By Reason of Insanity?

New York City is divided over the police beating of Hispanic teenager Carmillo Martinez resulting in both protests and counter-protests forming outside the 41st Precinct. When the protest is crashed by the racist terrorist organization known as the Sons of the Serpent, both the Avengers and New Warriors are there to try and stop people from getting hurt.[1] Unfortunately, a strange individual, dressed in black, has been manipulating the emotions of everyone on the ground, forcing the heroes to start getting into uncontrollable fits of rage.

As the Avengers and New Warriors fight one another, this mystery man watches with glee at the chaos he has fomented with his hate based powers. While the two teams fight against one another, the Sons of the Serpent decide to escape while they have been forgotten. When the group makes their getaway, their mysterious benefactor is satisfied and leaves. This causes the Avengers and the Warriors to snap out of it and stop fighting. Captain America decides that coming out here was a mistake and this entire dispute needs to be handled between the authorities and the local community. Night Thrasher, however, doesn’t agree with Cap and insists that they have a responsibility to get involved.

As the two teams bicker over how they should or shouldn’t get involved, Rage loses his temper again. Having had enough with working with groups, he storms off to resolve the situation on his own. Concerned for Rage’s safety, Night Thrasher sends Silhouette to keep an eye on him, something she can easily do thanks to her ability to meld into shadows. Captain America once again reiterates that this is something super-heroes should stay out of and when Thrasher tries to press the issue, Marvel Boy suggests they don’t try arguing with Captain America. After the Avengers leave however, the New Warriors decide to look into the Sons of the Serpent some more and try to figure out how they were able to manipulate their emotions.

Meanwhile, Rage returns to his grandmothers home and lets himself inside using a hidden backdoor key, unaware that Silhouette has been following him. At the same time, Night Thrasher and the other New Warriors are questioning some local kids to find out who has been hassling minorities in the area. One man whose name that comes up is Kryzewski, the man who owns the local deli. That’s when he gets a report back from Silhouette. The New Warriors decide to pay a visit with Rage, who is just finished getting an earful from his grandmother about his temper.

Back at Avengers Headquarters, Captain America is going over their records on the Sons of the Serpent with the Vision and Black Widow. They look at the Serpent’s last appearance, during which they battled with the Defenders.[2] From these files they learned that, at the time, the group was run by J.C. Pennysworth who had the group secretly operating from the head office of Richmond Enterprises. Despite the fact that the building was likely abandoned as a headquarters, Captain America still wants to check it out.

At that same moment, the New Warriors go to Kryzewski’s deli to follow up on the lead of their own. In the back room they find evidence that the Sons of the Serpent were operating out of it but are nowhere to be found. They do come across a note about a meeting at a property on 47th Street. Using his laptop computer, Night Thrasher is able to look up the property and determines that it is the old Richmond Enterprise building.

Later that evening, when the Sons of the Serpent meet at Richmond Enterprises, they find the Avengers waiting for them. The heroes quickly take out the gang but are soon ambushed themselves by the man who had manipulated their emotions earlier. He introduces himself as the new Hate-Monger. His power has the Avengers on the ropes until the New Warriors arrive as back-up. In the ensuing battle, the Hate-Monger tries to use his powers to consume Rage with his own hatred so he attacks his comrades, both old and new. Rage resists and at the encouragement of Captain America, finally lets go of his pent up anger and breaks free from the Hate-Monger’s control. The villain applauds Rage, but insists that hatred trumps all other emotions and when it comes back he will be back. The Hate-Monger then teleports away before anyone can catch him.

With the battle over, Captain America decides now is the time to confront Rage about the fact they now know he is only 14 years old.[3] While Captain America can no longer have Rage as part of the team due to his age, he made the mistake of turning away young heroes need of mentors as he had done in the past.[4] Rather than close the door to the Avengers until Rage comes of age, Captain America will still provide resources to train the next generation of heroes. Rage is satisfied with this compromise and after the Avengers leave, Night Thrasher hads him a business card suggesting that he give him a call.[5]

Time passes, and somewhere else in America, a crowd of Black men and women are meeting at city hall to hear an impassioned speech about how they need to stand up against white oppression. The people hang off his every word, unaware that this charismatic man just so happens to be the Hate-Monger.

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Captain America, Vision, Black Widow, Falcon, Rage), New Warriors (Night Thrasher, Silhouette, Firestar, Marvel Boy, Namorita), Hate-Monger, Sons of the Serpent (Leonard Kryzewski), Granny Staples

Continuity Notes

1. Marvel Boy’s arm is in a sling in this story: He had been injured in the New Warrior’s recent battle with Terrax in New Warriors #15-18. His arm will remain in a cast until after the events of New Warriors #26. Also of interest here, Namorita is wearing a suit of Atlantean armor. She started wearing this armor after suffering a serious beating in New Warriors #14. She’ll have abandoned this new look by issue #18 of that series.

2. The Sons of the Serpents fought the Defenders in Defenders #22-25.

3. Captain America discovered Rage’s true age last issue. As detailed in Avengers #328, the toxic waste that gave him his powers also made him grow to adulthood.

4. He is referring to how he turned down Marvel Boy back in New Warriors #1 due to his young age.

5. Rage takes Night Thrasher up on this and ends up becoming a member of the New Warriors in New Warriors #22.

Topical References

• The Hate-Monger recites lines from two Rolling Stones songs, “She Was Hot” and “Sympathy for the Devil”. This could be considered a topical reference unless you want to believe that the Hate-Monger is a fan of classic rock.

• Night Thrasher refers to his portable computer as a “Computer Modem” and plugs it into a phone line to access property ownerships online. This should be considered a topical reference as dial-up modems are more or less an obsolete technology thanks to faster methods of carrying data such as cable, fiber optic and digital transmissions such a cellular networks and wifi.