And So it Begins…

Since leaving the Avengers, the Vision has been operating in Chicago, Illinois.[1] Using an image inducer to appear human, he has been posing as Victor Shade and frequenting the Windy City Pub. While he has made friends with the regular patrons, his real reason for being there is using his enhanced hearing to listen in on conversations made by some underworld types who always sit in the back booth. When he overhears them talking about how the Grim Reaper is making his move, his job is done. Excusing himself to go to the washroom, the Vision rounds the corner, drops his disguise, phases through the roof and flies towards New York City.

At Avengers Mansion, Iron Man is running a battery of tests on Goliath, after he had been experiencing health issues while on their last mission.[2][3] When Tony brings up the instability of Hank’s Pym Particle formula in the past and its impacts on his health, Hank insists that he worked all the problems out and that’s why he has been able to rejoin the Avengers recently.[4] Eventually, the tests come back clean and find Hank in perfect health. Still, the others are concerned for his well being, but Hank insists that he is fine.[5] What none of them realize is that exposure to Kulan Gath’s magic has caused Hank to split into two separate entities. The other, his Yellowjacket persona, watches the tests from up in the rafters at ant-size. Seeing the Wasp fretting over his other self, this Hank scoffs, calling him whipped. Yellowjacket has had enough and decides to go have some fun. He is able to fly through the mansion’s ventilation systems without setting off the alarms because, for all intents and purposes, it registers him as Hank Pym and not a security threat.

Meanwhile, the other Avengers — Warbird, She-Hulk, and Triathlon — are down in the training room running combat training simulations. This is so they can work effectively as a team, and it’s here that Triathlon gets a chance to really show off his abilities, which are three times peak human ability. While in the com room, the Scarlet Witch receives a call from the Beast who has called to see if Wonder Man wants to hang out. This comes as a surprise to Wanda as she thought that Simon was away in Los Angeles. McCoy tells her that they just got back from LA and the last he saw Williams was at LaGuardia Airport a few days ago. Wanda thanks Hank for the info and promises to have Simon call him back as soon as he gets in. Still, Wanda is worried about Simon as she should have hear from him by now.[6]

That’s when the alarm goes off summoning the entire team to the war room. There, they are contacted by the Vision who tells them that he has discovered that the Grim Reaper has organized a meeting of all the regional Maggia bosses in Chicago. When Wanda asks her former husband where he has been all this time, the Vision says he will explain personal matters after this mission and tells them to come to Chicago immediately. As the Avengers head to the Quinjet, Duane Freeman — the Avengers government liaison — is convinced that this mission will help the Avengers sagging public image.[7][8] As the Avengers head to Chicago in a Quinjet, the Wasp asks Wanda if she’ll be fine. When Triathlon asks Warbird what the deal is, she quickly explains the complicated relationship between the Scarlet Witch, the Vision, and Wonder Man.[9]

When the Avengers rendezvous with the Vision, it is across the street from a warehouse where the Maggia meeting is underway. When the others try to get the Vision to explain where he has been all this time, he tells them there is time for that later and to focus on the meeting. The android then sends out a call to SHIELD to send a tactical unit to back them up. The team then splits up to deal with the guards stationed outside the meeting as quietly as possible.

Inside the warehouse the meeting is already underway. The Grim Reaper has gathered Maggia leaders from across the world including T.B. Smithson from Texas, Edward Lavell (aka the Eel) who handles the Gulf Coast, Shigeru Ichihara who is in charge of the Pacific Rim, Madame Masque who is stationed in Las Vegas, both Caeser Cicero and Silvermane from New York, and Pierre Fresson (aka Cyclone) from Europe. The Grim Reaper says that he is representing interested parties that want to consolidate all the Maggia families into one huge organization, believing it would make them more powerful and wealthy than ever before. Madame Masque is the first to reject this proposal, pointing out that the Maggia families have always operated independently and got by with mutual non-interference pacts in the past.

That’s when the Avengers come crashing in through one of the walls. Prepared for a trap, Madame Masque activates her ace-in-the-hole: a number of Dreadnaught robots hidden under the floor. As the Avengers are pre-occupied with the robots and other Maggia goons, both Cyclone and the Eel decide to beat feet. While Cyclone manages to escape, the Eel is blindsided by Triathlon and knocked out. Soon, the only ones left standing are the Grim Reaper and Madame Masque. Seeking to get away, the Reaper grabs Masque and tries to hold her hostage in order to bargain for his freedom. That’s when Madame Masque makes eye contact with Iron Man and says “she still loves you and she needs your help.” Seconds later, Masque’s head explodes killing her instantly.[10] This shocks everyone, allowing the Grim Reaper to make his escape.

Soon, SHIELD agents are on the scene to take the captured Maggia bosses into custody. In the aftermath of the battle Wanda asks the Vision why he left. He explains that he needed time to think and he realized he was living his life seeking the approval of others instead of living his life for his own, and is going to change that. Iron Man then tells the team that they are heading back to the mansion to try and figure out what the Grim Reaper was up to and what exactly happened to Madame Masque and that they won’t quit until they have all the answers.[11]

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Iron Man, Goliath, Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Warbird, Triathlon), Grim Reaper, Maggia (Eel, Cyclone, Madame Masque, Caesar Cicero, Silvermane), Dreadnaughts, Yellowjacket, Duane Freeman, Beast, SHIELD

Continuity Notes

1. Vision left the team in Avengers (vol. 3) #23. This was because he discovered that all of his interests were the same as Wonder Man and it deeply upset him. Sensitive guy, the Vision.

