Mighty Avengers 14 flashback redux

Post by **robfj** » Fri Jan 29, 2016 5:55 pm

The thread 'Mighty Avengers 14 flashback' is locked, but I have reservations about 1 of its conclusions. It discusses 2 of the fbs in that issue. I have no problem with the placement of Sentry's involvement with Skrulls and the FF. But I do wonder about the Skrull meeting on p10-14.

The Skrulls talk about letting "the Hulk situation and the Registration Act situation come to a boil". Russ Chappell dismisses the idea that the Hulk situation is World War Hulk because Pagon/Elektra is at the meeting and she's dead before that. But he takes the Registration Act situation to mean the Civil War and so puts the fb between CW and WWH.

To me waiting for the Registration Act situation to come to a boil sounds more like before CW rather than after it, when they're still haggling over the Bill which creates the Act.

My concern is that the main topic of the Skrull meeting is what to do about the Sentry. Jarvis tells them about Sentry's alternate personality the Void, and suggests they use that to tip him back into insanity. In p8-9 Tony Stark gave Jarvis full access to the Avengers database, where his 1st act was to learn about the Sentry's weakness. This scene has several panels and bits of dialogue that match up with New Avengers 15, which is where you have it located. It makes sense to me that the Skrull meeting in the following pages should happen fairly soon after this fb.

As it happens the Registration Bill issues Amazing Spider-Man #529-531 are placed among the pages of the Illuminati 1-shot that deal with sending Hulk into space, along with the actual Hulk issues themselves. These happen after NA 15. All this is shown explicitly in Iron Man's sequence:-
NA 15 (1 - 9)
MA 14-FB
NA 15 (10 - 22)
....
ASM 528
NA:ILLUM 1 (12 - 13)-FB
[CW:C 1-FB]
ASM 529
NA:ILLUM 1 (14 - 22)-FB
IH3 91-FB-BTS
IH3 92-FB
ASM 530
NA:ILLUM 1
ASM 531

We could place the Skrull meeting soon after this complex. But I could also argue that the Bill was brewing before Tony Stark was called to Washington in the ASM issues. Indeed Maria Hill talks about something like this in NA:ILLUM 1 (12 - 13)-FB, and Stark was planning on getting Peter Parker's support in ASM 528. So we could put the Skrull meeting before these things.

The Illuminati fbs quote the trigger for the Bill as Hulk's rampage in Las Vegas a month earlier in FF 533-535, and this could be the Hulk situation that the Skrulls refer to. I think that makes more sense than the only other option I can think of, that shooting the Hulk into space broke up the Illuminati, which the Skrulls wouldn't know about (they hadn't replaced Black Bolt yet).

Mr Fantastic's sequence puts these FF issues between FOUR 28 and FNSM 4. Luckily these are both in IM's sequence as well
FOUR 28
M/KSM 20
FNSM 3
M/KSM 21
ASM 527
FNSM 4
M/KSM 22
ASM 528
which gives me a narrow range for the meeting before the ASM/ILLUM complex.

M/KSM 20 to ASM 528 are all part of the continuous Other story arc, including of course FNSM 4. This suggests that the Hulk fight in FF 533-535 must fit between FOUR 28 and M/KSM 20.

Veranke/Spider-Woman and the Jarvis Skrull are both in
FNSM 3
M/KSM 21
ASM 527
FNSM 4
M/KSM 22
and Criti Noll/Henry Pym is in FNSM 4 as well. Which really only gives me a choice of putting the MA 14 Skrull meeting just before or just after that group. I'd opt for afterwards, to give both 'situations' a little time to heat up.

This is still some time after NA 15, but maybe these Skrull conferences are difficult to arrange (everybody's diaries are so full).

The detailed changes would be:-

SPIDER-WOMAN IMPOSTER/VERANKE
Current:-
....
FNSM 4
M/KSM 22
BP4 16
TG2 8-FB
....
FSON:IM
CA5 26
MA 14 (10 - 12)-FB move from here
MA 17
SECINV:FF 3-FB
....
Changed to:-
....
FNSM 4
M/KSM 22
MA 14 (10 - 12)-FB moved to here
BP4 16
TG2 8-FB
....
FSON:IM
CA5 26
MA 17
SECINV:FF 3-FB
....
Note that in IM's sequence BP4 16 is some time after the ASM/Illum set.

JARVIS, EDWIN IMPOSTER
Current:-
....
FNSM 4
M/KSM 22
TG2 1
SENSM2 23-BTS
....
CW:I
FSON:IM
MA 14 (10 - 12)-FB move from here
SECINV:FF 3-FB
MA 4
....
Changed to:-
....
FNSM 4
M/KSM 22
MA 14 (10 - 12)-FB moved to here
TG2 1
SENSM2 23-BTS
....
CW:I
FSON:IM
SECINV:FF 3-FB
MA 4
....
Note by a coincidence IM is also in TG2 1 to confirm it too is (just) after ASM/ILLUM.

ELEKTRA IMPOSTER II/PAGON
Current:-
....
{NA 1}
NA 45
DD2 77
DD2 78
DD2 79
DD2 80
DD2 88-BTS
MA 14-FB move from here
NA 27
NA 28
....
Changed to:-
....
{NA 1}
NA 45
MA 14-FB moved to here
DD2 77
DD2 78
DD2 79
DD2 80
DD2 88-BTS
NA 27
NA 28
....

DE FONTAINE, LA CONTESSA VALENTINA ALLEGRO IMPOSTER III
NA 42
NA 41-FB
NA 45
MA 14-FB
SECINV:DC
{UJ2 1}
....
doesn't need any changes because SECINV:DC, being after Captain America's assassination, is well beyond my required position.

YELLOWJACKET IMPOSTER/CRITI NOLL
is in an anomalous state. You don't have him listed for this issue (or his successor Criti Noll II). But there's a yellow-haired guy at the meeting who's certainly given a lot of lines. And Marvel Wiki, comicbookdb and Grand Comics Database all list him as being in this issue (and he isn't on any other pages except the Skrull meeting).
So we just need to add an entry for him:-
....
NTB 14
FNSM 4
MA 14-FB added
SH2 7
TG2 8-FB
TG2 8
....
We know it has to be after FNSM 4 to agree with Veranke and Jarvis. And SH2 7 (which for some reason in the issue search is known as S-H4 7) has Hercules appearing after TG2 6, which is after TG2 1 which Jarvis places beyond our target position.

Notice that the positioning of MA 14-FB in the Skrull sequences boils down to placing it between M/KSM 22 and TG2 1. This actually allows it to fall anywhere within IM's sequence:-
M/KSM 22
ASM 528
NA:ILLUM 1 (12 - 13)-FB
[CW:C 1-FB]
ASM 529
NA:ILLUM 1 (14 - 22)-FB
IH3 91-FB-BTS
IH3 92-FB
ASM 530
NA:ILLUM 1
ASM 531
FNSM 7
TG2 1
The exact position makes no difference to the Skrull chronologies, and neither Iron Man nor any other non-Skrull will have this entry in their lists. So the exact position would only matter to an updated Calendar.