Product Code Database
Avengers Forever is a twelve-issue comic book limited series published from December 1998 to November 1999 by Marvel Comics. It follows the storyline of Rick Jones and his quest to build a team of Avengers from the past, present, and future. The series was written by Kurt Busiek and Roger Stern and drawn by Carlos Pacheco and Jesus Merino. In 2021, a new Avengers Forever series was released, following the character Ghost Rider.
Rick is saved by Kang the Conqueror (who is destined to evolve into Immortus), who destroys Tempus and holds off Immortus' temporal army. The Supreme Intelligence urges Rick to use the Destiny Force to summon aid. With the help of former Zodiac member Libra, Rick pulls various members of the superhero team Avengers from the past, present, and future. The team consists of a disillusioned Captain America, who is pulled from an adventure in which he discovers Richard Nixon is the leader of the Secret Empire; Captain America #176 (August 1974). Marvel Comics. Hank Pym from a time when he is mentally unbalanced and unaware that he is Hank Pym; Avengers #59 (December 1968). Marvel Comics. Hawkeye from just after the conclusion of the Kree–Skrull War and war against Olympus; Avengers #88–100 (May 1971 – June 1972). Marvel Comics. Giant-Man (also Hank Pym) and Wasp from the present; Avengers #4 (vol. 3, May 1997). Marvel Comics. Songbird from an unspecified time in the near future; and Genis-Vell from further in the future.
Although these Avengers appear almost randomly selected, Libra states that they have been chosen due to his subtle awareness of the universal balance, each one fulfilling an eventually clarified role in events:
During their efforts to protect Rick, the Avengers battle Immortus across several different eras, including encounters in the American Old West with the Two-Gun Kid, the Phantom Rider, the Ringo Kid, the Rawhide Kid, Kid Colt, and the Gunhawks, as well as an alternate version of the Avengers from the 1950s, and a confrontation to thwart an alien invasion in a possible future. During their searches, they discover that Immortus possesses the Forever Crystal, an artifact that can control multiple realities. Kang aids the Avengers as part of his 'rebellion' against his apparent destiny, and reveals that Immortus serves a trio of entities called the Time Keepers, with his previous interactions with the team having been motivated by an effort to keep humanity limited to prevent them from developing into a threat to the universe. These entities eventually reveal that, in various futures, mankind will travel into space and establish the warlike Terran Empire, an interstellar dictatorship policed by the Galactic Avengers Battalion and ruled by humans with access to the Destiny Force, which will thrive at the cost of many alien cultures. A future version of the Avengers will apparently be at the forefront of the expansion, but the Avengers reject the idea that mankind must be destroyed or contained to prevent these futures' happening, with Captain America and Songbird arguing that humanity deserves a chance to show that it can be better rather than being condemned for things that have not happened yet.
Kang aids the Avengers and, in the final battle, kills the Time Keepers when they attempt to punish Immortus for failing. The Avengers resolve to strike against the Time Keepers even after they learn their enemies' motives, arguing that the Time Keepers only seek to eliminate those that might threaten them, when they do not even attempt to erase themselves, despite the existence of alternate timelines where they themselves became the Time Twisters. During a mass conflict where the Time-Keepers unleash the Avengers of the corrupted timelines against an army of Avengers drawn from the worlds where they remained true to their original purpose, the Time Keepers attempt to force Kang to become Immortus after they kill the future Immortus for his attempt to protect the Avengers. However, Kang's strength of will and the unique temporal conditions of the conflict results in a temporal backlash, culminating in Kang and Immortus being recreated as separate beings. When Rick is injured using the Destiny Force to destroy the Time-Keepers' equipment, Captain Marvel merges with Rick to save his life—the link with Marvel's future self resulting in Rick being unintentionally linked to Marvel's present self when he, Giant-Man, and the Wasp return to their present—and all the Avengers are returned to their respective timelines with a lingering memory of the incident. Avengers Forever #1 – 12 (December 98 – November 99). Marvel Comics.
|
|
