Synopsis
Great Lakes Avengers #1 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
Connie Ferrari of legal firm Ferrari and Hindel is hoping to leave work on time for a date when her assistant Amy tells her that their client the Avengers have a job for her. We learn that this ex-girlfriend of Steve Rogers (Captain America) hasn't got over him. but she has to cancel her date with an SR lookalike to catch a flight from New York (with Amy) immediately.
In Milwaukee Flatman (Dr Val Ventura), reduced to living off the scant residuals from is autobiography The Flat-Out Truth, is playing an online fantasy role-playing game when Ms Ferrari (and Amy) rings his doorbell. She reminds him how he used to be in the Great Lakes Avengers until the real Avengers told them to stop, but not before he (it seems) applied for a trademark on the Avengers name. However the current actual holder of the trademark, Stark Holdings, is no longer viable (after the death of Tony Stark in Civil War II) so the ownership of the TM has passed to *him*. And she's been authorised to buy it back from him. The meeting continues over pizza and Ventura adds various wild demands on top of the generous amount of money. Ferrari gets impatient and asks him what he *really* wants. He cunningly replies he wants whatever's in the briefcase Amy clutches. Connie extracts a prepared document which says that if he surrenders the trademark then the GLA will be officially be made a permanent Avengers team. And they were right to have assumed that is *exactly* what Flatman wanted.
Ashley Crawford has changed her name to Bertha after she changed her lucrative modelling career into that of a plus-size model, choosing to live in the plus-size shape she used as Big Bertha in the GLA. She now comes to meet Val at a diner. He's alone even though he texted Doorman, Mr Immortal and Squirrel Girl as well. (We get hints that something happened between Bertha and Craig Hollis. And we see SG with Tippy-Toe ignoring his text while she has a restaurant meal with Captain America (Sam Wilson), Spider-Man (Miles Morales) and the female Thor.) Bertha's not too sure about restarting the team, especially when Val says he'll lead it in the absence of Craig. Then Doorman (DeMarr Davis) enters the room through the table, worrying if his cosmic boss Oblivion will come after him (he's officially now an Angel Of Death). Then he notices that Flatman is 3-D instead of his usual 2-D and is astonished to learn that FM could always switch modes at will, because otherwise many necessary things in life would be impossible for him. Then Ventura gets a call with the team's new assignment.
In Detroit we look in on young Good(ness) Silva and her brother Lucky. Good is creating super-chars on her computer and tablet, which Lucky reminds her that he paid for. Suddenly her bedroom is wrecked as a supervillain Firebrand blasts his way through it. Good survives with minor scratches but is worried about Lucky. However through the remains of the wall she sees another villain Pitchfork with forks for hands menacing (rather ineffectually) a mother and child across the street. She rushes out confronts the bad guy as a sort of werewolf.
The GLA trio are heading for Detroit, because that's where the Avengers have relocated them, in a camper van (which FM calls the Flatmobile, nothing like the Flat-A-Maran we glimpsed in the Deadpool/GL Initiative Summer Fun Special). FM and Doorman discuss the Mr Immortal situation which is that he's supposedly off on his own 'saving the world 1 person at a time'. They speak in whispers because they don't want to offend Bertha after 'everything that happened'. But she tells them she can hear them from the back of the van. They arrive at their promised Stark Holdings property but find it's a run-down building in a bad part of town. And they're watched by 2 bickering supervillains as they go in:- Firebrand (who we learn is named Erikson Hades) and Shriek (Frances Barrison), and they mention a boss who won't be pleased.
The 1st obstacle is a locked gate which they don't have a key for. DM lets FM use him as a doorway through, but Big Bertha refuses on principle to slim down enough to fit and she just smashes the gate down. Outside the front door they're greeted by a young woman who introduces herself as Pansy who says she's here because she got FM's texts. Which were the texts he sent Mr Immortal, but presumably(?) Ventura sent them to the wrong phone. But she came anyway.
And on the final page we finally see where Mr I really is. He's buried underground in a cemetery with an air tube to the surface.