Avengers: The Initiative Annual #1
Second Best
After Gauntlet (Joe Green) was beaten into a coma, Henry Gyrich meets with Senator Arthur Woodman at the Pentagon to discuss the situation.[1] He starts by reading a report as to how Green obtained the alien weapon that gives him his powers.
The report begins with an alien conflict that occurred over the Earth. The two unknown beings fought using sophisticated weapons, killing each other and crashing on Earth. When the reports reach Henry Gyrich and Senator Arthur Woodman, they determine that one of the artifacts landed in the middle of the Sundanese desert. The report goes into how it came into the military’s possession.[2]
It explains that the intel was intercepted from Hydra, creating a race against time to prevent the terrorist organization from obtaining the object first. Luckily, one of the military’s best men — Sergeant Joe Green — was in the location and he was dispatched with a team to get it first.
Unfortunately, Green and his team drove into a Hydra ambush. The assault upended their transports and one of the troops is injured. While Green was attending to his injuries, he refused to allow the man to die and ordered him to provide cover fire while he charged at the Hydra troops. Soon, there was only one standing and both he and Joe were out of ammo.
Seeing a blade sticking out of the desert sand, the two struggled with one another. Ultimately, the Hydra agent got to the weapon firs,t but it was too heavy to lift. While he was distracted, Joe’s hand got incased in a second weapon, a mechanical gauntlet, that allowed him to create a massive fist out of energy to knock out his foe. When he tried to get the weapon off afterwards, Joe realized it is stuck to his arm. Deciding to worry about this later, Joe recovered the blade and returned to base.
As Gyrich concludes reading the report, he notes that the gauntlet is fused to Green’s central nervous system and cannot be removed. This makes the weapon useless to them while Joe is still in his coma. Gyrich refuses to amputate Green’s arm since he is one of the best men that they have. This is exactly what happened to the next subject in his report, Armory, who had found the other alien weapon, the Tactigon. Unfortunately, they have not been able to find someone who could properly use the weapon. Interested in hearing more, Woodman asks Henry to tell him more about it….
Recurring Characters
Gauntlet, Henry Gyrich, Arthur Woodman, Hydra
Continuity Notes
The main story here takes place after the events of Avengers: The Initiative #6. In that story, Gauntlet was beat into a coma by Slapstick in retaliation for his constant badmouthing of the New Warriors. Joe will remain in this coma until issue #9.
Reason for Being
At the Burke Wellness Center in San Francisco, Violet Lightner — formerly the heroine known as Armory — attends a session with her psychologist, Doctor Burke. Burke notices that Violet is wearing long sleeves and knows this is a sign she may have started cutting herself again. Lifting up Violet’s sleave shows fresh scars, seemingly confirming her concerns. However, Lightner explains that this time, the cuts on her arm weren’t from self-harm and tells her the story….
Not that long ago, Violet was having another depressive episode and was contemplating suicide. In a moment of despair she decided to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge. As she jumped she became aware of something in the water that called out to her. Suddenly, an alien weapon — the Tactigon — popped out of the water and attached itself to her arm. It then formed a grappling hook launcher and saved her life. Prior to attempting to take her own life, Violet felt empty and without purpose and now, with this weapon now grafted to her arm, she finally found a sense of purpose.
With the Tactigon she took out villains like the Brothers Grimm, Flying Tiger, and the Needle. This was around the time that Iron Man (Tony Stark) had started the Initiative. As fate would have it, she got her chance to join up when she helped the Mighty Avengers — Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers), Wonder Man (Simon Williams) and Ares — take down Ultimo when the massive robot was rampaging through the city.
She was signed up to the Initiative immediately as Armory and soon she was taken to Camp Hammond to undergo training with MVP (Michael Van Patten), Cloud 9 (Abby Boylen), Hardball (Roger Brokeridge), Komodo (Melati Kusama), and Trauma (Terrance Ward). However, during their first combat training session, Trauma accidentally tapped into her fear of spiders and turned into a massive arachnid. She then started shooting wildly at the creature and as a result, she accidentally killed MVP when he was struck in the head by one of the Tactigon’s blasts. She then concludes her story by saying that the she washed out of the Initiative and the scars on her arms are from when they removed the Tactigon before sending her home.[1]
After hearing all of this, Doctor Burke decides that Violet is making up the story and rejects her request to be treated on an out patient basis. When one of the orderlies comes to escort Lightner out of the room, Burke goes to her phone. She calls Henry Gyrich and tells him that Lightner will be able to keep her secret.
