The Real Thing

The Initiative’s Desert Stars — Two-Gun Kid (Matt Hawk), Komodo (Melati Kusama), Johnny Cool, and Supermax — and the Heavy Hitters — Gravity (Greg Willis), Hardball (Roger Brokeridge), Nonstop, and Telemetry) — have teamed up to defend Hoover Dam from the energy monster known as Zzzax.[1] However, despite Two-Gun taking command, the two teams keep on tripping over one another.

That’s when Komodo comes up with an idea and puts herself in harms way of Zzzax. However, before the monster can train her mental energies, Hardball uses his powers to create a sphere of energy inside Zzzax. With great concentration he makes the orb expand until it disrupts Zzzax’s energy form, causing the monster to dissipate, ending its threat.[2] In the aftermath of the battle, everyone congratulates Hardball and Komodo for their victory. While the two go off to have a private moment together, both Nonstop and Telemetry envy the two for finding each other. What they once thought was mere infatuation has turned out to be true love.[3]

That evening, Roger and Melati return to his room at the Heavy Hitters Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. She can barely believe that the team operates out of a public building, but Roger explains that it is part of the Vegas experience. While alone, Melati reverts back to her human form, something that she only does for Roger as she is ashamed of being a double amputee and how people feel sorry for her condition. Roger understands, and begins telling her about how his brother, Paul, is in a similar situation. He underwent the Power Broker’s strength augmentation process to become a professional wrestler in the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation. Although he became the world champion, ultimately he was stricken with a side effect of the process that caused his muscles to grow to the point where he could not move, confining him to his bed.[4]

He understands how Melati feels because people can’t look past his brother’s disability and know the real him. Melati is touched by this admission, but wonders why he didn’t tell her about it before. Roger, clearly hiding something, tells her that he doesn’t know. Suddenly, Roger decides to go out and get something to eat that isn’t the hotel’s room service and suits up. He promises to make it quick and to bring Melati back some chocolate.

Once outside, Roger starts beating up on himself for not telling her the whole truth. He is then surrounded by fans and women who throw themselves at him. He tells them that he is already spoken for, but one of the women whispers “Hail Hydra” in his ear and tells him to enter the limo parked at the curb. Inside is Senator Arthur Woodman, who is secretly a member of the terrorist organization known as Hydra. He has a new mission for Roger, he wants him to learn the secret of Curt Connor’s Lizard Formula, the very thing that gives Komodo her powers. Brockridge refuses to use his girlfriend like that. Roger is then reminded that if the truth about his past betrayals could land him in the Negative Zone prison for the rest of his life. However, Woodman provides an incentive for Roger to do this job: Hydra will heal his brother and make him whole again.[5]

Roger then goes and buys some chocolates and returns to his hotel room to give them to Melati. He decides to use this as an opportunity to manipulate her into talking about how she got Connor’s formula. Melati explains that six weeks after she got her driver’s license she got into an accident while driving too fast, resulting in the loss of her legs. Due to her disability, she had a lot of alone time to focus on her studies, and after high school she got a full scholarship at Empire State University where she worked under Curt Connors. She did this because Connors was famous for creating the formula that first turned him into the Lizard, as well as the creation of other regenerative menaces such as Stegron the Dinosaur Man and the Freak.[6] She decided to focus on perfecting the formula so that she could take it herself, but without any of the dangerous side effects.

The revised formula turned her into Komodo and allowed her to regrow her legs while in her lizard form. This upset Connors, but he was still impressed with her work. Although her version was specific to Melati’s unique DNA, it was a breakthrough in finding a practical use for its regenerative properties. Still, Connors wanted to make sure that she used her new powers responsibly and convinced her to join the Initiative. At Roger’s pressing, she tells him that samples of the formula are kept in Connor’s labs in both New York and Los Angeles. Seeing that she is upset by telling him all of this, Roger comforts Melati, but feels incredibly guilty about pressing her to reveal painful parts of her past for the sake of Hydra.

