By Rick Remender, Steve McNiven, Daniel Acuña, Laura Martin & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-571-0
If you haven’t read the Avengers for a while then you’ve got a lot of catching up to do.
What You Need to Know: Once upon a time mutant hero Wanda Maximoff – daughter of arch-villain Magneto and known to the world as the Scarlet Witch – married android warrior The Vision and they had (through the agency of magic and her unsuspected chaos-energy fuelled ability to reshape Reality) twin boys. Over the course of time it was revealed that her beloved sons were not real and they subsequently vanished (for further details see Marvel Platinum: the Definitive Avengers).
As years passed, loss drove Wanda mad and when she finally slipped utterly over the edge her resultant slaughter-spree destroyed many of her Avenger comrades. The effects of her actions spread to reshape the entire Marvel Universe, resulting in the team’s dissolution and climactic reboot (Avengers Disassembled and New Avengers: Breakout).
The team had barely recovered from that catastrophe before she overwrote Reality again, altering recent Earth history such that mutants ruled over a society where humans or “sapiens†were an acknowledged evolutionary dead-end, living out their lives and destined for extinction within two generations.
It took a legion of champions and a huge helping of luck to put that genie back in a bottle (in House of M), but in the aftermath less than 200 mutants existed on Earth…
The Witch was partially rehabilitated and began her quest for redemption during the Avengers versus X-Men where the World’s Mightiest Heroes strove against the remaining mutants for control of Hope Summers: a girl born to be the mortal host of implacable force of cosmic destruction and creation known as The Phoenix.
However the primal phenomenon instead possessed a quintet of X-Men, corrupting them by manifesting their dream of making Earth a paradise for besieged, beleaguered Homo Superior and hell for humanity.
At the height of Avengers versus X-Men mankind was briefly enslaved by resurgent mutants before the selfish appetites of omnipotent Phoenix Force caused those possessed by it to turn upon each other. Soon its transcendent power transformed rallying figurehead and mutant freedom-fighter Cyclops into another apparently unstoppable, insatiable “Dark Phoenixâ€.
At that crossroads moment his beloved mentor Charles Xavier, founder of the X-Men and formulator of the aspiration of peaceful mutant/human co-existence, returned – only to be killed by his most devoted disciple…
Professor X’s death united X-Men and Avengers in a joint effort to overthrow the cosmic avatar but, in the days following the departure of the Phoenix Force, progress and reconciliation stalled. The mostly human world festered with resentment even as new mutants began to manifest, and newly liberated mankind fell into its old habits of intolerance, violence and bigoted, vigilante outrages…
When undying über-Nazi Red Skull stole Xavier’s brain to appropriate the deceased mutant’s awesome telepathic abilities, his subsequent terrorist outrages were halted by a new team of Avengers: one formed by Captain America and S.H.I.E.L.D. to counter the rising tide of inter-species hostility…
Having been born out of one wave of genocidal race-wars, the Sentinel of Liberty was painfully aware that America’s mutant minority had been poorly served – if not actively institutionally discriminated against – and sought to make amends by publicly adopting Xavier’s utopian vision. To that end he convened the high-profile, affirmatively-active Avengers Unity Division, comprising human and mutant heroes working together.
The quintessential Avenger chose former government agent Havok (Cyclops’ brother Alex Summers) to lead the team, which consisted of himself, Thor, Scarlet Witch, Rogue, Wolverine, Sunfire, Wonder Man and the Wasp.
Later, at a press conference inducting the latter two, the group was ambushed by the Grim Reaper and the clash ended with Rogue killing the psychopath in full view of the watching world. In one shocking instant the entire enterprise seemed utterly undermined with all that hard-won pro-mutant progress wasted…
Still reeling from that setback the Unity Division were then thrust into cosmic overdrive as the bewildering rivalry between arch-nemesis Kang the Conqueror and his elder self Immortus resurfaced with the attack of future-reared mutant Dark Messiahs The Apocalypse Twins…
It began in 11th century Scandinavia in 1013AD as youthful rebel Thor was attacked by En Sabah Nur, undying mutant Apocalypse and agent of the all-powerful Space Gods dubbed Celestials.
