Avengers: The Initiative #34
The Hammer Falls, Part 2
Siege Continues from Thunderbolts #142….
While Norman Osborn (aka Iron Patriot) is busy with the siege of Asgard, the Avengers Resistance — Justice (Vance Astrovik), Gauntlet (Joe Green), Night Thrasher (Donyell Taylor), Rage (Elvin Haliday), the Scarlet Spider, Slapstick (Steve Harmond), Tigra (Greer Grant), and Ultragirl (Suzy Sherman) — have taken the opportunity to shut down Camp HAMMER, home of the Initiative.[1] In the ensuing battle, Tigra gets the change to get her revenge on the Hood for an earlier beating she suffered at his hands.[2]
Watching from the sidelines is Night Thrasher, as the Hood previously offered to resurrect his deceased half-brother, Dwayne Taylor. However, thinking about what Dwayne would do, Donyell makes peace with the fact that his brother is indeed dead and lends Tigra a hand.[3]
Meanwhile, the Hood uses the power of the Norn Stones to increase the powers of the members of his gang stationed at the base. Suddenly, the Avengers Resistance begin to struggle fighting against d-lister villains like the Ringer. This weighs heavily on Justice, who blames himself for the death of the New Warriors and fears that history might be repeating itself with his resistance movement.[4]
Inside the base, HAMMER agents try to shoot Penance with power-stripping SPIN tech darts for refusing to stand down. However, he uses his powers to stop the darts in mid-air before blasting open the door to his cell. This also unlocks the doors to the rooms, allowing the confined members of the Shadow Initiative — Bengal (Doc No Tranh), Batwing (Jimmy Santini) and Butterball (Emery Schaub) — to finally leave their rooms. Penance tells them that he is bringing the place down and to follow him.
Suddenly, there is an explosion that rocks Camp HAMMER hard enough to knock the Hood off his feet. The members of the Shadow Initiative toss a sai by his head that has their resignation letter attached. That’s when Penance removes his helmet and reveals to Justice and the others that he is their old friend Speedball.[5][6] Robbie tells them they can all talk about his new identity once this is all over.
That’s when the Hood gets a distress call from Norman Osborn calling for help. The Hood grabs the members of his Brooklyn gang and teleport away, leaving the more recent Initiative recruits to fend for themselves. Tigra is furious that Parker Robbins managed to get away before she could get revenge. Justice then rallies his comrades with the “Avengers Assemble” battle cry.
Simultaneously, Captain America (Steve Rogers) is making this same battle cry in Asgard, as a he leads an army of Avengers into battle against the Iron Patriot’s (aka Osborn) invading forces.[7] Watching from the sidelines is the Taskmaster who realizes that if his side loses, he will have to go back to being a mercenary for hire. Not wanting this, he attacks Captain America only to discover that there are two of them (the other being James “Bucky” Barnes).[8] Remembering how Taskmaster has photographic reflexes, Steve tells James to handle the Taskmaster since he hasn’t studied his moves yet. While Barnes and Taskmaster duke it out, Steve Rogers goes after Norman Osborn. However, Taskmaster realizes he has studied the other Cap’s moves before and realizes that he’s fighting Captain America’s allegedly dead wartime sidekick, Bucky![9]
As the Hood and his gang arrive on the scene, everyone notices military fighter jets are attacking the HAMMER Helicarrier. Diamondback (Rachel Leighton) sees this and tells Constrictor (Frank Schlichting) that only the President of the United States could order such a strike, signaling that his support of Osborn is over. Her distraction leaves her open to attack by one of the Asgardian warriors. Frank gets one of his mechanical arms in the way to save her life.[10] When Rachel then sees Captain America and Iron Man (Tony Stark) battling the Iron Patriot, Diamondback races to help however she can. Seeing this, the Constrictor thinks that she never truly loved him and was only using him to get intel to give to the resistance. Now that Captain America (her former lover) is back, Frank believes that she has no use for him. That’s when Rachel notices Frank didn’t accompany her and turns to look and sees him walking away from the battle. She calls out to him, trying to tell him that she loves him and will protect him from repercussions when Norman is shut down.[11]
That’s when Norman Osborn orders the Sentry (Bob Reynolds) — now under the control of his dark half, the Void — to bring it all down.[12] Within seconds, the Sentry slams into the base of Asgard, shattering the entire kingdom and sending it crashing to the ground below.
…. Siege Continues in New Avengers #63.
