Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Last issue U.S. Agent with Spitfire and Union Jack (Joey Chapman) rescued Blazing Skull from Middle Eastern terrorists. He intends to form a new Invaders to replace the Avengers (who these days report to the UN rather than the US). Meanwhile in Avengers Embassy Hawkeye and Wasp have been getting very friendly and ended the issue with a kiss.
We continue from that kiss where they're coming to the conclusion that they like the way their relationship is going. But then Janet van Dyne's ex-husband and supposedly current lover Henry Pym (now reverted from Yellowjacket to his Goliath super-id) and Captain America come to see how convalescing Clint Barton is doing. The couple try to pretend nothing was going on but Hank is suspicious and angry, and Clint gets defensive and angry, and Pym's history of abuse to his wife hangs over them all.
The Invaders' helicopter arrives at an oil tanker surrounded by smaller boats and Atlantean crab-craft. Spitfire assumes the enemy they're here to fight is Sub-Mariner but John Walker says they're here to *help* him defend the tanker. They drop Blazing Skull onto the largest attacking ship and he lands on it, impervious to a hail of bullets even though he hopes to get hit in the head because it just might kill him.
Meanwhile US Agent descends a short rope ladder to a tank slung under the chopper which contains a naked woman he calls Tara. The tank apparently contains a nitrogen atmosphere which is now purged and the glass front of the tank opens, letting Tara out where immediately she bursts into flame. She flies down to the ship where BS is and burns straight through it to the water beneath. Mark Todd is very interested in the presence of a naked burning girl.
US Agent gets delivered to 1 of the Atlantean warcraft and he leaves Spitfire and UJ to deal with the other 3 attacking boats. The British pair aren't happy about having to follow his orders, but their government liaison told them to. Meanwhile the 'Lady Torch' is busy making their instructions redundant.
Back at the Mansion Edwin Jarvis is serving a meal to Cap, Goliath, Scarlet Witch, She-Hulk and Kelsey Leigh's family. Clint and Jan are in her bedroom. Jan protests that she swore not to 'date' any of her ex-husband's friends (after the disaster with Tony Stark in #224 of the original series). Clint only half-jokingly says the Hank isn't his friend since he hit her (#213). Jan's resistance starts to crumble.
Meanwhile the Invaders have successfully concluded their mission and they're now having an audience with Prince Namor in an air-filled chamber in his Atlantean palace. Tara is back in her containment tube. The Sub-Mariner is glad to see his old Invaders ally Jacqueline Falsworth and is brusquely grateful for the assistance of the 'poseurs' wearing the uniforms of Captain America and Union Jack (Brian Falsworth). But he reminds them all that his duty to Atlantis means that he won't hesitate to fight them if their interests clash.
It seems that the conflict above was between APEC and Mazikhandar. Namor has no interest in their dispute but the Mazikhandrians have been sinking APEC oil tankers and the spillage affects Atlantis. John Walker says he's been sent here to ask Sub-Mariner to help overthrow the government of Mazikhandar. Namor agrees that it would be preferable to *his* plan which was just to destroy the whole nation. Spitfire isn't happy about either option. USA reminds her of the Mazikhandrian dictatorship's record of human rights abuses. Namor says he knows that the USA just wants Mazikhandar's oil, but Jacqueline can do it for tortured women and children and they'll all be happy.
Back at the Mansion again She-Hulk is playing 'monster' for Jenny and Martin Leigh and Ant-Man's daughter Cassie Lang, much to the disgust of their UN liaison Henry Peter Gyrich. HPG informs Cap and Falcon about the planned Invaders/Namor alliance, and that these new Invaders were organised by Red Skull when he was posing as Secretary Of Defence Dell Rusk (see the Red Zone story arc). Meanwhile almost-naked Clint and Jan have just had sex when Hank walks into her bedroom.