Synopsis
The Fear Itself event is over but the Academy's school the Avengers Infinite Mansion was destroyed and they've moved to the old West Coast Avengers Compound in Los Angeles. Student Veil has quit to go work for Jeremy Briggs who they and we met in #14.1. Teachers Justice and Speedball have also quit and gone on a road trip. But now headmaster Henry Pym/Giant-Man has invited a lot more teens to apply for membership.
GM reminds Captain America, Hawkeye and Luke Cage about how they took on the original 6 students after Norman Osborn (during his Dark Reign) had augmented their powers and tried to mould them into weapons, usually using brutal methods. But now Veil is in the clutches of another of Osborn's victims, Briggs, who is another amoral psychopath. The 3 Avengers don't blame him for that and take him outside to see all the teens who've turned up.
We see them enjoying themselves. We see Juston Seyfert and his Sentinel, Spider-Girl, Machine Teen and Batwing shooting hoops. Lightspeed outracing teacher Quicksilver. Disabled Wiz-Kid flying around in his hi-tech 'wheelchair'. White Tiger sparring with teacher Tigra. Rocket Racer doing tricks on his skateboard. Butterball bombing into the pool. And junior She-Hulk having a tug-of-war against Ricochet, junior Power Man, Turbo and Hollow.
But the remaining 5 original students are keeping out of the way playing Capture The Flag on the athletics field. As Lightspeed dashes around behind them Hazmat is so busy complaining about the newbies here to steal their thunder that she almost lets Finesse get past her to her team's flag. Finesse ducks Striker's electric blast but Hazmat stops her with a new trick - non-lethal radiation that heats the water in her target's skin, painful but brief. Mettle charges towards Reptil and the other flag but Humberto Lopez stops him by becoming a triceratops. Jenny Takeda continues her rant by suggesting that a recruitment drive and the big bosses present indicates they're going to be fired. Their dinosaur team leader points out that moving to the WCA Compound means that the Avengers believe the students have a future. But he lets Ken Mack win the game when he sees Cap and co coming out.
He asks Finesse to read the Avengers' lips. Jeanne Foucault says Dr Pym is welcoming the new students, most of whom will be part-time to accommodate their other stuff. There will be new class tiers. Then he starts to talk about the old class but turns away so she can't tell the rest. But she adds that the Avengers' body language reads as tense and sad. Ken now thinks that Jenny is right and they're going to be shut down. Humberto protests that they've just spent millions fixing the place up and invited all these kids. Mettle says they're not junking the Academy, just the original class. Brandon Sharpe now agrees, and quotes a TV series example 'cos they're in LA now.
Robot Jocasta is using her eye beams to spot weld some metal stands. She interjects to say that they're wrong, and Henry Pym thinks highly of them. Finesse shows her psychology nous by pointing out that he *doesn't* value *himself* highly and she sees this situation as reflecting his fear of failure. He's overcompensating for Veil's defection by adding new students. And he'll get rid of the remaining old students before they can quit too. She suggests that Jocasta can see this too because her mind is based on that of his late wife (Wasp/Jan Van Dyne). The robot avoids answering because it would be inappropriate. Jeanne presses on by adding that they know they were picked for the Academy because they were potential supervillains, and Captain America is too tactically savvy to allow potential traitors to learn more Avengers' secrets. Hazmat insists that Pym tells Jocasta everything so she must now what's happening, but the robot won't be drawn and gets a message from Pym and Cap asking to see the 5.
By now they're all pretty sure they're on the way out, so they storm right up to the 4 Avengers and start shouting. Pym tries to say that they've been reevaluating the students' course of study, but Striker says he's not going to be judged by a wife-beating (Jan), killer-robot-building (Ultron) nutcase. Hank is taken aback but Cap wants to hear him out, saying he understands that Striker cares more for fame than being an Avenger. Brandon bulls on saying he doesn't want to take orders from a 'living legend' who let his sidekick Bucky die twice (WWII and in Fear Itself). Humberto tries to calm him down but Luke Cage charges in and forcefully tells Striker that Cap fought Nazis in WWII for *his* freedom to be a spoiled punk who doesn't deserve to be allowed to even talk to him. And Mettle takes umbrage at that and punches Luke out and then starts to throttle him. Finesse and Striker attack the Avengers as Cap moves to pull Mettle off Cage and Hazmat leaps on *him* to defend her close friend. Cage is up and pounding on Mettle and Hazmat powers up her radiation letting her anger and frustration boil over.
Then Jocasta calls "Enough" and emits a blast which knocks everyone over. She blames both sides. Pym and Cap are being insensitive about what the students experienced in the Fear Itself war. They've 'lost' a friend (Veil) and believe they're going to be thrown out of the Academy. Hank is taken aback again but Cap tells them that they've got it wrong. With 2 teachers leaving and lots of new part-time enrollees they were discussing how the full-time students could get extra attention. They were considering 1-on-1 mentoring but what just happened makes him wonder if it's worth it. And he dismisses them for now.
