Avengers #68: Review

Aug 2003

Geoff Johns, Olivier Coipel

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Story Name:

Red zone part 4: The great escape

Review & Comments

Rating:

Avengers #68 Review by Rob Johnson (February 27, 2021)

J G Jones continues to paint the cover and Starkings/Deschesne continue to do the lettering.

Falcon hasn't been seen since #64 when he started conspiring with Gyrich. But Redwing was probably the bird in last issue.

Captain America's arch-enemy (since WWII) Red Skull was last seen (before his Dell Rusk entrance in our #61) in his plot to stir up hatred in the US in CA(1998)#45-48 and a cameo reacting to Cap's death in CA#50. But, even if most of Rusk's past life existed only on paper, Skull must have been playing the role for real for some years to get to his position of power - in between many recent documented exploits.

She-Hulk exits the story after this, and the team will only track her down again in #72 in the story arc appropriately called The Search For She-Hulk.

From Our Blog:

Gwen Stacy, beauty queen of Standard High School, was Peter Parker's (alias Spider-Man) first great love.

Gwen Stacy: Classic Beauty

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Avengers #68 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

A red mist of a weaponised version of necrotising fasciitis has escaped from a US bio-weapons lab under Mount Rushmore. Those not outright killed were evacuated by military helicopters to a temporary medical centre in Custer State Park, but the mist spread there and the still-living had to be shipped out again. Now the last of the medics and military flee leaving the dead behind as the mist rolls in.

1 of the places that have accepted the infected is St Mary's Hospital, Pierre, South Dakota. Warbird is there with Dr Chu and Park Ranger Tom Hawkins when she gets news that an evacuation of Rapid City was a failure.

6 Avengers went into the heart of the outbreak where they discovered the bio-lab source. All its inhabitants were dead but they found an AIM team that had broken in, which was the actual cause of the release. AIM fought the Avengers and all got killed, but She-Hulk's hazmat suit was breached and she got infected. It was made much worse when she reverted to her human Jennifer Walters identity. Jack Of Hearts had been trying to fly her to medical help but now he fears she's dead. However she comes back to life as a very angry She-Hulk.

Captain America, Scarlet Witch and Vision have returned to where Ant-Man (Scott Lang) has been hacking into the lab's computer system. Now he reports that he's discovered that this bio-program was under the control of Defence Secretary Dell Rusk. Only a few of the scientists knew what they were really producing. Most of them thought they were working on a cure for HIV.

Then She-Hulk throws the limp body of Jack Hart into the room and follows it to attack her team-mates. A Hulkish hands thunderclap brings the roof down. Vision phases his hand through her chest but she just shrugs him off. So he turns superdense but she just pounds him to scrap. Then she lurches away with a guttural "Hurt! Find Banner!".

Scarlet Witch wasn't much buried. She uses a hex to uncover the others and then crawls away to find help for her ex-husband Vision, using another hex to part the red mist like the Red Sea.

Ranger Hawkins finds Warbird regretfully phoning to tell the military leaders that this hospital is full and they're going to have to divert more casualties elsewhere. He praises her ability to take charge and make the hard decisions. She tells him it stems from her days as Head Of Security for 1st the Air Force and then NASA (I think there's a slight exaggeration in there). She says it was then she got caught in a fight between 2 aliens and was hit with a ray which gave her her powers (Captain Marvel #18). And (skipping lots of stuff) now she's an Avenger. And now she gets a message from Wanda Maximoff who's made it out of the underground lab to where her Avengers Comm Card can function.

Last issue Black Panther and Tony Stark got knocked out by gas and tasers and arrested by the US military for treason. T'Challa awakes in a padded cell to find Stark already up. They continue their ongoing argument (which may just be macho 1-upmanship). But Tony has a plan for such occasions. A button on his watch signals his Iron Man armour to leave the Stark Enterprises building they were kidnapped from and fly to him.

The Avengers UN liaison Henry Peter Gyrich is with Dell Rusk in the Pentagon. The Defence Secretary is complaining the the Avengers' access codes HPG smuggled out to him aren't working. Gyrich protests that the team must have changed them for some routine reason. Rusk takes a call from the President assuring him the the CDC will crack the problem and the Avengers aren't required.

Henry leaves and sees Falcon's 'pet' bird Redwing has torn out a security camera so it's alright for him to meet with Sam Wilson. Falcon swoops down and congratulates him on good work. Gyrich has a damning tape and Sam has prevented a few documents from being shredded. But they still can't find anyone who actually *knew* the man in the past.

Then Rusk steps from the shadows and shoots Falcon in the back. He claims to have been on to the double-cross and shoots Gyrich in the leg. When the man speaks in German Henry suddenly realises what his name is an anagram of. He accuses the man of trying (again) to destroy America. The villain removes 1 of those realistic facemasks to reveal the Red Skull underneath, and says he's not out to destroy America - it's his kind of country.

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