Recurring Characters
Armory, Brothers Grimm, Flying Tiger, Needle, Ultimo, Mighty Avengers (Ms. Marvel, Wonder Man, Ares)
Continuity Notes
The accidental death of MVP happened in Avengers: The Initiative #1.
Be All That You Can Be
Senator Arthur Woodman enters the Healing Hand, a New Age shop in Washington, DC. After giving the clerk the secret passcode he opens a door hidden behind a shelf. Inside the secret room, Woodman changes into a Hydra uniform for a meeting with his fellow operatives. He has come to give them an update on the Initiative recruit known as Hardball.
He tells them that he is a young man named Roger Brockridge, who was raised in a suburb of Los Angeles. Roger’s brother Paul suffered from a serious health condition that is out of the scope of the town doctor. Unfortunately, hiring a specialist was too expensive for the family to afford. Overhearing this, Roger went up to his brother’s room with a gun to put him out of his misery. However, as much as Paul — who experienced a side effect of undergoing to the Power Broker’s strength augmentation process to enter the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation — wanted to die, he told his brother that shooting him probably won’t work.[1] Angry, Roger vowed to get revenge against the person who did this to his brother. While waving his arms around, Brockridge had knocked over a picture frame revealing a business card for the Power Broker taped behind it. Realizing that this is the man who disabled his brother, Roger stormed out of the room to confront the Power Broker directly.
However, when Roger met with the Power Broker, the shrewd businessman convinced him into undergoing a process to get powers of his own. The cost to Roger was 75% of everything he earned using these new abilities. Seeing this as a means of getting Paul the medical treatment he needed, Roger signed a contract and underwent a process that gave him energy generating abilities.
With his new abilities, Roger then took on the name Hardball and began casing an armored car’s delivery routes in order to rob it. On the day of his heist, a young girl wandered into the middle of the street just as Hardball hit the armored truck with his powers, knocking it over. Thinking he did so to save the life of the little girl, he is called a hero. As fate would have it, the hero known as Wonder Man was flying by and, impressed by Hardball’s supposed act of heroism recruited him into the Initiative.
After this, the Power Broker saw an opportunity to sell Roger’s marker to Hydra. Now owning his debt to the Power Broker, Woodman has since used him as a puppet.[2] After successfully pulling off an operation for them, Arthur intends to go forward with his next step: Fully recruiting Roger into Hydra![3]
Recurring Characters
Hardball, Hydra (Arthur Woodman), Power Broker, Wonder Man
Continuity Notes
The UCWF was notorious for using the Power Broker’s strength augmentation process. See Thing #28-36 for an in-depth look into this phenomenon. One possible side effect of the Power Broker process causes the subject to grow muscles so big they become complete immobilized. This first happened to Curtiss Jackson, the original Power Broker in Captain America #361-364.
Arthur Woodman manipulated Roger into stealing a SPIN bullet — nano-tech that is used to nullify the powers of superhumans — from Camp Hammond. See Avengers: The Initiative #4.
Woodman’s recruitment of Roger will be successful in Avengers: The Initiative Special #1.
Born to Serve
Following the death of MVP during a training exercise, Baron Bon Blitzschlag has been tasked with learning the secrets of his peak human condition. Writing a report to Henry Gyrich, his hopes of finding out if he somehow has the Super Soldier Serum in his blood. Having played a part in the creation of Master Man and Warrior Woman and familiar with the process that created Captain America, Blitzschlag does a comprehensive examination of the boy’s corpse.[1] This autopsy reveals that Michael Van Patrick was an ordinary human being. To find out the secret, Blitzschlag tires another tact.
He creates a series of clones of Michael Van Patrick, and awakens one of them. He tells “Michael” that he is a clone and shows him around the lab. Among the things the clone sees is the Taskmaster going over footage of Spider-Man in action. This is being done so that he can train other clones into imitating the wall-crawler’s fighting style.[2] When Blitzschlag reports back to Yellowjacket (Hank Pym)[3], he is uneasy about using clones again after the Thor debacle.[4] Still, the Baron believes the boy can be of use to them.
