Avengers (vol. 3) #56
Lo, There Shall Come… An Accounting!
With the core team busy with the reconstruction efforts after Kang’s failed invasion of the Earth,[1] only Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man were on call during an emergency. Sending out a call to reserve and former members of the team, they are able to recruit the Beast, She-Hulk, US Agent, and Jack of Hearts for the mission.[2] In the aftermath, they are all asked to meet with Maxwell Caton and Janice Imperato, accountants who work for the Maria Stark Foundation, the charitable organization that funds the Avengers. While Max is a long time employee, this is Janice’s first day on the job.
They want to hear about how the team managed to rack up the list of expenses on this most recent mission and calls each member in to speak with them one at a time. This is met with annoyance by the reserve members who have other responsibilites.
They first call in the Beast and ask him how he managed to crash the Quinjet he was piloting at the time of the crisis. Hank starts by saying that he, Iron Man, Wonder Man, US Agent, and Silvercall were called in to answer to a threat that was developing. By his telling, he was preoccupied bragging about how easy it was to fly a Quinjet than it was the X-Men’s Blackbird. That’s when they hit a cloud of gas that somehow had eyes causing Hank to lose control of the plane. While he did indeed crash, he was able to maneuver the plane so it did so in the middle of an unoccupied street. As the team crawled out of the wreck, they discovered that they were facing the Elements of Doom. While the Beast tries to gloss over the fact that they were ambushed, Maxwell and Janice conclude their interview with him.
Next, the call in Iron Man where he is grilled about the penalty fees that the Foundatin were charged penalties for sudden satellite communications. Iron Man explains how the battle against the Elements of Doom was a fierce one. While the others were busy with the group, Iron Man used his repulsors to get people out a cloud of Arsenic. Iron Man remembers that the Avengers had previously faced these creatures before in Russia,[3] and with the Quinjet down he had to use commercial satellite uplinks to pull the data. The need to end the threat and the saved lives was, to him, more important than causing brief interference with television feeds. Janice still finds this unacceptable and begins berating Iron Man about the Avengers expenses. She reminds him that the Maria Stark Foundation is not the Avengers personal piggy-bank. That’s when Maxwell pulls her aside and tells her the recent new about how Tony Stark publicly revealed he was Iron Man, so technically it was his private funds.[4]
Stunned by this revelation, Janice apologizes to Mister Stark and asks what happened next. Stark concludes that his transmission was received by Captain America and Jack of Hearts, both of whom had just returned to the mansion. Learning that the Elements of Doom were created by someone, Cap decided to investigate this as a possible lead.
US Agent is called in next and when Janice asks him questions about an explosion he caused, he refuses to talk about it. Maxwell decides to remind the Agent of what went down. The Beast had just asked for assistance taking down Ruthenium who was about to attack a building. US Agent refused since he saw Hydrogen threatening some people, which he saw as more of a danger. Using his energy baton, Convincer, to slice open a fire hydrant and spray the Element with water, little knowing that hydrogen reacts violently to water. Luckily Iron Man was able to shield people from the blast but eight people were burned and their medical expenses were charged to the foundation. US Agent provides no explanation, calling Max and Janice “bean-counters” getting in the way of his ability to do his job.
Next Thor is called in and he explains how he was part of the back-up team called in along with She-Hulk and Triathlon.[5] When they got on the ground, the thunder god reveled in being able to exploits Cesium’s control over electricity. He used this to absorb the creature and slam it into the side of a building, killing it in an explosion and causing a great deal of property damage. When Thor realizes that he is being grilled about the damage he caused, he plunks down a sack of pure Asgardian gold to cover the damage and leaves the room.
Next up is She-Hulk who is questioned about the owner of a property that is now suing the Maria Stark Foundation. She-Hulk remembers the situation in question, Tungsten and Nickle had just smashed the support beams of a stone overhang as people fled for their lives. Jennifer batted them out of the way and held up the overhang as the rest of the people inside evacuated. That’s when the owner came up to her and started holding her personally responsible for the damages and threatened to sue. She got him to move real quick when everyone was out and she threatened to drop the roof on him. Seeing that the Foundation is concerned about this lawsuit, Jen gives them her legal advice: The building wasn’t up to code and they can find this information by pulling up their safety records. Once they present them to the building owner’s lawyer, she guarantees that they’ll fold.