The following morning as Nonstop returns Komodo to Arizona, Hardball convinces Gravity to let him return home to Los Angeles, making up a story about his parents being sick. Greg buys the story and lets him use one of the Heavy Hitter’s sky-cycles to get there as quickly as possible. When Roger returns home he finds his mother crying on the couch. His parents tell him that Paul is fine, but a doctor came by and told them that he has a way to cure his Paul. Hearing this, Roger tells his parents that he’ll be back later.

That evening, he breaks into California University and is caught red handed by Komodo. He realizes that she lied to him because there is no samples of the Lizard Formula here either. Melati isn’t concerned about this, since she is convinced that he had only been using her all this time to get his hands on the formula. That’s when Roger comes clean and tells her how he has been roped in by Hydra and that securing the formula will get his brother cured of his condition. He tells her that he kept it all a secret because he didn’t want to drag her into the mess his life has become. Melati appears to be understanding and tells Roger to go home to be with his family, promising him she’ll have the formula for him tomorrow. However, once she is alone she calls someone on her cell phone and asks them how they’d like to take down Hydra.

When Hardball returns to Las Vegas, he has another limo meeting with Arthur Woodman to hand over the formula. However, before he agrees to follow through on curing Paul, he wants to test the formula out on a Hydra agent sitting in the car with them. After the injection, the Hydra foot-soldier explodes in a torrent of blood and gore. Seconds later, Komodo and the Heavy Hitters launch their sting, making Roger realize that Melati must have ratted him out. Woodman, not wanting to get arrested injects himself with the formula. Rather than exploding, he is transformed into a massive lizard creature.

At first, Hardball attacks Komodo over her betrayal, however she convinces him to think about their future together. Roger then uses his powers to trap Melati and the Heavy Hitters in energy spheres. When Woodman orders him to kill all the heroes, he turns on his blackmailer instead. Encasing Arthur in a massive energy sphere, Roger then contracts it until Woodman is seemingly crushed to death.[7] Melati thanks Roger for doing the right thing and promises to stand by him while he deals with the fallout from his betrayal to the Initiative.

However, Roger refuses to surrender as he is in over his head. He also doesn’t want to drag Melati into his mess and so he convinces the remaining Hydra agents to get him out of there. Once Roger is out of range, the energy balls that contained Gravity and the others dissipates. When Greg asks Melati if she’ll be ok, she tells him that she’ll get over it because she can recover from anything.

Recurring Characters

Desert Stars (Komodo, Two-Gun Kid, Johnny Cool, Supermax), Heavy Hitters (Hardball, Gravity, Nonstop, Telemetry), Scorpion, Zzzax, Hydra (Arthur Woodman), (in flashback) Paul Brockridge, Curt Connors

Continuity Notes

1. Most of the heroes here are not referred to by their real names in this story. THey include Johnny Cool (John Hashimoto), Supermax (Edward Black Wolf) of the Desert Stars as well as Nonstop (Madeline Michaels) and Telemetry (Marina Zane) of the Heavy Hitters. Their real names will be revealed in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #5.

2. This is not the last we see of Zzzax as energy cannot be destroyed. The monster will pop up again in Incredible Hulk #602.

3. Melati and Roger started a relationship in Avengers: The Initiative #8, and have been in a long distance romance since they were assigned to different teams in issue #12.

4. We learned about Melati’s disability in Avengers: The Initiative #8, per issue #1 she got around this by drinking a variation of Curt Connor’s Lizard Formula. We also learned about Paul Brockridge’s condition in Avengers: The Initiative Annual #1.

5. Woodbridge first blackmailed Roger into helping him steal SPIN tech from the Initiative in Avengers: The Initiative #4. Since then, the crooked Senator has been slowly recruiting him for a position in Hydra, as revealed in Avengers: The Initiative Annual #1.

6. Curt Connors first developed his lizard formula in the hopes that it would grow back his lost arm, as seen in Amazing Spider-Man #6. Vincent Stegron used a variation to turn himself into the Dinosaur Man in Marvel Team-Up #19, while the Freak was a drug addict who snorted another variation in Amazing Spider-Man #546.

