Synopsis
Avengers: The Initiative #25 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
The New Warriors bring Michael Van Patrick's body to his father Brian's Mississippi farm. They retrieved it from Camp Hammond in #23 where it was kept since he died in an Initiative training session in #1 - and his body was cloned to produce the 3 Scarlet Spiders and the MVP who took his place at home (Annual #1). Patrick is now the only surviving Spider since #22.
Brian had come to terms with his son Michael's death, and accepted the identical clone MVP as a replacement. But modified Patrick reminds him of the fact that his son's body was experimented on. And the Warriors remind him of the whole affair. So he asks them all to leave.
The Warriors welcome Patrick into *their* fugitive family. And Night Thrasher says that as Donyell Taylor he can use Taylor Foundation money to fund the next stage of their mission to keep tabs on Norman Osborn and his version of the Initiative.
(The other Warriors are Debrii, Justice, Rage, Slapstick plus Ultragirl who joined them from the Initiative in #23.)
Meanwhile Osborn takes Taskmaster to see Penance in the San Francisco Burke Wellness Center. NO has been recruiting villains as his new Initiative members, and TM's task is to train them to appear to be heroes while surreptitiously continuing their criminal careers. But he needs some actual heroes to make it seem legit.
Penance (Robbie Baldwin) is still in his self-punishing outfit trying to atone for his part, as Speedball in a previous New Warriors, in the disaster that killed so many people in Stamford - and sparked off the superhero Civil War. Since Osborn terminated his employment as a Thunderbolt in their #126 he's been heavily drugged and thrown into this psychiatric facility. Now Norman has a use for him again.
He reminds Robbie how he helped the 'Bolts save Washington in Secret Invasion. But he also reminds Baldwin of Stamford. But he promises Penance another chance to make up for that. He must do whatever Taskmaster tells him - and Robbie Baldwin is pathetically grateful.
Later Gauntlet and Tigra are ordered to come see Osborn in his Avengers Tower HQ. Sgt Green is ready to accept whatever punishment NO dishes out - he feels guilty for helping cover up the original MVP's death. But he's not sure he can stomach working for the man. Tigra also hates Osborn but is willing to continue in the Arkansas Initiative team, doing whatever good she can.
Tigra is called in to be interviewed. She finds Osborn flanked by Ares and the Dark Avengers' Ms. Marvel (Moonstone). Karla Sofen demands to know if Greer Grant knows where Carol Danvers (the real Ms. Marvel) is. (She's presumably (and correctly) not certain that Danvers really did die in MsM#37. But that won't stop her from taking over MsM's mag for the next few issues.) But NO seems more concerned that Tigra went AWOL recently. She explains it was to help a friend (James Rhodes in War Machine v2 #8-10 - but Norman should know all about that because he was involved as Iron Patriot).
But what NO is really interested in is that Greer is pregnant with a half-Skrull baby after sleeping with the Skrull replacement for Henry Pym leading up to Secret Invasion. The confidential file he read says she intends to have an abortion. But he wants the hybrid foetus for scientific experiments. Although he's not too bothered whether he gets it by abortion now or waits for her to deliver it alive.
Ares stops her from attacking Osborn, who responds by offering her the carrot of being a paid government superhero but allowed to operate totally independently. And then adds the stick in the form of the Hood, the Initiative's new Chief Operating Officer, who with his gang terrorised her in New Avengers #35 and Annual #2. Hood says he can do it again if she doesn't go along with the plan.
Osborn sends Tigra home to think about it, and Ms. Marvel to stay with her while she does.
Then he calls in Joseph Green who accepts his dismissal as instructor for the Initiative cadets. He's also happy to be sent back to his old unit in the Middle East. But Norman wants him to leave behind his alien Gauntlet - something else to be scientifically dissected. Green points out that it won't come off, it's bonded to his arm. Osborn offers the services of Ares and his axe.
Outside Karla Sofen is bitching about the revealing old Ms. Marvel costume she's forced to wear, which as usual is attracting the paparazzi. Then they see Ares plummet from the top of the Tower. Tigra suggests Moonstone go help him, but Sofen's not leaving her side. So the werecat slashes the front of her costume and escapes while the press surround Karla to photograph her bare breasts.
Gauntlet too escapes by jumping out of the window he threw Ares through. NO tells Hood to send some men after the pair - some of his supervillains who are now official Initiative members. Parker Robbins contacts Griffin, Living Laser, Razor-Fist and Scorcher. He sends them some items with their quarry's scent for Griffin to track. They are to bring back Tigra alive, but they only need Gauntlet's arm.
Meanwhile Osborn and Hood continue with their interviews. Next up is Diamondback. Hood briefly reviews her mixed career as both villain and heroine. But he thinks she's always just been looking out for Number One. And she fulfils his expectations by agreeing to work for them.
Trauma arrives with his resignation as Initiative counsellor. Many of the new intake have personality disorders, especially Penance who was improving under Doc Samson's care at the Thunderbolts HQ before Osborn took him away. And Norman wants Trauma to just make them obedient, not cure them.
But Hood seems to threaten his family and Terrence Ward responds by trying to use his power to show the villain his greatest fear. But it doesn't work. Hood claims Trauma's power is magic-based and the source of his own power has a non-aggression pact with the source of Terry's. Ward doesn't understand what he's talking about.
Hood says Terry's real father is Nightmare. And his mother isn't in a psychiatric ward because of something Terry did, as he's always thought, but because of her liaison with the demon. However Hood's 'sponsor' may be able to cure his mom if Trauma will do what they say. Terry gives in.
Next day Osborn flies Prodigy to Las Vegas. Ritchie Gilmore is ready to work for Norman because he always felt the previous Initiative administration held it against him that he opposed the Registration Act and Iron Man in Civil War. NO says any enemy of Tony Stark is a friend of his, and promises that Prodigy will be free to be as heroic as he wants as long as he also obeys whatever orders Norman gives him. And then he of course adds a threat - Gilmore can always go back to prison.
Osborn introduces Prodigy to the rest of the Nevada Initiative:- Gravity, Nonstop and Telemetry. Then he drops a bombshell. Prodigy will take over from Gravity as the Heavy Hitters' leader. And Greg Willis is moved to lead the team in his home state Wisconsin - the Great Lakes Initiative (Big Bertha, Doorman, Flatman, Mr Immortal and Squirrel Girl), usually considered a joke rather than a super-team.
Back in New York Gauntlet and Tigra are together and still on the run - in the sewers. Hood's 4 villains track them down and attack. But they're saved by a cave-in that spares the heroes because it's controlled by Justice. The duo accept an offer to join the New Warriors, but Tigra insists on renaming them all the Avengers Resistance.
Later Osborn welcomes his Initiative to their new Camp HAMMER HQ in the New Mexico desert. As well as Hood and the 4 gang members mentioned earlier we see the Brothers Grimm, Cutthroat and the U-Foes (Ironclad, Vapor, Vector, X-Ray). And as well as Diamondback, Penance and Taskmaster we see Komodo.