Synopsis
After Norman Osborn killed the Skrull Queen in Secret Invasion he took over SHIELD and replaced it with HAMMER which then incorporated the Initiative. Die-hard heroes were ejected (including the misleading 4 on the cover) and formed the Avengers Resistance while villains were brought in to take charge of the trainees.
This issue is divided into 2 chapters.
Chapter 1 - Even the losers
This follows the career and death of Johnny Guitar.
In High School Jonathan Logan and Jack Dulouz formed a band (just the 2 of them) and called themselves Johnny Guitar and Dr Sax. (Like most things it was Johnny's idea.) Then they got their girlfriends pregnant and had to get real jobs. But instead they formed a real band which made money, but not enough. So the duo supplemented their incomes with robberies. When the other band members found out they didn't like it. There was a fight in which Jack got blinded.
In prison they met the Trapster who inspired them to bigger crimes. When they got out they became supervillains by buying gadgets from Dazzler villain Techmaster (they couldn't afford the Tinkerer's prices). Johnny's guitar could emit very powerful sonic blasts and Jack got a sax that could drive people mad and glasses that enabled him to see a bit. But they got taken down by Dazzler.
After a 2nd jail term they tried to join supervillain teams. The Sinister Six laughed at them. The Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants rightly pointed out that they weren't muties. The Death Throws pointed out they weren't jugglers. And the Circus Of Crime suggested juggling might be a way into them as well.
Johnny's girl Revonda left him and took the kid. He and Jack reformed their duo. Jack got disability payments and Johnny cleaned floors at a casino. Then they met Trapster again who suggested they apply for Osborn's Initiative. They got accepted, trained and assigned to the elite Shadow Initiative. Johnny thought they'd made it at last, but then he noticed that everyone seemed to be in the SI.
Now Taskmaster gives them all their 1st mission, to take back Prison 42 in the Negative Zone from Blastaar's alien army. Johnny overhears TM and Constrictor discussing the mission and learns that Osborn disbanded the real Shadow Initiative because he's got his Thunderbolts for black ops. This new SI are just cannon fodder to take out some of the enemy before the more experienced (and therefore more valuable) chars go in to mop the rest up. Frank Schlichting points out that Bengal is a holdover from the old SI and surely suspects what's going on, but TM reminds him that they have his wife and kids hostage. And Komodo wants revenge on her ex-boyfriend Hardball who's a prisoner there. Johnny decides not to worry Jack by telling him.
Instead he consults counsellor Trauma and learns about the generous death benefits that would go to his child, and disability benefits if he's seriously injured. But he also adds that nothing replaces a father in a child's life. However Johnny knows that he's been mostly an absent father, and would probably continue to be so. He blames himself for having led Jack to this and makes a decision.
On the morning of the mission Jack tries to buck him up by passing on info from TM that Blastaar's not at the Prison and he's left behind only a small force. But Johnny picks a fight with his friend and blasts his hand with his guitar, breaking all the bones. TM punishes him a bit but not enough to get him off the mission. He visits his friend in the base hospital where he's being treated by the doctor Physique, and he leaves Jack a diary to be passed to his kid where he's written all his feelings down.
Then it's the mission. A gate is opened to Prison 42 and the troops pour through. Taskmaster promises to follow them immediately with the other big guns. They face Neg Zone aliens but also inmates who have joined Blastaar's army. And Johnny Guitar gets killed.
As an epilogue we see Jack Dulouz with his hand in a cast going home to his wife and 3 kids.
Chapter 2 - The taking of 42
We begin with a prologue some time ago where Hardball and other inmates hear self-styled King Blastaar's army attacking and the prison guards evacuating. Prisoner Gorilla-Man (Arthur Nagan) is already at the King's side and Blastaar gives them the choice of joining his army or dying. Roger Brokeridge thinks it's a no-brainer.
Now the Shadow Initiative have attacked. The enemy include Gorilla-Man and Condor and a bunch of Mindless Ones. Ringer tells us that Johnny Guitar, Blackwing and Slaughter Boy are dead already. Bengal and Komodo are in the thick of things. Firearms panics and tries to go back through the gate but it won't let him through and he gets mown down.
Bengal tells Komodo they need to get to cover. K has a plan which involves Batwing. Blasts are just bouncing off Butterball but he still freezes until BW gees him up. Then picks him up and drops him in front of the foes. Nagan tells all the troops to shoot at him and they are astonished when he survives it all. But he was a diversion to let the rest of the Initiative take the enemy by surprise. Taskmaster contacts BB (presumably on the basis that he *will* still be alive) for a sitrep. He reports casualties and asks where the backup is but TM cuts him off. He belatedly realises they've been lied to, but Bengal just shrugs it off.
Gorilla-Man tells Hardball that *their* side are suffering too many casualties and ask the ex-Initiative guy for advice. Roger notes that Komodo is in the thick of it as usual and suggests unleashing Dragon Man, which they do. But this gives K hope. She taunts an alien to stab her (which she knows her reptilian healing will recover from). But as expected this enrages DM to switch sides. HB apologises to GM for 'forgetting' that Dragon Man has a crush on Komodo (since #8). Then he uses his energy balls to kill lots of aliens, but encloses human ex-prisoners like Nagan in force fields.
Now that it's mostly over Taskmaster joins them with Constrictor, Living Laser, Penance (Robbie Baldwin) and Scorcher. Bengal tells the surviving troops that now they know what their role in the system is. And TM welcomes HB back into the fold.
Meanwhile back in Camp HAMMER Barton Grimes (1 of the Brothers Grimm) brings the heavily-injured body of his brother Percy to Cutthroat. Pinned to him they find a message from Tigra saying "You're next".