Destiny War

Latest revision as of 12:11, 6 February 2025

The Destiny War is a conflict that features in Marvel Comics.

History

The Destiny War was a conflict Kang the Conqueror and his future self Immortus. Immortus was tasked by the Time-Keepers to alter the destiny of the human race and prevent them from traveling beyond their solar system. If this happened, then humans would conquer the universe with help from the Avengers. Immortus had to stop the Avengers. If he didn't, the Time Keepers would destroy not only the Avengers but the human race and the Earth as well. (Avengers Forever v1 #8)

Immortus discovered that the root of this dark future was that of long time Avengers ally Rick Jones whose Destiny Force powers were beginning to resurface. Immortus decided to solve this problem by slaying Jones. At that time, Jones was left on the Blue Area of the Moon by the Avengers to be examined by the Supreme Intelligence of the Kree Empire. Immortus initially sent his agent Tempus to eliminate the boy, but he found opposition from the Intelligence, Libra, and his own past self Kang the Conqueror -- who was trying once again to thwart his destiny of becoming Immortus. Immortus responded in kind by sending a massive army of warriors from different eras to try and kill the boy. Jones himself managed to fight by using his Destiny Force powers to summon a group of Avengers from various times, including Captain America from the past, two versions of Henry Pym (Yellowjacket from the past and Giant Man from the present), the Wasp from the present, Hawkeye from the past, and Captain Marvel and Songbird from the future. (Avengers Forever v1 #1)

Immortus was forced to retreat when the Avengers were able to fight off his army and Jones accessed the full power of the Destiny Force. Immortus then decided to attempt another angle to strike and attacked Kang's home realm of Chronopolis. (Avengers Forever v1 #2) The Avengers were there as well, but they failed to stop Immortus from slaying Terminatrix and the Anachronauts. Kang forces the heroes and Jones to flee into the timestream while he stayed behind to face Immortus and his forces. Immortus eventually captured the Heart of Forever and use it to convert all of Chronopolis into the Forever Crystal, a powerful chronal device that allowed Immortus the ability to wipe out entire universes and prune the timeline according to the will of his masters. (Avengers Forever v1 #3) The Avengers escape the destruction of Chronopolis using Kang's replica Sphinx time-machine. The two Hank Pyms were able to determine that the time-machine dashboard was detecting three "chronal anomalies." Surmising these as potential hot spots of Immortus' activities, the Avengers break off into mini-squads. Utilizing Kang's smaller Chronosphere modules, they investigated with a sense of the "upper hand", believing Immortus did not suspect them. Staying behind and out of reach, Rick reluctantly becomes "home base". (Avengers Forever v1 #4) The first step Immortus took was to complete the final deception in his original plan to manipulate the Vision and the Scarlet Witch. He traveled back in time following the battle between the original Human Torch and his modern day counterpart. He then used the Forever Crystal to split the timestream, creating two versions of the Torch. One was taken by the robot Ultron to be transformed into the Vision and the other taken by the Mad Thinker who used the Torch's corpse to capture and enslave his partner Toro. This was to prevent Scarlet Witch, a Nexus being, from having children that could possibly become powerful enough to threaten the timestream. (Avengers Forever v1 #8)

Immortus next traveled to the 1950s of Earth-9904 a reality that was on the brink of invasion by the alien Skrulls, who had one of their agents posing as Richard Nixon. A mini-squad consisting of Wasp and Captain Marvel followed Immortus to that era leading to a clash with that realities version of the Avengers. (Avengers: Forever v1 #4) However, after a brief clash, the heroes agreed to work together to stop Immortus. Immortus revealed the Skrull spy's deception and obliterates the reality with the Forever Crystal. Only the Wasp and Captain Marvel managed to escape back into the timestream. (Avengers: Forever v1 #5) Another mini-squad consisting of Giant Man and Captain America went to Earth-9930, which was set in the first half of the 21st-century. Arriving in war-torn Manhattan, Cap swiftly lends aid to the people on the street fending off an alien invasion. Cap and Giant Man soon meet up with the Avengers of that world being led by an aging Black Panther. (Avengers: Forever v1 #4) Giant-Man and Captain America fight alongside the Avengers against the overwhelming alien invasion. (Avengers: Forever v1 #5) After forcing the invaders to retreat, the heroes travel to Wakanda to use its vibranium to build a small fleet of attack ships to take the fight against the Martians to Mars itself. After a brief fight with Mourning Prey and numerous insectoid children, the vibranium is obtained. Cap and Giant Man later returned to the timestream. (Avengers: Forever v1 #6)

