CSBG Archive
The Abandoned An’ Forsaked – Are Those Really the Scarlet Witch’s Kids?!
All throughout December, we will be examining comic book stories and ideas that were not only abandoned, but also had the stories/plots specifically “overturned” by a later writer (as if they were a legal precedent). Click here for an archive of all the previous editions of The Abandoned An’ Forsaked.
Today we feature the second of three “Abandoned An’ Forsaked” installments where the story in question was “overturned” during Avengers Forever…
Enjoy!
During the Avengers event known as “The Crossing,” a mysterious young woman from the future shows up a lot, along with her “cousins.”
Here is the young woman…
And here are her cousins…
The implication throughout the series is that the young woman is a grown-up version of Luna, the daughter of Avengers Crystal and Quicksilver. This, then, would make her cousins the long-since-lost sons of the Scarlet Witch and the Vision.
However, in Avengers #392 (where the twins first showed up), we are introduced to their “mother.” It is the former Avenger known as Mantis!!
The whole thing was quite confusing and when the Crossing ended, nothing was really explained, including what Mantis was up to.
So in Avengers Forever #8, when Kurt Busiek explained away various inconsistencies in Avengers history, he also explained away the entire Crossing storyline as an attempt by Immortus to distract the Avengers long enough for Onslaught to show up and take them out of the picture (Immortus’ plans all revolved around avoiding a dystopic future where the Avengers become universal tyrants – if the Crossing did not take place to distract them, they would have been compelled to outer space by their new member, Deathcry).
So no, that wasn’t the real Mantis and those kids were perhaps MEANT to appear like they were related to the Scarlet Witch, but they were really just shapeshifting Space Phantoms.
One more “Crossing” abandoned an’ forsaked storyline coming up!
16 Comments
Freyes2011
December 7, 2011 at 5:07 am
Are those pages drawn by Deodato? Why is it that he always ends drawing the all-grown- up children of some main character? Is it the Deodato curse? xD
Troy
December 7, 2011 at 6:35 am
the ’90′sartwork! it burns my eyes!
Thad
December 7, 2011 at 8:23 am
Ha — I love Avengers Forever as housecleaning almost as much as I love it as a story in its own right.
kalorama
December 7, 2011 at 9:24 am
Since I hadn’t actually read most of the stuff it was trying to “fix, “reading Avengers Forever just gave me a migraine. (Beautiful art, though.)
JoeMac307
December 7, 2011 at 12:57 pm
That’s funny, Troy. I had the same reaction!
Ganky
December 7, 2011 at 2:39 pm
So what ever happened to the real kids of Vision and Wanda, as created by Englehart’s run in the Viszh/Witch limited series? I guess they’ve been written out of existence? It’s probably a long, convoluted and stupid story anyway, but I was just wondering.
David
December 7, 2011 at 3:14 pm
Ganky, avoiding spoilers, Wanda’s twins may have been featured in the excellent Young Avengers, and might be the title characters in the follow-up to that series, Avengers: Children’s Crusade.
Jazzbo
December 7, 2011 at 7:56 pm
But they also were written out of existence by John Byrne at one point. So there’s that.
Sijo
December 8, 2011 at 5:12 am
Wait. Why does a Master of Time have to WAIT until an event occurs? Couldn’t he have just sped up Onslaught’s appearance?
Also: I just plain don’t like the idea that idealistic heroes will lead humanity into becoming universal tyrants.
This is definitely one of the (few) Busiek plotlines I haven’t liked.
Paul Penna
December 17, 2011 at 10:41 am
The implication isn’t so much that the Avengers themselves turn evil, but that other members join and over the decades the organisation loses the values it once had and instead becomes a force of oppression.
Alex
December 17, 2011 at 8:47 pm
The Crossing!!
I read a couple issues of that. The ones with Teen Iron man. My lord!
chad
December 17, 2011 at 10:33 pm
always thought the crossing was a mess to begin with including that bit with the boys calling mantis mother instead of suppose to be scarlet witches kids. plus also wondering why kang did not try to either speed up events or knowing what is to happen use his powers to change them.
Gary Miller
December 18, 2011 at 1:52 am
Interestingly, Mantis’ own child was also a character in “The Crossing,” albeit in a somewhat off-camera role. Pretty clearly, if you read the storyline as it originally existed, the enemy Kang and Mantis had banded together to fight was really the Celestial Messiah–her and the Cotati Swordsman’s child, seen here and there across the MU by that point. Also, the Messiah was the one who recruited Skye in the War Machine book to ensure that Rhodey got the Eidolon Warwear when he “lost” his own armor. And did everyone know about the new Avengers book that was canceled before it began and which would have picked up after the finale of Force Works?
Yep, there’s a whole lot more to “The Crossing” than anyone wants to admit out there. A whole lot more about the saga can be found over a 3 part essay here.
~G.
Frank
February 11, 2012 at 11:44 pm
Marvel should hire Kurt to do the same with the whole X-Men history.
brian
February 13, 2012 at 9:53 am
I have a soft spot for The Crossing, although I’m perfectly willing to admit it was a mess.
Still the premise was kind of fun.
What I always thought was that the Celestial Messiah from Englehart’s run (Mantis’ child) ended up being this corrupt/evil entity, and Mantis and Kang had teamed up to defeat it.
It was an interesting spin on the Englehart/Celestial Madonna storyline.
And there were lots of neat little forboding elements in The Crossing.
If you actually read those books at the time, I think it’s pretty clear Marvel was going through an editorial upheavel. Perhaps more of The Crossing would have been explained in subsequent storylines, but that never happened ’cause soon after we got Onslaught and Heroes Reborn.
E. Hobbs
March 2, 2012 at 5:47 am
The Crossing challeged my will to read comics…I made it!