In
A.I.M.’s underground headquarters, Mockingbird watches from the shadows as
agents load the pods containing human brains on a tele-jumper in preparation
for Project Brain Drain. Just as they activate the platform, Mockingbird jumps aboard
and thus arrives in another lab where she is instantly spotted and guards
called to apprehend her. She swings into action with her battle staves and
takes out quite few of them….
Nearby,
Hawkeye and Black Widow are held immobile by a pair of magnetic devices that
look like huge triangles. As Enforcer Fourteen stands by, Hawkeye reveals that
he is clearly not Hank Pym just a simulacrum. So they usher in the real Hank Pym,
a captive since he was gassed during an attempt to cure his wife Maria of
an artificially enlarged brain. Maria then enters in a huge protective vehicle,
introducing herself as SODAM, Special Organism Designed for Agressive Maneuvers
and revealing that she was not Hank’s wife, merely adopting that persona to
trick him into fixing some problems inherent in her creation. Mockingbird
arrives, fighting guards and in the scuffle the electro-magnetic computer is
damaged, freeing Hawkeye and Black Widow to battle the guards. Hank has figured
out that Project Brain Drain is designed to create a super-mind. The Imperial
Council of Seven, watching remotely, gives SODAM the order to hit the
self-destruct button. All A.I.M. personnel flee (the Hank Pym simulacra has
already been destroyed) and Hawkeye, Widow, and Hank escape via rocket sled.
Mockingbird jumps into the tele-jumper at the last minute and vanishes….
Outside,
the police are rounding up A.I.M. personnel while Hank wonders if SODAM really
was Maria. Hawkeye bitterly misses Bobbi and assumes she doesn’t care for him
anymore…as we see her depart in secrecy, equally sad….
“Seconds”
3.5/5
Writer:
Peter Gillis. Pencils: Don Perlin. Inks: Jack Abel. Colors: Andy Yanchus.
Letters: Richard Starkings.
Synopsis:
Magazine editor Pamela Douglas suddenly has all sorts of mad thoughts, mostly
of violence, running through her head and she can’t understand why. At work she
absently scribbles hate notes about her co-workers. She goes home to her fiancé
Tom and screams at him that he doesn’t really love her. That night she goes
into he bathroom and shaves her head. He crashes her car into a billboard of an
unborn child and is convinced she is pregnant. While trying to explain this to
Tom a giant ghostly hand crashes in through the ceiling and she flees into the
night….
Hiding
in an alley, she is contacted mentally by her cousin Heather, whom she has
never met. Heather explains that she is called Moondragon, turned against her
friends the Defenders and died but her shattered mind was set adrift and found
Pam and she is now strong enough to communicate. On Titan, the computer Isaac
is creating a cloned body for her. Moondragon summons her ship Sensia II
to take them to Titan. Pam is approached by a military officer whose hand grow
into giant claws and reach out for Pam. Heather speaks through Pam’s mouth and
stops the solider, noting that he wears a crystal taken from Dr. Strange,
containing the spirit of Isaac “Gargoyle” Christians, who was killed by Moondragon
earlier. She apologizes and wants to start over, suggesting that Isaac can too.
She takes the crystal and is beamed up to the ship which takes off for another
world….
Story
continues in issue #18.