Synopsis
Last issue another of Veil's attempted good deeds went awry as she tried to retrieve Dr Pym's discorporated ex-wife Wasp but instead got Carina, wife of god-like villain Michael Korvac. Loads of Avengers assembled but he defeated them all (again). But then Carina replaced the Avengers Academy students' bodies with older versions from various future timelines, giving them their adult powers and the knowledge how to use them.
The students begin to realise she's correct, but Striker wants to know why she didn't just bring the adults back in time. Carina says it would have taken time they didn't have to explain the situation and convince their future selves to help. Jennifer Takeda's angry that she's still stuck in an (improved) hazmat suit. Veil (Maddy Berry) is unhappy because her gas-power has rendered this body ghost-like and she can't touch anything. Neither of them nor metal-bodied Mettle have been cured of their conditions. Carina points out that she's chosen them each from a timeline where their powers are at a peak. She didn't want their powers to be gone. But when Ken Mack asks her if they're cured in *most* timelines she remains silent. Hazmat asks the AI Jocasta to let them out of the safe room because she badly wants someone to take her anger out on.
They all run down a corridor towards their target. En route Striker says he feels great about his future body. Reptil says he doesn't how much good a slightly heavier dinosaur will be against cosmic-powered Korvac. Finesse reminds him that Dr Pym's looking into ways of using Pym Particles to allow him to gain mass to become much bigger dinos. Humberto Lopez tries it and it works.
They reach the battle-site and Carina tells them that her husband will be weakened by the exertions of the fight, especially against Thor, so they should hit him hard now. Striker begins the assault by hitting him with multiple powerful lightning strikes. Veil turns to gas to envelop him. He says he doesn't need to breathe but Carina responds that Veil is infiltrating his body. And then a very large clawed foot smashes him to the ground. Korvac throws Reptil and Veil off but Hazmat blasts him with radiation. He fires back but she and Finesse dodge his blast. Jeanne Foucault is carrying a sai. She attacks with moves she's picked up in the future from superheroes who don't yet exist:- The iron hammer blow of Tie-Chi (with the symbols of Iron Fist & Shang-Chi on his chest). The nerve strikes of the Sky Panther (possibly a child of Black Panther & Storm). And a killing sai blow of Saint Death (daughter of Daredevil & Elektra?). But Korvac dismisses her too so Mettle punches a large fist through his chest, immediately regretting the reflex action which suggests future-him does this all the time.
But Korvac recovers and blasts a hole through Striker's chest. Hazmat and Veil hover over their dying comrade while the other 3 attack the enemy again. Brandon Sharpe dies but then comes back to life in his young body again. Carina says it's his future body that's dead. But he's not mollified by her pointing out that's it's only 1 of many possible futures. She tries to get him to rejoin the fight but he runs off. Carina says they don't need him, it's Hazmat and Veil who will defeat Korvac.
The 'god' says he's been holding back for fear of damaging the timestream but now he realises he can just repair the damage when he's finished killing them all. He throws Finesse, Mettle and Reptil away from himself again. But gaseous Veil invades his body again and this time she takes control of it. In that brief time when Korvac is frozen Hazmat unleashes anti-matter at him (which her future self has learned to do). She reminds him (and us) how Red Skull used anti-matter to scatter him across the multiverse (Captain America (1998) #18). And now she does the same.
Carina congratulates the students as Reptil switches back from dinosaur form. But he points out that Finesse and Mettle are seriously injured. Carina settles that by giving everybody back their younger bodies. Except Reptil. Later she discusses with Henry Pym why she can't revert him. He blames it on the magical origin of Reptil's power. And also probably because Humberto doesn't *want* to change, which the youth admits to. Carina protests about damage to the timestream, which he rightly counters didn't seem to matter when *she* brought the future bodies here and got future Strike killed.
Pym calms them both down, and Carina says she's going off to explore the universe until Michael reappears. Pym gives her an Avengers communicator for when that happens. Then (robot) Jocasta alerts them to something else. She's scanned Veil and discovered that her gradual dissolution has been drastically slowed. Dr Pym declares that she may still become ghost-like like that future self, but it's no longer going to kill her. Maddy explains that while she was intimately linked to Korvac she found out how to alter her body. For so long she's pinned her hopes on someone like Pym to save her, but now she's done it herself. And she says she now understands why villains lust for power, which worries her mentor Pym.
When she's gone Hank asks Carina if *she* could do the same for Hazmat and Mettle. But she responds that she hasn't got the level of power of her husband. She says she's sorry for what she put the students through, but it was necessary. She's also sorry that she wasn't his Janet that he thought he'd found. But she also advises him not to give up, because she lasted all that time in a discorporeal energy state. And then she vanishes away.
Teacher Tigra visits Striker in his quarters to see if he's OK. Assuming he's ashamed for running away she starts to tell him about when she was in the Avengers and they had to fight Molecule Man (Av#215-216). But he says he's not bothered about not risking death to help resolve a domestic dispute. He's wondering now whether it's worth being an Avengers at all.
Our last stop is with Hazmat and Mettle in the Student Lounge. As usual spiky Jen rebuffs his (or anybody's) friendship. But he reminds her that her radiation/toxicity can't hurt *him* so she could take her helmet off. She makes the excuse that Reptil or someone could walk in and complain. But she does remove her helmet and leans on his shoulder. They both start crying.
CharactersGood (or All)Plus: Carina Tivan (
Carina Korvac).