They take the clone of Michael back to the Van Patrick family farm where they speak with his “father”, Brian Van Patrick. When they asks how Michael has managed to in peak human condition, Brian tells them that it wasn’t because of the Super Soldier Serum. He reminds them that the actual formula was lost after the creation of Captain America after his ancestor, Abraham Erskine was assassinated by a Nazi spy.[5] Brian goes on to tell them that prior to creating the formula, Erskine had developed a natural means of achieving the same results with a unique diet and exercise regiment. When Brian’s wife became pregnant with their son, he started raising the boy under this process and that Michael’s athletic prowess is a result of strict adherence to the process. Realizing that they won’t be able to feasibly recreate this process in acceptable timeframes, Blitzschlag and Yellowjacket leave the clone with Brian and return to Camp Hammond.
Concluding his report to Gyrich, Blitzschlag completes his next option for recreating MVP and completes the creation of a trio of clones dubbed the Scarlet Spiders.
Recurring Characters
Baron Von Blitzschlag, Michael Van Patten (corpse and clone), “Yellowjacket”, Taskmaster, Brian Van Patrick, Scarlet Spiders, Thor clone
Continuity Notes
All of these super soldiers abilities were created by or derived by the formula created by Abraham Erskine. Captain America (Steve Rogers) was the only person who obtained the pure formula in Captain America Comics #1. Erskine’s formula was lost shortly thereafter when he was killed by a Nazi spy. The original Master Man was given a derivative in Giant-Size Invaders #1, while Warrior Woman was given a similar treatment in Invaders #19. MVP, per Avengers: The Initiative #2, displays peak human abilities and is, incidentally, a descendant of Erskine. As an aside, Marvel has yet to explain how Blitzschlag could still be alive in the Modern Age as of this writing (July, 2024). I have provided a theory in my index for Avengers: The Initiative #2.
These clones will go on to become the Scarlet Spiders, as we saw in Avengers: The Initiative #3.
This is not the real Hank Pym, but a Skrull impostor as explained in Mighty Avengers #15.
They are referring to a clone of Thor that was used in Civil War #4-5.
The Baron recalls that the Nazi spy who killed Erskine was named Heinz. His last name was revealed to be Krueger in Captain America #109.
Topical References
On the flight to the Van Patrick home, Baron Von Blitzschlag entertains himself by reading the 1976 novel The Boys from Brazil. Written by author Ira Levin, it follows the story of a Nazi hunter who discovers that Dr. Josef Mengela fled to Brazil after Germany lost the war and had created clones of Adolf Hitler. It was adapted into film in 1978. Give the fact that Blitzschlag is characterized as a former Nazi scientist himself, this should be considered a factual reference as making this reference topical would change the context of his amusement.
Brian Van Patrick refers to Abraham Erskine as his grandfather and Michael’s great-grandfather. As the Sliding Timescale pushes the Modern Age forward, the number of years between World War II and the Modern Age will continue to grow. This will eventually make it impossible for the Van Patrick’s to be that sort of relation to Erskine without drastically aging the characters. As such, their generational lineage should be considered topical here. Modern readers should instead interpret the Van Patrick’s as being direct descendants of Erskine, but nothing quite so specific as being grand or great-grandchildren.
State of Readiness
At Camp Hammond, a superior gets a report about the newest Initiative team, the Liberteens, from their leader the Revolutionary. He reports that the Philadelphia based team had defended the Liberty Bell from destruction by Flag-Smasher and his terrorist group, ULTIMATUM. Using team work the group — consisting of the pliable 2-D, winged Blue Eagle, diamond hard Hope, ice generating Iceberg, the invulnerable Ms. America, and the speedster known as Whiz Kid — they quickly foil Flag-Smasher’s plot.[1] This victory was met with great praise from the media.[2] The team then went back to base to celebrate, with Revolutionary reminding them of the morality clause they have to abide by.
