Synopsis
Avengers: Initiative Special #1 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
The Initiative teams from Arizona (Desert Stars) and Nevada (Heavy Hitters) have joined forces to protect the Hoover Dam on their joint border from Zzzax the being of electromagnetism. It's already punched some holes in it which Nevada's team-leader Gravity and Arizona's Johnny Cool are trying to fix by cancelling gravity to hold the dam together and freezing the escaping water. Gravity has NV's speedster Nonstop leading civilians away while Telemetry researches the foe and says it feeds on electromagnetic energy and is probably trying to get to the dam's generators. Arizona's team-leader Two-Gun Kid says they'll have to stop that from happening while Supermax leaps at the villain. And lovers Hardball (NV) and Komodo (AZ) look on.
Gravity has to concentrate on the dam so he cedes overall control to TGK who recalls how his pal Hawkeye defeated Zzzax by short-circuiting him in a river. Strongman Supermax impulsively takes the cue and tips the foe into water, but but it doesn't work and he gets zapped. Two-Gun belatedly adds that Hawkeye grounded it by firing an arrow line through it into the water. He affixes a grappling hook line to his gun and fires it. But simultaneously Telemetry psionically creates a spear line and throws that, and the 2 collide in midair.
Hardball comments that the teams have never worked together before and are getting in each other's way. Komodo says that *they* have worked together as Camp Hammond trainees and she has a plan. She goes down to keep Zzzax occupied so that it makes a stationary target, and then HB fires 1 of his EM energy balls into the middle of the EM monster and causes it to expand, and Zzzax dissipates.
Roger Brokeridge and Melati Kusuma embrace, and Nonstop tells Telemetry that she frequently runs Roger from Las Vegas to Phoenix so he can see Melati and she thinks they really are in love.
We next see the lovebirds in Roger's room in the Vegas hotel that the Hitters use as their HQ. Melati has turned human with amputated legs, a state that she's only comfortable showing to him. Roger knows the kind of pitying reaction she'd get from most people and he tells her about his brother Paul. He got superstrength from the Power Broker so he could compete in Unlimited Class Wrestling, and he became the champion. But then a new stronger opponent crippled him in the ring, and now he's confined to bed and can't even feed himself. But Roger can still see the goofy brother inside. He's never told anyone that before. But suddenly he says he's craving something to eat that's not on the room service menu. He suits up and leaves her, promising to bring back chocolate.
We hear him muttering to himself that he shouldn't have told Melati about Paul because that revelation leads to others. He gets lots of offers from female fans but tells them he's taken. But then 1 woman whispers "Hydra" and directs him to a limo. Inside he finds his Hydra handler Senator Woodman who says they know that Komodo got her lizard powers by stealing the regeneration formula of Dr Curt Connors (better known to Spider-Man fans as the Lizard). She can heal from any wound including regenerating body parts. Hydra wants that ability for all its agents, and they want Brokeridge to get it for them. In return they'll heal Paul. But if he doesn't play ball they'll reveal his association with them and he'll end up in the Negative Zone prison and never see Melati again.
Roger returns to Melati with her favourite hazelnut chocolate. She understands how he was unsettled by telling her about his brother. He says he knows that she got her lizard powers from Dr Curt Connors' formula but wants to know how she avoided going to jail. So she tells him the full story.
6 weeks after getting her driving license she was driving too fast and crashed (not under the influence of anything) and lost her legs. She retreated into her studies and got good science grades that got her a scholarship to Empire State University in New York, and an internship with Connors. He knew she had the idea of using his Lizard formula to regrow her legs (as he had tried to regrow his missing arm). He reminded her that everyone who has used it became a monster. But he promised to work with her to make it safer. However when she was trusted enough to work on it alone she injected herself with the still-imperfect version they'd achieved, and she was transformed into the not-monstrous Komodo with legs. Doc was disappointed in her but impressed by the scientific progress she herself had made which tailored the formula to her DNA and allowed her retain her own mind. So he agreed not to press charges if she agreed to join the Initiative.
Roger expresses surprise that Connors' lab has such lax security. Melati says that his NY lab is very secure, but he has an less secure lab in California State U where he's a visiting professor and that's where she got the formula from. Roger agrees to not talk about it anymore and they hug.
Next morning Nonstop prepares to superspeed rush Komodo to Nevada. Hardball claims his parents have got flu and Gravity insists he take an Initiative flyer to visit them in the suburbs of Los Angeles. They aren't ill but when he gets there he finds his mother weeping tears of joy because a doctor tells them he can cure Paul and a friend of Roger's named Mr Woodman is paying for it. Roger leaves saying he has something to do tonight.
