Synopsis
America (2017 series) #5 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
It's Sotomayor University's Spring Break and America Chavez is sitting in her camper van brooding over the mysterious Madrimar she met last issue who claims to be related to her and her mothers. So to take her mind off it she calls up her best friend Kate Bishop and arranges to come see her ...
... at her Hawkeye Investigations office/home in Venice Beach where Kate greets her with loads of comfy pillows on the couch for them to lounge on and some extra-large pizzas. America's brought for her pizza and a file on the mysterious Entity that plagued her in #1-4 for PI Hawkeye to investigate for her. Kate's glad to have something to sink her teeth into but wants to know what her friend is really feeling about her break-up with girlfriend Lisa. America deflects the question by asking if she can install a pull-up bar in the doorframe.
Later we see Chavez exercising by hanging on the bra from her knees and raising her upper torso up horizontal. Bishop has already set up an evidence board about the Entity including an 'M' symbol it supposedly sports somewhere. But America is more interested in talking about Madrimar who admitted to be responsible for her star-portals taking her to the wrong places/times lately. However they're both interested in an old friend of America's Magdalena who's suddenly started messaging her. Chavez shows Bishop the messages where the woman calls her 'Ame' and asks to meet at the Heart, but don't come by portal. So Kate suggests a road trip.
They hop into Kate's Firebird with America driving and zoom off. But then while stuck in LA Freeway traffic beneath a billboard advertising Midas Fight Night Bishop peruses the Entity file while Chavez relates how she knows Magdalena 'La Sirena' Velez. They met when she was 11 in a boxing class (where America tried hard not to use her superpowers). When she was 14 Magdalena got a dirt bike and they'd go out riding and bonding. They continued to meet up often and when America was 15 they were sitting on the Heart and feelings got involved. Kate asks if they were just friends and America replies "Mostly".
Hours later in the desert Kate is reading in the file about America's adventures in #1-4. Her portal took her back in time to WWII where she met Peggy Carter. Then cyborgs invaded Sotomayor U. Then alien teens kidnapped Lisa, but America's portal took her back in time again to meet 'mohawk' Storm. Then she finally got to Lisa (in Maltixa) to find she was OK, but the monster energy Entity she'd defeated before (in Maltixa in #2) was back attacking the alien teens again. So she went back in time to #2 to team up with her earlier self to capture it *then* (and bring it forward in time and give it to the Ultimates for safe-keeping, along the way determining that the Entity is created not natural). Chavez reminds Bishop about the (M) symbol they found on the Entity's back which collaborating (Sotomayor student) Prodigy (like them also an ex-Young Avenger) thinks is a brand or a barcode.
Later still near Baker on the way to Las Vegas the girls are dueting and playing air-guitar and air-drums when they notice a motorbike and 2 helicopters following them. PI Bishop somehow deduces that the biker is Magdalena, but we see that the bike has an 'M' sign on the back. The biker pulls alongside and hands America some flowers and then leads the way to their destination. But a bullet from a copter causes a busts tyre which sends Magdalena spinning into the air. America leaps to catch her and Kate takes control of the car so the pair can land in the passenger seat.
Then Mags takes the wheel to let the 2 superheroes take care of the copters and more motor bikes that have appeared. Chavez flies to the helicopters which she sees are empty and being remote-controlled so she smashes 1 into the other. Meanwhile Bishop has fired arrows at the bikers and discovered they're cyborgs, so Chavez has no compunction about dropping the 2 copters on them in a big explosion.
Then with Kate driving and Mags in the back seat the trio arrive at the Jenny Rose cafe out in the desert with a large red outline of a heart for a sign. America flies Mags up to the bar across the middle of the heart where they used to sit. Kate wonders if lesbian relationships are always this hectic, because if so she likes them.
Up on the sign Mags tells Ame that she's in trouble. The people chasing her are blackmailing her and her family. But they turn their attention to the last time they were here. They never talked about their feelings but Mags kissed Ame and Chavez ran away. They couldn't handle it then but Mags can now tell her she loves her.
Meanwhile in the car Kate is going through the file again. But then she spots an envelope on the seat addressed to Ame, and inside she finds a ticket to a Midas Fight Night Women's Championship match between Magdalena 'La Sirena' Velez and Renee 'The Dream' Jones. And she remembers that the cyborg kids that attacked Sotomayor U (#2) were from Midas High School. The Entity had an 'M' mark. And then she recalls the same mark on Magdalena's bike. She puts it all together and realises Mags is working for the enemy.
We see Ame and Mags kissing, and Mags apologises as she injects Chavez with something. Kate sees America fall to the ground and pulls out an arrow as another helicopter shows up.
