In every installment of Abandoned Love we will be examining comic book stories, plots and ideas that were abandoned by a later writer without actively retconnng away the previous story. Feel free to e-mail me at brianc@cbr.com if you have any suggestions for future editions of this feature.
Today, based on a suggestion by longtime reader Fraser S., we look at how the uncertainty of the ending of the Korvac Saga was ultimately undone in favor of the Avengers being certain of their actions.
The storyline that we now know of as “The Korvac Saga” (written by Jim Shooter, with David Michelinie scripting most of the issues – the art was by George Perez on most of it, but Dave Wenzel on the last couple of issues. Pablo Marcos inked it all) was one of a number of stories that Jim Shooter has written over the years about the nature of unlimited power. Essentially, the question is whether the adage, “Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely” is correct or not. Shooter has addressed this idea in stories featuring Molecule Man, The Beyonder and Solar, Man of the Atom. The first major time he addressed it, though, was during the Avengers epic storyline that involved Korvac, an old foe of the Guardians of the Galaxy, who went back in time to our present and gained the Power Cosmic. He traveled to Earth with the ultimate goal to turn the world into a utopia. The Guardians followed Korvac to the past. Meanwhile, the Collector was also studying Korvac and even sent his daughter, Carina, to seduce Korvac as the Collector is worried about him. She, though, falls in love with Korvac (now calling himself “Michael”). The Guardian of the Galaxy known as Starhawk found Korvac and they battled and Korvac killed him, but then revived him and made it so that he could not see Korvac. The Collector then tried to capture the Avengers to protect them from Korvac. When Korvac found out about this, he killed the Collector.
Okay, so the Avengers track him down to his home in Forest Hills, Queens, where he lives with Carina. They seem like normal humans (since his powers allow him to disguise his power). So the Avengers are all, “Eh, nothing to see here” until Starhawk notices that they’re all talking to an empty space, since he can’t see Korvac. This, of course, tips off the secret. And Korvac sadly announces that now that he has been discovered, he’s going to have to kill them…
Okay, so Korvac ends up killing most of the Avengers, including the Wasp, even, which is shocking, considering that the Wasp was able to defeat the X-Men single-handedly. However, Carina doubts his intentions and so when he is being blasted by Starhawk, Vision, Iron Man and Thor, he decides to just kill himself because she broke his heart by not believing in him (before he dies, he resurrects all the fallen Avengers). Carina goes nuts and then the Avengers have to fight her, and ultimately she begs for Thor to just end her, so Thor kills her.
Then, Moondragon, the sometime-Avenger, who was hanging out the whole time, pops up to tell Thor that they did a BAD thing here, but she’ll erase their memories so that they think that this was a more traditional hero vs. villain battle.
Whether you agree with Moondragon or not, it was an interesting degree of uncertainty to enter into the discussion. Bold stuff by Shooter.
So, of course, that uncertainty couldn’t stand…