Synopsis
Avengers, The (1963 series) #189 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
The Avengers have just finished the Arsenal adventure in Avengers Mansion in Annual #9. Thor flies off to continue his own current storyline concerning the Celestials, Deviants and Eternals. Falcon passes him on the way in from his own tale of the 'Embassy slaying' in Marvel Premiere #49. The rest of those assembled in An#9 are still hanging around (literally in Beast's case), including Hawkeye, Wonder Man and Yellowjacket.
Sam Wilson's retinal pattern is scanned for identification by a new security device, and it issues him with an Avengers ID card. Clint Barton is still miffed about being replaced on government order by Falcon. He ignores Sam's proffered apology and storms out.
Hank Pym gets a call from his wife Jan with the female Defenders in Las Vegas. He borrows a quinjet to go fetch her, but will get embroiled with her against Mandrill's mutant army in Def#79-81. Wonder Man also goes back to his acting career.
Ms Marvel is still away on her own business, but now that Scarlet Witch has returned to the fold last issue Carol Danvers is surplus to requirements. The team selected by government liaison Henry Gyrich in #181 is together for the 1st time. Except Wanda confounds him (and her husband Vision) by saying she's not ready to resume active duty yet. (She's still reeling from the revelations about her birth in #186-187, and her brother Quicksilver's imminent parenthood has stirred things up too.)
Angry Gyrich tells them not to do anything for a few days until he returns from Washington to New York.
Most of the rest of this issue centres on Hawkeye. Clint Barton returns to his cheap rented room to find all his job applications have been turned down, but he gets a very small retainer as a stand-by Avenger. He's being applying for jobs as ex-carny Barton (the world doesn't know he's Hawkeye), but now he sees an ad for a job that might suit is super-identity. Cross Technological Enterprises want a Security Chief.
Hawkeye breaks into the office of the named contact to impress him with his knowledge of security systems. He's hired to stop a spate of robberies.
2 nights later he answers an alarm at a warehouse and finds that someone has burned their way in through the roof and KO'd the guards. That someone is Deathbird, an enemy of Ms Marvel, who talks about being on a mission to get some machinery and redeem herself with the Aerie, to get off this planet and back home.
It's a battle of energy javelins and flight vs trick arrows and gymnastics. A lucky shot renders 1 arm temporarily numb, but the Avenger still manages to capture the robber by wielding arrows 1-handed. The brash hero finishes off by kissing Deathbird while handing her over to CTE troops.
Now Henry Gyrich is confronting the Avengers, just as troubled robot Jocasta comes in from a walk. Ms Marvel and Wasp are still absent, but Beast, Captain America, Falcon, Iron Man, Scarlet Witch and Vision are present. Chairman Iron Man is insisting that Wanda doesn't have to stay if she doesn't want to, while Cap restrains Beast from hitting Gyrich. But Gyrich threatens to close the team down.