Avengers West Coast 57 - Acts of Vengeance Aftermath

This issue continues the saga of the Scarlet Witch's descent story, though it would turn out to be the last one written and drawn by John Byrne. Entitled "Family Reunion", it appropriately adds her brother Quicksilver to the mix.

Avengers West Coast #57

Writer and penciller: John Byrne
Inker: Paul Ryan
Letterer: Bill Oakley
Colourist: Bob Sharen
Editor: Howard Mackie
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

But it's an interesting inversion of the family dynamics. Traditionally the Scarlet Witch was the most dovish of the three but here she's a hawk whereas by contrast Magneto only attacks when necessary and will not harm restrained foes. Even Quicksilver is advocating more caution than usual, though there are some hints that all is not as it seems with him. The issue continues the move towards restoring Magneto as a noble but ultimately villainous fighter for mutant rights, even recreating his Asteroid M base. Otherwise it serves to show just how powerful both he and his daughter are, able to shrug off rescue attempts by first the original Human Torch then Iron Man and later an assault on Asteroid M. Such is his power he simply returns the Avengers to Earth secure in the belief they will not attack again and also offers Iron Man the chance to leave them alone. Tony Stark has clearly learned from past encounters with Magneto to equip his armour with anti-magnetic devices and benefits from the current claims that the original Iron Man has been replaced, meaning Magneto doesn't expect a foe with experience of him.

For all the talk of Magneto having been reverted to his Silver Age portrayal by "Acts of Vengeance", here Byrne is writing a more complex character, acting as much as a father seeking to protect and nurture his daughter as anything else. He speaks of protecting mutantkind but explicitly draws a distinction from "the destruction of humanity" and only acts when attacked. This is much closer to the complex Magneto who tried to reform but found failure pushing him back and then declared he was as much seeking to become a target to take fire away from other mutants than this has often been written up as.

If anything, the problem is taking too much from the recent X-Men titles. Barely a year after "Inferno" and we have another story of a mother twisted by abandonment, loss of her children and manipulated by dark powers into going bad and unleashing dark magic, right down to attacking her erstwhile friends and playing on her brother-in-law's feelings. The story also seems to be running rather slowly and this issue could surely have been combined with the previous one and still get from the revelation of Wanda's transformation to the asteroid without repeated conflicts that ultimately do little to advance the plot.

It's a pity that John Byrne's last issue on the series is both slow and somewhat derivative as his handling of Magneto has especially shown there was a lot more to the debate about the character than merely the Claremont vs the Silver Age debate it's somewhat caricatured as. This is a storyline with good ideas but taking too long to get through them.

Avengers West Coast #57 has been reprinted in:

• Avengers West Coast: Darker Than Scarlet (2008)
• Avengers West Coast: Darker then Scarlet (Panini pocketbook, 2015)
• Avengers by John Byrne Omnibus (2016)

Avengers West Coast 56 - Acts of Vengeance Aftermath

Continuing the story of the Scarlet Witch's descent into darkness accompanied by Magneto there are actually three strips in this book. One back-up is a four-pager set during "Atlantis Attacks" and depicts the first modern meeting of the original Human Torch and Captain America, shown by reader demand. It's a straightforward piece showing the two war time comrades briefly reflecting on the old days, how things have changed and how both their partners have died. There's also a one-page strip (not always reprinted) in which John Byrne goes on panel to explain that Tigra's appearance in that year's annual was an error down to him getting muddled when he informed the writer which team members were available.

Avengers West Coast #56

Writer and penciller: John Byrne
Inker: Paul Ryan
Letterer: Bill Oakley
Colourist: Bob Sharen
Editor: Howard Mackie
Ed.-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

The main story focuses upon the Scarlet Witch who is changing in more ways than one. Capturing several of the other west coast Avengers she reveals how she has embraced her power and is preparing to take revenge on them. The scenes as she taunts and torments them are chilling, though it's probably for best that the editors modified half a page to avoid the implication that at one point she performs oral sex on Wonder Man. The big revelation is that her powers have changed. Rather than making the improbable happen, they now seem to be altering reality, such as recreating the house that was previously destroyed, bringing Wonder Man back to life and even, in the lab, altering the historic record of a sample piece of metal. Magneto also returns and it becomes clear the family reunion is a step towards a mutant-human war in which the Scarlet Witch will be on the mutants' side.