The last mini-squad consisting of Hawkeye, Songbird, and Yellowjacket arrived in Arizona during the year 1873 on Earth-616. Disguised in clothing of the era, the trio head into town to find what appeared to be Kang The Conqueror harassing Old West gun-fighting heroes Rawhide Kid, Kid Colt, and Two-Gun Kid. Through some quick realization, Songbird removes her party from the scene, clarifying that they are witnessing a previous Avengers adventure. (Avengers v1 #142) Rationalizing that the scenario will be resolved through its natural course of events, they return to the nearby cave where the Chronosphere is stashed only to find it missing. (Avengers: Forever v1 #4) Suddenly, a cackling hologram of the alternate Kang actively contending in this era taunts the heroes, detonating an explosive collapse of the cavern. Using her solid-sound powers, Songbird saves her teammates. They quickly get the attention of a trio of horse-backed gunfighters appearing to be the Black Rider and the Gunhawks: Reno Jones and Kid Cassidy. The gunfighters later turn out to be Immortus' Space Phantoms in disguise. (Avengers: Forever v1 #5) After defeating the Space Phantoms, the three heroes decide to go back into Tombstone to get their Chronosphere back. The trio stumble upon a battle between Two-Gun Kid and Kid's assembled group of costumed gunmen against Kang. Kid would later be helped by another group of Avengers. (Avengers v1 #142) The heroes get their Chronosphere back despite a Space Phantom trying to thwart them by disguising himself as Songbird. (Avengers: Forever v1 #6)

The war was ignited when Immortus sends his servant Tempus to kill an apparently critically ill Rick Jones on the moon. Immortus knows that what is killing Rick is the 'Destiny Force', a powerful ability that manifested in him once before, during the Kree-Skrull War)

Rick has been brought to the Kree Supreme Intelligence, who was on the Earth moon and had agreed to examine him. Kang intervenes and the Intelligence causes Rick to use the Destiny Force to call a team of Avengers to him. The team members he calls are plucked from various points in the time stream. They cause Immortus' forces to withdraw before they could fufill their plan.

The team gathered consists of various members taken from different eras. Captain America has been plucked from just after his 1974 adventure (Captain America #176) where he discovered that the leader of the Secret Empire was a high ranking government official. The moment before he is teleported he had witnessed the leader he had been pursuing commit suicide with a pistol in the Oval Office, causing him great emotional distress. Yellowjacket has been taken from the early 1970s when his alter ego, Hank Pym, was mentally unbalanced. Giant-Man (also Hank Pym, but more adjusted) and the Wasp are both plucked from the "present" (1998) Marvel continuity. Hawkeye has been taken from circa Avengers #100 continuity, while Songbird and Captain Marvel are taken from an apparently alternative future.

Kang battles Immortus. Cover to Avengers Forever #3. Art by Carlos Pacheco.In the course of their investigations, which take them to various points in time and Limbo, the Avengers learn that Immortus is serving beings called the Time Keepers. The Keepers know that mankind will eventually go into space and establish the Terran Empire. This will involve wars and the destruction of many alien peoples, with the Avengers at the forefront of the invasions on the grounds of "pacification". The Keepers have charged Immortus with preventing such a disastrous future or else humanity will have to be destroyed. Since Immortus admires the Avengers he resolves to manipulate them and thus delay mankind's space efforts.

At the conclusion, Rick and the Avengers fight by the side of Libra, Kang and the Supreme Intelligence against Immortus and the Time Keepers. The Time Keepers kill Immortus for his failures, and attempt to accelerate Kang into Immortus; however, Kang perseveres and defeats the Time Keepers. Rick burns himself out stopping their plan, and Kang proceeds to kill the Time Keepers. Immortus then splits off from Kang, meaning Kang would never become Immortus. Rick merges with Genis-Vell, the third Captain Marvel, to save his life, and he and all the Avengers return to their original time periods with varying degrees of memory as to what they had been involved in.

Overview

As a result of the Destiny War, Rick Jones' injuries were cured (he had been unable to walk), Immortus was separated from Kang's future (Kang was previously destined to become Immortus), and Genis-Vell was reintroduced into an active role as Captain Marvel in addition to bonding with Rick Jones. It also featured a considerable number of alternative futures and versions of Marvel characters, as well as some changes in the timeline.

Participants

• Immortus :
• Tempus :
• Kang the Conqueror :
• Libra :
• Rick Jones :

Notes

• The Destiny War was created by Kurt Busiek, Roger Stern and Carlos Pacheco where it made its first appearance in Avengers Forever v1 #1 (October, 1998).

Appearances

• Avengers Forever v1: (1998)

External Links

• Marvel Database Entry

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