Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Instead of attacking Graviton with the Redeemers, Citizen V runs away and leaves them to fight. Graviton then takes control of Meteorite and hurls her into space. Meanwhile Leila uses Fixer's armor to get her Beetle armor back to her by remote control. She finds out it's going to take a few minutes for her armor to return to her, as the Fixer goes to escape. Graviton watches Fixer leave planning to catch him later. Smuggler then attacks Graviton.
As the Fixer escapes he is knocked to the ground. He finds Moonstone standing over him. She makes him an offer to join her and Graviton.
Meanwhile Graviton has made his way to the sun where the Smuggler body doesn't fare well, and with no shadows the Smuggler has no where to escape to.
Leila's armor lands in front of her as Graviton returns to earth. Graviton sees Meteorite gasping her last seconds of air as he leaves her in space. Leila recounts her past as she suits up in her Beetle armor.
Leila is about to attack when Graviton crushes the Beetle armor several times until it’s a small chunk of metal. M'Reel then arrives with Karla to see what Graviton is doing and the Fixer having taken Moonstones offer introduces himself to Graviton as well.
Earthquakes rock Manhattan and at Avengers Mansion Atlas tries to come back through Dallas' body.
In West Virginia more earthquakes hit causing the transport vehicle carrying Hawkeye and other criminals to go off a hillside road.
More earthquakes come from Mt. Charteris where Graviton is and Burton Canyon suffers more damage. Abe and Melissa brace for the earthquakes and then take a look at the TV, as there is news of major cities around the world having been lifted into the air. Melissa and Abe discuss what to do about what is going on if anything, as Citizen V emerges determined to do something.
Abe -- if we don't stop Graviton -- who will?"
Comments: Graviton massacres The Redeemers. Well it was supposed to be a bloodbath but I still didn't think there would be as much as there was. For some Redeemers I'm not really sad to see them go. Citizen V and Fixer escape so I'm not too disappointed with the massacre since they are interesting characters. Leila receives some attention before Graviton did away with her. I'm just sad that some of the meetings that I wanted to see in the future are unlikely to happen now.
Judging from the use of death in the title so far I don't think all these characters are gone for good and this is just something to propel the characters into another story.
Scream just pop's out of existence and Graviton explains why. Its fairly easy for scream to come back from this, there wasn't much focus on it, and everything isn't known about scream.
Charcoal and Jolt I also think would be candidates for a comeback. This would be Jolt's second within Fabians run though. Is Jolt going to come back in an even worse condition this time too? Charcoal can just reconstruct himself, but that might take awhile as he's reduced to dust.
Meteorite seemingly dies in outer space running out of air. There could always be the possibility of her being rescued by someone/something at the last moment. Otherwise this would be permanent but leaves a potential future story. I don't think I want to see that one unless it's done well.
Smuggler dying by the sun gives him little hope of survival. It would seem cheesier to bring him back then other Redeemers. Its explicit in what happened to him unless he was transported away before his death but I wonder if even that would be acceptable.
Much like Smuggler's death I don't hold out much hope, that Beetle armor was crushed very small. At least there was a little time to explain her story and have a continuity briefing. Leila is the one Redeemer I would pick to have survived out of the ones that met their death. I was familiar with the character and there was future story potential.
By the end of this issue it felt more like a Thunderbolts issue than probably any other issue since 50. First Abe and Melissa are shown and then Citizen V emerging at the end with determination. Zemo as Citizen V is opposite from when he was in battle with Dallas as Citizen V. Before he was returning into the rumble of a castle defeated, and now he emerges preparing for victory. It gives the ending a lot of thrust into the next issue with the return of the Thunderbolts, finally.
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