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Avengers #69

Sep 2003

Geoff Johns, Olivier Coipel

Story Name:

Red zone part 5: The great escape

Synopsis

Avengers #69 synopsis by Rob Johnson

Rating:

US Defence Secretary Dell Rusk turned out to be Red Skull and he was behind the creation of a mutated necrotising fasciitis bacteria which was released as a red 'gas' from a US biolab beneath Mount Rushmore. Last issue ended as he captured Falcon and Henry Peter Gyrich who'd been spying on him.

The 'gas' cloud is spreading over South Dakota. Warbird and Park Ranger Tom Hawkins, both in hazmat suits, are flying a helicopter over the state capital Pierre heading towards Mount Rushmore in answer to a distress call from 6 Avengers who went into the Red Zone. But then they get a message from General Feaster relaying a call from Pepper Potts at Stark Enterprises to tell them that the US military arrested Tony Stark and Black Panther. Now some Wakandan scientists have arrived to work with SE on a breakthrough cure for the disease, but they won't start work without their King's authorisation.

Warbird loses the connection as the chopper lands and they find Scarlet Witch in her hazmat suit outside the underground lab. It was Wanda Maximoff who made it out to send the plea for help. Carol Danvers heads inside but meets Captain America staggering towards her. Between them all the bring out the injured Ant-Man, Jack Of Hearts and Vision. Wanda has to explain that they've lost She-Hulk. She got infected and went berserk, causing most of their injuries. Then she ran off. Cap says they'll look for her after the current problem is over.

They fly to a hospital in Pierre where Scott Lang, Jack Hart and Vision are given beds and Wanda's wounds are treated. Warbird and Cap/Wanda exchange information so everyone's up to date. Then Cap leaves Warbird and the Witch to delay the spread of the Red Zone (with Wanda's hex power) while he takes the helicopter to deal with Dell Rusk.

Rusk is now openly Red Skull and beating up Henry Gyrich in his office in the Pentagon. To avoid interruptions he triggers another 'terrorist attack' (as the Red Zone is being labelled) and floods the rest of the building with sleep gas. Tony Stark and Black Panther are prisoners in a sealed room elsewhere in the building but rescue arrives in the form of Stark's Iron Man armour which he remotely activated last issue. The pair then make their way through sleeping corridors.

Gyrich accuses Skull of trying to turn the US into the 4th Reich. Johann Schmidt claims his goals have changed. He spent the last year rising to this position of power with a combination of money and some AIM brainwashing technology (a successor to the technique he used on Sam Wilson in the origin of the Falcon). He believes America is ripe a dramatic shift to the right which he will precipitate with an atmosphere of fear starting with the Red Zone infection. He boasts how he then tricked AIM into breaking into the biolab, thus releasing the superbug.

As he salutes the US flag which will be his new symbol Cap bursts in through a window and hits him with his shield. Thus begins a battle of fists and ideologies. Schmidt claims to have embraced the American Dream but Steve Rogers of course believes the opposite. Then Skull reveals severely wounded Falcon hanging in chains in a sealed compartment. And he triggers more transparent walls to descend around Cap, followed by a dose of the red mist which JS claims is partly based on the formula that made him Red Skull. And as such *his* blood contains the only antidote, which he will make available when enough people have died. But only when the angry populace make the President willing to launch a nuclear attack on the terrorists responsible for the Red Zone. Which Dell Rusk will 'discover' is Wakanda.

At that point Black Panther and Iron Man get there.

Review / Commentaries

Avengers #69 Review by Rob Johnson (February 27, 2021)

It almost goes without saying that J G Jones painted the cover and Starkings/Deschesne did the lettering.

The Great Escape is used as the issue title for all 3 of #68-70.

It is mentioned that She-Hulk complained of feeling sick long before she was infected (#66), and she temporarily changed back to human Jennifer Walters (#67). It is claimed that both times she was close to Jack Of Hearts (true for the 2nd event but I'm not so sure about the 1st). They know that Jack absorbs radiation so they speculate that he was absorbing her gamma radiation, weakening her and causing her transformation.

I believe Jack Of Hearts *does* get a limited look in here, in 1 of the hazmat suits being lifted into the helicopter and in a hospital bed behind Warbird. The Marvel Chronology Project seems to agree with me, but the Marvel Fandom Wiki doesn't.

OK, so Red Skull sort-of explains how he got to be Secretary Of Defence. But it's still pretty quick.

Next issue the finale.

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Main/1st Story Full Credits

Geoff Johns

Olivier Coipel

Andy Lanning

Chris Sotomayor

J. G. Jones (Cover Penciler)
J. G. Jones (Cover Inker)
J. G. Jones (Cover Colorist)

Additional Credits

Letterer: Richard Starkings.
Editor: Tom Brevoort. Editor-in-chief: Joe Quesada.

All stories. Listed in alphabetical order.

Ant-Man
(Scott Lang)

Avengers

Black Panther
(T'Challa)

Captain America
(Steven Rogers)

Falcon
(Sam Wilson)

Henry Peter Gyrich

Iron Man
(Anthony Stark)

Jack of Hearts
(Jonathan Hart)

Pepper Potts
(Pepper Hogan)

Red Skull
(Johann Shmidt)

Scarlet Witch
(Wanda Maximoff)

Vision

Plus: Warbird (Carol Danvers).

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