This quite a talkie issue, bringing various subplots up to date and re-establishing the Scarlet Witch's recent misfortunes. It's also pretty critical both for this storyline and the long-term history of the Marvel universe. Wanda's powers have long been poorly defined and so it helps to take time here to make clear just how they now work. At the same time after the crossover it's handy to catch up on the characters and subplots such as Tigra having gone feral and been shrunk down, as well as new ones such as the team's potential issue. But this doesn't detract from the chilling effects of the scenes of the Avengers suspended in air, prisoners of their own teammate and then a strong cliffhanger suggesting further darkness ahead. This continues to be a strong dark series.

Avengers West Coast #56 has been reprinted in:

• Avengers West Coast: Darker Than Scarlet (2008)
• Atlantis Attacks Omnibus (2011 - back-up story only)
• Avengers West Coast: Darker then Scarlet (Panini pocketbook, 2015)
• Avengers by John Byrne Omnibus (2016)

Captain America 368 - Acts of Vengeance Aftermath

This issue sees both Captain America and the Red Skull's organisation following up the events of "Acts of Vengeance", with both trying to find Magneto.

Captain America #368

Writer: Mark Gruenwald (all)
Penciler: Ron Lim (main)
Penciler: Mark Bagley (back-up)
Inker: Danny Bulanadi (main)
Inker: Don Hudson (back-up)
Letterer: Jack Morelli (all)
Colourist: Steve Buccellato (main)
Colourist: Nel Yomtov (back-up)
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

For someone so notorious a continuity watcher as Mark Gruenwald, it's surprising that this issue doesn't seem to know where it fits into place around the end of the crossover. Thus whereas Captain America and the Avengers support crew are clearly set after the climax, over in Washington DC it's implied that this is the first time a Red Skull robot is activated to take the absent Skull's place and thus would be set before the climax. Finally a panel at the end of the first story showing Magneto's current location is the same scene as happened during the Mandarin's attack in Avengers #313. This sort of thing is frustratingly all too common around crossovers and makes for much headscratching over the correct order of things.

There are some good contrasts between the way Cap interacts with Avengers support crew and the way Crossbones does with other operatives in the Red Skull's base. But there's also a strong sense that the Skull's organisation is not merely people held together by pay or fear but does contain people who actually enjoy working for the Skull and the challenges it brings. And the prospect of the organisation collapsing because of the Skull's disappearance brings real fear.

The core focus for both the hero and villains is on finding Magneto, with the real one only making a single panel appearance here. Both Captain America and Crossbones have tried the research and contacts method, but Machinesmith has his own idea - send out a robotic duplicate in public to lure the real one out. Unfortunately it gets a little silly when Machinesmith, controlling the robot through his ability to transfer his consciousness between devices, decides he has to act "very un-Magneto like" and starts chewing the scenery. And all the attempt brings is Captain America instead.

The back-up story is a quick history of Machinesmith, told by the robot himself to the Sleeper he's working on. It recounts one of the more awkward parts of the character's history - his having been the second Mister Fear, a point where the two characters' history were merged some time back. Otherwise this is a tale of how a boy became fascinated by robots and developed as an engineer and then when he was killed in battle his robots preserved his brain patterns in mechanical form. The main surprise is how explicit the story is about Machinesmith's sexuality. He's presented as a highly camp character and here he talks to the Sleeper like a surgeon operating on his own romantic partner. His dialogue about putting his consciousness into other robots and enjoying the intimacy is extremely blatant. At the end he even removes his synthetic face to reveal his robotic one and kisses the Sleeper. At first the over campness feels unnecessarily stereotypical but it's easy to forget that until 1989 the Comics Code Authority had effectively barred the depiction of LGBT characters (the precise wording is complicated, hence some had got passed it) and to some extent exaggerated clichés were the most effective ways to get the message across. The code may have just changed but editorial policy might not yet have.

Otherwise this issue is quite a good example of Mark Gruenwald's epic run on the series which really deserves a complete collection; fortunately this issue is from a period covered by the Epic reprints. It shows how to use a crossover as a useful way to create interesting developments in a series and prepares the ground for a search for the Skull.

