Synopsis
Hybrid was defeated last issue but it wouldn't have worked without the last minute appearance of ex-student Veil and the robot Jocasta who revealed she had faked her own death. And they declared that Avengers Academy was unfit for purpose and should be shut down.
Headmaster Giant-Man immediately jumps to the conclusion that Jocasta's system has been corrupted, but she counters that his arrogance like that nearly got all the students and staff killed. Teacher Tigra points out that Veil quit the Academy to work for the sociopath billionaire Jeremy Briggs, so he's obviously behind this. J responds that his money and ability to transform chemicals have no sway with her, and V says Briggs didn't come with them because he knew their opinion of him. Henry Pym would still like to check J's programming but she doesn't trust *him* not to make it 'better'. That's why she faked her death to work with Briggs on an alternative school without his interference. Teacher Hawkeye accuses her of going the way of Wonder Man who created the Revengers to oppose the Avengers (in 2011/12's New Avengers and Avengers Annuals). She says she agrees with Simon Williams' motives but not his actions.
Jocasta says she can no longer support the Academy so she's going to disable all their tech which she created. She extends many metal tentacles for this purpose but teacher Quicksilver starts to tie them in knots until she repels him and others with a flash of light and loud sound. But student Hazmat blasts her with radioactivity and Pietro Maximoff zooms round Veil as she tries to turn to gas.
Jeremy Briggs says he was afraid of this as he arrives on a cloud created by Cloud-9, with other ex-Initiative members Hardball, Komodo and Prodigy (Ritchie Gilmore). Hawkeye, Quicksilver and Tigra are up for a fight and the newcomers are ready to give them 1. But Reptil turns into a large dinosaur to split them apart and then back to human to tell them to cool it and Veil agrees. Hank Pym asks if Jocasta will accept a neutral 3rd party scanning her system. If it checks out he'll let her delete her tech. She agrees to that as long as he'll also allow the students to hear Briggs' proposal and decide for themselves what to do. He agrees to that.
Pym suggests the robot student Machine Teen do the scan but Jocasta would prefer Juston Seyfert's Sentinel if they can get it working again after Hybrid broke it last issue. Giant-Man enters the ocean to find the Sentinel's head while Briggs makes his pitch. He says the Avengers only fight supervillains while ignoring big problems like climate change and human trafficking. Veil says she'll leave Dr Doom to the Avengers, she'd rather work on a cure for autism while being paid enough to buy her mom a house. Jocasta adds that the Academy students were almost killed by Hybrid, and 45 students at the X-Men school *were* killed not long ago. Prodigy reminds them that he was involved in a fight that wrecked Vegas (in Fear Itself: Youth In Revolt). The Government gave him a job that kept him out of the public eye but Jeremy gave him a chance to make good. Hardball says Briggs can help them whatever their problem. Komodo is working on a way to regrow missing limbs (as her reptilian form can). Cloud-9 finishes off by saying she's allowed to use her powers the way *she* wants (unlike being made to be a sharpshooter in the Initiative). Jocasta summarises her scientific analysis of the data by saying they offer a future rather than a dead end.
Now it's the turn of the Academy students to share their views. Power Man (Victor Alvarez) says his dad (Luke Cage villain Shades) rose above his violent past but Victor believes it's sometimes necessary so he doesn't know what to decide. She-Hulk (Lyra) is a warrior born. Ricochet isn't going to be self-centred like Prodigy because he declined to help their fellow-Slinger Hornet and got him killed. Batwing would do anything to be normal again. Rocket Racer says if his criminal record isn't a problem and the money's good then he's in. Butterball is desperate to be a super-hero.
Striker asks Veil if she's serious about staying with Briggs. She says she's explained why but it's up to the individuals to decide what's best for them. But she does admit that she cares what happens to him (after they got close in #5), and she thinks his hunger for fame will get him killed. Brandon Sharpe chooses now to tell her that he's gay, but it seems she already worked that out. Briggs approaches Finesse because Veil tells him that Jeanne Foucault admits she might be wrong about him. Jeanne replies that (in #20) she said she had no direct evidence but she still *knows* he's a murderer. But Hazmat approaches *him* and asks if he really thinks he can cure her and Mettle. He says yes so she hands him some bits of Ken Mack's metal skin that mind-controlled X-23 chipped off with her adamantium claws (last issue). Jenny Takeda knows her boyfriend won't leave, partly because she thinks he's now enamoured by Laura Kinney. But if Jeremy will promise to use them to find a cure for Ken then she'll come with him.