Recurring Characters
Initiative staff: Taskmaster, The Hood
Trainees/Hood’s Gang: Brothers Gimm, Cutthroat, Griffin, Living Laser, Mandrill, Man-Killer, Outback, Scorcher
Shadow Initiative (Constrictor, Badd Axe, Batwing, Bengal, Butterball, Penance, Ringer), Avengers Resistance (Justice, Gauntlet, Night Thrasher, Rage, Scarlet Spider, Slapstick, Tigra, Ultragirl), Diamondback, Iron Patriot, Sentry/The Void, Iron Man, Captain America (Rogers), Thor, New Avengers (Ronin, Luke Cage, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Spider-Woman, Ms. Marvel, Captain America (Barnes), Mockingbird), Young Avengers (Patriot, Hulkling, Wiccan, Hawkeye, Vision), Stonewall, HAMMER
Continuity Notes
Osborn’s siege on Asgard primarily takes place in Siege #1-4 and its various crossover issues (listed below). The Avengers Underground have been trying to shut down Camp HAMMER over the last two issues.
Tigra suffered a beating at the hands of the Hood in New Avengers #35 to send a message to heroes who tried to interfere with his criminal activities.
As explained in Night Thrasher #8, Donyell and Dwayne are half-brothers. Donyell used to have a hatred of Dwayne because of family drama. After Dwayne seemingly died in Civil War #1, Donyell became the new Night Thrasher in New Warriors (vol. 4) #1 partially to find a means of resurrecting his brother. The Hood offered the opportunity of putting Dwayne’s soul in the cloned body in Avengers: The Initiative #29 in exchange for him betraying his comrades. What nobody knows is that Dwayne survived by being pulled forward in time by the Collector in Contest of Champions (vol. 2) #5.
Vance was a founding member of the New Warriors as seen in New Warriors #1. Here he mentions he left the group to join the Avengers. As Justice he was nominated for Avengers membership back in Avengers (vol. 3) #4. Most of the New Warriors seemed to perish in Civil War #1. He specifically mentions Namorita who, as of this writing (August, 2024), is still considered among the deceased. She has been replaced from a past version of herself that was brought forward in time in Nova (vol. 4) #32.
Robbie mentions the time they beat up Terrax the Tamer. That was in New Warriors #1.
Robbie’s transformation from Speedball to Penance occurred after he survived the Stamford Disaster in Civil War #1. He was used as a scapegoat for the incident and was dragged through the legal system. Finally accepting blame for what happened, he reinvented himself as Penance as atonement, as seen in Civil War: Front Line #2-10.
This scene takes place during the events of Siege #3. See that issue for more details on the clash between Osborn and Captain America and the fall of Asgard.
At the time of this story, Steve Rogers had just returned from being lost in time after being shot with a chronal bullet in Captain America (vol. 5) #25. During his absence, Bucky took over the mantle of Captain America in issue #34 of that series. Steve only recently returned, as seen in Captain America: Reborn #1-6.
Bucky Barnes was Captain America’s sidekick right from the word go, as seen in Captain America Comics #1. However, the general public believes that he died in 1945, as seen in Avengers #4. In reality, he survived and was brainwashed by the Russians into becoming their assassin, the Winter Soldier, as explained in Captain America (vol. 5) #11. The truth about James won’t become public knowledge until Captain America #606-608.
Constrictor last his arms in the battle with KIA in Avengers: The Initiative #10. He was outfitted with cybernetic limbs in issue #12. As of this writing (August, 2024), this continues to be his status quo.
Diamondback had a long term relationship with Captain America which ran from Captain America #371 to 417-ish. More recently, she hooked up with the Constrictor in Avengers: The Initiative #29.
The Sentry has a history of mental health, trauma, and addiction that manifest themselves as the Void, his exact opposite, as explained in Sentry/The Void #1, and Sentry (vol. 2) #1-8. Reynolds has precarious control of himself to begin with, but at this time he was pushed over the edge after the murder of his wife, Lindy Lee. See Dark Avengers #13-16.
Siege Reading Order
Siege: The Cabal #1 , Avengers: The Initiative #31, New Avengers #61-62, Dark Avengers #13, 14, 15, Origins of Siege #1, Siege: Storming Asgard: Heroes & Villains #1, Siege #1 , Avengers: The Initiative #32, Dark Wolverine #82, 83, 84, Siege: Embedded #1-2, Siege #2, Avengers: The Initiative #33, Thor #607, Mighty Avengers #35-36, Thunderbolts #141, Siege #3, Siege: Embedded #3, Thor #608, Thunderbolts #142, Avengers: The Initiative #34, New Avengers #63, Siege: Captain America #1, Siege: Spider-Man #1, Siege: Loki #1, Siege: Young Avengers #1, Siege: Secret Warriors #1 , New Mutants (vol. 3) #11, Siege #4, Thor #609, Siege: Embedded #4, New Avengers #64, New Avengers Finale #1, Avengers: The Initiative #35, Dark Avengers #16, Thunderbolts #143, Thor #610, Sentry: Fallen Sun #1
