Avengers Academy (2010 series) #29

Hercules is giving the Avengers Academy students an outdoor history lesson on the Ancient Greek Olympic Games. But he's chosen to demonstrate it traditionally nude, to mixed reactions. He asks for a male volunteer to join him in wrestling. Mettle suggests Striker because he's gay. Brandon Sharpe declines because Herc's not his type. Teacher Tigra joins the group and is understandably shocked. Herc suggests *she* could be his opponent, although it wouldn't be historically accurate because women weren't allowed to compete. But he was all for equality even back then. She just hands him his tunic and tells him to put his pants on. The Greek demigod says he doesn't wear them because they are too confining.

The scene is interrupted by an Avengers Quinjet which delivers Captain America, (headmaster) Giant-Man, (teacher) Hawkeye and (teacher) Quicksilver. Hercules is a quick-dresser so he's clothed from here on. Pietro Maximoff blurts out that the Avengers are at war with the X-Men, which he said was inevitable since Utopia Island's mutant nation accepted his father Magneto (Uncanny X-Men #517). He continues by telling them that the Phoenix Force is on the way to Earth for the young mutant Hope Summers to be its next host. The Avengers want to protect her but Cyclops' X-Men want to use her to create a golden age for mutants. The 2 sides fought on Utopia. The Avengers won but some X-Men escaped leaving others as prisoners. Cap and Clint Barton say he's exaggerating to call it a war and they just want to find Hope for her own sake, but before the X-Men do.

Tigra offers to go with the Avengers but Henry Pym says she needs to stay here. Clint explains that the X-Men left their students behind on Utopia so they've brought them here for their safety. And Wolverine leads the students out of the Quinjet along with 3 adults. Pym emphasises this is a school not a prisoner of war camp. Logan reminds us how the X-Men split (in the Schism event). Cyclops' team stayed on Utopia to prepare students for war with humans while Wolverine's team preferred a more peaceful route at the old Westchester school. Logan now wants Cyclops' students here to keep them *out* of the war. He doesn't want them at *his* school because he doesn't want *them* dragged *into* it. He introduces Kavita Rao and Madison Jeffries who are part of part of Utopia's X-Club science team. Greer Nelson feels outnumbered so Herc offers to stay on. Pym tells Steve Rogers the school has countermeasures against teleportation and mind control but otherwise they don't use power dampers. So Cap asks the AA students to keep an eye on the Utopia students and stop them if they try to leave (rather undermining the claim that this isn't a POW camp).

Academy student and mutant X-23 takes Wolverine (they're both products of the Weapon Plus system) aside to question why he's siding with the Avengers (who he is also 1 of) instead of the X-Men. He says he's just doing what needs to be done, and reminds her that she's never experienced the Phoenix. If Jean Grey couldn't control it then no-one can. She counters that he encouraged her to make her own decisions, and 1 of them was to not take sides in Logan's own (Schism) disagreement with Cyclops. But now he's brought the war to *her*. Logan replies that he brought the kids here to keep *them* out of it too. He may have to kill Hope if she goes Dark Phoenix and he doesn't want them involved with that. So he asks Laura Kinney to help here, and she promises to do what she can.

Now he rounds on the 3rd adult they've brought with them. He's Sebastian Shaw and Logan wants him locked up for what he (or rather his ally Mastermind) did to turn Jean into Dark Phoenix. He reminds them he's lost his memory (Emma Frost mind-wiped him in Uncanny X-Men #534) but 1 of the Stepford Cuckoos tells them that Hope showed him his file (Generation Hope #17) so he knows what he did. Jeffries says he can create a cell with walls that won't let him use his power to absorb kinetic energy. Shaw agrees to this as long as they give him some books to read. Then the Avengers leave in the Quinjet.

Tigra asks the X-students what they know about the Academy. Surge (Nori Ashida) says X-23 told them it was a place where you didn't get punished for what you *might* do. But now *they* are 'imprisoned' despite not having done anything wrong. So she says they'll just go watch TV. Tigra tries to interest them in sports or games but Surge points out there's a war on. Hercules saves the day by having an Avengers vs X-Men sports contest.

1st up is a mid-air sprint between the Academy's Lightspeed and the X-Men's Transonic. Laurie Tromette brags that she'll win but Julie Power says she recently contended with Karolina Dean of the Runaways (#27-28). Laurie asks how that went and Julie says they're dating now. Laurie starts to protest that she's not gay just as Madison fires the starting gun, and Lightspeed use the opportunity to get a head start. Meanwhile Dust approaches X-23. Their meeting is awkward. Sooraya Qadir says she misses Laura and asks if she agrees with what the Avengers have done. Laura says she's doesn't know enough to decide, but Sooraya says sometimes you just *know* what's right. The racers return and Transonic has almost caught up with Lightspeed who wins by a head. But Laurie (quite reasonably) objects that *she* would have won if it weren't for the sneaky start.

Next is surfing with Academy's Finesse vs X-Men's Loa. Jeanne Foucault tells Hawaiian Alani Ryan that her photographic reflexes will enable her to duplicate surfing moves that she's studied but never tried. Fellow Hawaiian Ken Mack tells his Academy teammate that it won't work because every wave is different. Alani asks him why *he* isn't her opponent but Mettle points out that his metal body would sink. Loa says her codename means worm (in a West African language) because she can tunnel through the ground, and she ploughs her way across the field in such a way that it allows Ken to temporarily surf on land. His usually-jealous girlfriend Hazmat (Jenny Takeda) hugs Alani for the precious gift she's just given him. And she declares this an X-win.

X-student Velocidad (Gabriel Cohuelo) objects to this light-hearted fraternisation when their friend Hope is missing and hunted by Wolverine who's going to kill her, and the Avengers just kidnapped and imprisoned them. Surge agrees and warns the Academy teens that the Avengers will turn on *them* if they ever think they're dangerous. And she leads her gang to watch TV as she suggested before.

X-23 takes her frustrated confusion out on some robots in the training room, and Finesse joins her. Laura describes the X-teens as her colleagues not friends because she doesn't know what 'friend' means. Jeanne agrees with that. Laura says she's been told to make her own decisions but then been told what to do. Jeanne doesn't like such contradictory behaviour too, and has tried to understand it but to no avail. They run out of robots and both agree to rerun the programme.

Tigra and Madison Jeffries can hear thumps from Shaw's cell and assume he's frustratedly hitting the energy-absorbing walls. But we see he's hitting his head with the hardback books they gave him. Now he's built up enough power that he can punch a hole in the floor. They hear that and enter the room to find he's escaped to a storm drain. And we see him angrily wading along it.