Captain America #368 has been reprinted in:

• Captain America Epic Collection: The Bloodstone Hunt (2018)

Acts of Vengeance: Aftermath

Although that's the crossover itself concluded, a few of the main series had ongoing storylines that ran on into later issues. Taking inspiration from the Infinity Gauntlet: Aftermath and the Infinity War: Aftermath trade paperbacks, I'll be looking at the natural issues of the core series (the ones with the banner at the top of the covers rather than in corner boxes, as collected in the main Omnibus) for such a collection. These are as follows:

• Captain America #368
• Avengers West Coast #56
• Avengers West Coast #57
• Thor #414
• Captain America #369
• Captain America #370
• Avengers West Coast #60
• Avengers West Coast #61
• Avengers West Coast #62

A physical collection would probably also include:

• Web of Spider-Man #64
• Web of Spider-Man #65

Similarly the Infinity Gauntlet Omnibus and Infinity Gauntlet: Aftermath trade both include Silver Surfer #60 and Doctor Strange Sorcerer Supere #36.

Avengers Annual 19 - Acts of Vengeance

Avengers Annual 19 came out the summer after "Acts of Vengeance" and contains the last word on the event. But that's only one of five stories contained within it and so first a look at the others.

Avengers Annual #19
Editor: Howard Mackie
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

"Beat Me in St. Louis..."

Writers: Roy and Dan Thomas
Penciler: Herb Trimpe
Inker: Jeff Albrecht
Letterer: Rick Parker
Colourist: Paul Becton

The lead story is the fifth part of the crossover "The Terminus Factor" which ran through four other annuals. All five are listed on the contents page but out of context this chapter is a story of both Avengers teams plus the unofficial Great Lakes Avengers and various reservists or guest stars all converging on St Louis to fight off a much-enhanced Terminus. Meanwhile Thor has lost his hammer and is floating in space. There's too much unexplained here and way too many characters for this to work on its own and it just becomes a confusing fight. Marvel had just switched from running one single crossover over all annuals to multiple ones where the books naturally overlapped but it still produced complicated stories that are near impossible to understand on their own.

"Media Watch"

Story: Dwayne McDuffie
Pencils: Jim Reddington
Inks: Andy Mushynsky
Letters: Jack Morelli
Colour: Ed Lazellari

This is a short little piece looking at how a part of the media react to events like Terminus. It's presented in the form of "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney", a satirical opinion piece from the real life 60 Minutes current affairs show. Having never heard of Rooney or his slot and being barely aware of 60 Minutes (to the best of my knowledge it's never been broadcast in my country) most of the intended effect is completely lost on me and the style is very different from This Week's "Take of the Week".

"Clowning Around"

Words: Gruesome Gary Barnum
Pencils: Starving Steve Buccellato
Inks: Mighty Mickey Ritter
Letters: Rowdy Rick Parker

This is a comedic piece as a group of Avengers visit the construction of their new mansion and a string of villains show up to attack them. The construction workers are terrified of the damage that such a battle would bring so work to take out each villain before the heroes even know they're there. As a result the visiting Avengers just assume the workers are being rather silly. It's a good fun little tale of the sort that only an annual back-up strip can do.

"The Day the Strangers Came"

Writer: Kurt Busiek
Artist: Richard Howell
Letters: Jack Morelli
Colours: Richard Howell

This is easily the highlight of the annual, telling of a young boy who lives in a Midwestern hotel and is a huge fan of the Avengers. When he spots the Sons of the Serpent are active in the area he duly reports it and soon discovers that the Avengers are in town, enjoying doing the right thing. Then he discovers who the local leader is and what he's planning to do. Written by Kurt Busiek some years before Marvels this does well to show how the heroes impact the world around them and the pain when duty demands doing the wrong thing.

"Acts of Vengeance Epilog"

Words: Mark Gruenwld
Pictures: Vince Mielcarek
Inks: Bob Downs
Letters: Janice Chiang
Colours: Dave Sampson

But this is the reason for this post. Mark Gruenwald was Marvel's keeper of continuity in this period, to the point that he wound up being depicted as the director of the Time Variance Authority which served a similar purpose in the comics, and would often write stories that would untangle major discontinuities. We've already seen Captain America #367 which sorts out the mess of Magneto's participation in the alliance in spectacular fashion and here Gruenwald takes on the central problem of "Acts of Vengeance" - the lack of a clear narrative structure to the crossover. Here we get an order, presented in the form of a debriefing by Captain America, Thor and the Vision making use of reports and testimony from the Wizard.

