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Avengers Assemble #1

Sep 2024
Steve Orlando, Cory Smith

Avengers Assemble #1 cover

Story Name:

(no title given)


Synopsis

Avengers Assemble #1 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
On the island of Rugen, Germany archaeologists have unearthed a box but now someone has killed them with her sword. The box contains the helmet of Erida, Goddess Of Hate, and the woman describes herself as her last priestess. But we know her as Sin, daughter of the Red Skull.

In Avengers Mansion Edwin Jarvis has alerted Captain America (Steve Rogers) to a crisis. Cap's there to inaugurate a new Avengers team that he thinks is needed in a world where mutantkind is recovering from the Fall Of X event and Dr Doom is the new Sorcerer Supreme and there's loads of new vampires who can now survive in daylight (both since the Blood Hunt event). During Blood Hunt he led an impromptu team of Avengers to protect New York from the vamps (in #14-16 of the current Av series). And now he's instituting the Avengers Emergency Response Squad (AvengERS) to handle such crises.

Coincidentally the 1st 3 invited members of the team arrive:- Photon (Monica Rambeau), Shang-Chi and Wasp (Janet Van Dyne). Steve welcomes the 2 female frequent flyers (and sometime leaders of the Avengers) plus Shang (who was part of the 2010 Secret Avengers, the 2012 Avengers and the 2014 Avengers World series) and tells them that more chars are on their way but they've got an immediate mission to attend to. We learn that Sin is using the ancient psionic artefact to start an infestation of hatred. Shang uses his magic Ten Rings to whisk them to their destination of Rugen.

They arrive to find literally red-eyed people fighting each other and causing mayhem. Having 3 ex-leaders of the Avengers starts to cause its own chaos as Photon pre-empts control from Cap. Meanwhile just across on the mainland in Stralsund 4 members of the Serpent Society (Black Mamba, Puff Adder, ex-leader Sidewinder and newbie Tiger Snake) are using the cover of the nearby conflict to sneak in to steal a large old wooden cask. And Sin continues to rant that hate is the oldest emotion and as Erida she feeds off it. And continues to expand the range of her influence. It even inflames the 3-way leadership rivalry. But Shang-Chi uses his martial arts training to keep control and strikes the other 3 in a specific brain area to temporarily numb the hate circuit (insula and putamen). They agree this gives him the right to declare "Avengers assemble".

Back in Manhattan Hawkeye (Clint Barton) has arrived at the Mansion and is sitting at the round meeting table. He decides to await the next crisis but meanwhile gets out a pack of cards. Lightning (Miguel Santos) is next, complaining that they haven't been in contact since the Avengers: No Surrender epic. Then She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters) and then, surprising them all, college student Lightspeed (Julie Power) of Power Pack (who obliquely refers to her romance in Avengers Academy with Majesdanian alien Karolina Dean of the Runaways).

Sin attacks Cap's shield claiming to have broken it once before (I think she means Fear Itself #5 but it was actually Odin's brother the Serpent that did it). Wasp attacks her but is repulsed. Shang-Chi is next and then she grapples with Photon. But Cap and Shang launch a shattering counter-attack with shield and fists. But the bloodied villain calls on her hate-filled horde to attack the heroes. The Avengers don't want to hurt the possessed people but Photon launches herself out of the melee to attack Sin directly. And Wasp has a plan.

Hercules has joined the gathering at the Mansion. They haven't started playing cards and Jen says it wouldn't be a fair contest because Miguel outplayed the Grandmaster (bluffing him at poker in Av#689 at the end of Av:NS). Hercules says he's beaten an Elder Of The Universe too, but Jen objects that outboxing Champion isn't the same. (I can't remember such a fight. Marvel Fandom Wiki suggests it was in She-Hulk (2004) #7 but I find no mention of Herc there, and if he was there he'd have to be 1 of the losers). Wonder Man (Simon Williams) then completes the assembly and mentions that Herc is 3-up in their arm-wrestling contests. Julie wants to drop out when she thinks they're playing for money which she can't afford but Simon assures her that the loser just has to wash the dishes. She tells Wondy she's seen 1 of his movies, but only because her dad's a fan.

