Synopsis
Avengers Academy Giant-Size (2011 series) #1 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
This issue is really an Avengers Academy/Young Allies team-up.
Avengers Academy students Brandon Sharpe (Striker), Humberto Lopez (Reptil), Jeanne Foucault (Finesse) and Madeline Berry (Veil) have been given the day off from the Avengers Infinite Mansion and they're strolling in Manhattan's Bryant Park. (Hazmat and Mettle aren't with them because they'd be too obvious in public.) They're barked at by a dog so 'Berto turns his head reptilian and roars back. He and Maddy see Spider-Girl web-swinging past with Firestar flying beside her, and get separated from the other 2. They wander the city unsure what to do until they get worried about the other duo, especially when they don't answer their phones.
Maddie wants to call the teachers (or at least her crush Justice), but Berto thinks they should look for them themselves because they might not be let out again if the teachers learn they didn't stick together. He buys a hoodie so he can hide his head and turn it reptile again to make use of its superior sense of smell to track their friends to a side alley where they find an unexpected poster advertising their team. While examining it they don't notice bricks flying out from the wall behind them to attack them. The reign of bricks is followed by 2 robots. Veil is already unconscious but Reptil tries to fight back. 1 of the robots puts her into a container of liquid. Reptil fights the other robot who lets him know that they already have Finesse and Striker. It's only relaying its master's voice which tells him that he and some other young costumed heroes are invited to the grand opening of his 'new creation'. Humberto tries to call for help but the robot smashes his phone. A flying brick KOs him too and he's put in another container.
Meanwhile Firestar (Angelica Jones) and Spider-Girl (Anya Corazon) have zoomed to and apartment building where their comrade Toro had texted a message to say he urgently wanted to meet them. On the way Angel asks Anya why she's been quiet lately but Anya doesn't want to tell her what's happened (her father getting killed in #1 of her eponymous series). When they reach their destination they see a large tethered balloon version of SG holding a message asking for help. They land on the rooftop which has lots of washing pegged out to dry and some large 'Russian nesting doll' cats. But inside there are nested dolls but what might be machine parts. Suddenly the metal clothes pegs morph into flying darts. FS burns a lot of them down but 1 stabs her and she falls. And the cat dolls turn into robots. SG regrets not having her old powers like the blue carapace (from her Spider-Society tattoo) as she tries to dodge the drats and drag FS to safety. But a dart gets her and the last thing she sees is a different robot (like the ones that captured Reptil and Veil).
Finesse and Striker wake up in a glass dome under water. Jeanne remembers them being lured into an alley by reptile-headed Humberto who turns out to be a robot and they're attacked by flying bricks (so it's *that* alley). But she doesn't know how come they've got their uniforms on. Outside the dome they suddenly see a shark.
Some time later Reptil wakes up inside a packing case and breaks out of it with dinosaur arms. He sees someone breaking out of another box and assumes it's Veil, but it's Spider-Girl. He helps her out but she thinks he's attacking her so she punches him and demands to know what he's done with Firestar. He tells her who he is and that he was kidnapped too. Then the cat-doll robots show up and the duo bond by fighting them. And Reptil gets to claw the reptile-head off his robot double. Then their actual captor pops up and shockblasts them.
When they recover he complains that the truck that brought them all here was delayed in traffic so their sedative wore off. But he says that the others are safely in captivity. He shows them a view of Finesse and Striker in their shark dome. Then Young Ally Toro in a whack-a-mole trap, unconscious Firestar being carried to a chair by 2 robots, and Veil trapped in a maze of tubes. He tells them he's Arcade and they're in his Murderworld. And since the duo woke up before he could put *them* in Murderworld traps he'll improvise. He proposes a competition for them in the City, and if they don't play then their friends will die.
In the shark dome the 2 Academy students are gradually using up the oxygen. Striker wants to blast his way out but Finesse says that'll just get them drowned or eaten by sharks (which Arcade tells us haven't been fed for a while). Foucault intends to *think* their way out of this.
Arcade explains that some of Veil's tubes have open ends to suck her in if she turns to gas. So she has to try to climb out of the maze. But some of the tubes are also electrified. And their are 2 little flying Arcade robots to confuse her.
Firestar is shackled in the fireproof chair but she can control a robot arm to bring her the chair. But it's in a maze of bombs and the control buttons don't work perfectly. And she's also got flying Arcade-bots to heckle her, as well as an annoying tap-dancing Arcade on a TV screen.
Toro is in a chamber filling with poison gas. He can pop his head out for air through holes in the ceiling but then he gets hit by a hammer. He also knows that he *could* break through the walls but that would set off Firestar's bombs.
Now Arcade explains the rules to Reptil and Spider-Girl. They will each be given a series of tasks. Each successful task wins a point, and the 1st to accumulate 5 points gets to choose 1 person to free from a trap. Unfortunately the loser then has to choose the 1st to die.
Then he explains why he's doing this, apart from being a psycho, which is because he's an assassin-for-hire. He leads them to his control room where he shows them a load of people on screens who he says are potential clients waiting to be impressed. And other screens show people he's killed. But noticeably they're all regular victims, not super-types because the super-types always get away. So he's decided to lower his sights to teen super-folk to restore his reputation. (The trapped victims are hearing this which makes Finesse realise that the talking sharks are robots.)