2. This was when the Avengers were liberating a village in Costa Verde from the sorcerer Kulan Gath. Hank was suffering headaches and random jabs of pain after crossing the wizard’s mystical barrier, as seen in Avengers (vol. 3) #28-30. The cause was that the spell split Hank into two distinct entities, the intellectual Goliath and the emotional Yellowjacket. The two will remain separate until their declining health requires that they merge once more in Avengers Annual 2001.

3. Iron Man is wearing his Model 4 armor (first built in Iron Man #85). At the time of this story, his Model 16 armor (built Iron Man (vol. 3) #1) had seemingly become sentient and tried to kill him, as seen in Iron Man (vol. 3) #26-31. He put on the old suit of armor because he wasn’t sure he could trust anything with sophisticated systems. It’s later revealed that the armor didn’t become self-aware, but was hijacked by Ultron as we’ll learn in Iron Man (vol. 3) #46-48.

4. Hank’s size-changing formula always put a strain on his body. It became so severe that he had to give it up entirely in Avengers #140. This was the status quo for quite some time until Hank suddenly became Giant-Man again with no explanation in Avengers #366. Hank’s explanation here is to make up for that bit of sloppy writing in the past. He also mentions that his new version of the formula took away his ability to change the size of objects with a touch. Hank developed these abilities in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #21, and maintained them until he abruptly stopped using them in Avengers #366, again, without explanation.

5. Hank is aware that his friends are worried due to his mental health problems. In the past they were the result of three mental breakdowns one in Avengers #59-60 when he became Yellowjacket, Avengers #213 when he struck his then wife the Wasp, and West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #17-18 when he contemplated suicide after getting dumped.

6. Wonder Man left the team in Avengers (vol. 3) #27 so that he could sort out his life. This led to him and the Beast taking a trip to Los Angeles in Avengers Two: Wonder Man & Beast #1-3. We’ll learn in Thunderbolts #42 that Simon was kidnapped and enslaved by Count Nefaria. The Avengers will learn this fate next issue, and Simon will eventually be freed from Nefaria’s control in issue #34.

7. The Avengers have been the subject of a smear campaign orchestrated by a religious group called the Triune Understanding’s since Avengers (vol. 3) #13. This led to protests and diminished public opinion. The Avengers have been in damage control since issue #27. The reason why things are awkward between the team and Duane here is because they also discovered that he was a member of the Triunes. The reason the Triunes have it against the Avengers is because their leader, Jonathan Tremont, believes the Avengers are responsible for a coming doomsday prophecy. This is actually the Triple-Evil as we’ll learn in Avengers (vol. 3) #50.

8. Iron Man mentions that he has had the most experience with the Maggia than any other Avenger. This is because Tony Stark’s companies have frequently been the target of the criminal organization. See Tales of Suspense #97-99, Iron Man and the Sub-Mariner #1, Iron Man #1, 6-8, 137-139, 147, 183 246-247, 254, Marvel Team-Up #72, 145, and Incredible Hulk #361.

9. Warbird gives the TL;DR version of Wanda’s relationships with both Simon and the Vision. Here are the details:

   • When Wonder Man seemingly died in Avengers #9, his brain engrams were recorded and kept in the Avengers records. When Ultron built the Vision, he created his personality using those engrams, as explained in Avengers #57-58.

   • Over time, the Vision and the Scarlet Witch fell in love and got married in Giant-Size Avengers #4. Simon William later returned to life in Avengers #151, and although the Vision and him shared similar brain patterns everything was copasetic for a long time.

   • That all changed when the government captured the Vision and deconstructed him. When he was rebuilt he had lost all record of Simon’s brain engrams. When Wanda asked him to provide them a second time, Williams refused because he came to realize that he loved Wanda as well. See West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #42-45. Seeing his presence caused Wanda pain, the Vision left her in Avengers and the pair were estranged thereafter. Sometime after this, Simon was killed in action in Force Works #1.

   • While the Vision obtained new brain engrams from one Alex Lipton that restored his personality, the Vision’s original brain engrams were restored by the power of Franklin Richards. See Avengers Spotlight #40, Vision #1-4, and Avengers Annual 2001.

   • More recently, Wanda was able to summon Wonder Man from the dead starting in Avengers (vol. 3) #2 and eventually restored him to life in issues #10-11. The two admitted they loved one another and began a relationship because the Vision had long since deemed his marriage to Wanda as being over. Eventually, the Vision discovered that all of his interests were exactly the same as Simon’s, prompting his departure in issue #23.

10. Tony Stark previously had a brief on-again-off-again romance with Madame Masque, aka Whitney Frost. The two fell in love with one another when they were on opposite sides of a conflict with Mordecai Midas in Iron Man #17-19. Later, to be closer to Tony, she took on the guise of Krissy Longfellow in Iron Man #91 and started working as his secretary until her true identity was revealed in issue #99. She and Tony remained in a relationship until a battle with her father — Count Nefaria — ended in his apparent death, prompting Whitney to leave Tony and return to a life of crime as seen in Iron Man #115-116. It should be noted that Nefaria didn’t die then and would turn up alive again in Iron Man (vol. 3) #6.

11. The mystery behind Madame Masque is that she has been seemingly murdered by a would-be successor and had her body dumped. When autopsies were done on the bodies, it was discovered that these were Whitney Frost, as seen in Iron Man #238 and Iron Man (vol. 3) #11 and 20. There is also the outstanding mystery of a woman calling herself Masque who first appeared in Iron Man #320 and later disappeared without a trace in Avengers #399. As we’ll learn next issue, following her father’s death, Madame Masque feared her own mortality. She then started using bio-duplicates to act as her proxies in the field, starting in Iron Man #138. When one bio-duplicate failed, she sent another to kill the failure and take its place. Masque was an incomplete creature, which Masque had recalled back to her hideout.