The Thanos Imperative #5

*** (three of five stars)

Favorite Quote:  "Mar-Vell!"  "Thanos!"  "Oh @#$%!"  -- Thanos, Mar-Vell, and Star-Lord

Summary

The Guardians are faltering under the Revengers' onslaught, and Mantis orders Thanos to remove himself from the fray, something he (shocker) refuses to do.  The Scarlet Witch makes her way to a dying Vision and, apologizing for the harm that was done to him, proceeds to take out the Revengers.  (Evil Captain America tells her that the Many-Angled Ones will flay her soul, to which she responds, "Oh, I know they will.  I chose the side I believe in long ago.  I will accept the consequences.")  The Guardians are suspicious of Wanda's change of heart, but Vision confirms that she has been working for the Machine Resistance from the start and beseeches them to trust her.  Thanos asks her to take him to the site where the necropsy was performed, something she can do by exhausting her powers (leaving her vulnerable to Mar-Vell and the Revengers).  She agrees, accepting her coming torment, and sends the Guardians and Thanos to the Cancerverse's version of Sanctuary.  In "our" reality, Quasar has saved the assembled heroes (including Major Victory and Namorita) from the destruction of Sanctuary by encasing them in a shielded bubble.  Nova uses his powers to jump them to the frontline of the Fault, where Medusa and the Allied Council inform them that they are quickly losing the battle, with another round of even more powerful beings than the Galactus Engine preparing to cross behind the Cancerverse's vanguard.  Nova informs the group that Star-Lord took Thanos into the Cancerverse, and the Council decries his acting without its approval.  The Council decides to fight the Cancerverse directly and not risk trying to find the Guardians and Thanos in the Cancerverse.  Nova refuses to participate and deputizes Quasar into the Corps to lead the Nova rookies in his absence.  In the Cancerverse, the team arrives at the remains of Sanctuary and Thanos prepares for the ceremony.  However, the Revengers arrive and battle erupts.  In "our" Universe, Nova watches the message Star-Lord sent him before the team left for the Cancerverse, informing him that Major Victory should be able to send him directly to where they are.  Nova says good-bye to Namorita and departs.  In the Cancerverse, Thanos betrays the team, asking Mar-Vell to give him the release of death and, in exchange, he will give Mar-Vell everything he wants.

The Review

This issue was a good read.  Nothing huge really happens until Thanos' betrayal at the end, since it's mostly just setting up the climatic final battle we'll get next issue.  But, it does that well.

The Good

1) Back in the "Annihilation:  Conquest" arc in "Nova," I praised DnA for their ability to take a character who only appeared for three issues, Ko-Rel, and turn her into a compelling, fully realized character.  So many authors treat these sort of temporary characters -- who exist only to move a certain plot point forward -- as throw-away scenery, rarely taking the time to move them past typical Ensign Jones archetypes.  But, DnA have also excelled at imbuing the most minor character with a personality, and they do it again here with the Scarlet Witch.  Her tragic ending was essentially foretold in the "Realm of Kings" one-shot, but it's no less sad when it becomes fully realized in this issue.  This attention to detail shows why they're the best at what they do.

2) I loved Rich telling Medusa to go @#$% herself.  God, I hate her.  I'm so glad to see someone defy her yet-again poorly considered orders.

3) I totally didn't see Thanos betraying the group coming.  I mean, I knew something had to happen, but I didn't think it would be that.  DnA do a good job of planting the seeds of Thanos' plan throughout the series.  In issue #4, I wondered why he egged on Drax, though it seems like it might have been to test his hypothesis that he couldn't die.  In issue #5, he told Rocket Raccoon that he had to take time to reverse engineer Mar-Vell's spell, but now I'm wondering if he wasn't just stalling to make sure Mar-Vell had a chance to arrive.  It shows just how in charge of the story DNA are.  I'm still not sure, though, how Mar-Vell can deliver death to Thanos, given that death doesn't exist in the Cancerverse, but I'm sure we'll see how that goes next issue.