Nick Peron

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Avengers: The Initiative #13

Nick Peron

Washout

Credits

A new bus of recruits is arriving at Camp Hammond to join the Initiative. One of the new cadets, Boulder (Emery Schaub) is excited to be joining up. His enthusiasm isn’t met by Prodigy (Richie Gilmore) and Sunstreak, who only joined up to get out of prison.[1] Emery then heaps praise on both Prodigy, and Annex (Alex Ellis), who dismiss his enthusiasm.[2] However, Gorilla Girl (Fahnbullah Eddy) and Batwing (Jimmy Santini) are much friendlier to the excited new recruit.[3]

When Yellowjacket (Hank Pym) board the bus to introduce himself to the cadets, Emery gushes over him as well. Pym is open to the youth’s questions, but changes his mind when Captain America is brought up. Taking a sterner tone, he tells the cadets to keep their eyes and ears open and mouths shut then leaves the driver to go over the initiation speech in his place.[4]

Getting off the bus, they are greeted by their new drill sergeant, the Taskmaster. He tells them that from here on out they will follow his orders without question.[5] When he asks Emery to give his codename, Taskmaster cuts him off before he can say Boulder and tells him that from now on he’ll be known as Butterball.

One week later, Taskmaster meets with War Machine (Jim Rhodes) and Yellowjacket to discuss the new recruits. He dismisses them as Z-listers, and only has something nice to say about Annex, but not much. He however, wants to talk about Butterball, who has proven to be invulnerable to harm. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have much else, since he has proven to be clumsy in fight training. Although he doesn’t tire, he can’t run very fast and can’t lift anything heavy. On to of this, no matter how much training he goes through he doesn’t appear to lose any weight, nor gain any strength or stamina. Yellowjacket theorizes that becoming invulnerable has an impact on one’s metabolism and that Butterball is likely locked into his relative shape when his powers first activated. On top of all this, Emery’s constant questions annoy the Taskmaster as they undermine his qualifications. Since he can’t punish Schaub with push-ups or runs, he takes it out on the rest of the recruits which is affecting morale. Particularly since any hazing to get Butterball to pick up the slack has no effect on him either.

When Yellowjacket asks Taskmaster if he’s admitting to failure, he refuses to admit defeat. Before heading off to a press conference, Hank warns Taskmaster that SHIELD picked up intel that there has been a hit taken out on him. Taskmaster isn’t concerned about it since Bullseye is in the Thunderbolts and Elektra is dead again, so he can handle whoever else is sent his way.[6]

This press conference is to have Prodigy show his support of the Super Human Registration Act (SHRA).[7] There he apologizes for his drunken episode and previous denouncement of the new law. After the press conference is over, Pym complains about Richie’s lack of believability. Prodigy doesn’t give a shit, and vents his frustrations over selling out his convictions on live television. When Hank tries to convince him about the good of the Initiative, Richie storms off in frustration.

Later that night, the new recruits are stuck in the barracks with nothing to do. With everyone bored out of their skulls, Prodigy decides that they should sneak off base and have some fun.[8] With Annex hacking the security systems, they steal a armored truck and use Butterball’s invulnerability to take the brunt of the automated defenses. However, the best they can do is go to the beach for beers and a campfire.[9] While the others go off skinny-dipping, Sunstreak tries to make a move on Butterball since he is the only one she can touch without hurting with her flame powers. Unfortunately, this makes Emery too uncomfortable and he runs off in their stolen jeep. The others quickly get dressed and go after him, fearing he might get caught and rat them all out.

Unfortunately, by the time they catch up they discover he has already been busted by War Machine, Taskmaster, Constrictor and Yellowjacket. Hiding in some nearby trees, the recruits feel like jackasses when they hear Butterball making up a story about how he snuck out alone to get some food off base. Suddenly, they are ambushed by King Cobra, Mister Hyde, the Mauler, and Firebrand. This compels Prodigy and the others to come out of hiding and help their instructors. As the tide of battle turns against the villains, Mauler grabs Emery and tries to use him as a hostage. This does nothing to stop the heroes since Butterbull is invulnerable. They then trounce the villains to the point where they retreat. Yellowjacket decides against going after them as it could lead to a battle in Stamford, and will sent a SHIELD unit of Cape-Killers to round them up.[10] Emery is then hailed as a hero during the fight.

