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Mighty Avengers #18

Nov 2008
Brian Michael Bendis, Stefano Caselli

Story Name:

(no title given)


Synopsis

Mighty Avengers #18 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
In #13 Nick Fury got Daisy Johnson (Quake) to recruit unknown young superchars as his Secret Warriors:- Alex Aaron (Phobos), Jerry Sledge (now called Stonewall), JT James (now Hellfire), Sebastian Druid (codename Druid) and Yo-Yo Rodriguez (here just called Yo-Yo even though Daisy last issue used the word slingshot which will later be her super-id). Nick and Daisy have been training them for months to face the upcoming Skrull invasion.

Now 2 days ago Fury thinks they're ready for their 1st mission. He says that Maria Hill, the current director of SHIELD, has been replaced by a Skrull. And he wants them to kidnap her and bring her to Fury's secret base. He leaves the planning and execution up to them. JT thinks he's throwing them in the deep end when they're not ready, which is just 1 of the many shitty things he's done to them. Cue an illustrated list of some of them:-

When they joined the team Fury injected them with trackers. And if anyone tries to remove 1 it will explode.

He put them through gruelling combat training. In the 1st session he took down the biggest guy Stonewall to show how much his powers didn't count.

1 night Hydra Agents kidnapped sleeping Yo-Yo and took her to Madame Hydra who demanded to know the whereabouts of Nick Fury. (But surely they just taken her from his base?!) She resisted a beating and the threat of death. Until Madame Hydra dropped her image inducer to reveal Fury. And the Hydra agents were Life Model Decoy copies of him. Daisy entered to assure her it was alright. She says they've all been through this, and Yo-Yo did better than herself.

Now Fury says it was all necessary, as is the job he's given them.

Yesterday the plan is underway. Fury has learned that Hill will be leaving the SHIELD helicarrier to meet with the President of Madripoor in New York, which gives them a window of opportunity. Daisy is on a rooftop overlooking the target area and the others are in place. Now they have to wait for Hill to show up. 14 hours later she does so.

10-year old Alex cycles up as Maria Hill gets out of a SHIELD car. SHIELD Agents warn him off but Phobos uses his fear power against them and Druid casts a spell which manifests monsters to add to the confusion. Then Yo-Yo dashes in, grabs Hill and slingshots them both back to where Stonewall is waiting by a van. He disarms the SHIELD Agent and throws her in the van, which Hellfire drives off at speed.

But SHIELD is on the ball and is soon after them with jet-packed flying Agents. However Druid summons up a dense fog which covers the van's escape. And Nick Fury watches on with approval.

Fury confronts the captive Maria Hill and they rehash their last meeting (in #12) where Nick told her to not trust anyone and use LMDs of herself wherever possible. And he's gratified to learn that she took him seriously, so it's an LMD that they've kidnapped. Fury expects SHIELD to be here any minute so he tells the team to scatter and return to their secret base.

Later JT wants to know what's going on. Fury told them Hill was a Skrull and now it turns out she's an LMD. Nick says this was another training exercise, but it also checked that Maria was taking the right precautions and *hadn't* been replaced by a Skrull. The team don't like being lied to, but Fury says that everything he tells them *is* the truth - until he tells them something different. JT is about to quit when  the news monitors show the worldwide Secret Invasion beginning.


 

Review / Commentaries


Mighty Avengers #18 Review by (August 5, 2019)
This cover is an homage to SHIELD's 1st appearance in Strange Tales #135.

Madame Hydra that Nick Fury impersonates is Ophelia Sarkissian who seems to have chopped and changed between being MH and Viper in recent years. When it gets to the Secret Warriors series she will be Viper and someone else will be Madame Hydra.

Next the team will appear during Secret Invasion in issues of the main series and Avengers: Initiative. When that's over and Norman Osborn has replaced SHIELD with HAMMER, Fury will rededicate the team to opposing *him* in the Dark Reign: New Nation 1-shot. But in the succeeding SW series he'll have to split thir focus between that and the resurgence of Hydra.



> Mighty Avengers comic book info and issue index

Elektra

Excelsioring your collection:
statue
Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Stefano Caselli
Stefano Caselli
Daniele Rudoni
Marko Djurdjevic (Cover Penciler)
Marko Djurdjevic (Cover Inker)
Marko Djurdjevic (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Dave Lanphear.
Editor: Tom Brevoort. Editor-in-chief: Joe Quesada.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Hellfire
Hellfire

(JT James)
Nick Fury
Nick Fury

(Nicholas Fury)
Quake
Quake

(Daisy Johnson)

Plus: Phobos (Alexander Aaron), Sebastian Druid, Secret Warriors, Slingshot (Yo Yo Rodriguez), Stonewall (Jerry Sledge).