Free Comic Book Day 2018: Avengers and Captain America #1

This issue has 2 stories with 2 covers - 1st the Avengers, 2nd Captain America.

Story 1 Avengers:- A million years in the making

Writer Jason Aaron. Penciler  Sara Pichelli. Inkers Sarah Pichelli with Elisabetta D'Amico. Colourist Justin Ponsor. Letterer Cory Petit.
Avengers cover pencils/inks Sara Pichelli, colours Justin Ponsor.

Odin sent 1 of his ravens to ask Black Panther to visit him in the ruins of Old Asgard and now Panther arrives (via spaceship). They've never met before but Odin recalls many earlier Panther Kings going back to cavemen. They always managed to protect their people which Odin has recently failed to do. Mangog has destroyed Asgardia and the surviving Asgardians are now encamped in the ruins of the old city (see Thor's Legacy issues #700-706). But worse is yet to come.

Odin takes T'Challa to see statues of the 1,000,000 BC 'Avengers' (from Marvel Legacy #1) - himself, the 1st Black Panther, the 1st Ghost Rider, the 1st Iron Fist, the 1st Sorcerer Supreme (Agamotto), a caveman bearer of the Starbrand and an avatar of the Phoenix Force. He muses that if they then had spared the Fallen Celestial then the Final Host of Celestials might spare Earth now. He presumably relates to Panther what we see now in flashback.

A giant Celestial had started insanely ripping into the Earth. The  1M BC Avengers (especially Odin with newly-created Mjolnir) killed it (except Agamotto correctly thinks it's not really dead) but the 1st BP thinks it was sick and they should have tried to cure it. He fears others will come for vengeance.

Now T'Challa learns that they buried the body where it fell in South Africa. He says he'll go deal with it, but Odin tells him it's not there anymore. Loki came to see him and told him about it, which we see in a not-so-distant flashback.

They start with some father/adopted son bonding. Odin says Loki torments him by his very existence. Loki reminds Odin how he tied him to a rock with the entrails of his son (Nari in mythology) and left him with a snake dripping venom on his face. Loki also remembers as a child hearing Odin boasting about killing the Celestial. He's found the body and brought it back to life. And it's here now - and a giant metal fist punches Odin to the ground.

Odin now tells Panther that the awakened Celestial will bring the Final Host, and he needs T'Challa to kill Loki. BP says he's not a hired assassin but he will do what's necessary to deal with this mess and save the world. Odin declares that the world is doomed no matter what team Panther assembles to stop it.

In Manhattan Thor (Odinson) and Captain America (Steve Rogers) are having a drink in a bar. Thor thinks they should get together with Iron Man (Tony Stark) to reform the Avengers. Steve thinks they should wait because Tony's only just out of his coma (see the Search for Tony Stark in Iron Man's Legacy issues #593-600), but Thor persuades him to ring Tony up.

And we see a flashforward to the new Avengers lineup:- These 3 and Black Panther plus Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers), Dr Strange, Ghost Rider (Robbie Reyes) and She-Hulk.

Continued in AVENGERS #1.



Story 2 Captain America:- We who love America: a prologue

Writer Ta-Nehisi Coates. Penciler  Leinil Franci Yu. Inker Gerry Alanguilan. Colourist Sunny Gho. Letterer Cory Petit.
Captain America cover pencils/inks Leinil Franci Yu, colours Sunny Gho.

While Captain America muses over his WWII exploits a voiceover, referring to him as the *1st* super-soldier, says things were so much simpler then. America was good and right and so therefore was their champion. Now we see Cap watching Hydra sympathisers clashing with Hydra haters.

The voiceover is a woman watching events on a screen in a hi-tech lab with bodies suspended in fluid-filled tubes. (Marvel Wiki seems to call her Antifa.) She says that good and right have been sunk in a sea of relative morality, and questions what Cap is Captain *of* now.

She claims the US media has misled its citizens about her people. They too revolted against tyranny, and both peoples were allies in WWII. Images make it clearer that she is speaking for the Russians. But she says they succeeded because they were strong not good.

She engages the Power Elite Protocols and a man drops from a helicopter to the combative crowd below. He looks like the old Daredevil/Cap/Wolverine enemy Nuke with the American Flag painted on his face. He opens fire indiscriminately on the crowd with a machine gun. The woman says America was strong too like Russia, and that is why it is right. But the strong need to rid themselves of the parasites who weaken them, like Captains of nothing - as Cap attacks her soldier.

She's speaking to many more of the Nuke-alikes in their tubes as she releases them. She's sending them out to ensure that other US boys like them aren't sent to die in foreign lands and then vilified on their return. The soldiers respond "our ... boys" zombielike. She talks about uniting defence, science, commerce and God against the parasites. We see Gen'l Ross and possibly Norman Osborn.

Cap has downed the lone enemy but then a helicarrier (presumably not now belonging to the disbanded SHIELD) above explodes and crashes on the protesting crowd. And out of it come more of the Nuke-alikes chanting Antifa's slogans.

To be continued in the new Captain America #1.