7. As of this writing (July, 2024), Arthur Woodman is still considered among the deceased.

Topical References

• When Komodo catches Hardball trying to rob Connor’s lab she makes a joke about an article she read in Teen Vogue. This was a fashion magazine geared toward teenaged girls. Its reference here should be considered a topical reference as the magazine ceased publication in in 2017.

• Melati’s cell phone is depicted as a “flip” style phone that were quite common when this comic was published in 2009. However, since the advent of the smart phone these have fallen out of common use. As such, its depiction here should be considered topical.

Fear for Your Life

At Camp Hammond, Trauma — Terrance Ward, the resident councilor — has asked Physique — the base doctor — to help him with a self therapy session on himself.[1] He particularly wants to go over his feelings after his recent return from the dead, as well as the revelation that Thor Girl — the only girl who cared for him — was actually a Skrull spy.[2] After all of this, he worries that his greatest fear — of always being alone, will come true.

He recollects how, back in high school, he was a reject goth kid, who developed a crush on Cindy the popular cheerleader in his grade. One day, Terrence mustered up the guts to try and talk to her only to be rejected. This was when his powers first manifested and he revealed Cindy’s greatest fear: To become overweight and unpopular, leading to Cindy developing an eating disorder to keep thin. This causes Trevor — one of the jocks — to hit Terrence in the face. Unphased by this, Terrence turns into Trevor’s greatest fear next, revealing how he is attracted to his friend Brian and being found out for being gay. While Trevor tries to deny this, Terrence’s friend Rachel gets him out of there.

Hiding in a storage closet, Rachel is amazed by Terrence’s powers and how he can use them to put the elitists in their school in their place. Terrence, however, is terrified about this new power and how he can’t control it. As if on cue, his powers show Rachel that her greatest fear is she will give in to her addiction and start using heroin again until she overdoses and dies. This horrifies Rachel who flees from Terrance in utter horror.

Soon, even his family wasn’t even safe. One day, Terrance inadvertedly turned into his mother’s greatest fear. This frightened her so badly it broke her and she had to be institutionalized. He then became more isolated, pushing his younger brother Billy away so he didn’t accidentally use his powers on him. His father, then started pushing Terrence to join the Initiative in the hopes of learning how to control his abilities. However, he wasn’t interested in joining the super hero army. That was until he activated his father’s own fears, that he was afraid he would have to kill his own son. Both were shocked by this revelation and Terrance agreed to enlist.

Since enlisting, Terrance hasn’t gotten and mail or phone calls from his family. After hearing all of this, Physique points out how being part of the Initiative has greatly helped him. He learned how to use his powers and not only held his own against the Hulk, but learned how to use his abilities to help his fellow recruits process their fears.[3] She concludes by saying she likes Terry very much and since today is his birthday, she suggests that they go to the cafeteria to celebrate.

That evening, at the Greenleaf Clinic in Massachusetts, Terrance’s mother is strapped down for the night. As she mutters incoherently to herself, suddenly a portal opens overhead. From it emerges the dream demon known as Nightmare who have come back after twenty years to learn how his son has developed over the years.[4]

Recurring Characters

Trauma, Physique, Nightmare, Naomi Ward, Jerry Ward

Continuity Notes

1. Trauma mentions how he was taught how to control his fear based shapeshifting powers by Dani Moonstar. This was because he had very little control over his abilities. See Avengers: The Initiative #1-4.

2. Trauma was seemingly killed by KIA in Avengers: The Initiative #9, only to come back from the dead in issue #12. Thor Girl was revealed to be a Skrull infiltrator in Avengers: The Initiative #18.

3. Terrence used his powers against the Hulk in Avengers: The Initiative #5. We also see an instance where he uncontrollably used his powers on Armor, that was back in issue #1.

4. For more on how Nightmare knocked up Terry’s mom, see Avengers: The Initiative #30. Also, that story reveals that his mother and step-father’s name is Jerry, just in case you were wondering.