Synopsis
Last issue the Avengers Academy students were taken to the Raft supervillain prison in an attempt they believe to 'scare them straight'. But Jennifer Takeda (Hazmat), Ken Mack (Mettle) and Maddy Berry (Veil) had a different idea. During his Dark Reign Norman Osborn had promised to cure them of their superpowers but instead made them worse. They planned to confront him and Hazmat generated an EMP which knocked out the power in the prison. Maddy thought the aim was to get the promised cures but when they got to him Jen revealed that she intended to kill him.
Mettle provides this issue's voiceover and origin story. He was born in Hawaii and lived for surfing. But then another surfer ran into his head while he was ditched in the water. And when he was pulled to shore bystanders were shocked to see the skin peeling from his face revealing a red skull underneath. He was rushed to the mainland where Osborn took him to the Avengers Initiative scientist Baron Von Blitzschlag who diagnosed the transformation as a defence mechanism, an acceleration of an existing change that was happening slowly all over his body. But instead of trying to reverse it they completed the conversion of his body to 'organic iridium'.
Now Hazmat and Veil are arguing in front of Osborn's cell. Maddy appeals to Ken for support but Mettle rips the door off the cell and makes to throttle the villain. However Norman calmly starts to talk his way out of the situation. He agrees that he perfected their powers but he's gratified to see them taking their destiny into their own hands. He claims that Henry Pym's Academy is trying to constrain them, but also that *he* could give them control of their powers so that they could keep them but also lead normal lives. They don't believe him because Dr Pym can't do that. Osborn counters with 2 contradictory answers:- Pym is limited to 'ethical' methods, or he's not doing it in order to keep control of them. Cynical Jen suggests Norman's just trying to get them to break him out before the power returns, but he responds that there's no time for that but soon he *will* be free. And he suggests they leave before their friends find them here and think they're working with him.
In Thunderbolts Tower everyone's wondering where the 3 have gone. TBolts' boss Luke Cage and Juggernaut leave to search for them (and into other stuff in TB#147). Henry Pym (Wasp) says they'll search as well, and also help with any escaping prisoners. Humberto Lopez (Reptil) can't understand why the 3 left without saying anything. Striker (still unnamed) thinks they were cowards who ran for the safety of the Avengers' quinjet. Jeanne Foucault (Finesse) deems that illogical because the safest place is here with everyone else. Hank and Tigra both guess where they've gone, and Pym orders Quicksilver to rush him there, with Tigra and the other staff (Justice and Speedball) to follow.
Pietro Maximoff and Pym find Osborn sitting in his open cell. He claims that the students tried to kill him. But they were all words without the killer instinct, which Pym probably beat out of them. Wasp tells QS to keep watch on him until he's secured. Norman says he won't escape. He's a political prisoner not a criminal, and he's content to wait until his followers win his freedom.
The teen 3 are making their way up a stairway arguing about what they didn't do. Maddy just says she doesn't want to kill anybody. Jen doesn't believe what Osborn promised but doesn't know why she let him live. Ken opines that it's because they'll clutch at any straw of hope. Their discussion is interrupted by a big villain smashing through a wall with Justice, Speedball and Tigra trying to restrain him. Tigra tells the students to run because he's Powderkeg, and anything he hits explodes. He proves it by pounding the floor of the stairs and everyone falls down the stairwell.
Mettle and Veil land somewhere together and they're found by Juggernaut who they think is 1 of the convicts. (Technically he is but he's part of the Thunderbolts group trying for rehabilitation, in his case genuinely.) Mettle hits him repeatedly, with no effect except possibly relieving some frustration. Veil is then confronted by the scary Man-Thing and instinctively turns to gas. Cain Marko tells her that won't stop her burning at his touch if she's afraid. So he claps his hands to drive her gas away and then carries the muck monster back to his terrarium.
Maddy thinks she knows where Jen went and they find Hazmat with 3 guards fighting 3 prisoners. Grizzly threatens her but she counterthreatens him with cancer. Blackout hits her from behind. The guards are also down so Mettle tells Veil to escape as mist while he faces the convicts. But Justice, Speedball and Tigra burst in with giant-size Wasp holding Powderkeg and using him as an explosive weapon. Tigra appropriately subdues the 3rd villain Vermin, and the others are captured too. Justice notices that Robbie Baldwin is bleeding but he says it's just a scratch. (But possibly it's part of the self-harm we witnessed last issue.)
The Academy folks return to the quinjet where Luke Cage lambasts the 3 errant students for confronting Norman Osborn. The villain could have escaped or they could have died, and others with them. Jen protests that he doesn't understand what Osborn did to them, but Luke counters that Osborn put a bomb on his heart and threatened his wife. Hank apologises for them and asks if they had anything to do with the blackout. Ken saves Jen from having to confess or lie by saying that they wouldn't know how to cause it but they just took advantage of the situation. But then they found that they just couldn't kill him. Pym says they'll be punished for what they did but he commends them for making the right choice in the end.
Henry promises Luke to return tomorrow to investigate the cause of the blackout, with bots to help repair the damage, and to improve the backup system's response time. Luke tells him to leave the kids at home this time. As they leave Ken muses that every day he forgets more about what his earlier life felt like. Maddy looks like she still wants to confess everything but Jen's looking daggers at her. Ken lied because he wants to hold on to the possibility that he'll be allowed to see Osborn again and get a cure.