The grotesque creature sought to safeguard the future by promoting the triumph of only the very strongest mutants, and his defeat of the arrogant Thunderer compelled the shamed godling to accept the aid of his malevolent half-brother Loki who “found†a spell which transformed Thor’s battleaxe JarnBjorn into a weapon capable of rending even Celestial defenses…
Apocalypse was being guided in his seemingly random attacks by former enemy Pharaoh Rama-Tut (another incarnation of Kang) who advocated pre-emptive strikes on certain beings: those whose descendents would one day unite to resist the mutant advocate of Survival of the Fittest: the ancestors of a group called Avengers…
Thor’s hunt for revenge took him to medieval London just as En Sabah Nur attacked the next name on Rama-Tut’s list; a near-feral warrior named Folkbern Logan…
The Pagan soldier was battling Apocalypse’s Four Horsemen when Thor – wielding JarnBjorn – arrived. After saving Logan, destroying the servants and grievously wounding Apocalypse, Thor returned to Asgard and Odin’s fury, even as somewhere in time Apocalypse realised he has been a gulled puppet of Rama-Tut…
The real winner was Kang who quietly commandeered JarnBjorn: a weapon even Space Gods could not endure…
In our present, Apocalypse had been recently killed. Many creatures attempted to replace him as mutant messiah/exterminator of humanity and on solar-orbiting Starcore Station his son Genocide petitioned the Celestials to accept him as their new agent.
Celestials are a crucial component in the mechanics of the cosmos; their only interest being the raw, unstoppable processes of evolution. The Apocalypse Twins then exercised their claim by using JarnBjorn to achieve the impossible, executing the previously-omnipotent Celestial Gardener: thereby endangering the very fabric of existence…
Having successfully defended Rogue from murder charges at a S.H.I.E.L.D. hearing, Havok attempted to keep her busy – and out of sight – by sending her after Magneto when news arrived that The Peak (Earth’s early warning space station) was under attack.
The Scarlet Witch’s relationship with Wonder Man had been strained ever since she killed and resurrected him, and the traumatised energy being had reacted in many odd ways. For one thing he became a pacifist, willing to help the team in every way possible except by fighting…
The Avengers were unable to save The Peak from the Twins, who crashed the station on Rio de Janeiro. Although Thor and Sunfire saved the city from utter obliteration the rest of the team were far more concerned with a secret freshly uncovered: Wolverine’s role in the death of the Twin’s birth-father, X-Man and Archangel Warren Worthington…
The Twins are mainly reacting to years of cruel deceit. Raised by Kang in time-warped isolation in a private concentration camp in 4145AD, Eimin and Uriel eventually deduced their patron’s motives were self-serving and resolved only to trust each other whilst saving their species…
To that end the adult Apocalypse Twins constituted their own squad of Horsemen to winnow humanity and its heroes. These latest heralds of Mutant Rapture and human Armageddon were not the bio-engineered living creatures Apocalypse preferred, though. Eimin and Uriel instead opted for a quartet of dead apostles – Sentry, Banshee, Daken and Grim Reaper – to pave their way to mutant ascendancy…
When Immortus informed Captain America of the plot and the ghastly consequences should the Twins win the war to control all times, spaces and realities, he also included details of Wolverine’s murderous past and the Unity team split over issues of philosophy and pragmatism…
Thus Havok was hard-pressed to keep the heroes united before the onslaught of the Twins’ zombie Horsemen, everyone a remorseless killer with deep emotional ties to the heroes who died at the hands of Avengers…
The squad split up to tackle the Apocalypse agents, but the attacks were only intended to mask the Twins’ secret agenda: compelling the reality-shredding Scarlet Witch to use her world-warping powers to bring about their long-desired ascendancy by triggering the Mutant Rapture…
Collecting Uncanny Avengers #12-17 (published November 2013 to April 2014), this timeless confection kicks everything into chaos and calamity as, following a trenchant glimpse at the twins’ harrowing formative years under Kang’s oversight, Earth’s mutant defenders experience the first rumblings of a Big Change.
