Synopsis
Last issue we were introduced to the Avengers Academy, a replacement for the Avengers Initiative training camp which Norman Osborn dragged into disrepute. We met the staff (Wasp (Henry Pym), Tigra and Quicksilver plus Justice and Speedball who won't be in this issue, even though they're included on the cover) and the 1st 6 teen students who had all been forced to accelerate the growth of their powers by Osborn. Last night they discovered that they had been selected not for their superhero potential but because Osborn's treatment had made them all potential supervillains.
Last issue centred on Veil (Maddy Berry) and gave her an occasional voiceover. This time Finesse (whose name we don't yet know) will get the same treatment.
It's breakfast in the Infinite Avengers Mansion and Reptil (Humberto Lopez) is complaining that Finesse came into his bedroom without knocking to make sure he was awake. He says he might have had a girl in his room, but she counters that she read his Osborn report and it said he'd never even kissed a girl. Embarrassed Berto walks away but the socially inept girl can't understand what she's done wrong because that's not unusual for a 16-year old boy. Maddy points out that no 16-year old boy wants it made public. So Finesse tries to make it up to him by offering to kiss him here where his peer group will see him with an attractive girl. Mettle (Ken Mack) says he'd take the offer in a shot. Berto temporises by saying he doesn't know her real name. She says she's Jeanne Foucault, and can he hurry up because she's hungry. They're about to kiss when ...
... a big robot comes crashing through the wall. Jeanne's voiceover tells us that her eidetic memory identifies the foe from Avengers files. And she tells the group that it's Arsenal, built by Tony Stark's dad to keep fighting America's enemies after total armageddon, and it nearly killed the Avengers twice. Striker (the only other student whose name we didn't learn last issue) fires his electricity at the robot but it absorbs it and sends it back to him (helpfully announcing what it is doing). Jeanne's voiceover tells us she's keeping out of the fight until she confirms a theory. Veil turns to gas to blind it but the robot sucks her in. Bruiser Mettle attacks but is repulsed by a blast from a cannon that emerges from its chest. And Jeanne's theory is confirmed.
Wasp and Tigra have been alerted about the problem. Hank says Arsenal was stored away in pieces. Greer Nelson wants to go down to help but Quicksilver thinks they should see how the trainees do.
Finesse now makes her move. She throws a battle stave to stop the chest cavity from closing and tells Hazmat (Jennifer Takeda) to fire a full radiation blast into it. And there's a big explosion and a disabled robot.
The 3 staff rush in and Jeanne explains that there was never any danger because Arsenal was obviously programmed not to use lethal force. The files say that the chest cannon KO'd Wonder Man but it didn't damage Mettle, so this was obviously just a test. Tigra says she's right but Quicksilver set it up without her and Hank's approval. Pietro Maximoff protests that the students will never be truly tested if they *know* it's a test. When he and his sister Wanda were teens their father Magneto would send assassins to kill them while they slept. Greer is angry, but also can't understand how *he* reprogrammed Arsenal.
But it was Jocasta, the Mansion's AI with millions of robot bodies, who did it under the impression that Pym had agreed. Henry says such misunderstandings wouldn't happen if they talked more. The robot replies that she's always available for *professional* discussions but she'll keep her distance until he realises that their romantic relationship is over. And she stalks off. Henry tries to change the subject by apologising to the students, and gets a prickly reception (for more reasons than he realises). So he gives them the rest of the morning off. And Jeanne's voiceover says that her speed-studying skill has taught her much but she's staying here to learn how to be human.
That afternoon the group are fighting holograms of Avengers baddies (Executioner, Grim Reaper, Kang The Conqueror, Living Laser, Power Man, Ultron, Whirlwind). But Hazmat is emitting EM radiation designed to interfere with monitoring devices so they can talk freely. She complains that the staff keep lying to them and she suggests they just leave. Striker callously asks radioactive Jennifer where she'd go because her parents were eager to give her away. He adds that there's no place in Captain America's 'Heroic Age' for rejects like them unless they agree to the Academy's 'rehabilitation program' or get locked up in maximum security with Norman Osborn. Innocent Reptil still believes the heroes are looking after them but Striker says it's only until they decide who are villains. Iridium-bodied Mettle points out that he and Hazmat need Pym to cure them. Hazmat turns to Finesse and asks her opinion. After a short pause she says they should stay to learn everything they can. *Then* they can make their own decisions and no-one will be able to stop them.
