The
supervillain known as the Wizard is taken to the Vault, the maximum security
prison for superhuman criminals. Guardsman Frank Ensign is assigned to escort
him to his cell and explain the rules of the establishment. Once in his cell,
Wizard discovers another, disguised person there (spoiler: it’s Loki); the
one-sided conversation is picked up by the monitors and Frank goes over to
investigate. He discovers the Wizard in his gadget-laden costume able to fight
back. Wizard defeats Frank and releases all the prisoners from their cells; the
Guardsmen head to the scene only to come face-to-face with a formidable gang
including Mr. Hyde, Armadillo, Electro, and Scarecrow. In the office they
discover the cables to the power plant have been cut and the silent alarms have
been disabled. An automatic call to the Avengers has, unknown to anyone at the
Vault, been diverted to the offices of Damage Control. Frank is able to repair
his helmet radio and send a message to the Avengers, which is picked up by
Peggy Carter, before he passes out again….
“Tales
From the Vault Part 2”
Writer:
Dwayne McDuffie. Pencils: Dwayne Turner. Inks: Chris Ivy. Colors: Paul Becton.
Letters: Jack Morelli.
Synopsis:
Iron Man is the first Avenger to arrive at the Vault and immediately finds
himself grappling with a scaled-down Orka. Defeating the baddie, he turns on
the master power switch and sees the carnage left by the prisoners’ revolt.…
Meanwhile,
Hawkeye breaks into the control room to find three staff members barricaded
inside. He escorts them safely out of the building before returning to search
the prison where he encounters Iron Man and immediately assumes that Shellhead
is responsible for the breakout, recalling his attack on the building during
the Armor Wars. Iron Man tries to cover up, claiming that he is a new hire,
replacing the previous Shellhead but Hawkeye knows that it’s Tony Stark both
times. Finally, Clint makes him so mad, he presses his gauntlet with the
repulsor ray against Hawkeye’s face and tells him to help rescue the Guardsmen
or not. Iron Man tears up a huge section of the floor and they put all of the
wounded Guardsmen on it as a makeshift stretcher while Hawkeye continues to harass
Shellhead about his responsibility for the breakout. When Shellhead lifts the
giant stretcher, Hawkeye is seized from behind by the Scarecrow, holding a
knife to his throat and demanding to be shown the way out. Hawkeye flips him
and aims an arrow at this heart to force the baddie to lock himself into a
cell. Hawkeye uses an explosive arrow to blow the wall out of the building but
only succeeds in awakening the giant Yetrigar. They make it outside and Iron
Man remotely closes and seals all cell doors until more Avengers arrive.
Hawkeye tests an electro-magnetic pulse arrow developed by Hank Pym. He fires
it and it completely shuts down all electronic devices in the immediate area,
including Iron Man’s armor and his own hearing aids….