Synopsis
The newly-rebuilt Avengers Mansion got trashed again during our 1st 6 issues. Now Damage Control, who did the repairs last time, have come to clean up the mess. Luke Cage asks the boss Mrs (Anne Marie) Hoag (who he calls Annie) how much it will cost. Iron Fist (Danny Rand), still in his white costume (transformed from green in #4) says his Rand Corporation's personal insurance could probably pay because he was in personal danger. But Mrs Hoag tells them Steve Rogers is going to pay the bill, which Luke is dead against because he was promised independence for the New Avengers. But his certainty is rocked when she tells him it will probably cost a quarter of a million dollars. Jessica Jones, holding their baby Danielle Cage, is openly amused by the situation. Until it becomes clear that Luke and Annie knew each other *very* well.
Stephen Strange wakes in 1 of the Mansion's beds after sleeping for 15 hours. He dresses and goes downstairs, hearing someone bragging about pulling Dr Doom's mask off, to find the team enjoying a meal. He thanks them all for their help against Agamotto and his demons (in the last 6 issues) but thinks it's time to leave. Luke asks him where he's going and he says he's got to contact all other mystics (to work out how to continue with no Sorcerer Supreme now since Dr Voodoo died and the Eye Of Agamotto was destroyed last issue), but Luke meant where will he live? Danny suggests he could become a New Avenger again and live here. Dr Strange says he'll get by but Luke suggests he should be man enough to accept help from his friends. Wolverine, Spider-Man and Ms Marvel join in by pointing out that he put them all up in *his* house when they were outlaws (after the Civil War event). Stephen tries 1 last excuse - DrV's brother swore vengeance on him (last issue again) and he wouldn't want to endanger them, especially baby Danielle. But they all agree that they've all been there, many times. (However I note that Jessica and Dani aren't in the panels of *that* page.) Luke suggests he becomes Dr Strange, the Magic Avenger. Strange agrees to stay but nixes the name.
Victoria Hand points out that she wasn't here at their 1st gathering (at the end of #1) so she doesn't know how they've organised things. Ms Marvel says they were about to get to it when the crazy magic stuff started. Spidey asks Hand who *she* is and she explains that Commander Rogers asked her to be their liaison with him. Spidey asks why she seems familiar, and she is forced to admit that she used to work for Norman Osborn (during his Dark Reign). Spider-Man says he quits. Luke says Cap vouches for her, to which Spidey retorts that Cap vouches for *Wolverine*. Hand says they all want to make the world a better place, and on his good days so did Norman. Cap thinks her different POV might help them sometimes. Luke repeats that Cap's vouchery is good enough for him, but personally he's still undecided. Jess makes it clear she still hates her (and here was me thinking Victoria had won her round a bit (in #3) when she helped Jess get Dani to safety). Spidey has to swallow his righteous anger and sit down.
Hand's next task is to hand out paychecks from Commander Rogers. But Luke is up in arms again because he doesn't want to be on a payroll. Jess takes his cheque and suggests they talk about it privately but Luke wants it out in public. So Jess asks if it's *his* decision whether the others accept payment? And also wasn't it him who started out as a Hero For Hire (and turned it into a company)? So now his client is Captain America. And thirdly what with everything that's been going on, including being on the run, they haven't been able to make any money for a long time and they're broke. So if *he* doesn't want the money, she'll take it. As Luke backs down Logan reminds him that she *did* suggest they discuss it in private.
Victoria makes it clear that the money comes from a Government budget and the pay doesn't change the status Steve and Luke agreed on, and everyone accepts their cheques. But Spider-Man pipes up that he *hasn't* been given 1. Hand points out that he's the only 1 who hides his identity and the Government can't pay someone without a name and address for things like tax. Logan suggests cash payment but Hand can't officially do that. Rich Danny Rand offers him his cheque, but Spidey wouldn't be able to cash it. Victoria says he could reveal his identity in complete confidentiality, but he's not ready to unmask for a friend of the Green Goblin.