Sin is feeding off photon's anger but Monica tells her she's taking in loads of electrons too. The villain dismisses science as ineffectual against magic. Then Wasp flies up her nose and causes an electric spasm in her head. Photon suggests they focus on destroying the magic helm. She borrows Cap's shield as Sin sneezes Wasp out. Cap and Shang start battering the helmet as Photon flies up to space. And then she zooms down to slam the shield in Sin's face. The foe boasts that they've only delivered her into the arms of Erida. And she burns to ash. And the German populace recover from possession.

At the poker table Simon calls but Jen says she can tell he's bluffing. Her courtroom experience and all his big screen appearances mean that she knows his tells. Simon tries to laugh *that* off as a bluff but yet he folds. Herc reminds him this is just a friendly game, but also 'reminds' him that his Olympian Allspeak power means that he can read everyone's body language too. Then the others' reaction shows that they didn't know about that. Jarvis starts to bring in food but a final late arrival joins them - Night Thrasher (Dwayne Taylor). Lightspeed finally lets out her inner fangirl and NT opens a box to reveal matching team jackets for them all, and some other stuff.

A final epilogue in the Serpent Stronghold caverns below Rawling, New York shows us the large gathering of the Serpent Society with their leader Viper now calling himself Pit Viper (but fully-masked so it might not be him). And it seems that Tiger Snake is someone he personally brought into the team. He tells Puff Adder to pour some of the aged whale oil, steeped in suffering and waste, from the cask into a glass bowl where it presumably mixes with other ingredients which the boss says will produce the Serpent's Tears. He claims they will be a deadly and marketable weapon, but will also honour their backer Mephisto who will weep the Tears. And we see his image in smoke from the bowl (unless he's really there).


 

Review / Commentaries


Avengers Assemble #1 Review by (September 13, 2024)
Elisabetta D'Amico helps with the inking of this issue.

Jarvis is busy these days! He's working in the Avengers orbiting Impossible City base, in the Jarvis Lounge which hosts Wasp's Avengers Inc team and now back in the Mansion. The AvInc mini-series was also Avengers' ex-leader Wasp's last previous app.

Monica Rambeau has had many superids (Captain Marvel, Photon, Pulsar and Spectrum, usually ceding the name to someone else) before returning to Photon in 2022's Monica Rambeau: Photon mini-series. She also led the Avengers in #279-294. And was 1 of the Earth-616 ULtimates.

Shang-Chi used to be known as the Master Of Kung-Fu in the comic of that name. Since then he spent time in the Heroes For Hire, Secret Avengers, Fearless Defenders and Avengers. He's also been busy in the post-Secret Wars universe, most significantly gaining the Ten Rings in his 2021 series (in emulation of his movie counterpart).

Hawkeye's been an on/off Avenger since #16 of the original series, but lately it's been off since West Coast Av (2018) and Av No Road Home. But recently he's teamed up with Captain America (Sam Wilson), Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) and Vision in most of the issues of Avengers United Infinity Comic #26-36, and he's had the Black Widow & Hawkeye mini-series.

Lightning was originally Living Lightning from Av West Coast #63. He shortened his name in the Avengers: No Surrender arc. He's only had a handful of minor apps since then.

She-Hulk is another on/off Avenger. Her last team run was in the All-Out Av and Av Beyond mini-series although she recently became a reserve member again in Sensational She-Hulk (2024) #9-10. That and Amazing Spider-Man (2024) #56-57 are her most recent apps.

Lightspeed was 1 of the Power family children who got powers from an alien, and who had a long series and a mini-series before she 'retired'. But she couldn't keep out of the superlife. She joined a group called the Loners in the 2nd Runaways series where she met Karolina Dean. The Loners then had a mini-series before she and several of the others joined the Av Academy. When the Runaways guest-starred there for a while Julie started a relationship with Karolina. But that ended in the 5th Runaways series while she was in college at Empire State University. Julie temporarily joined her brother Alex in the Future Foundation before the whole team got back together for another PP series during the Outlawed event. She then had a relationship with Gwenpool in Love Unlimited Infinity Comic #43-48. (But the later PP: Into The Storm mini-series is set much earlier in her life.)