Later in a shower Jeanne wonders why she hesitated before telling them the strategy she'd already worked out. She prides herself on understanding everyone's psychology but lately she's being surprised by the behaviour of others and herself. Her musings turn into her origin story. She could understand science subjects from an early age, and also immediately master skills like pool. Her parents bathed in the reflected glory of all the trophies she won. She couldn't work out why they didn't want her to come to this school. It meant giving up her Olympic training but she was likely to be banned for her superhuman abilities anyway, even though she didn't have the mutant gene or any other paranormal symptoms. She found her classmates even more confusing. She understood Veil's crush on Justice in theory but it still seemed pointless. She was beginning to wonder if she was autistic. Or possibly a psychopath but she didn't have any urge to do evil. At the end of last issue she told the others that the heroes were right to fear them, particularly herself. Most of them were scarred by the harsh methods Osborn used to make them into his weapons. But he never had to force *her* because she *wanted* to learn from him. She feels the staff distrust her more than the others but she believes she has a way to fix that, even though it means leaving her comfort zone.
She goes to see Henry Pym in his lab. She 'confesses' to him that she's having trouble fitting in with the others. He says that the staff had noticed. He suggests she talk to Tigra but she says she prefers to talk to him. He points out he's rather old to relate to teenage concerns (and Tigra isn't?), and besides he was never good at being a teen when he was 1. She points out that's something they have in common besides accelerated progress. Also wasn't his late wife about her age when she became his crime-fighting partner. Hank protests that Janet was older than that, and he was younger than now. Jeanne realises that she's gone too far. Justice seemed flattered by Veil's attentions but obviously Pym deems it inappropriate. So she tries another tack.
She apologises and asks for his opinion on another matter. She's not sure her parents are her real parents. She wonders if Dr Pym's noticed the similarity of her ability to immediately master physical skills to that of a villain he knows. He admits that they had wondered if she had a connection to Taskmaster. She says her parents have a shady past and maybe mom had an affair with him. Hank tries to convince her she's not defined by her genetics, but she asks if he can find out the truth. But he has to tell her that when TM worked for Osborn all his data including DNA was deleted from official records. But he asks if he *was* her father why would she want to meet him? Jeanne now realises he's becoming suspicious.
However Pym leaves her to watch an episode of TV series Marvels Spotlight on Quicksilver which he thinks she will find instructive. Young teen Pietro Maximoff and his sister Wanda were recruited by mutant terrorist Magneto for his Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants. At that time neither of them knew that they were his children. In the opinion of superhuman Psychologist Dr Leonard Samson it took great willpower for Pietro to to break with his master and lead Wanda to the Avengers, a symbol of the humans who oppressed mutants. Pietro eventually left his sister in that team and found a home with another race of outsider, the Inhumans. He even married 1 (Crystal) and they had a child (Luna). But even here he felt apart and the marriage broke down. Then followed a period of paranoia and megalomania which brought him into conflict with the Avengers. But as part of a rehabilitation program he joined the government-sponsored X-Factor and underwent psychotherapy with Dr Samson. Another of the Doc's opinions is that for the super-speedster living among slowcoach humans is eternally frustrating. Later Quicksilver seemingly started a war between the Inhumans and humanity. But while working with Pym's Mighty Avengers (during Osborn's Dark Reign) Pietro revealed that that Q was 1 of the Skrull replacements in the leadup to Secret Invasion. Henry returns as Jeanne finishes the recording. She says she found it quite revealing but she doesn't need to discuss it. And she leaves him ...
... to go see Pietro. He claims to be busy scanning part of the Earth searching for his sister Scarlet Witch (missing since House Of M). She tells him she's seen his documentary. He's dismissive of it but says it helped defuse some of the hate that comes his way. She offers to use her computer skills to help in his search, but she wonders what he'll do when her finds her. After all she went crazy and killed some Avengers (Ant-Man (Scott Lang), Hawkeye and Jack Of Hearts during Avengers Disassembled). He tells her its none of her business so she gets to her real point coming here.
She says she *knows* he wasn't replaced by a Skrull. No other abductees have reported him being with them. And this 'Skrull' supposedly regained regained Pietro's lost powers using the Inhumans' Terrigen Mists which doesn't work for Skrulls. (I'm not convinced this 2nd point is valid.) Pietro protests that she no proof but she points out that the suggestion would make others suspicious enough to investigate. Pietro backs down but tells her that Pym already knows the truth. She counters that Pym is ready to give 2nd chances as he himself had, but others won't be so generous. He rounds on her and accuses her of blackmail. She's not fazed and says she wants private lessons from him. She wants to learn what Magneto taught him in the Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants.