Synopsis
After the ad hoc team he assembled to fight vampires in the Blood Hunt event Captain America (Steve Rogers) put together a bigger Avengers Emergency Response Squad (AvengERS). Blood Hunt left the world with a bigger population of vampires who could now also survive in daylight. At the end of last issue we were introduced to a young girl named Abby who had been brought up as a vampire hunter.
Our opening scene is North Brother Island in New York which has been set aside for friendly new vamps surviving on donated blood. Suddenly some of them are attacked by a group calling themselves the Nightstalkers led by the aformentioned Abby Morris with a big knife and a magic(?) crossbow. Her team include newbies Coma and Voracious plus Bloodscream and his 'zombie' servant Frank Drake.
In Avengers Mansion Jarvis' assistant Sweeny calls in whoever of the team is available. He knows that Shang-Chi's on an investigation in Germany (that we'll get to soon) and Photon is studying the Lumina (a Light Dimension seen in the Venom: Original Sin Infinity Comic). Of the others 4 are around:- Lightning, She-Hulk, Wonder Man and Lightspeed who just gets in from college classes. They leap into action as the AvengERS.
Abby Morris has taken control of the top of a tower and is firing her crossbow like a machine gun (definitely magic). Coma is an electrophage who drinks electricity from her victims. Voracious seems like a vampire himself as he attacks an old lady. Bloodscream is a man cursed to be a pseudo-vampire. He can absorb someone's lifeforce and turn them into a pseudo-zombie under his control, which seems to be what he's done to erstwhile vampire hunter Frank Drake who's shooting vamps with his guns.
Lightning (Miguel Santos) rescues the woman from Voracious with his lightning power, but that attracts the attention of Coma. Bloodscream tries to bite She-Hulk's head but just breaks his teeth on her hard skin. Lightspeed (Julie Power) rescues 2 people from Voracious and then punches him into a bus. Wonder Man's invulnerable body shields 2 young men from Morris' bullets, 1of whom is a vamp telling his human friend to escape.
Shang-Chi has returned to the island of Rugen in Germany which was the site of their 1st adventure (#1). Or rather in nearby mainland Stralsund where he's learned a museum was robbed while they were fighting Sin on the island. There he runs into Tiger Snake, a bad guy we 1st saw then. They have a martial arts fight until Snake grabs Shang's hand with his glowing green ones and our hero screams at the green gloop left behind. He manages to get off a blast that sends his foe reeling but then beats a strategic retreat by using the power of his Rings to teleport to the Mansion.
Coma is draining Lightning. Voracious is firing hand-blasts at Lightspeed. Bloodscream has found a weak spot in She-Hulk's eye. He pulls on the rope connected to Drake's neck and uses it to propel him into Greenie. Which causes bits of Frank's flesh to break off. Abby's firing at Wonder Man as the 2 men he was protecting escape into an alley. Simon Williams runs into the hail of her magic bullets and tears her tower down. She rises from the rubble and stabs him with her knife. WM admires its atom-sharp edge which slides between the ions of his ionic body. But he says it didn't hurt him as he pulls it free and asks if she wants to fight or talk. However Coma tackles him from behind and Abby retrieves her blade. Simon elbows Coma in the face and then he and Abby do have their chat. She says that the vamps backstory doesn't matter, even though most of them didn't ask to be turned. Simon says she'll have to go through him to get to them. She replies that its time to see if her blade will cut his head off.
Voracious is now firing blasts at Lightspeed from his mouth as she saves civilians. She seems to fly away into the sky. She-Hulk tells Bloodscream that she can sense that Frank Drake is resisting his control. BS' jaw has got wider with even more teeth as he attacks Shulkie again. But Drake shoots him in that jaw. BS responds by hurling him away, breaking more of his decaying body. Abby thinks the teams have a standoff as Coma rises from the ground. But she's not feeling well as Lightning's energy body erupts from her. He resumes human form and tells her that when she thought she consumed his electricity he took all hers instead. Meanwhile Lightspeed zooms back from the sky and slammed her lightbody into Voracious.
Simon forces Abby to drop her knife as the other AvengERS surround her. She surrenders in the sure knowledge that no US jury will convict her team for killing vampires. But he says they're going to be sent for trial to Vampyrsk, the Vampire Nation in Chernobyl.
Back in the Mansion Cap, Hawkeye, Hercules and Night Thrasher have returned from last issue's mission involving Red Ghost and the ghosts of his Super-Apes. They meet Shang-Chi with his hand bandaged. Shang takes Cap aside and informs him that every crisis they've attended (maybe there are more than we've heard about in #1-2) has been accompanied by a robbery. He explains that when he went to check the 1st such he was attacked by Tiger Snake who said his master told him to expect the visit.
We see that TS has gone back to the Serpent Society's base to tell them that the AvengERS have got their scent. Boomslang complains that it's not worth facing them for the worthless stuff their leader Pit Viper has them stealing. TS gives the standard reply that when they're combined to make the Serpents' Tears for Mephisto it will all be worth it. The other isn't convinced, and it doesn't help when a giant fist smashes him to pulp. Pit Viper announces that he'll lead the final heist with their new recruit Titanoboa, owner of the giant fist.
Characters:
Plus: Bloodscream, Boomslang, Lightning (
Miguel Santos), Lightspeed (
Julie Power), Night Thrasher (
Dwayne Taylor), Pit Viper (
Jordan Dixon), Serpent Society, Tiger Snake, Titanoboa.