Today’s Lunchtime Reading Avengers Annual 16 The Day Death Died!

Avengers Annual 16 The Day Death Died!

Published: January 16, 1987

Writer: Tom Defalco Penciler: Butch Guice, John Romita, Keith Pollard, Ron Frenz

Cover Artist: Bob Layton

As a result of the Contest of Champions, the Grandmaster had restored the Collector's life at the cost of his own. Once within the realm of Death, however, he schemed to conquer the final adversary. Now, after having pitted the West Coast Avengers against their eastern counterparts in Death's domain, he has distracted, then defeated Death itself. (As seen in Contest of Champions and West Coast Avengers Annual #2)

Bored with life, the Grandmaster has created five life-bombs which will cause a new "big bang," replacing the present universe with one of his own design. When the Avengers challenge him to a final game, he pits them against a new Legion of the Unliving composed of their deceased friends and foes.

Thor, Hawkeye, and Dr. Pym battle the Executioner, the Swordsman, and Nighthawk in a fiery netherworld, where Dr. Pym is impaled on a stalagmite by Nighthawk and killed, while Thor defeats the Executioner but is killed preventing the life-bomb from exploding, leaving Hawkeye the only survivor of his group after he tricks the Swordsman using his trick arrows, electrocuting him.

Meanwhile, Captain Marvel, Moon Knight, Tigra, and the She-Hulk face Drax the Destroyer, Death Adder, the original Green Goblin, and the Kree Captain Mar-Vell in a tropical setting. Tigra defeats Death Adder but is poisoned by him in the process, Moon Knight is killed by the Green Goblin, and She-Hulk has her back broken by Drax the Destroyer. Captain Marvel succeeds in defusing their bomb but her energy form is drained by the villains while She-Hulk and Tigra die on the beach below.

The Silver Surfer and Korvac fight to their mutual destruction in space.

 In a misty alien wasteland Iron Man, Mockingbird, Dr. Druid, and the Black Knight face Dracula, Terrax, the second Red Guardian, and the original Black Knight. Iron Man defeats Terrax at the cost of his armor, while Mockingbird overcomes the Red Guardian. The two Black Knights are too evenly matched for either to win, while Dr. Druid and Mockingbird are both killed by Dracula, the latter distracting Iron Man from defusing their bomb, which detonates.

In an Arctic waste Captain America, Wonder Man, and the Wasp combat Hyperion, Baron Blood, and Bucky. Hyperion kills Wonder Man by driving him through the planet into a nearby sun, while Captain America beats Baron Blood. The Wasp, suffering due to the extreme cold, is crushed to death by Bucky, who Cap defeats before destroying their bomb.

Incredibly, only Cap and Hawkeye have survived the contest. Rather than undergo a second round with their late comrades added to the ranks of their foes, Hawkeye proposes a simple game of chance which the Grandmaster cannot resist playing. He proffers two arrows, daring the alien gamesman to guess which one has an arrowhead attached.

When the Grandmaster loses, Death frees herself and exiles him from her realm, then returns all the Avengers to life on Earth. Captain America is astounded to learn that Hawkeye has cheated on the wager, by palming the arrowhead attached to the shaft the Grandmaster chose.

Who should be the next Avengers Big Bad?

With the Thanos storyline wrapped up with Avengers Endgame, the question has come up with who should be the next big bad that the Avengers need to stop from ruling the world or universe or devouring the planet. I have a few thoughts on this on who should be the next Big Bad to challenge the Avengers 

First, I think that Zemo should start recruiting some bad guys to form the Masters of Evil (make them the Thunderbolts in the MCU). I could see this starting to happen soon, with them not showing up as a group until later in Phase 4 or Phase 5. We could see Zemo starting to get his team together during Falcon and the Winter Soldier, getting the Abomination out of prison, giving Simon Williams super powers to become Wonder Man and maybe see Mister Hyde and Blackout from Agents of Shield (highly unlikely). They could use the 6 episodes of Falcon and the Winter Soldier to introduce a lot of other villains to join the group, Tiger Shark, Whirlwind, the Wrecking Crew, Goliath and the list can go on and on. Once they are introduced and defeated by the Falcon and the Winter Soldier, they could even start down the Thunderbolts storyline. As cool as it would be to see the Masters of Evil being the bid bad for the Avengers, what if they are there providing cover for the real big bad and that would be Kang the Conqueror!

 

And who is Kang the Conqueror? Only a time-travelling terrorist who is intent on total domination of the entire universe. Kang has a genius level intellect, a master strategist and scientist. Kang also wears a suit of armor that lets him time travel, super strength, create energy blasts and force fields. He could be manipulating events behind the scenes to help Zemo and the Thunderbolts and step into the spotlight once the Avengers have dealt with them. We saw in the quick Loki Disney Plus series that Loki is being held by the TVA (Time Variance Authority) and at one point, Kang was a part of the TVA so sounds like he could be introduced in the Loki Disney Plus series. 

 

I would also love to see the world devourer, Galactus! Galactus is a godlike supervillain that needs to needs the energy of an entire planet to hold off his hunger. He has a herald, the first being the Silver Surfer that scouts out planets that he can consume. He has had a few over the years after the Silver Surfer turned on him when he wanted to consume earth. I would love to see a few of his heralds in the MCU, Firelord, Terrax the Tamer and Nova (not that Nova, but Frankie Raye one time girlfriend of the Human Torch) to name a few. They are all incredibly powerful in their own right since Galactus gives them a small amount of his power cosmic!

 

Another possibility is M.O.D.O.K. and we have heard rumors of him showing up in Ant-Man 3, M.O.D.O.K. was an A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics), scientist George Tarleton and was changed by his boss' into a “living computer” Tarleton was subjected to hideous experiments, mutating his body into a massive-headed being possessing superhuman intelligence and extraordinary psionic powers, and the process drove him mad. Tarleton instead turned on his superiors, slaying them all and declaring himself Scientist Supreme and became M.O.D.O.K. (Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing) and with the powers of A.I.M. behind him (remember them from Iron Man 3?) he would be an Avenger’s level threat! 

And the last one for this article is Korvac, while fleeing his universe Korvac discovers the space station of the entity Galactus. While attempting to download the knowledge of Galactus from the station into his own system, Korvac is imbued with the Power Cosmic and becomes god-like. Korvac then recreates himself as a perfect humanoid form, and posing as a human called "Michael", travels to Earth with the intent of reshaping it into a utopia. Korvac, however, is pursued by the Guardians of the Galaxy, who join forces with the Avengers in a bid to stop the villain.

 

And finally, what about the Scarlet Witch, she is certainly powerful enough to challenge all the Avengers (and X-Men, Fantastic Four and Guardians of the Galaxy for that matter) and during the Darker than Scarlet storyline in West Coast Avengers we learn the shocking truth about her children (and all signs point to Wiccan and Speed showing up in WandaVision), the Scarlet Witch suffers a nervous breakdown and descends into madness. Manipulated by Immortus, another version of Kang so it could just be Kang in the MCU, Wanda faces her teammates. I personally would love to see this in the MCU.