Questions like just where the rest of the Avengers were when Avengers Island was attacked and sunk, and again where the main team was during Freedom Force's attack, why only some of the androids help captive on the island escaped and how the Red Skull could attend the last few meetings despite having been locked away by Magneto are all explicitly answered here. There are a few additional moments added such as a battle between Captain Marvel and Klaw, or a final encounter with the remains of the villains' alliance. Though it has to be said that the depiction of the Wizard's capture differs significantly from that in Avengers Spotlight #29 which is especially surprising for a story seeking to untangle confused continuity.

This is setting out to sort out confusion first and foremost rather than tell a story in its own right and so the narrative is slightly bogged down through covering many of the individual battle sideshows. It's also over dramatic in suggesting this is the team's biggest setback when only one part-time reserve Avengers (Stingray) has been seriously injured and there have been other attacks that devastated Avengers' bases and left many injured including the referenced capture of the old mansion by the Masters of Evil. And the Vision's suggestion that the Avengers should be more proactive in future isn't taken up. The last panels see Gruenwald give Captain America the last word which is ultimately about how important co-operation is and how the villains' alliance failed because they couldn't do this. Overall this is a good attempt to fix things afterwards, but really the crossover should have been doing things better at the time.

This is a fairly typical annual for the era with the main feature really not something to be ventured into solo, but the back-up features offer a mixture of continuity, comedy, pathos and unusual takes on things around them. The "Acts of Vengeance" epilogue is only a small part of it but shows a dedication to making the big picture clear existed in at least some parts of Marvel at the time.

Avengers Annual #19 has been reprinted in:

• Avengers volume 3 #27 (2000) - "The Day the Strangers Came" only
• Acts of Vengeance Omnibus (2011)

Web of Spider-Man 65 - Acts of Vengeance

"The Last Act of Vengeance" is the title of this issue and many readers (and perhaps even some editorial staff) were no doubt going "We hope!" It concludes as the group of villains seek money from the Kingpin whilst Spider-Man has to find a way to get back down to the ground.

Web of Spider-Man #65

Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciler: Alex Saviuk
Inker: Keith Williams
Letterer: Rick Parker
Colourist: Bob Sharen
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

Spidey's solution of webbing a plane and then clinging to it until it lands and Graviton's power wears off is somewhat on the fantastical side but, as often with Acts of Vengeance, there's a famous Silver Age precedent, here Spider-Man's mission to repair a space capsule in the very first issue of Amazing Spider-Man. Elsewhere the Chameleon has abandoned the hideout and left faked documents implying he's working with the Kingpin, causing the six villains to go and seek the money they expect from him. It's such an obvious ploy it's amazing that they fall for it, but numerous villains have been gullible over the years.

After some localised subplots about the Daily Bugle building having been so damaged as to have to be condemned and Mary Jane discovering that Harry Osborn has the Green Goblin costume and equipment stored in his flat, we get to the final battle. Once again Spider-Man takes advantage of some of his foes' lack of experience of working with each other to pick them off one by one and it's a pretty straightforward fight. Strangely there's a moment where Titania leaps on Spidey and they both fall a long way before he breaks clear and leaves her falling, assuming she's strong enough it will only stun her. However on landing she gets hit by a bus and there's nothing in the story suggesting Spider-Man's even aware of this yet it's the classic type of situation that would give him a major guilt trip. The Kingpin watches the fight bemused, unaware that this is all a set-up by the Chameleon to destroy his rival's reputation.

This issue is ultimately almost as light as something Graviton has used his powers on. There's not much substance, the team-up between the six villains doesn't provide any further insights and Spidey quickly proves he's able to take each and every one of them down with greater strategy. This epilogue is ever more distant from the big crossover and it's a relief that this is the final book with an "Acts of Vengeance" banner on the cover.