Concluding their report, Revolutionary drops their disguise revealing that they are actually a Skrull spy. He reports back to his commander — also a Skrull — saying that nobody is wise to the fact that they have infiltrated the Liberteens and they can move forward with their plot to plant more spies within every team in the 50-State Initiative![3]
Recurring Characters
Liberteens (Revolutionary, 2-D, Blue Eagle, Hope, Iceberg, Ms. America, Whiz Kid), ULTIMATUM (Flag-Smasher), Criti Noll (unnamed)
Continuity Notes
Here, the Liberteens state that they are named after the Liberty Legion, a team of heroes from World War II that were first formed in Marvel Premiere #29. Revolutionary is based on the Patriot, 2-D is inspired by the Thin Man, Blue Eagle by the Red Raven, Hope after the Blue Diamond, Iceberg from Jack Frost, Whiz Kid is named after the Whizzer, and Ms. America is obviously named after the original.
Revolutionary warns his teammates not to get them booted out for immoral acts like the team in California. He is referring to the Order, first formed in Civil War #6. On one of their first missions, the Order got in trouble by getting publicly drunk as seen in The Order (vol. 2) #1.
This, obviously, is a lead up to the events of Secret Invasion #1-8. The Skrull spies within the Initiative will be dealt exposed over the course of Avengers: The Initiative #14-19.
Secret Invasion Reading Order
New Avengers #31, Mighty Avengers #7, New Avengers #34, New Avengers: Illuminati (vol. 2) #5, Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #25, 26, 27, Secret Invasion: Prologue #1, Secret Invasion #1, Mighty Avengers #12, New Avengers #40, Secret Invasion #2, Mighty Avengers #13, Captain Britain and MI-13 #1, Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #1, Mighty Avengers #14, Incredible Hercules #117, New Avengers #41, Secret Invasion #3, Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust? #1, Captain Britain and MI-13 #2, Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #2, Incredible Hercules #118, Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers #1, Avengers: The Initiative #14, Mighty Avengers #15, Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #28, New Avengers #42, Secret Invasion: Front Line #1, Captain Britain and MI-13 #3, Secret Invasion #4, Mighty Avengers #16, X-Factor (vol. 3) #33, Incredible Hercules #119, New Warriors (vol. 4) #14, Avengers: The Initiative #15, She-Hulk (vol. 2) #31, New Avengers #43, Thunderbolts #122, Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #3, Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #29, Black Panther (vol. 4) #39, Secret Invasion: Front Line #2, Secret Invasion: X-Men #1, Secret Invasion: Inhumans #1, Secret Invasion: Thor #1, Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers #2, Captain Britain and MI-13 #4, Secret Invasion #5, Guardians of the Galaxy (vol. 2) #4, X-Factor (vol. 3) #34, Incredible Hercules #120, Secret Invasion: Amazing Spider-Man #1, New Warriors (vol. 4) #15, Nova (vol. 4) #16, Avengers: The Initiative #16, Mighty Avengers #17, She-Hulk (vol. 2) #32, Black Panther (vol. 4) #40, New Avengers #44, Thunderbolts #123, Secret Invasion: Front Line #3, Deadpool (vol. 4) #1, Secret Invasion: Inhumans #2, Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers #3, Secret Invasion #6, Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #30, Secret Invasion: Thor #2, Guardians of the Galaxy (vol. 2) #5, Mighty Avengers #18, War Machine: Weapon of SHIELD #33, Deadpool (vol. 4) #2, Secret Invasion: Amazing Spider-Man #2, Nova (vol. 4) #17, Avengers: The Initiative #17, She-Hulk (vol. 2) #33, Black Panther (vol. 4) #41, New Avengers #45, Thunderbolts #124, Deadpool (vol. 4) #3, Secret Invasion: Inhumans #3, Secret Invasion: Front Line #4, Guardians of the Galaxy (vol. 2) #6, Mighty Avengers #19, War Machine: Weapon of SHIELD #34, Secret Invasion: Amazing Spider-Man #3, Secret Invasion #7, New Avengers #46, Thunderbolts #125, Secret Invasion: X-Men #3, Secret Invasion: Thor #3, Nova (vol. 4) #18, Avengers: The Initiative #18, Punisher: War Journal (vol. 2) #25, War Machine: Weapon of SHIELD #35, Secret Invasion: X-Men #4, Secret Invasion: Inhumans #4, Secret Invasion: Front Line #5, Secret Invasion #8, New Avengers #47, Secret Invasion: Dark Reign #1, Avengers: The Initiative #19