She moves on to the topic of hiring help. Stephen says he knows someone who'd take on the housekeeping. Jess says she and Luke are going to spend some of their money on hiring a nanny for baby Dani. It needs to be someone they can trust who has a power they could use to protect her against bad guys. They interview a lot and finally settle on Squirrel Girl. They interview her while workmen repair the place around them. She's fan-struck to be in the Mansion since the best she managed so far was to be in the Great Lakes Avengers (which Jessica has never heard of). She's also in awe of the pair being Avengers while raising a family. She takes to the kid immediately, and Dani likes SG's (real) tail. So Doreen Green is hired. But then she and Wolverine see each other and are revealed to be on 1st name terms. They had agreed never to see each other again but now agree to be professional about working at the same place. Then enter sarcastic Wong, Dr Strange's friend and ex-servant, who's arrived to be 'a 2nd-rate Jarvis for a 2nd-rate pile of Avengers'. And no-one better mess with his kitchen. Victoria Hand thinks they're all mad.
Story 2: Avengers Assemble - the oral history of the Earth's mightiest heroes Chapter 12 (mistakenly called Chapter 14).
Written by Brian Michael Bendis with illustrations by John Buscema & George Klein and Gene Colan & George Klein.
Chapter 11 in Avengers #7 covered the addition of Black Panther and Vision to the team.
This issue concentrates on 2 events. Goliath becoming Yellowjacket and marrying Wasp (#59-60). Hawkeye becoming Goliath to rescue Black Widow (#63-65).
The commentators here claim that Janet Van Dyne marrying Yellowjacket when he was secretly her known love Henry Pym was actually a PR stunt. The story presented in the 2 issues was that Hank developed a split personality and the YJ version claimed to have killed the Goliath 1. And by superhero convention no-one could tell they were the same person except Wasp when she kissed him. So in #60 Jan married Hank when he thought he was someone else, and then he remembered who he really was. In the real world this would negate the marriage, and Jan must have been very desperate to get Hank to marry her. So this new version of the story tries to airbrush some of the problems away. Unfortunately later comics fully accept the original as 1 of the many signs of Henry Pym's mental fragility.
Sue Storm and Crystal comment on the oddity that they helped Jan get ready for the wedding when in fact they (especially Crystal) didn't actually know her. And the wedding only had superhero guests. (This of course was just another comics convention and a way to plug all the other chars' books.) And the happy couple both claim that they *did* love each other but it didn't last.
There are mixed reactions to Clint Barton becoming Goliath. Tony Stark will stick to his Iron Man brand, but he likes the way Clint can chop and change - Hawkeye, Goliath and Ronin later. Clint himself says there's probably a deep psychological reason why he does it, but he can't be bothered to think about it. At the time he wanted to up his game in order to help Black Widow. And anyway Hank Pym wasn't using his growth serum as Yellowjacket, just the shrinking version. Henry McCoy (Beast) and Jan think Hank was very unhappy about Clint taking it without asking. Pym plays it down but mentions that the fortmula was tailored for his own DNA, and it could have killed Barton. Clint just shrugs that off because it didn't.
Jan thinks Clint is still in love with Natasha Romanova. He loves his ex-wife Bobbie Morse (Mockingbird) too, but Tasha was The One. However she believes he also knows that the triple agent spy was toxic as a girlfriend. Clint himself says he still loves Natasha but claims he's no .longer *in love* with her. He's glad that he went through their unconventional form of dating because it changed him a lot. And she's the only 1 who's seen the whole of his evolution. He's also glad to go on record with this because he knows she herself would never consent to be interviewed for this book. Jan ends it by saying the Avengers never really got to know BW, but they frequently helped her because Clint was 1 of the team. But their relationship was tempestuous, and they might have wound up married or killing each other. Not unlike herself and Hank really.