Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
Date: Monday, 13 Apr 1992 08:44:48 CDT
From: <U16244@uicvm.uic.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics
Subject: Ultron's Last Stand

Here's a plot my friend Chris Krolczyk and I have been working on for the
Avengers for the past few weeks.  I hope that you like it, since it's the
last bows for quite a few characters that we consider deadwood for the series.

Avengers West Coast: On His Majesty's Blackmailed Service.
James Gyrich returns to the pages of the Avengers, only this time on his
own.  He's been trying to gather information that can blackmail the Avengers,
and discovers the existence of the Grim Reaper.  Since his position as an
agent has been threatened by earlier activities (namely taking Storm's powers
away) he has been ousted and placed on permanent leave.  Gyrich barges in on
the AWC and tells them that the President has word that the Grim Reaper is
about to engage in a new killing spree and wants the Avengers to destroy
the Reaper once and for all.   At the same time, the Reaper has been called
by Ultron (once again) and this time, Ultron really boosts the Reaper's power.
He infuses the Reaper's body with Adamantium (secondary), and enhances the
Reaper's strength to a full SHC 75.
     USAgent, out on Patrol, is ambushed by the Reaper.  Agent actually manages
to hold his own against the Reaper by using the acrobatic skills he learned
from Taskmaster until the Reaper tries to nail him dead to rights with his
scythe blaster.  Agent whips up his shield, but discovers that Ultron
has increased the power of the blaster to penetrate secondary adamantium.  Half
his torso shorn off, USAgent swiftly dies.  The closer to the issue is Agent's
impaled skull found at the AWC headquarters.

Avengers East Coast: Reap the Reaper.
Avengers East Coast gets word of the assassination of USAgent and rushes to
AWC's side.  Hank Pym decides that it's time to bring out the big guns and
dons a spare Yellowjacket uniform.  The Wasp also throws her hand into the
pot, and a few reservists are also called in (namely She Hulk and Captain
Marvel).  Gyrich starts boasting that he should be the leader of the Avengers
Strikeforce against the Reaper and dons a silly commando outfit that makes
him look like a second rate Cable.   The Reaper appears once again, in full
battle regalia and makes his entrance by bellyflopping into AWC's war room.
Black Knight is the first to attack, and the Reaper slugs him, breaking his
jaw and hurtling him backwards.  Gyrich opens fire on the Reaper with a plasma
rifle and ends his existence as a mass of scorched, floating atoms.
(Subplot note: For the past several issues, Wasp and Black Knight have been
dropping hints to each other that they're interested in getting married.
Pym, thrown into a depression by this- along with the rest of his second-rate
career (his words, not mine)- decides to throw himself into improving his
actual technology.)  Hercules moves in, boasting about his prowess in combat
and starts knocking the Reaper around.  Thor moves in on the side, telling
Herc to shut the fuck up for once, and Herc turns his head, telling Thor to
stick his head up his own ass.  At which  point, the Reaper impales Herc and
drains his life force into himself.  Hercules shrieks as his soul is
devoured, and the Reaper pumps one more pulse through him to make sure that
this loud-mouth doesn't come back.  Incinerated, Herc  dies.  Thor smashes
the Reaper a few times, but pulls back after getting a couple deep, but
non-fatal wounds.  The other Avengers recover from the bellyflop in time to
see the Reaper take off like a mo-fo, with Simon in hot pursuit.

Wonder Man: The Final Reckoning.
Pym takes off in a heavily armed quinjet, running strafing runs as the rest
of the Avengers pop their distance attacks against the now, almost
invulnerable Reaper.  Reaper takes a shot at the quinjet and tears a hole
in its side.  Pym gets out of town as Yellowjacket and lands a distance away
from the battle, where he is cut down by an energy blast that the rest of
the Avengers notice. (However, they're still busy trying to roast the Reaper.)
The Wasp, thinking that the Reaper killed Hank, rushes up at full speed, just
large enough to touch both eyeballs with both arms outstretched, and she
fires a contact energy blast that vaporizes one eye and boosts the other
out of its socket.  Berserk, the Reaper tries to slice Jan in half, but
Cap and Thor launch their shield and hammer at full strength at odd angles.
Both connect on different points of the scythe and snap it like a twig.
Jan escapes and Simon is now free to plow into the Reaper.  He beseeches Eric
to stop, and that he can be cured, but Eric snarls, grabs a bystander, and
shreds him like a paperback novel.  Simon, disgusted, grabs him by his
lower jaw, and leaps straight up for about ten miles (Estimate of Simon's
leaping ability with a 700 pound object).  Then Simon spikes the Reaper
into the ground like a football at the epoch of his leap.  Thor grabs him
and brings him back down to Earth.  The Reaper lands in a natural gas refinery
that is swiftly turned into a blossoming fireball.
Through this, the Reaper is still alive, but now, he's just  a jello mold
with fragments of bone swimming around.  Simon washes his hands of the whole
thing and the Reaper is put on display.
Hank, still barely alive after Jan rushed to his aid, dies in her arms without
a speech, merely an attempt to caress her cheek and saying "I'm sorry."

That's all for now.  Part II of this posting will come tomorrow when I
have a little more time.  Be warned that the best is yet to come.

Doug.