Web of Spider-Man #65 has been reprinted in:

• Acts of Vengeance Crossovers Omnibus (2011)

Web of Spider-Man 64 - Acts of Vengeance

Three months after the conclusion of "Acts of Vengeance" came this issue of Web of Spider-Man with "Acts of Vengeance is Back!" on the cover. This issue and the next provide a further epilogue to the series. The story sees the Chameleon arrange the release of several of the villains Spider-Man defeated in the saga and then offers them $500,000 between them to kill Spider-Man.

Web of Spider-Man #64

Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciler: Alex Saviuk
Inker: Keith Williams
Letterer: Rick Parker
Colourist: Bob Sharen
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

It's yet another throwback to the Silver Age where numerous villains sought to defeat Spider-Man in order to cement their position as the leading crime lord in the city. This time the Chameleon isn't bothering with trying to do it personally but has instead made an offer to a group of foes with mixed powers who all want revenge now that Spider-Man no longer has his powers. The villains are a motley group - Titania, Graviton, Goliath, the Brothers Grimm and Paste Pot Pete the Trapster - but they prove sufficiently willing to work together for a mutual goal, given leadership and incentive. It stands in stark contrast to the squabbling committee of the leading super-villains during the crossover.

As Peter Parker, Spider-Man is facing further problems as Nick Katzenberg, the sleazy rival photographer at the Daily Bugle, produces photos showing Peter dressed as Spider-Man for a shoot, leading to editor Joe "Robbie" Robertson sacking him with a rant about journalistic ethics, perhaps because of his own lingering guilt at having failed to report Tombstone in his youth that recently put him in jail. It's often been speculated that Robbie has deduced Spider-Man's identity but keeps it to himself, but his reaction here, even disagreeing with J. Jonah Jameson who is willing to overlook it all as it isn't a news photo, suggests otherwise. Peter storms off and has an angry confrontation with Katzenberg before storming off.

The later battle shows some repeat tricks, with Graviton once again lifting up the Daily Bugle building, but also the need for better leadership in the field as Spidey manages to trick the Brothers Grimm and the Trapster into taking each other out, but Graviton's powers proved rather harder to defeat with strategy.

This is an odd issue. After such a long crossover there wasn't really a crying need for yet more "Acts of Vengeance" issues. These also came out in the run-up to a major story in Amazing Spider-Man entitled "Return of the Sinister Six", reuniting more conventional Spider-Man foes so yet another story involving a group of villains teaming up feels repetitive even if it did manage to come out first. Nor does it present much of a lesson in how teams of villains can work effectively, since Spider-Man is able to play off the limitations and lack of expectations. This is just another demonstration of the problems of having three monthly titles for one character without distinctive purposes, leading to a speedy rehash of recent events.

Web of Spider-Man #64 has been reprinted in:

• Acts of Vengeance Crossovers Omnibus (2011)

Damage Control 4 - Acts of Vengeance

And so we come to "The Final Act!" as Damage Control's second limited series comes to a conclusion, with this issue featuring a prominent guest star in Nick Fury, Agent of Shield. Fury's own series was up and running at this time but notably didn't take part in the crossover, with a change of writer around this time possibly the explanation. But instead Fury and his fellow agents get used here in a showdown for the corporate wranglings that have crippled the special repair business.

Damage Control (volume 2) #4

Writer: Dwayne McDuffie
Penciler: Ernie Colon
Inkers: Stan Drake & Marie Severin
Letterer: Rick Parker
Colour: George Roussos
Editor: Sid Jacobson
Big Guy you don't wanna mess with: Tom DeFalco

The issue is surprisingly predictive in its revelation that Damage Control is being run into the ground by its now owner, who "is willing to gut the whole company to raise cash". Damage Control may at times allow for subtle digs at the distinguished competition, but this target would ultimately prove closer to home given the convoluted corporate manoeuvres in the 1990s that ultimately left Marvel as a whole filing for bankruptcy. Fortunately for anyone without a business education the story presents the financial situation in a sufficiently simple form to understand how the owner wound up owing the Kingpin a lot of money and had to resort to bleeding the company to death.

