The Redoubtable Return of Crusher Creel!

With the Scarlet Witch taking a leave of absence from the Avengers, the team has asked Ms. Marvel to fill her place. However, she has to undergo security clearance from the National Security Agency. This doesn’t sit well with Marvel, as she is concerned that her fingerprints will reveal her secret identity.[1] Tony Stark then offers their liaison, Henry Gyrich, a compromise: the NSA could use retina scanners to confirm an Avengers’ identity without compromising their secrets. Gyrich is satisfied with this solution but orders his men to also bring a voiceprint analyzer as well.

Meanwhile, in the communications room, the Vision is on a call with his wife the Scarlet Witch. He is bidding her and her brother, Quicksilver, farewell as they are about to embark on a trip to Transia with Django Maximoff to learn secrets from their past.[2]

By this time, Ms. Marvel is officially cleared for duty, prompting Tony Stark to retreat to his office. There he admits his growing concern with Gyrich’s interference in Avengers business. However, they have no choice but to follow his orders in order to keep the team’s government security clearance.[3] As he changes into Iron Man, he notices a garbage truck outside having trouble tossing out scrap the Avengers were disposing of. He then flies out and lends them a hand as Iron Man. The two astonished trash collectors are also shocked when the Beast arrives a moment later with two more garbage bags.

The rest of their garbage pick-up is thankful uneventful and the two men bring their truck to the local dump to empty their truck. There they run into some friends who work hauling garbage for Ajax Construction and head off for some drinks after their done. What they don’t know is that the Ajax truck was hauling the shattered remains of the Absorbing Man, who was tricked into turning into glass and shattered during his previous battle with the Hulk.[4] Here he manages to reform his body and return to human form. Now that he is alive again, the criminal begins figuring out his next move.

Meanwhile, Steve Rogers is paying a visit to his partner, Sam Wilson, aka the Falcon. Sam isn’t sure he is comfortable joining the Avengers to fill an employment equity quota for the government and likens it to being a black slave. Steve admits that he doesn’t like the idea of forcing Wilson to be an Avenger when he doesn’t want to but asks Sam to join as a favor to him. Wilson reluctantly agrees, but jokes about how he doesn’t do windows.

Later that evening, the Absorbing Man breaks into a costume shop just as it is closing for the night. There he forces the lone employee, Sandy Herkowitz, to empty the register while he changes into a new pair of pants no unlike what he used to wear in prison. Deciding to use the money to take a ship out of New York, he decides that Sandy is going to come along with him so she doesn’t tip off the police.

While on the pier, Pietro and Wanda are about to board their ship to Europe when Hawkeye arrives to send them off. He puts on a brave face in light of the fact that he wasn’t chosen to be one of the core members of the Avengers. However, after the ship leaves, Clint checks his pockets and discovers he hardly has enough money for a cup of coffee and wonders how he is going to make a living now that he is no longer an Avenger. It’s at a nearby diner that Clint runs into the Absorbing Man who tries to pick a fight with him. When he realizes who he is facing, Clint races to a payphone to call the Avengers before changing into his costume to face the Absorbing Man. He buys the Avengers time to get there. Unfortunately, the Absorbing Man easily takes on the properties of various objects to deflect their attacks. The battle soon takes them aboard a ship, where the Absorbing Man takes on the property of the ship’s engine transforming him into a giant made of metal that is glowing red with energy.

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Wasp, Hawkeye, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, the Vision, the Beast, Falcon), Absorbing Man, Henry Gyrich, Django Maximoff, Sandy Herkowitz, Redwing

Continuity Notes

1. Carol is worried that her fingerprints will link Ms. Marvel to her personnel file at NASA. She worked at NASA and was a member of the US Air Force from Captain Marvel #1-34.

2. Wanda and Pietro’s past is — putting it nicely — a convoluted mess. At the time of this story, they originally believed that they were the children of the Whizzer and Miss America since Giant-Size Avengers #1. In issues #181-182, they were captured by Django, who insists that they are his deceased children Mateo and Ana. Long story short, they are actually the children of Natalya Maximoff and an unidentified father and Django is actually their uncle who adopted and raised them as children. See Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4-5 and Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #4.

3. Gyrich has been dangling A-1 Security Status over the Avengers since he originally revoked it in Avengers #168.

4. Crusher Creel’s battle with the Hulk took place in Incredible Hulk #208-209.

Topical References

• Dated pop-culture reference: Fred & Ethel Mertz from I Love Lucy.

• In this story, Creel states that the pants he takes from the costume shop are the same as what he wore in prison. They are depicted as old-timey black and white stripped prison clothes that have not been worn in prisons since the 1960s, long since replaced with the bright orange jump-suits that are now commonly seen in prisons now. This is topical.

• Real-World Products: Yahtzee