Hercules' Allspeak is a common attribute of all deities which allows them to communicate with all beings.
He was a member of Captain America's ad hoc team in Av#14-16 which inspired the creation of the current team. Since then he's guested in Immortal Thor #13-15 (but the recent Giant-Size Thor is probably set a bit earlier).

Wonder Man began as a 1-issue villain turned hero turned dead in (original) Av#9, but he later returned to life and became an Avenger, then West Coast Avenger, then post-Civil War Mighty Avenger. He got disillusioned by all the heroes fighting heroes stuff and founded an opposition the Revengers. Then it was back in some form or other for the 1st 3 series of Uncanny Avengers. Lately he co-starred with Black Widow in Avengers Unlimited Infinity Comic #55-57, and joined a good clone of his pal Beast in X-Force (2019) #49-50 to stop the now-insane original.

Night Thrasher (Dwayne Taylor) is the 1 team member who's never before been an Avenger. He formed and ran the New Warriors until he seemingly died with the team in the Stamford disaster. But in the post-Secret Wars universe it seems he was really pulled into the future to take part in the Collector/Grandmaster's Contest Of Champions, and he stayed on in the new universe afterwards. He's just had a 2nd series of his own (this 1 only a mini).
Even when his brother Donyell took over the role he wasn't an Avenger, but he did feature in quite a few issues of Avengers: The Initiative.

In Greek mythology Erida was another name for Eris, Goddess of strife and discord. But Homer called her the Goddess of hate. Her only previous Marvel app was in Uncanny Avengers Annual (2015) #1.

Sinthea Schmidt, daughter of Red Skull, has gone through several aliases. As Mother Superior she led the Sisters Of Sin in Captain America #290-301 before being de-aged to become Sister Sin working for Mother Night from CA#355. Then after a long gap she re-emerged as Sin in CA(2004) #15. She even called herself Red Skull as 1 of the hammer-bearing Worthy in the Fear Itself event. Her latest app was as Superior in the United States Of Captain America mini-series.

The Serpent Society followed on from various versions of the Serpent Squad which was founded by Viper (Jordan Dixon) in CA#163. But he was killed in CA#180 by Madame Hydra (Ophelia Sarkissian) who took over his codename to lead the next Squad. Sidewinder led the 3rd version in the Serpent Crown affair. Sidewinder then upgraded them to the bigger Serpent Society in CA#309. Things got complicated after that with more leadership changes plus freelancing and infighting between splinter groups. And then the multiverse ended in Secret Wars.
In the universe after SW Jordan Dixon reappeared alive (but then so did some other people) and took command of the Serpent Society again in Captain America: Sam Wilson #3. Dixon and the Society were seen worshipping Mephisto in Av(2018)#55. After that Sidewinder led them again in a non-Mephisto op in Av Unlimited Infinity Comic #52-54. But now they're back with Dixon and Mephisto, and Sidewinder's grumpy about not being in charge.
So it occurs to me that Jordan Dixon may have been working for Mephisto ever since his post-SW resurrection. He was seen after his death in Mephisto's realm when he played an active role in Marvel UK's Hell's Angel #2.
It looks like the Serpent Society plotline will bubble along in the background until the last issue of this mini-series.



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Cory Smith
Oren Junior
Sonia Oback
Leinil Francis Yu (Cover Penciler)
Leinil Francis Yu (Cover Inker)
Romulo Fajardo (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Cory Petit.
Editor: Alanna Smith. Editor-in-chief: C. B. Cebulski.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Captain America
Captain America

(Steven Rogers)
Hawkeye
Hawkeye

(Clinton Barton)
Hercules
Hercules

(Heracles)
Jarvis
Jarvis

(Edwin Jarvis)
She-Hulk
She-Hulk

(Jennifer Walters)
Wasp
Wasp

(Janet Van Dyne)
Wonder Man
Wonder Man

(Simon Williams)

Plus: Black Mamba, Lightning (Miguel Santos), Lightspeed (Julie Power), Night Thrasher (Dwayne Taylor), Photon (Monica Rambeau), Puff Adder, Serpent Society, Sidewinder, Sin (Synthia Schmidt), Viper (Jordan Stryke).

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