Humberto seems to have a headache after Jocasta's attack, and Jeanne asks if he's OK. He say he's just dizzy. Brandon of course is still angry and leads his classmates away. Luke and Henry are still bewildered and Jocasta tells Pym it's because he hasn't been paying attention to the kids. He says he'd welcome her input but she stalks off saying she'll 'gather data' on the children's experiences, compare them with developmental psychiatry texts and submit a report. And then he'll do whatever he wants as usual. When she's gone Luke says he's worried about her attitude and reminds him that her 'husband' Ultron's back. (He's referring to the 2011 Moon Knight series but that turns out to be just an old discarded head of the robot.) Hank considers asking her to submit to a system scan. Clint Barton remembers how he gave Steve Rogers a lot of trouble when he 1st joined the Avengers, and thinks that karma requires him to offer to become a teacher now.
Our 5 students gather in their lounge. Hazmat is convinced they're for the chop now because of Striker. He replies that he thought she hated the Academy, and anyway her boyfriend Mettle threw the 1st punch. He says he doesn't know what came over him. Finesse points out that it was Hazmat and Mettle who convinced the others that they were going to be expelled anyway. Reptil keeps quiet. And Hazmat drags Mettle out of the room in disgust ...
... to her quarters where she can safely remove her helmet without harming anyone (Ken is immune to her radiation/toxicity.) She reminds him of when they thought they were going to die (#19) and she said there were things she wished she'd done (and they kissed). Well, if they're being sent home to San Francisco and Hawaii then they might not meet again. And she starts to remove the rest of her protective suit ... but next we see her suited up again and fleeing from the room saying that 'it's her not him'. (As we learned in #3) her fatal powers kicked in when she was about to have sex for the 1st time, and it killed her boyfriend. She thought she was over that trauma but obviously not.
Jocasta witnesses this scene and contemplates how complex humans are. She thinks back on her own complicated history. Created by Ultron to be his bride with the brain patterns of Janet Van Dyne, ex-wife of his creator Henry Pym who she herself then fell in love with. Like humans she often feels as if her life is determined by her origin and past. What she said to Hank was true. Since Veil left she's studied the children and has discovered secrets that neither they nor Henry know. It will be difficult and painful but at last she knows how to save them. And she down sits at a control panel.
Later the students meet with the 4 Avengers again. Mettle takes the blame for the fighting. Hazmat blames Striker, who says that he was going to apologise too. Giant-Man tells them that it's all forgiven and forgotten. Cap apologises because he hadn't known all that they had gone through in Fear Itself. He tells Mettle that he too has killed men in combat, and knows that on the battlefield only your comrades are important to you. So he thinks Ken's place is here with his friends. Severe Cage tells them they'd better appreciate that apology from Cap. Hawkeye quips that they're not going to get 1 from Luke, and that *he*'s going to work out any aggression on the training field. Which is Pym's cue to announce that Barton will be a full-time teacher.
And he also introduces 2 new full-time students Lightspeed and White Tiger who he says have already been working with Quicksilver and Tigra. They both already have experience and will be Teaching Assistants. (Finesse is put out because she thought QS was only giving *her* extra tuition.) Pietro tells them that LS has spent some years as a member of Power Pack. She says she has no formal superhero training but her brother (Alex/Zero-G) is now with the Future Foundation so she thought this might be a good idea. Tigra introduces White Tiger/Ava Ayala who says that the role is a family legacy she's 'inherited' from her brother Hector (via a niece Angela Del Toro), the 1st high profile Latino superhero. And she asks Reptil why he hasn't done more for the Hispanic community. Tigra tries to smooth things over. And Striker hits on both of the girls.
Pym wonders why Jocasta isn't answering his messages. Pietro Maximoff speeds off to check and immediately returns telling them to come to the control centre. They see Jocasta damaged and inert in the control chair. Pietro reports that all her other robot bodies are also inert and her mind isn't in *any* Avengers databank. Also the security systems were shut off from the inside so the 'killer' is 1 of *them*.
And we see Reptil talking to someone who isn't present, reporting that he's 'in' and the panic here does make it the perfect time. He says that things aren't quite as he remembered but close enough. This is definitely the tipping point and he's here to make sure 'we' get the future we want. And we see in the future older versions of the other 5 students including Veil, and a version of Reptil in a containment tube and a hi-tech blindfold confusedly asking for help.
CharactersGood (or All)Plus: Batwing (
Jimmy Santini), Butterball (
Emery Schaub), Hollow, Juston Seyfert, Lightspeed (
Julie Power), Machine Teen, Power Man (
Victor Hernan Alvarez), Ricochet, Rocket Racer (
Robert Farrell), She-Hulk (
Lyra), Turbo, White Tiger (
Ava Ayala), Wiz Kid.