However, Yellowjacket and War Machine have a different tune the next morning. They have concluded that Emery doesn’t have what it takes to be an Initiative recruit and so they are sending him home. This saddens his fellow cadets who have come to respect him. As the youth leaves Camp Hammond, both Constrictor and Taskmaster feel sorry for him and decide to do something to cheer him up. They pretend to have been defeated in battle with Butterball for a photo, which Emery proudly hangs on the wall of his bedroom so he can tell everyone he was a success of the Initiative back home.[11]

Recurring Characters

Initiative staff: “Yellowjacket”, Taskmaster, Constrictor, War Machine

Trainees: Annex, Batwing, Butterball, Gorilla Girl, Prodigy, Sunstreak

Mister Hyde, King Cobra, Mauler, Firebrand, Sally Floyd

Continuity Notes

  1. Sunstreak’s real name is not given here, she will be identified as Andrea Roarke in Dark Reign Files #1.

  2. Butterball mentions Prodigy’s recent drunken brawl with Iron Man, which happened in Civil War: Front Line #2. He also brings up Annex’s military background, see Amazing Spider-Man Annual #27 for more on that.

  3. Batwing’s clashes with Spider-Man and failed cure are mentioned here. See Untold Tales of Spider-Man #2, 7, 9, and 24.

  4. This is not the real Hank Pym, but a Skrull impostor as explained in Mighty Avengers #15. Here, some of the real Hank Pym’s past is mentioned including:

  5. Taskmaster mentions the previous drill instructor, Gauntlet (Joe Green), who trained cadets from Avengers: The Initiative #1-5.

  6. Bullseye was conscripted into the Thunderbolts in Thunderbolts #110. Taskmaster also mentions that Elektra is dead “again”, she previously died in Daredevil #181 and was later resurrected in issue #190 of that series. This most recent death is referring to the events of New Avengers #31. What they don’t know is this was actually a Skrull subversive who took Elektra’s place.

  7. The SHRA was passed into law in Civil War #3, it requires superhumans to register with the government. It will remain on the books until Siege #4.

  8. Here, Butterball mentions that Speedball (Robbie Baldwin) once had a cat with the same powers as him. He is referring to Niels. See Speedball #1.

  9. It is stated here that Batwing is not of legal drinking age, which in Connecticut (at least at the time of publication) was 21. Batwing’s appearances in Untold Tales of Spider-Man take place around Spider-Man’s first year of adventures, placing them in “Year One” of the Modern Age, while this story (published in 2008) takes place in “Year Twelve”. This means Batwing couldn’t have been older than 9 years old at the time of his appearances in Untold Tales. However, as of this writing (July, 2024) his precise age is unknown.

  10. The reason why Yellowjacket wants to avoid a fight in Stamford is because the town is still recovering from an explosion caused by a superhuman battle that killed hundreds of their citizens. See Civil War #1.

  11. Constrictor and Taskmaster mention their most humiliating defeats. For Constrictor it was getting defeated by the New Warriors (Web of Spider-Man Annual #8/New Warriors Annual #2) while Taskmaster says his was at the hands of Hawkeye and Ant-Man (Avengers #223).

Topical References

  • Taskmaster states that he won’t be going all Full Metal Jacket on them. This was a 1987 war film directed by film legend Stanley Kubric. It follows the story of fresh military recruits. It’s remembered for the performance of R. Lee Ermey, who played drill instructor Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, who aggressively berated his trainees. This wouldn’t necessarily be considered a topical reference as this is considered a classic film. That said, the “abusive drill sergeant” character trope is ubiquitous enough that I’m sure you could find a more contemporary reference.

  • When proposing they sneak out, Prodigy likens it to the movie Stripes, a 1981 comedy about a group of foul ups joining the army. A memorably scene from that movie involved the characters sneaking off base to watch mud wrestling at a bar. This could be considered a topical reference as I’m sure you can find a more contemporary example to use in its place.