because was getting bored with conquering (and then losing). But then he found himself opposed by the 'wizard' Myrddin and his Twilight Court of superhumans, always seeming to be several step ahead with resources that matched Kang's own. He recalls the 1st time he met Myrddin on his ship Prospero, named after the wizard in The Tempest ...

... and that makes him think back to 1612 in another tavern in London when he asked Shakespeare to let him play the wizard. Apparently Nathaniel Richards had long sponsored Will's theatrical company with the proviso he be allowed to play any role himself once in a season. But the playwright points out that he always plays villains, and Prospero is not that. Nathaniel counters that Prospero is a conqueror of his island and its inhabitants, and he uses his power to torment and manipulate both his enemies and his own family. Kang doesn't like how the char casts aside his power in the end, but he won't dispute Shakespeare's skill as an author. Will knows that he can't deny his patron, but just begs him not to play Prospero as *too* villainous. But Kang tells us he did what he wanted and Will was furious.

Now Kang realises something and he leaves the pub. We see that its patrons are all dead and the building is a ruin. He gets teleported to his current flagship Caesar and orders genesmiths, arch-technologists, sorcerers, experimental augmentors and his armourer to be summoned for a major project. He's realised that *he* will be Myrddin and he's been manipulating himself with the resources and foreknowledge that are his own. This will be his greatest role. So this is Myrddin's year 0.

In Myrddin's year 6 he creates the Twilight Court to mirror the current Avengers. The 1st is a flawed, frail creation who will be Artur The King in a life-sustaining Armour Of Chthon. The Court will be tested against the Tribulation Events that heroes must overcome to attain the Grail.

In year 10 they fail against the Ashen Combine in the Fall Of The Impossible City event. But this not the 1st time and Myrddin rewinds time to try again. He comments that he endowed his heroes with fantastic abilities and ancient artefacts, and he even gave them love triangles and other melodramas the better to mimic the Avengers. But still they failed.

In year 11 in his Glasshouse ship he addresses his Twilight Court again, who of course have no memory of their previous defeats. He's chosen a new course of action and sends them against Kang (in Timeless (2021)) to cause him to seek help from the Avengers who he hopes will be more successful against the Tribulation Events.

In year 12 he confronts Kang himself in the Avengers' Impossible City base (#10) (the team have already overcome the 1st Event and captured the Ashen Combine) and steals from his mind all detailed knowledge of the Missing Moment, which of course up until this instant Myrddin himself lacked.

In year 13 the Avengers have survived the Long Night event. In #22-24 they stole info on the Missing Moment from under Kang and Myrddin's noses, but Myrddin successfully created a trio of black holes/wormholes he calls the Rupture. But they failed to stop Dr Doom taking over the world. And this is getting Myrddin worried about their chances of handling the remaining Tribulation Events. So he decides to take a more direct route.

In the final year his flagship Richard III is nearing the Rupture which he believes will take him to a new universe and the Missing Moment. He overrides his crew's concerns and they dive the ship through the central hole. He doesn't expect his ship to be able to do a return journey. But he hopes it will take him and maybe a few of his men safely to the destination. (And in the last issue we saw that he made it.)