Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Civil War: Young Avengers/Runaways #2 Synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Last issue the Young Avengers came to Los Angeles to help the Runaways who had been attacked by SHIELD for disregarding the Superhero Registration Act, seriously damaging the robot Victor Mancha. But when they met Molly Hayes she thought they were also the enemy and attacked *them* until she ran out of energy and fell asleep. When they carried her limp body to the rest of her team the Runaways thought they'd hurt her and all was set for a superhero battle. But then robot Vision approached robot Victor who was shocked awake.
But we begin this issue somewhere else. Maria Hill, Director of SHIELD, is visiting the secret Cube prison where the Warden uses extreme measures to 'rehabilitate' supervillains. She wants 1 of his 'special projects' to go bring in the Runaways because SHIELD itself can't afford to be seen to be harassing young teens. The Warden says she needs a 'maggot' to seek out and consume the infected tissue of society. And his suggestion is Noh-Varr, the Kree super-soldier with added insect DNA. We see him hooked up to life-support suspended in 1 of those ubiquitous tubes of fluid.
In the Runaways' Hostel beneath the La Brea Tar Pits the Vision's 'attack' on Victor is the tipping point and Xavin turns Super-Skrull to be met by the YA's Skrull Hulkling. Wiccan is confused because the actual Super-Skrull left for space with other Skrulls and Kree at the end of YA#12. Xavin explains he's a trainee SS from the facility on Tarnax VII.
Both Victor and Vision are badly affected by their contact. Stature thinks *Vizh* is being attacked and rushes to his aid. Nico Minoru tries to stop her but Hawkeye stops *her* with a judo throw. But the fall draws blood from Nico which in turn triggers her Staff Of One to emerge from her body. And Nico uses it to cast a Get Lost spell on Kate Bishop.
Patriot tries to hand Molly over to Chase Stein but he's too angry to listen. Speed interrupts to 'calm' the situation by giving a brief run down of all the powers in the YA and suggesting Chase backs down. Chase pretends to consider the fact that *he* has *no* powers, but then calls in the psychically-linked dinosaur Old Lace who launches at Speed.
As Xavin and Hulkling trade blows and insults, Wiccan and Karolina Dean duel in mid-air. Billy Kaplan finds time to comment that Xavin is full of himself. Karolina asks him not to say things like that about her 'betrothed', who's quite sweet when he's a she. (Karolina is an alien Majesdanian and the betrothal is a political move for peace between Majesdan and the Skrulls.) Billy is surprised that she's dating a Skrull, but only because he is too (Hulkling who is a Skrull-Kree hybrid).
Cassie Lang has now ripped Vision away from Victor. Vision doesn't know why he was affected by the contact. But Victor is now staggering around like a zombie with blood (or something) leaking from his mouth.
Nico had hoped her spell would send Kate away but instead it's blinded her. (Nico can never exactly predict what the Staff will make of any of her spell-phrases.) But she's about to (I think) use it as a physical weapon when Patriot stops her. Eli Bradley finally convinces her that their battle is a mistake, and she uses a Chill Out spell to stop the fighting.
The Warden is in a SHIELD plane with Noh-Varr heading for LA. He explains by video-link to Director Hill that the subject crash-landed on Earth with Kree from another timeline linked by a super-computer. He was the only survivor and after he was delivered to the Cube the super-computer was eliminated. The Warden then imitated its voice and now Noh-Varr does whatever he says. Now he primes the boy with Skrull scent so he can home in on the Skrull Runaway. And then he kicks him out of the plane over the city.
Meanwhile our teams have come out of the Hostel. Nico's spell stopped the fighting alright but by freezing them all, and now they're trying to warm up. They came out into the open because the Hostel is still ice-cold. She apologises but she can't use the same spell phrase more than once and it's hard thinking up new ones.
Molly's still asleep. Eli suggests they all get away quickly before SHIELD turns up. Nico still doesn't trust anyone called Avengers. Kate has to explain that the Avengers are split by the Act. And her team is here because they saw what happened to Victor.
Vision chooses that moment to explain some stuff. He seems to have code in common with Victor, which is why he felt pain when Mancha was broken last issue. Although his body is Iron Lad's armour from the 30th Century his programming is from the original Vision created by Ultron last Century. At which point Chase interrupts to say that Victor is Ultron's son, created to kill all superheroes and take over the World. Billy points out another similarity between the teams - their founder Iron Lad was another murderous despot, the future Kang The Conqueror.
Molly has woken up to find that the teams are now friends. She sees Tommy Shepherd's white hair and asks if he's 100. Speed tries to dismiss her but she gets him to tell her that he's fast and can make things blow up. And she enthusiastically drags him off for a demonstration. Vision suggests they take Victor to Captain America's Resistance HQ in New York for repairs. But this reignites the Runaways distrust of adults, including Cap who had them put in foster homes (the last issue of their 1st series). They intend to stay out of the Civil War by not picking sides, but Eli points out that being Unregistered automatically makes them targets. Then there's a loud explosion and a cheer from Molly.
Meanwhile Noh-Varr has crashlanded in an LA street causing a minor car crash. Despite the Warden's urging voice he stops to rescue a baby from the back of a car and hands it to the mother before going Skrull-hunting.
By now Tommy and Molly are fast friends playing childish games while the others continue to figure out what to do. Chase, Karolina and Nico are keeping conspicuously separate from Cassie and Eli. Victor's still incapacitated. But Xavin apologises to Billy and Hulkling (Teddy Altman) for his hasty antagonism. Billy says half-Skrull Teddy is impatient too, and explains how his mother was Skrull royalty and his father was Kree Captain Marvel. Xavin immediately realises this must be Dorrek VIII who is expected to unify the Skrull Empire, and he bows before his sovereign. Teddy says he turned the job down but now Xavin gets angry because his homeworld wouldn't have been destroyed if the Skrulls were united.
And then somebody zooms up and breaks Xavin's neck. It's Noh-Varr and he's ready to take them all on.