Arcade leads his mobile victims outside again and gives them their 1st tasks. He tells Spider-Girl to bring back a photo of herself with a dog, and he'll know if she fakes it. And Reptil must prove that he kissed a girl. Humberto does that immediately by kissing SG. Arcade applauds his cheating but gives him his next task to bring back a bottle of wine vintage 1965. The duo head off in separate directions.
Meanwhile Veil is tired of playing by the rules. She breaks 1 of the tubes open and stuffs 1 of the Arcade robots in it. The other robot tries to escape. And Finesse notices water leaking into the dome. And Firestar and Toro are still struggling with their own problems.
Humberto finds a phone ringing in his pocket, and when he answers it Spider-Girl is on the other end. She planted it on him while he planted a kiss on her. They agree to be fine about the kiss and that they need to stop playing by Arcade's rules because he's going to kill them all anyway.
Anya has gone home and is rifling through photo albums, but the only picture there is of her and a dog has her father in it too. Reptil suggests she cut her dad out of it, but she confesses that it's difficult for her because he was murdered a few weeks ago. And her mom died a few years before that. Reptil tells her that his parents are gone too (actually only missing and he hopes not dead). And he adds that his name is Humberto.
He tries to use his Avengers Authorisation Card to buy some wine but they won't sell it to him. Anya also says she's not going to use her dog photo. Instead she's used her SHIELD training (presumably acquired as Carol Danvers 'sidekick' during and after Civil War I in the 2006 Ms Marvel series) to hack into Arcade's computers and found some phone numbers which she's tracing. She locates several building contractors and hacks *their* computers to find a common work site, which she deduces is Murderworld.
Meanwhile in Murderworld Veil says she's not really been trying to navigate the maze of pipes. Instead she's been studying it's structure and finding it's weak points. She now breaks some strategic links and the whole edifice collapses. And without the vacuum suction effect she's able to turn into gas and make her way through cracks and vents into a control room. Then she opens a door and finds a guard outside concentrating on keeping people out. She efficiently deal with him (but we don't see how) and walk off with his big gun.
In the shark tank Finesse and Striker are running out of oxygen. Jeanne proposes a desperate plan. She asks Brandon to aim his lightning at the bottom edge of the dome where water is leaking in. This frees the dome and the air trapped inside makes it rise past the robot sharks towards the ceiling with them inside it. At the last instant Finesses flips the dome over and Striker blasts through the roof and they climb out.
Reptil and Spider-Girl have arrived at the site and smashed their way in. They find a room with robot replicas of all the teens, except the Reptil 1 they destroyed earlier. But Arcade is watching them from a different control room (the 1 he showed them earlier with his potential clients on screens). Those same clients are disappointed with his performance so far. They've seen 3 captives escape their death traps, and now they see 2 guards curiously approach a gun lying on the ground ... until Veil gases them unconscious (so that's how). Arcade claims he's just toying with his prey, and hits a button to unleash killer robots.
Finesse detects vibrations in the floor which tell her that something big is on the way. Then Veil comes running down the corridor with 2 giant robots chasing her (but having trouble both fitting into the corridor). Striker blasts them with no effect, so he figures Arcade must have designed them with him in mind. It looks like they're trapped but then Reptil in full lizard form rips through them. Spider-Girl's not far behind but lots more robots turn up. However Finesse and SG have a whispered conversation. And Striker creates an even bigger bolt of lightning ...
... which shorts out Arcades monitor system so he can't see what's happening anymore. He sends out flying bombs with regret that he won't be able to see the kills. But the system comes back online just in time to see some hit Firestar still trapped in her chair. And all the bombs already in that room go off, killing her. Elsewhere Finesse and Veil are unconscious. A giant robot smashes Striker's chest. The remaining Spider-Girl attacks it in a frenzy but then collapses from overexertion(?).
Arcade rushes to the scene to gloat. But there he finds the 4 still alive, plus Firestar and Toro (but no Reptil). Finesse explains that it was robots that were killed, the ones that SG found on the way in. And now they're sure that this is the real Arcade come to see his handiwork, not just a robot stand-in. He congratulates them on being almost as evilly devious as himself.
But then his cane blasts Toro knocking him down, and a button on it summons a horde of little flying Arcade-bots. Striker's electricity deals with them but another button electrifies the floor. Most of the teens can escape, and it doesn't harm Striker, but Toro on the floor takes the full effect. Another button brings a rotating set of guns out of the ceiling, and in the chaos Arcade escapes while another button brings down bars which stop the heroes from following him. Except for Spider-Girl who webswings after him, and Veil who turns to gas to follow her. Toro tries to bend the bars but another button push engulfs them in gas. Arcade reaches his control room ahead of the 2 girls. But inside he finds Reptil waiting to take revenge.
Everybody (strangely apart from Veil) gathers round the villain's unconscious body. The students say they'll take Arcade back to the Academy to prove why they're late back. Striker offers to show Spider-Girl his room. She writes down her phone number. But gives it to Reptil instead.
CharactersGood (or All)Plus: Toro (
Benito Serrano).