Elsewhere the workers are still on strike but are talked into helping stabilise a building whilst a rescue operation is carried out, reflecting the very real dilemmas often faced by striking firefighters. Placards with slogans such as "DC is grossly unfair" and "DC stinks" are surprising in that Marvel could print these and get away with them (and not have to modify the artwork for later reprints). It's not clear who exactly is responsible for them, but a glance at the credit lists for the creative shows that only some of them went on to do much work for DC comics. Perhaps the scene at the end when the Damage Control building, with a prominent "DC" marked out on the roof, is sold to a comic company who "made a great deal of extra money this summer from a movie" helped placate feelings. Meanwhile over in another DC, Anne Hoag ensures that Commission on Superhuman Activities doesn't deliver a unanimous report in favour of registration.

Steadily the management rebuild relationships and reputations, helped by Fury, and Shield leads a takeover bid. Here comes perhaps the most dated joke as a subordinate Shield agent produces a briefing on computer that will take three hours to deliver, until Fury demands a one-word recommendation on whether to buy. This predated the arrival of Power Point and the computers of the era were not the best things for presentations. Robin Chapel faces down the Kingpin to make it clear he's no more influence in the firm, something he just doesn't mind as the "Acts of Vengeance" have proved quite profitable. Finally we learn that Damage Control has now completed the clean-up after the Acts.

This is a bit of a rush around issue aiming to tie up all the threads raised by the earlier ones and wisely sets itself at the end of the crossover to allow for a clear conclusion. Still it provides a good comedic take on corporate rescue packages and company chaos and gets extra credit for doing this long before Marvel faced its own problems. This is a fun little epilogue.

Damage Control (volume 2) #3 has been reprinted in:

• Acts of Vengeance Crossovers Omnibus (2011)
• Damage Control: The Complete Collection (2015)

Amazing Spider-Man 329 - Acts of Vengeance

It seems slightly surprising that the story of Spider-Man's cosmic powers has just run over the end of "Acts of Vengeance", especially as this arc has had a few too many chapters. It would have made more sense to follow the structure of "Inferno" and limit the main multi-part storyline to a handful of issues with others doing their own thing on the side, rather than padding things out so much and then needing an extra issue.

Amazing Spider-Man #329

Writer: David Michelinie
Penciler: Erik Larsen
Inker: Andy Mushynsky
Letterer: Rick Parker
Colourist: Bob Sharen
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

Still this final part does a lot to wrap things up, including a climax on the power stakes. Both Graviton and Sebastian Shaw are continuing to pursue Spider-Man, but the former is put off with a single blast. The latter is more cunning, opting to investigate just how Spider-Man got his powers and locating the scientist who was doing energy experiments at the time. From a modern perspective it's surprising that Shaw is able to blackmail Dr Lubisch by threatening to reveal to the board of Empire State University the details of how Lubisch was sacked from Heidelberg after performing a "rather unorthodox experiment". It seems strange that basic background checks were not performed, especially as by 1989 communication was already sufficiently advanced that universities would be able to contact one another quickly. Still it works that Shaw would turn to the same scientist to produce an "energy negator" to try to cancel out Spider-Man's powers - and that it instead cancels the block in the original transfer that led to Spider-Man acquiring them only slowly.

For Spider-Man has the powers of Captain Universe and now adopts the traditional look, albeit with a red webbed mouth mask. The Enigma force has detected great danger to humanity and empowered Spider-Man to defeat it, though why the powers to him so early is unclear, though Lubisch's experiments are the cause of the delay in fully adoption. One could also wonder if the danger was just the Tri-Sentinel (as Spider-Man's newfound cosmic awareness implies) or the "Acts of Vengeance" as a whole. The robotic menace turns out to be an after-effect of the Acts as Loki, looking rather freer than he was at the end of the final battle, opts to make a final mark on Earth by merging three prototype new Sentinels together. Given the steady step up in power levels of the foes encountered through this arc, a super robot enhanced by the magic of a deity makes sense as the ultimate threat level. And the Tri-Sentinel also evokes one of the classic Silver Age images, Spider-Man with six arms which was the very final panel of Stan Lee's original hundred issue run.