That night he breaks into CSU but finds a lab empty apart from Melati waiting for him. She assumes that all the time they were together it was only so he could do this. Roger protests it isn't true, but he's is forced to tell her he's working for Hydra because they've promised to cure Paul. Melati says she would have understood if he told her, but Roger says he didn't want to get her involved - and also he was afraid of losing her. She immediately insists on isolating the formula from some of *her* blood. They part and she promises to bring him the formula tomorrow. But when she's alone she contacts someone and asks if they'd like to take down Hydra.
Next day Hardball meets Woodman in Las Vegas in his limo with a Hydra Agent. He hands the formula over but warns them that it has to be tailored to specific DNA to avoid getting a monster. But the Agent willingly gets injected to check that it *is* a Lizard formula. It does something which includes splattering the guy's innards everywhere. But Woodman is confidant Hydra's scientists will be able to tame it. But then he's informed that they are under attack.
Outside the car we see that Komodo and the Heavy Hitters are in combat with Hydra troops. Some are in SHIELD-type flying car which Telemetry's forcefield and Gravity are smashing together. Meanwhile Nonstop relieves groundtroops of their big guns and Komodo grabs 1 to shoot back with. Woodman blames Hardball for ruining the plans of decades and orders him to help the troops against the Initiative while he himself takes the formula. He's sure that his superiority means that it will work properly for him.
Indeed he exits the car as a giant monster loyal to Hydra. Komodo shoots an arm off but it regenerates immediately. Gravity protects civilians from the chaos as Nonstop helps them run away. Telemetry tries to telekinetically choke the monster but can't get near enough. Komodo leaps in intending to remove his head but Hardball leaps to stop her. Then she tells him that Gravity and the rest think he's working with *them* on an undercover plan against Hydra. If he helps them then he'll be free, and if Hydra could cure Paul then she's sure some of the good guy scientists could too.
HB makes a decision. He surrounds K, Gravity and Telemetry with 3 of his force balls. The Woodman monster assumes that he's on Hydra's side. But then Roger surrounds *him* with a giant force ball - and shrinks it to kill him. Now it's Melati's turn to assume that he's returned to the Initiative. But he tells her he's in too deep and he doesn't want to drag her down with him. so he's leaving her. He knows that the way to move up in Hydra's ranks is to kill your superior, so now he controls the surviving troops. He orders them to leave with him without killing the heroes. And when they've gone his bubbles pop.
Story 2:- Fear for your life
The same creators as the main tale except Dan Slott shares the scripting.
In Camp Hammond Counsellor's Office therapist Trauma is seeking therapy for himself, but with Dani Moonstar and Doc Samson otherwise engaged he's roped in the doctor Physique.
Terrance Ward has always frightened people with his power to become their worst fears. But since he died (#9) and came back to life (#12) it got worse. And then the Thor Girl he got close too turned out to be a Skrull (#18). He fears that no-one will ever love him. He describes his early life.
Terry's power manifested in High School when he hung out with Goths but fancied a cheerleader Cindy. He approached her but got turned down flat. His voice turned sepulchral and he showed her her fear of getting fat which made her bulimic. Her would-be boyfriend Trevor intervened but he was exposed as secretly lusting after another boy. Terry's Goth friend Rachel hustled him away. She was quite impressed that he'd got a superpower until he used it to manifest her fear of giving in to her addiction and starting using hard drugs again and winding up dead.
After that he completed his schooling with correspondence courses at home. But that wasn't safe either. 1 day when he argued with his mother he became *her* worst fear, which we see as arms reaching for her clothed in a green garment with criss-crossing rather like a quilted cloth. And that put her in a mental clinic. Then 1 day his younger brother Billy had a nightmare about a monster and ran to Terry's bedroom for comfort, but he couldn't let him in because he'd become that monster. Finally his dad suggested the Initiative and he found out that his father's fear was of losing control and killing his son. Since then he's been here and had no contact with them.
Physique points out that since he's been here he's learned to control his power, enough to hold his own against the Hulk (during World War Hulk). And he's now using his power as a counsellor to help others overcome their fears. And he's not going to be alone as long as she's around.
But in the clinic in Massachusetts his mother Naomi is having her own nightmare where she's visited by *the* Nightmare in his green criscrossed outfit. And he asks her how their little boy is doing?