Synopsis
Avengers (1998 series) #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.
CharactersGood (or All)Plus: Warbird (
Carol Danvers).