Synopsis
Last issue some X-Men came to Avengers Academy to help investigate how robot Jocasta got permanently switched off. The issue ended with the suggestion that the Academy and the X-Men's Westchester school should get together to foster good relations. This issue sees a fruit of that idea ...
... X-23 is fighting Tigra. But they stop and compare fighting styles. Teacher Tigra's cat instincts made her go for disembowelment with her foot claws while teen Laura Kinney's assassin training directed her to a quick kill with her artificial hand claws to the heart. Tigra comments that she obviously doesn't need combat training but she can hopefully learn other stuff as the Academy students can learn from her. The regular class (Finesse, Hazmat, Lightspeed, Mettle, Reptil, Striker and White Tiger) look on in shock.
We are immediately reminded that Reptil is actually possessed by his future self who's come back in time to make sure things happen the way they should, the way a mysterious 'he' wants them to. But he's tempted to change things for personal reasons. If he warns Ken Mack (Mettle) what's going to happen will that allow them to stay friends? Could he change things so future Finesse would still let him call her Jeanne (Foucault)? And he's worried that his memories of the past don't include White Tiger. But of course he also doesn't remember his body being taken over by his future self while his young mind is trapped in the future in a sensory deprivation tank with his powers neutralised. However this is all evidence that 'he' was right about the timestream being in flux at this point.
He does remember X-23 joining the school, and uses his future enhanced dino-abilities to give his ears better hearing (as he did last issue) to eavesdrop on what Kinney and headmaster Giant-Man are talking about. Laura says she doesn't really know why she's here. Henry Pym says he and the X-school head Wolverine thought there was mutual benefit in it. She remembers how Logan thought she'd benefit from being around other teens in the Xavier Institute (back in X-Men (1991) #165) but she didn't fit in. Pym hopes that she'll do better here without the 'baggage' of the mutant connections and he suggest she get to know the others. (In the background we see Butterball chatting to Spider-Girl, and Power Man, Ricochet, Rocket Racer and She-Hulk (Lyra) playing with a frisbee.)
She approaches the core group and asks them what they think about her joining. But 1st she tells them about herself. She's Laura Kinney, cloned from Wolverine's DNA, raised in a lab and trained to kill efficiently and without remorse. When she developed emotions her trainers created a trigger scent that overrides them and sends her into a murderous rage. She's been an assassin since 12 and killed lots of people indiscriminately, ending with wiping out her birth facility including her mother. She doesn't understand normal feelings and relationships, and the trigger scent is still active. After a pause the students respond. Mettle says they were all forced to be like this (by Norman Osborn), so she'll fit in. Finesse says she too has difficulty understanding emotions and she's created a set of flash cards she can share. Striker is just worried that her trigger scent might be his body spray.
Reptil (Humberto Lopez) remembers that he joined in that conversation but for some reason he kept out of it this time. But now he sees Striker (Brandon Sharpe) trying to get Lightspeed (Julie Power)'s attention but she's moving away. Future Striker said the upcoming conversation was crucial so 'Berto becomes a large prehistoric flying insect to follow them. Brandon tells Julie he overheard Hazmat telling her to decide what 'team' she plays for, but Julie doesn't want to talk to *him* about it and tries to fly off. Striker zaps her to stop her so she hits him and tells him to keep his pervy mind out of her love life.
But Brandon says he thinks he's gay too. Julie doesn't believe him because he's always hitting on girls, but he says he deliberately does it obnoxiously and to girls who he knows won't respond. She says she knows who she is on many levels but whatever feelings she has for people it's based on their personality not their gender. She doesn't want to be labelled. He replies that the B in LGBT stands for Bisexual but she responds that many of her L and G friends think Bs are just gays who haven't fully come out. And some other people think she's just got 'confused' since she came west. Brandon tells her to forget all of them and just do what makes her happy, but Julie points out he's not taking his own advice. He says he's not ashamed but he's not making it a big thing.
He now tells her about how he acted in commercials when he was younger and his manager 'touched him inappropriately'. But that was when his power manifested and it killed the guy. Julie's so sorry but Brandon tells he doesn't want sympathy. That monster has already cursed him with those memories but he wonders if that's also why he's gay, but Julie quashes that idea. He continues that he never had a relationship with his father and he liked the way the manager seemed to care for him, even when it started to get 'weird'. So he also wonders if he wanted his 'attention'. Julie quashes that too. He responded to the father-figure he needed but that doesn't at all excuse what the man did. And Brandon breaks down and cries in her arms.
