Note: This story flashes back and fourth between Iron Man recruiting the new team and the battle with Ultron. This summation tells both parts of this story in full for the sake of clarity.

Earlier…

Simone Williams (aka Wonder Man) is meeting with his agent who is pitching new roles for his client. He wants Simon to get into reality television. However, Simon wants legitimate acting rolls, but is pressured to chase fame. That’s when Iron Man (Tony Stark) and Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers) arrives and give him a better offer. Seeing them makes him smile.

Inside the Sentry’s Watchtower, Bob Reynolds is having coffee with his wife Lindy. He thinks that he has been reclusive of late and wants to get out into the world and do some good with his powers as the Sentry. Lindy is reluctant to say much, but points out that Bob is referring to the Sentry as a separate person and reminds him what his therapist has told him.[1] When Iron Man and Ms. Marvel show up to recruit him on their new Avengers team, Lindy storms out of the room without another word.[2] Carol admits that she has her reservations with Bob being on the team, that the Sentry scares her. However, she gets him to promise tell her to be transparent about his mental state at all times, even if it means leaving in the middle of a battle.

They next go to recruit the Black Widow (Natasha Romanov) who is in sparring practice on the SHIELD helicarrier. They watch as she takes out four SHIELD agents by herself. When Tony offers her a spot on his new team, she accepts it without hesitation. Lastly, they visit Janet Van Dyne (aka the Wasp) at her fashion business. After rejecting a call from her ex-husband, Hank Pym, Janet agrees to join up with the Avengers again.[3]

Now

The Earth has been plagued with extreme weather and seismic activity all over the globe. In New York, this has forced the Mole Man (Harvey Elder) and his Moloids to attack the surface. The newly formed Mighty Avengers are then deployed to deal with the threat. However, in the middle of the battle, Iron Man’s armor is compromised by Ultron, who transforms his body into a half-flesh, half-metal female form that resembles the Wasp.

As Ultron scans the everyone around them, Carol tries to make sense of what’s going on.[4] That’s when the Mole Man demands to know if Ultron is responsible for the death and destruction in his domain.[5] When Ultron confirms this, Harvey orders his creatures to attack them. Faring that this will also harm Tony, Carol orders the Sentry to step in and stop them. However, Ultron is strong enough to send one of the monsters flying into a building with a single blow.

Deciding that the threat is too big to worry about Stark, Ms. Marvel orders both the Sentry and Ares to attack. However, as they charge at Ultron, the robot summons down a bolt of lightning from the sky that incapacitates both. Deciding that the Mole Man’s creatures an an abomination, it starts eliminating them with powerful energy busts that cause them to melt. Horrified by watches his creatures being slaughtered, Mole Man and the remaining Moloids retreat back to Subterranea.

This show of force convinces Carol that they should try to reason with this entity. While she approaches with the rest of the group, the Black Widow hangs back and gets Ultron in the sights of her rifle, and prepares to shoot at the first sign of trouble. Reasoning with the entity doesn’t work as it goads Ares into attacking by suggesting it likes Thor better. When he tries to strike Ultron down with his axe, it strikes a force field and he is repelled with another bolt of lightning. Seeing that they don’t understand what’s going on, the entity tells them that they’ll soon find out and leaves.

Carol, deciding that they are in over their head, suggests a tactical retreat to figure out their next move. This gains protests from Ares, but he backs down when she pulls rank on him. Janet is certain that there is some connection with whatever is possessing Tony and herself since the entity looks just like her. She is given permission to talk to the entity one-on-one. She asks why it is doing what it is doing, and it responds by saying that it is doing this out of its love for her. This gives Janet everything she needs to know. She goes back to the others and ask them if they know where her ex-husband is, because she is convinced that Ultron’s has returned and it killed Tony Stark to do it.

Recurring Characters

Mighty Avengers (Ms. Marvel, Iron Man, Wasp, Wonder Man, Black Widow, Sentry, Ares), Ultron, Mole Man, Lindy Lee, CLOC, Watchdog, Moloids

Continuity Notes

1. Bob’s been seeing a therapist recently over his mental health issues which has fragmented him into three personalities: His mortal form of Bob Reynolds, the super-powerful Sentry, and his dark half, the Void. At the time of this story, Bob has gotten the Void under control, as seen in Sentry (vol. 2) #1-8. However, this will be short lived as we’ll see in Siege #1-4.

2. Seeing Lindy storm out of the room, Tony thinks to himself that this is the reason why he’ll never get married. I hate to break it to him, but he’ll eventually get married to Emma Frost in Invincible Iron Man (vol. 5) #10. Never say never, I guess.

3. Hank Pym and Janet had been married for years back in Avengers #60. However, years later it ended in divorce when Hank struck her in Avengers #213. The pair have been in an off-again-on-again relationship over the years. Prior to this story, it seemed like they were on again in Avengers (vol. 3) #71. As we’ll learn in Mighty Avengers #15, they are on the outs again. Little does Janet know that the man calling her is a Skrull infiltrator that replaced Hank after their recent break-up. He is trying to “reconnect” with Jan to compromise the Avengers ahead of a planned invasion of Earth. See Secret Invasion #1-8.

4. When scanning Wonder Man, Ultron notes that he was previously on the Avengers West Coast and Force Works. Simon was a founding member of both of these teams as seen in West Coast Avengers #1 and Force Works #1.

5. Here, Ultron notes that he is associated with the Fantastic Four (who he fought way back in Fantastic Four #1) as well as the Infinity Watch (whom he allowed to live on Monster Island from Warlock and the Infinity Watch #7 through 42.

Topical References

• Janet’s assistant is depicted as having a “flip” style phone that has physical buttons. These were quite common when this comic was published in 2007. However, they have since fallen out of popular use thanks to the advent of the smart phone. As such, its depiction here should be considered topical.

The Initiative Reading Order

Civil War: The Initiative #1, Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #13, 14, 15, 16, 17, Thunderbolts #112, 113, 114, 115, Omega Flight #1-5, Moon Knight (vol. 3) #13, Captain America (vol. 5) #26, 27, 28, 29, 30, New Avengers #27, 28, 29, 30, 31, New Warriors (vol. 4) #1-8, Black Panther (vol. 4) #27, 28, 29, 30, Iron Man: Agent of SHIELD #15, 16, 17, 18, Avengers: The Initiative #1, 2, 3, Fantastic Four #547, 548, 549, 550, Punisher: War Journal (vol. 2) #6-11, Mighty Avengers #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Sub-Mariner (vol. 2) #1-6, The Order (vol. 2) 1-4, Penance: Relentless #1, 2, 3, 4, 5