Lionheart of Avalon, Part 1

When Kelsey Lehigh checks in on her son, the single mother is surprised that he is hanging up a poster of Captain America on his wall.[1] Since they live in the United Kingdom, she figured he’d be into Captain Britain. His son thinks the American hero is cool.[2] That’s when Kelsey steps into the light of the room, revealing the long scar she wears down her face. She bets her son is more handsome than Cap.

Little do they know that Captain America is actually in Britain on Avengers business, trying to crack down the Wrecking Crew. At that moment, Steve Rogers is out walking around town with Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye, in their civilian clothes so they can find their targets without raising attention. Clint is trying to give Steve relationship advice. His opinion is that Rogers has problems with women because he is too old fashioned. However, Steve is confident that he can find a woman with Barton’s help.

On the next street over, Kelsey is taking her children Martin and Jenny out shopping with her. As they pass the Tallymander Pub, Jenny asks if they can go inside and get some ice cream. Although Martin is concerned that the people inside will stare at the scar on her mother’s face, Kelsey puts on a smile and says it won’t be a problem to get some ice cream. Inside the people do stare at Kelsey, but she tells her children to pay it no mind.

At that same time, Clint Barton’s romantic advice is interrupted when the Wasp radios in.[3] She sees four men in trench coats that are acting suspicious around an armored car. That’s when the transmission cuts off. Suspecting that Jan is in trouble, Steve begins changing into his costume right in the middle of the street since he no longer has a secret identity.[4] Since he doesn’t really have one either, Clint decides to follow suit even though he’s not happy about it. That’s when the Wasp shoots up to giant size with the Wrecker and the armored car in one hand and Bulldozer in the other. Jan figures she has everything sorted out until Thunderball wraps his wrecking ball around her legs and trips her.[5]

Inexperience at being giant sized, Jan struggles to maintain balance and keeps on toppling into buildings as she tries to figure out how to get her legs free and the drivers in the armored car to safety. With the Wasp a risk, Captain America runs into the nearby pub and gets everyone to evacuate. Martin Lehigh is amazed at seeing his favorite superhero in action. Back outside Hawkeye works on the Wreckers on the ground, Janet drops the now empty armored car on the Wrecker and Bulldozer.

When Captain America comes back outside, he gets the drop on Thunderball and knocks him with a single punch because he has a glass jaw. By this time, Janet has gotten loose and returned to Wasp size. But the sudden change in size has made her dizzy and she passes out in Steve’s hands. That’s when two things happen simultaneously: The Lehigh family come out the back door and Thunderball recovers. He tells Kelsey and her children to run, but the door back into the pub has been jammed shut. As Thunderball swings with his wrecking ball, Captain America has no choice but to take the full brunt of the swing with his shield. This sends the hero smashing into a wall, knocking him out. When Kelsey goes to check on him she is relieved that he is still alive, but notices that his jaw is broken. Hearing this, Thunderball decides to finish Captain America once and for all with one more swing of his weapon.

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Captain America, Wasp/Giant-Woman, Hawkeye), Wrecking Crew (Wrecker, Thunderball, Bulldozer, Piledriver), Black Knight, Kelsey Lehigh, Martin Lehigh, Jenny Lehigh,

Continuity Notes

1. Other than real world people, Martin has a number of posters of the Avengers which are reproductions of comic covers. One is the cover of Captain America (vol. 3) #1.

2. Captain Britain has saved the UK from various threats numerous time. The amount of times he did during World War II is hard to determine since his wartime tales have not all been told (and I don’t feel like digging through a bunch of Golden Age comics for inconsequential Cap appearances, do it on your own time.) The times that Martin might be aware of are Captain Britain #17-27 when he and Captain Britain thwarted the Red Skull, Captain America #253-254 when he stopped Baron Blood, and #305-306 when he and Captain Britain saved the country from Mordred the Mystic.

3. A man is sitting on a park bench reading the paper. One of the headlines is “Red Skull Stopped!” This is in reference to Avengers (vol. 3) #65-70.

4. At the time of this story, Steve Rogers had just publicly revealed his true identity as seen in Captain America (vol. 4) #3.

5. Unknown to everyone here, Thunderball has been possessed by the evil Black Knight, a minion of Morgan le Fay as will be revealed in Avengers (vol. 3) #80.

Topical References

• Of the posters David has on his walls, there are posters with real life people on them. This includes musician Craig David, as well as promotional images of the 1990 Captain America film featuring lead actor Matt Salinger, as well as 2003 Daredevil film featuring lead Ben Affleck. The appearances of real life people should be considered topical.