Today's Lunchtime Reading West Coast Avengers #24 Before We Were So Rudely Interrupted!

West Coast Avengers #24 Before We Were So Rudely Interrupted!

Published: August 10th 1987

Writer: Steve Englehart Penciler: Al Milgrom Cover Artist: Al Milgrom

Dominus and his minions near completion on the Master Machine that will enslave the world, confident that his gambit to trap the Avengers in the past was flawless. He's therefore quite shaken when the Avengers suddenly attack the base in force. Dominus sends the Desert Dwellers out to stop them, including dozens of duplicates of the artificial members Butte, Gila, and Cactus.

 With their team bolstered by Doctor Pym, La Espirita, and Moon Knight, the Avengers easily gain the upper hand on the henchmen. Sunstroke, the one human of the Desert Dwellers knows when to fall back and flies up the shaft of the towering silo where Dominus awaits.

The Avengers follow and as they near the top they're confronted by the costumed man they've believed to be Dominus. The man takes the moment to explain that he's actually a just a vessel through which Dominus speaks. While his race created the Master Machine to enslave lesser races, they didn't count on becoming enslaved themselves. Dominus is the Master Machine and at that moment he's all around the Avengers built into the walls of the upper levels of the silo. Dominus blasts the Avengers with its mind-enslaving rays, completely immobilizing them, then dismisses Sunstroke to another assigned location.

 As Dominus' vessel walks to the machine controls, gloating about his victory, he doesn't notice Moon Knight walk up and clock him. Not understanding how his enemy could still be moving, he blasts Moon Knight again, but again Moon Knight shakes it off and pushes forward.

Dominus panics, unable to comprehend how someone could resist its power, and its inability to resolve the paradox soon causes the entire machine and by extension the base to rumble and burst into flames as it begins to collapse. Moon Knight wisely keeps quiet about how Dominus really was enslaving his minds, but with his multiple personalities he had minds to spare.

The Avengers are freed from the effects of the machine and are able to escape the collapsing mountain. As it does, they see the core of the Dominus machine blast off into space on a rocket. The fliers of the team try to pursue, but when Wonder Man's jets stall in the upper atmosphere, Iron Man breaks off to rescue him from the fall.

Wonder Man is hardly grateful, arguing that his invulnerable body would have survived the fall and it was more important to catch Dominus. Nonetheless, the day is saved even though Dominus and Sunstroke escaped.

Later, as the Avengers finally return home, Wonder Man is ambushed by his producer's assistant, who is finally able to inform him that everyone hates his new costume.