But he quickly recovers his composure and apologises because they hardly know each other. Julie replies that they know each other very well now. But she asks if he's ever been with girls and he says he was probably trying to prove his manhood (and we remember from his origin in #5 that Osborn provided him with female companionship). But they agree that's not how he wants to spend the rest of his life, so she tells him to figure out the rest at his own pace. Julie says she's here for him, and Brandon says he can help *her* be a proud bisexual. As she leaves she comments that with her current love life she's not an anything sexual. And Reptil-bug is ashamed to have spied on them even though future Striker told him to.
Next day Reptil spies X-23 lying on a tree branch above Hazmat and Mettle. Jenny Takeda wants Laura to tell Ken Mack what she told her. Mettle is worried because during Fear Itself he killed some Nazi soldiers to save innocent civilians, and now he thinks that makes him a psycho killer. Laura drops down to tell him that taking a life to save innocents is totally different from killing innocents. She's done both in the past. The 1st she would do now without hesitation. The 2nd she is determined to never do again. But Ken says killing gave him a rush. Laura explains that was just natural adrenaline. Some people do get addicted to it, but she asks how he feels when he remembers what he did. Ken says it makes him sick, so Laura thinks he'll be OK.
Reptil whispers to Ken's girlfriend Jenny that Laura might be competition so she tries to pull him away from her. But Ken stays to thank Laura and she says he can talk to her about it anytime. Hazmat drags him away muttering "Hussy". Apparently this was a deliberate part of Reptil's plan to guide things in the right direction. And then the next critical point begins, and this 1's really important.
Hawkeye comes running to tell Tigra they have a mission. He's heard on the police band about the anti-mutant Purifiers trying to kill a homeless telekinetic kid. Greer Nelson runs to get Giant-Man and Quicksilver while Clint Barton readies the Quinjet. Reptil hesitates but then does what he's supposed to do and asks to come on the mission.
On Skid Row the Purifiers are firing at the boy heedless of other homeless behind him, but he's raised a car as a protective shield. The cult claim to be doing God's work but Henry Pym suggests they check the 10 Commandments as his giant foot slams into them, with a huge dinosaur foot alongside. As Pietro Maximoff rushes civilians out of the way Pym cautions Reptil not to bite *too* hard on the cultist in his mouth, even though he *is* armoured. Humberto reluctantly restrains himself as Tigra dodges blasts from the cult-leader's gun until the speedster disarms him. The leader seems to be saying that the boy really is a monster, not just some ordinary mutant. But then he and his gang burst into flames. Lopez suggests they committed suicide rather than be captured, because that's what cultists do. Pym's not so sure but Barton's just happy they've gone. The boy says his name's Jimmy Marks and he's an orphan. Fellow orphan Clint holds out his hand in welcome.
Back at the Academy Pym, Barton and Humberto discuss Jimmy. He was orphaned in West Virginia aged 15 and came to live with a foster family here in Los Angeles, but he's now too old for the foster system. His parents were anti-mutant so he kept his power hidden. Hank says they're currently stretched with new students and staff leaving so maybe they should refer him to the X-Men. But 'Berto chimes in to suggest they ask Jimmy what *he* wants. The lad firmly rejects going to the X-Men. His upbringing has rubbed off on him so he'd feel more comfortable with the Avengers. Reptil tells Jimmy that he lost his parents too, and takes him to his new room. Dr Pym notes that this is the 1st time Humberto has referred to his parents as dead not just missing, and hopes he's not losing his optimism.
In his room Marks sheds his human form to reveal his true monstrous shape as Hybrid. He says his telepathy finds Reptil's mind hard to read but he knows that he's from the future, and that Lopez knows who *he* is. And that they both know that the Purifiers didn't commit suicide but were killed by Hybrid. Future-Lopez tells him that he's here to make sure the future happens in a certain way, and that includes letting Hybrid loose on a bunch of superhumans who, unlike the X-Men, don't know what he is. The deal is that he can have most of them but Lopez will give him a list of those who must survive.
We end with another glimpse of the future this Reptil comes from. Striker is failing to keep a shapechanging little girl out of the room where Finesse, Mettle and Veil are. She clings to Finesse's leg and Jeanne asks who she is. Ken tells her it's her own daughter Maria. Jeanne admits her movements looked familiar. But then the child asks her why daddy is in a cage. And she points to future-Reptil who currently holds present-Humberto's mind.
CharactersGood (or All)Plus: Butterball (
Emery Schaub), Lightspeed (
Julie Power), Power Man (
Victor Hernan Alvarez), Ricochet, Rocket Racer (
Robert Farrell), She-Hulk (
Lyra), White Tiger (
Ava Ayala), X-23 (
Laura Kinney).
Enemies
Hybrid, Purifiers.