Next Captain America is called in and he tells of how he tracked down the original creator of the Elements of Doom, Vasily Khandruvitch. He was in a St. Louis jail after a previous attempt to take over the world with the Elements of Doom.[6] As he and Jack of Hearts were arriving on the scene, they saw that Platinum was attacking the prison. With lives at risk, Cap illegally parked the Quinjet on the road. He then left Jack to deal with the Platinum while he went inside the prison and found Vasily. Khandruvitch was still in his cell and insisted that he had nothing to do with this current incarnation of the Elements of Doom. He explains that Advance Idea Mechanics are behind it, as one of their agents holographically visited him in his cell and asked for his assistance in recreating the creatures. After two failed attempts at world domination, Vasily had not interest in trying a third time and refused AIM’s offer. He figures that the rogue scientists found a way to unlock his secret process. Wanting to stop his creations, Vasily then writes up a means of disrupting the Elements crystalline matrix, the source of their sentience and cohesion. Concluding his part of the story, Captain America then presents the proper paperwork along with the parking ticket he received and related documentation.
Last they call in Jack of Hearts, who admits to Max and Janice that he has no idea how this goes and decides to tell it like it is. He had just defeated Platinum when Captain America come out of the prison with a solution to stop the rest of the Elements of Doom. Jack then raced to scene of the battle with the other Avengers. There, they pulled aside the Beast who was able to salvage equipment from the downed Quinjets to build a device that would destabilize the Element’s crystalline matrixes. Sure enough it worked, and the Elements of Doom were reduced to purple goo that flooded the streets. When Captain America caught up with them they tracked down and shut down the AIM cell responsible. Jack is relieved that that matter is being left for a separate meeting.
With that, the investigation is complete and as Max and Janice leave, the Avengers are told that the final report will be sent to them by mail tomorrow. Janice asks if it is always like this. It pretty much is, but at least since US Agent is under the supervision of the Commission on Superhuman Affairs, they can at least send the bill for his expenses to the STARS program. Other than that, Max says that they’ll just fudge the paperwork a little bit in order to justify the expenses, pointing out that the Avengers job is a very important one. When Janice laments about having to do this, Max tells her to look at it as a challenge.
Recurring Characters
Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Wonder Man, Beast, She-Hulk, US Agent, Triathlon, Silverclaw, Jack of Hearts), Elements of Doom (Arsenic, Beryllium, Cesium, Nickle, Sodium, Tungston), AIM, Vasily Khandruvich, Edwin Jarvis
Continuity Notes
Kang tried to invade Earth, yadda, yadda, yadda see Avengers (vol. 3) #41-54.
Let’s talk about the reserve members for a moment and their membership history over the years.
The Beast: Was a long serving member of the team from Avengers #137 through 211. He hasn’t been a full time member since, but has on occasion been called in to assist the team from time to time, usually due to his medical expertise. The most recently (time of this story) was to examine Rick Jones in Avengers Forever #1. He won’t rejoin until Secret Avengers #1.
She-Hulk: Was made an official Avenger in Avengers #221. She left the group to join the Fantastic Four in Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #12/Fantastic Four #265. She has come back on a few occasions between Avengers #278-297, 305-310, and (vol. 3) #27-32. She’ll be back on the team in issue #57.
US Agent: was forced upon the west coast team in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #44. He’d be a member almost consistently until the western team was disbanded in Avengers West Coast #102. At the time of this story, the last time he fought alongside the team was in Avengers (vol. 3) #1-3. As of this writing (February, 2023) He hasn’t been a full time member of the team since.
The Avengers previously fought the Elements of Doom in Avengers #188.
Iron Man’s long kept secret identity had just publicly exposed around the time of this story, as seen in Iron Man (vol. 3) #55.
It should be noted here that Thor is wearing his traditional modern age costume in the flashback of this story, while in the present day he is wearing a more regal outfit. At the time of this story, Thor had just taken over leadership of Asgard following the death of Odin, see Thor (vol. 2) #40-45.
The last time the Elements were loose they were shut down by the Thunderbolts. See Thunderbolts #6-8.
Topical References
The X-Men’s jet is referred to as a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. This should be considered a topical reference as this is a real world jet plane that long since been retired in 1999.
Janice Imperato states that the Avengers were charged penalties by COMSAT, a satellite communications company. This should be considered a topical reference as COMSAT is a real world corporation.
She-Hulk refers to Tungsten and Nickle as “Laurel and Hardy”. She is referring to British comedy duo Stanley Laurel and Oliver Hardy. The pair were best known for their slapstick comedy. Their career spanned from 1927 to 1955. This could be considered a topical reference. Despite the fact that the duo are comedy legends, they are not as well remembered anymore.