Three is a recurring theme in the issue, with the opening scene introducing the Sentinels set three days ago, Shaw blackmailing Lubisch three hours ago and Loki working his magic three minutes ago. The merged Tri-Sentinel has three faces, making it impossible to sneak up on, though Loki doesn't seem to have thought to reverse one set of arms for fighting in both directions. There's also a fusion to the logic circuits, so Shaw is unable to trigger a failsafe that would make the Sentinel turn in on itself. Instead it's down to Spider-Man to finish the task he received the powers for. Then the power departs, leaving Peter wondering if he could have done more with it to improve the world, a thought that we'll come back to.

At first glance, cosmic powers and Spider-Man are not a natural combination. But this storyline has taken the core philosophical line of the character - "with great power there must also come -- great responsibility" - and asked what happens when greatER power comes? As a one-off event it's been an excellent way to explore the character. The storyline may have had a few too many issues but the finale works in providing a clear explanation for the situation, delivering an ultimate threat and handling the foes who weren't previously captured. The art effectively captures Spider-Man's moves and the sheer scale of the Tri-Sentinel, making for a strong finish.

Amazing Spider-Man #329 has been reprinted in:

• Spider-Man: The Cosmic Adventures (1993)
• Acts of Vengeance Omnibus (2011)
• Amazing Spider-Man by David Michelinie & Todd McFarlane Omnibus (2011)
• Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Cosmic Adventures (2013)

Avengers Spotlight 29 - Acts of Vengeance

A handful of issues are explicit epilogues to "Acts of Vengeance" and this starts with Avengers Spotlight #29. As ever this issue contains two separate stories.

Avengers Spotlight #29

Plot/Script: Howard Mackie (first)
Writer: Dwayne McDuffie (second
Plot/Pencils: James Brock (first)
Penciler: Dwayne Turner (second)
Inks: Roy Richardson (first)
Inker: Chris Ivy (second)
Letters: Jack Morelli (first)
Letters: Rick Parker (second)
Colourist: Mike Rockwitz (all)
Editor: Mark Gruenwald (all)
Editor: Gregory Wight (second only)
Boss: Tom DeFalco (all)

The first story, written by Howard Mackie and drawn by James Brock, doesn't make any attempt to tie in with the crossover just gone but does continue with the theme of heroes battling others' villains, with Hawkeye called in to rescue Madcap from kidnappers even though everyone from Dollar Bill (the film-maker who used to hang around with the Defenders; now Madcap's television partner) through to the kidnappers is seeking Daredevil. Nevertheless Hawkeye tracks down the somewhat operation and clashes with a new set of henchmen, the Power Tools who have mechanical hands that turn into weapons based on home equipment. Madcap himself is a somewhat anarchic youth with an incredibly powerful healing factor and his own sardonic take on the pointlessness of life; he predated Deadpool by several years. The story's okay, and does manage to pull a sucker-punch with the revelation of the Power Tools' boss not being the character one instinctively expects, but Madcap is a difficult character to write because of the attitude and healing factor and this results in moments that don't know if they're trying to shock or are expecting familiarity.

The second strip is the final of "Tales from the Vault", written by Dwayne McDuffie and drawn by Dwayne Turner, and sees a lot of captured villains being brought to the restored prison whilst Iron Man introduces the new Guardsmen armour with design safeguards to protect his technology from being used elsewhere. However the solution of limiting the internal power supply and instead building an external supply system into the Vault doesn't sound like the most secure of systems as one could easily capture a suit of armour and provide an alternate power supply. The returning foes include the Wizard, who finds his teleportation has been tampered with to send him back, and Klaw. Iron Man and one of the Guardsmen have to take them on, demonstrating both the abilities of the new armour and the determination of the men inside. The last few panels use exactly the same narrative captions as the opening of the first part back in Avengers Spotlight #26 to provide a clear sense of closure to the story. For the Avengers titles it is, but some of the other series have some mopping up to complete.

The first story isn't part of the crossover and doesn't try to be, but does sensibly go for a self-contained tale that doesn't rely on reader knowledge so isn't going to be impenetrable to readers arriving just because of the crossover banner. The second wraps up some of the points from earlier issues, showing Iron Man making amends on his actions in the "Armour Wars", and through use of the Guardsmen it manages to feel at home in this series rather than in Iron Man's own title. It's not an essential epilogue but it does manage to provide a good sense of closure to the overall story.

Avengers Spotlight #29 has been reprinted in:

• Acts of Vengeance Omnibus (2011)