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New Avengers #14: Review

Feb 2006
Brian Michael Bendis, Frank Cho

Story Name:

(No title given)


Synopsis

New Avengers #14 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

At the Daily Bugle newsroom, reporter Kat Farrell takes a call from her mother telling her to look out the window. She does and, along with the rest of the staff, sees the Quinjet heading for the newly transformed Stark Tower….

Meanwhile, Steve Rogers has confronted Jessica Drew about her suspicious behavior on the Avengers’ recent mission in Japan (issues #11-13) and demands to know who she is really working for. Jessica is unable to evade his question and decides to tell the whole story—while putting partial blame on Steve for making her an Avenger: she relates how she was a Hydra agent at 17 and was rescued and recruited for SHIELD by Nick Fury. She enjoyed her adventuring life until her Spider-Woman powers suddenly disappeared. Unable to adjust to the life of an ordinary human, she was approached by Hydra agent Connelly who offered to restore her powers—if she became a Hydra double agent within SHIELD. Jessica realizes that if she refuses Connelly will kill her. She approached Nick Fury about being reinstated to SHIELD, revealing Hydra’s offer; Fury asked her to do it, planning to use her as a reverse double agent against the enemy organization. She agreed, submitting to Hydra’s process; it took seventeen months but her powers were finally restored and then some: she now had the ability to fly. Her time as a double agent put a great deal of stress on her as she had to be living a dangerous lie—then things became more dangerous when Nick Fury had to go underground, severing contact with her. SHIELD reassigned her to routine duty, such as the bodyguard detail that had her at the Vault on the day of the breakout (issue #1). And then Captain America made her an Avenger, an offer that Hydra would not let her pass up. She relates her suspicious that someone bigger is controlling Hydra—as well as the rogue element in SHIELD. She denies knowing where Fury is now—so Steve asks the other Avengers if they believe her, and the others, who were listening secretly, do—except for one point. She must still be in contact with Fury. At this point her phone rings—and Fury reveals he had been listening the whole time too. He then tells them to turn on the television; they do and see that the changes to Stark Tower have excited a firestorm of controversy over its significance. So Tony Stark calls Jarvis and has him set up a press conference….


 

Review / Commentaries

Rating:
4 stars

New Avengers #14 Review by (January 18, 2012)
Comments: Artist Frank Cho sneaks in many references to his comic strip LIBERTY MEADOWS. Cameos by Jarvis and J. Jonah Jameson.


New Avengers #14 Review by (October 29, 2013)
Wolverine says he knows SW well, and can tell she's mostly telling the truth. SW was a semi-regular guest in his 1988 series. Luke Cage and Spider-Man say they both have reason to distrust NF. Because of what he did to them during Secret War. SW of course doesn't reveal that she's really the Skrull Veranke. I think V replaced SW between NF going underground and SW joining the Avengers. The Skrulls presumably have a way of extracting the memories of those they kidnap to replace, because V sure knows a lot of detail. This kind of thing makes you wonder what SW's actual motives were for some of the things she does. As a double-agent SW maybe let MH go last issue to avoid being exposed, but didn't really care if she survived. Maybe she went to rescue Cap to avoid suspicion, but her words to herself during the attempt sounded like she really *wanted* to save him. She could have just 'failed'. And what were her Skrull motives? The world has only just noticed the Sentry's Watchtower on top of the Stark Building, and Avengers quinjets landing on it? But Iron Man said last issue that the Watchtower had been visible for a while, and he'd been fending off Press enquiries.

Kat Farrell is a Daily Bugle reporter who debuted in the Deadline mini-series and then moved on to The Pulse, written by Bendis. Spider-Woman lost her powers in Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #5, and had variable powers in the Mattie Franklin SW series. This issue replays someone offering to return her full powers in Giant-Sized SW #1.She now says that it was a Hydra agent Connelly, and the price was SW rejoins SHIELD as a double agent. (I don't believe SW was ever an Agent of SHIELD earlier. So the idea of her *rejoining* SHIELD is a bit strange.) SW says it took 17 months to restore her powers. This neatly fills the gap between Alias #21 and New Avengers #1. However she's also supposed to have done much double-agenting after getting her powers and joining New Avengers. And that's without taking into account compressed Marvel time. SW is shown telling NF that Hydra have the Scorpio Key in Iraq, which led to NF hiring Elektra to retrieve it in Elektra (2001) #1-5, which ought to be well before SW took on the double-agent job. (And the Scorpio Key looked like it was the better-known Zodiac Key.) Connelly asks SW about the Caterpillar file, which relates to what will be NF's Secret Warriors teams, and God's Eye, which is the orbiting satellite which SHIELD sends Hulk to neutralise in the lead-up to Planet Hulk.


> New Avengers comic book info and issue index

Elektra

Excelsioring your collection:
DIAMOND SELECT TOYS Marvel Premier Collection: Avengers Endgame Captain America Statue, Multicolor
Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Frank Cho
Frank Cho
Jason Keith
Frank Cho (Cover Penciler)
Frank Cho (Cover Inker)
Jason Keith (Cover Colorist)


Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Captain America
Captain America

(Steve Rogers)
Iron Man
Iron Man

(Anthony Stark)
Luke Cage
Luke Cage

(Power Man)
Nick Fury
Nick Fury

(Nicholas Fury)
Sentry
Sentry

(Robert Reynolds)
Spider-Man
Spider-Man

(Peter Parker)
Spider-Woman
Spider-Woman

(Jessica Drew)
Wolverine
Wolverine

(James Howlett)

Plus: Hordes of HYDRA, Kat Farrell.