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Vengeance #2

Oct 2011
on-sale: Aug 10, 2011
Joe Casey, Nick Dragotta

Vengeance #2 cover

Story Name:

World on fire


Synopsis

Vengeance #2 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
Last issue's 1944 flashback continues. Red Skull has captured a Russian scientist in Poland involved in the Soviet eugenics program and has confiscated his list of subjects. Now he puts him in a metal cell where he is blasted apart by electricity - a test of extermination tech that will be implemented on the eastern frontier.

In the current day Miss America Chavez has rescued a strange black & white boy from Area 51 but they were attacked in midair by demons. She fights them but loses hold of the boy and she has to dive down to catch him. At Teen Brigade HQ the leader Ultimate Nullifier (whose name we now learn is Mayne) is quarterbacking her over the comm link while Angel Salvadore monitors the extreme weather that accompanied the demons. America now has the 'package' by the foot and uses him as a flail to beat off demons. And then the demons and bad weather are gone as suddenly as they appeared.

In McKeesport, Pennsylvania Devlin DeAngelo shows the Young Masters around the crashed Hydra helicarrier that was once used by Zodiac (the man, not the team) because they want to use it for a base. Devlin recognises the android Egghead and Executioner (son of Princess Python who thinks he's a more extreme Punisher) from the earlier version of the team but has to be introduced to the newbies:- Radioactive Kid, a young female Black Knight and the Atlantean Mako. They don't like DeAngelo but he claims to be working for the person who is their benefactor.

Miss America and the weird youth get back to TB HQ to find that the team's moving out to a suburb of Chicago - they change bases regularly to avoid being found. The new guy is more lucid than he was last issue but he's still cryptic and claims to be still becoming himself. Mayne introduces him to the only members whose names we know, which includes Angel's partner Barnell Bohusk. Boss UN is miffed when the kid sits in *his* armchair, but it's almost immediately whisked away into a van. Angel and Barnell get in their car and argue over who's driving. Mayne tries to impress the kid by twirling 1 of his Nullifier guns.

The Last Defenders (Daimon Hellstrom, Krang, She-Hulk and their field leader the new Nighthawk (Joaquin Pennysworth) have returned from last issue's battle against Gargantus to the Richmond Riding Academy, and ex-Nighthawk Kyle Richmond is briefing them on their next assignment. He explains what he learned last issue that someone has been extracting classified SHIELD files and sending them to someone else. Nighthawk adds that the files concern unexplainable things (ie the X-Files). Hellstrom interrupts to say that his Son Of Satan heritage has allowed him to detect an evil hivemind finding its way into our reality.

Executioner has defined the Young Masters' reason for existence - to fill the vacuum caused by the absence of villain groups like the Masters Of Evil and the Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants (he dismisses the Circus Of Crime as a joke). Now the team are invading an ExTechOp facility. Black Knight and Radioactive Kid are in a tunnel where RK has just killed a security guard by mutating his flesh. BK can't find any mention of ExTechOp on the Internet, even Hacknet, so she deduces it's deeply secret. Meanwhile Executioner and Mako have reached their target, the body of Bullseye. They've killed some more staff, and Mako's currently eating 1. Egghead phases through a wall to join them.

BK and RK are temporarily blinded by a gas as someone runs past them. Then an explosion blows a hole in the wall of Bullseye's chamber and a shot wings Mako. It's Lady Bullseye who evades Executioner's bullets and Egghead's grasp. Then her sword and acrobatic moves defeat Daniel DuBois and the android. But Mako is still alive and approaches menacingly ... until she dismissively decapitates him. She tells the other 2 that she's not here on the orders of her boss Kingpin, so they haven't angered him and they can just leave now safely. They choose retreat as the better option.

Ultimate Nullifier and the black&white kid are standing on a rooftop looking out over the city. Mayne tries to assure him he's free and safe now. But the boy says he's beginning to remember what he is. He senses destiny at work and offers to show UN what he knows.

But instead we get a 1-panel glimpse into next issue with Dr Octopus.


 

Review / Commentaries


Vengeance #2 Review by (June 29, 2024)
This issue's villain cover is Bullseye, who only appears as a corpse. But Lady Bullseye makes up for it.

Devlin DeAngelo only previously appeared as an arms dealer in Hulk #469,472-474 and a Wizard Hulk #½ which fitted in there somewhere. And this is his swan song.

The Young Masters' new HQ seems to have as wall trophies the heads of the version of the Zodiac team from New Warriors (2007) #4-5. They were killed by the 1-man Zodiac in Dark Reign: Zodiac #1.

This version of Egghead and Executioner were in the Dark Reign: Young Avengers mini-series as part of their opponents the Young Masters (Of Evil) with Big Zero, Coat Of Arms and young versions of Enchantress and Melter. They had a further tale in Age Of Heroes #2 where Enchantress was ill. She and the other 3 quit. Melter joins Mandarin's army for Iron Man #513-521, and other stuff. The other 3 are villains within Av Academy #34-37. Big Zero ends there but Coat Of Arms and Enchantress continue to other apps.

The 3 new recruits are completely new.
Despite apparently dying here Mako will be back with many other Young Masters in Avengers Undercover. Mako is of course a type of shark, and the char here is shark-like. The name has been used before:- A similar but female member of the First Line in Marvel: The Lost Generation series. The villain in the Coldblood serial running through Marvel Comic Presents #26-35.
The diminutive Radioactive Kid in his hazmat suit has nothing to do with Radioactive Man. He claims to have killed his father and intends to "burn the world down".
The female Black Knight again appears to not be connected to any earlier BKs, but her t-shirt does have their most common symbol.

ExTechOp is an arm of SHIELD most famous for creating the cyborg body for Jonathan Garrett in the Elektra: Assassin series. But he also in Cable #62 made a cyborg out of Jack Truman (whose name I mentioned last issue).

Bullseye was killed by Daredevil in Shadowland #1. Lady Bullseye will revive him immediately after this in a flashback in DD(2011)#27. Her most recent apps were DD#512 at the end of the Shadowland event and Black Panther: The Most Dangerous Man Alive #524 (part of the Spider-Island event).



> Vengeance comic book info and issue index

Elektra

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

Main/1st Story Full Credits

Nick Dragotta
Nick Dragotta
Brad Simpson
Gabriele Dell'Otto (Cover Penciler)
Gabriele Dell'Otto (Cover Inker)
Gabriele Dell'Otto (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Rus Wooton.
Editor: Thomas Brennan. Editor-in-chief: Axel Alonso.

Characters

All stories. Listed in alphabetical order.

Ms. America
Ms. America

(America Chavez)
Nighthawk
Nighthawk

(Kyle Richmond)
Red Skull
Red Skull

(Johann Shmidt)
She-Hulk
She-Hulk

(Jennifer Walters)
Son of Satan
Son of Satan

(Daimon Hellstrom)
Plus: Angel (Angel Salvadore), Beak (Barnell Bohusk), Black Knight (of Young Masters), Egghead (android), Executioner (Danny DuBois), In-Betweener, Lady Bullseye, Mako, Nighthawk (Joaquin Pennysworth), Radioactive Kid, Ultimate Nullifier.

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