On the orbiting Apocalypse Ark, Eimin and Uriel deftly work their wiles on Wanda and Simon Williams, urging her to cast a reality-warping spell to save all Homo Superior beings, utilising Wonder Man’s ionic energy to fuel the change. The guilty lovers are resolved to resist but don’t know what kind of creatures they are dealing with…
Down in the city of Socotra, Havok, Captain America and the Wasp attempt to destroy a Tachyon Dam preventing Immortus from delivering reinforcements from the corridors of history but are attacked by the revenant Banshee even as, far above them, Simon and Wanda discuss the Rapture.
All the Twins intend is to use the Witch to teleport every mutant on Earth into the ark which will then take them all to Jupiter where they can carve out their own world in peaceful isolation. Where’s the harm in that?
…And in a distant future Kang’s reality starts to crumble around him…
As Cap and Co continue their struggle against Banshee, on a far distant world Thor is fully engaged in saving the inhabitants from waves of gamma lava, but whilst the Apocalypse Twins further entreat and beguile Wanda and Simon, in the bowels of their vessel undead Daken tortures his captive father Wolverine with horrific physical abuse and a crushing catalogue of the Canadian Champion’s many murderous bad decisions…
Having left her companions to deal with Banshee, Wasp’s assault on the Tachyon Dam is interrupted by Sentry. The most powerful hero on Earth when he was alive, he is now even stronger thanks to the malign tinkering of the Twins.
Cap and Havok then uncover a possible way to defeat the seemingly unbeatable Eimin and Uriel, as Sunfire and Rogue rescue the nigh-expired Wolverine and decide that, whatever the cost, Wanda must never be allowed to alter existence again…
As waves of change unmake entire future eras, ‘The Day Nor the Hour’ finds Kang extracting key warriors from each expiring epoch, gathering his own army of retaliation, whilst in the Ark, Simon and Wanda prepare to usher in the Mutant Rapture. Hurtling towards them with death in their hearts Rogue and Sunfire have no idea that their fellow Avengers have their own secret plan to thwart the Twins and not even the last-minute arrival of Wolverine is enough to prevent a horrific triple tragedy…
With casualties mounting ‘Rapture’ begins and all over Earth mutants fade away, reintegrating in hibernation coffins deep within the Twins’ ship, revealing that Eimin and Uriel had anticipated Wanda’s duplicity and taken steps to counteract her plan.
Elsewhere the Wasp is outmanoeuvring Sentry when Thor arrives to seal the monster’s fate, whilst in space Captain America and Havok boldly attack the Twins head on before ultimate disaster arrives in the planet-sized form of Exitar, the Celestials’ official executioner and sentient Extinction Event.
When Thor and Wasp join their surviving comrades aboard ship, the sidereal colossus – reacting to the personal threat of enchanted Jarnbjorn – decrees that Earth must die…
‘Yesterday Didn’t Exist’ opens as Immortus’ legion of heroes, still trapped on the other side of the Tachyon barrier, anxiously await their chance to reinforce the Avengers whilst on embattled Earth-in-the-now, Tony Stark, Doctor Doom and the Vision rally an army of metahumans – good and evil – to forestall Exitar’s cataclysmic death sentence.
Learning too late from the Wasp how the Twins framed mankind for killing Celestials, the assembled champions battle on with desperation as far above the Unity Avengers fight valiantly but inexorably fall to the mutant messiahs.
With grim finality everything ends as the Apocalypse Twins intended as ‘Ragnarok Now’ depicts the destruction of Earth and the heartbreak of its only survivor…
To Be Continued?
Scripted by Rick Remender and limned by Steve McNiven, John Dell, Jay Leisten & Dexter Vines (with Daniel Acuña illustrating #13) this spectacular if somewhat convoluted saga may be a bit daunting for casual readers, but dedicated followers of cosmic Costumed Dramas will no doubt adore the fantastic premise and blockbusting scope of events.
With covers-&-variants by John Cassaday & Laura Martin, Leonel Castellani, McNiven, Justin Ponsor & Davew McCaig, this titanic tome also includes a selection of extra content in the form of AR icon sections with trailers, character bios, creator commentaries and oodles more. The Marvel Augmented Reality App pages grant access to story bonuses once you download the little dickens – free from marvel.com – onto your smart-phone or Android-enabled tablet, so for the Full Monty you should do that too, right?
™ & © 2013 and 2014 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.