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Secret Avengers #8

Oct 2013
on-sale: Aug 1, 2013
Nick Spencer, Luke Ross

Secret Avengers #8 cover

Story Name:

Mission 008: The Cathedral


Synopsis

Secret Avengers #8 synopsis by Peter Silvestro
Rating: 4 stars

Mockingbird is trapped in A.I.M. on Barbuda, disguised as scientist Harold Bainbridge; her own scientific training allows her to bluff her way through the job but she has no idea what his actual projects are—or his personality, his friends, his routine, or even his password. It’s been three days and she can’t hold out much longer….

Outside, Taskmaster is introducing the trainees to TESS-One a giant fighting robot so they can learn basic fighting techniques. He pulls two “volunteers” out of the ranks and sets Tessie on them while he plays ping pong with Mentallo. A headdress flung by indicates the need for another volunteer….

Yelena Belova gives the Scientist Supreme (Andrew Forson) an update on Taskmaster’s training; she concludes that all he is creating is cannon fodder. What A.I.M. needs is an elite fighting force and she knows she is the one to train and lead them. Forson listens, flirting with her in very unsubtle ways; when he touches her hair she twists his arm, telling him to read her detailed report and be at the meeting in an hour….

Graviton’s mystical meditations are interrupted by Superia who shares his misgivings about the company and they enter into a secret alliance….

At a stone tower called the Cathedral on the island, a seeker of the truth enters and ascends. He passes doors leading to various options for living: pleasure, contentment, power, power absolute, power divine. At the top he reaches for truth. Jude the Entropic Man shows him the lost truth inscribed on the wall and holds the man’s head in his hands…causing him to disintegrate into a crystalline form….

Mockingbird considers some other possibilities: that she really is Harold Bainbridge and Mockingbird is a hallucination—or perhaps she is a Skrull. “His” supervisor then calls him to an important meeting—she is pushed inside and discovers she is expected to make a presentation to the A.I.M. High Council….



 

Review / Commentaries


Secret Avengers #8 Review by (February 14, 2024)

Review: A serious issue with a comic edge, though the comedy comes with a dark edge. Mockingbird is stuck in a role she doesn’t understand surrounded by people who will kill her if they discover her identity—but she’s running out of ways to bluff; her story will be picked up later. Taskmaster’s violent combat training, the Scientist Supreme’s sexual harassment of Belova and the instant karma he receives, and back to Bobbi for a cliffhanger of the cringy kind. It’s Jude’s mysterious presence and purpose that should put us on edge with the cultish trappings and the death of a seeker after truth. It’s a quirky look into the inner workings of the bad guy organization while we sweat over the heroine’s fate. Nice offbeat issue.

Comments: What happened to Mission 007? TESS-One stands for Total Elimination of Super-Soldiers-One and it first appeared in CAPTAIN AMERICA ANNUAL #8. Superia refers to Napoleon and Snowball (“Oink, oink’), the revolutionary pigs in ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell.




> Secret Avengers comic book info and issue index

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Holy smokes, Batman!
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Main/1st Story Full Credits

Luke Ross
Luke Ross
Matthew Wilson
Nic Klein (Cover Penciler)
Nic Klein (Cover Inker)
Nic Klein (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Clayton Cowles.



Characters

All stories. Listed in alphabetical order.

Graviton
Graviton

(Franklin Hall)
Taskmaster
Taskmaster

(Tony Masters)
Plus: Jude the Entropic Man (Yazgan), Mentallo (Marvin Flumm), Scientist Supreme (Andrew Forson), Super-Adaptoid (Yelena Belova), Superia (Deidre Wentworth).

Thor

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