Hank and Jocasta are chatting while repairing the Sentinel. He reminds her that the Avengers gave her a place to belong after she turned against her creator Ultron. She responds that she's grateful but they also got her killed several times and she believes her development was held back. She also points out that Henry has quit the Avengers several times to concentrate on his career/marriage but kept coming back for various reasons, and she wonders if he'd have been more successful if he'd kept out of the superhero business. When the Sentinel awakens it connects to the robot and declares her free of tampering. True to his word Giant-Man allows her to delete all her personal contributions to the Academy's computer system.
GM then makes a speech to the students saying he still believes in the Avengers, and without them he knows he'd be dead or insane or in prison or wasting his life. As well as saving the world the Avengers saved him. He's has hard times being an Avenger but also the best times of his life, and he's fought alongside the best friends he could have and found great happiness. If he'd not been an Avenger he might still have had the same depression, mental illness and suicidal thoughts but not survived them. Behind this we see a montage of his various identities and some events:- Yellowjacket in jail (in Av#217-230 after being framed by Egghead); Ant-Man riding a flying ant pursued by pseudopods (Vision's internal defence mechanism in Av#93); Goliath teamed with Cap's Kooky Quartet (Av#28 ff); Yellowjacket marrying Wasp (Av#60); Giant-Man kissing Tigra (this series).
He adds that he also wouldn't have had the honour of teaching his current students. He tells them each that they've always been free to leave. It's risky being an Avenger but it's risky being a person with powers in any situation. He stands by his promise to do all he can to protect them and equip them to face future challenges. Being an Avenger has made him a far better man, and he's seen the same effect on others. He still doesn't trust Jeremy Briggs but he accepts that Jocasta's alternative is a valid 1, but so he believes is the Academy's.
Briggs wants to move on to asking the students to make their choices, but Reptil interrupts. Humberto Lopez tells them of the future his mind has just returned from where Veil has returned to the fold and the original team are all together. He thinks maybe in their timeline they faced Hybrid alone and many others died. But in *this* timeline they defeated the Dire Wraith because they all worked together, and nobody died. He suggests that however they split they should keep in contact and work together again when necessary. Briggs says he loves the idea, as do Pym and Jocasta. But Pym makes the proviso that he'll deal with Jocasta not Briggs. Jeremy says he thought Pym believed in redemption, but Henry replies that to be redeemed you have to admit what you've done and be sorry for it.
Anyway, it's vote time. White Tiger says she's going to stay to become a hero to honour her brother Hector Ayala's life. X-23 was owned and experimented on so she doesn't want join a research company. Lightspeed says she's staying but she'll pop in to see them when she's visiting her New York family. Striker doesn't want to hide away in an office. Reptil's staying but invites Veil to come back. Veil says she's made her choice and she's sticking to it, but maybe they'll get together in the future. Rocket Racer accepts Jocasta's offer because he's more of an engineer than a hero and he's got 6 siblings to support through school. Machine Teen says he joined to work with Jocasta so he's going too. Hazmat moves to join them but Jeremy intercepts her to say that he doesn't want her to join him for the wrong reasons. She can stay and he still promises to use the bits of Mettle she gave him to search for a cure. (But we wonder about his motives.) Jocasta tells Hank that she agreed to maintain contact to check on how he's treating his students, and he say the same to her. Then Briggs & co depart on another cloud.
In what we are now told is 20 years in the future we see that future-Reptil is still in a coma. A voice promises to do whatever he can to help him. Future-Veil says 'Berto failed to make the past happen as they remember it, but the voice says that he succeeded in getting the same result without the deaths that happened in their past. And according to his calculations the world is now *more* likely to result in their future than it was. We then see that the speaker is an old bearded extra-large Giant-Man.
CharactersGood (or All)Plus: Batwing (
Jimmy Santini), Butterball (
Emery Schaub), Cloud 9 (
Abby Boylen), Hardball (
Roger Brokeridge), Juston Seyfert, Komodo (
Melati Kusuma), Lightspeed (
Julie Power), Machine Teen, Power Man (
Victor Hernan Alvarez), Prodigy (
Richard Gilmore), Ricochet, Rocket Racer (
Robert Farrell), She-Hulk (
Lyra), White Tiger (
Ava Ayala), X-23 (
Laura Kinney).
Enemies
Jeremy Briggs (Alchemist).