Mighty Avengers #8
This story runs concurrently with the events of New Avengers #36…
Yesterday
The Wasp (Janet Van Dyne) is visited in her studio by her ex-husband, Hank Pym. He hasn’t come to fight, but to give her a belated anniversary gift. He tells her that he was planning on giving it to her before their recent break-up in England. It is an upgrade to her size changing powers, allowing her to grow to giant-size as well as her usual shrinking abilities. Janet thanks Hank, but hopes that she never has to use it.[1][2]
Today
The Mighty Avengers — Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers), Iron Man (Tony Stark), the Wasp, Wonder Man (Simon Williams), the Sentry (Bob Reynolds), Ares, and Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew)[3] — have arrived in Manhattan to quell a riot caused by alien symbiotes. As they fight these alien creatures, they discover that they have bonded to human hosts, making every bystander in the area a savage creature. The scanners in Iron Man’s armor reveal that this is some kind of biological weapon that was unleashed upon the population. The Wasp takes this opportunity to use her new “Giant-Woman” powers to help restrain their attackers, but they are far too many for her to wrangle all at once.
That’s when the Black Widow and Spider-Woman get infected and join the other symbiote hosts. The other Avengers seem unaffected due to their superhuman natures. Iron Man radios back to SHIELD and learns that this symbiote infection has spread across the entire island. He sends orders back to contain Manhattan but not to use lethal force as the symbiotes are bonded to innocent bystanders.
As Wonder Man tries to get the Black Widow to fight back against her symbiote, he’s bowled over by Luke Cage, who is in the area fighting the symbiotes. In fact, his entire outlaw New Avengers — Ronin (Clint Barton), Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Wolverine (Logan), Doctor (Stephen) Strange, Iron Fist (Danny Rand), and Echo (Maya Lopez) — were all there. The bad news is that they have also been infected by symbiotes as well.
As the rest of the group continue trying (and failing) to contain the symbiotes, Iron Man has his computer pull up all records on the symbiotes including all known hosts past and present.[4] Tony then asks to be connected with Mister Fantastic (Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four). Unfortunately, Richards and his team are not home, so Tony has to access the Baxter Building’s lab and symbiote database in person.[5] While Tony tries to develop a means of curing everyone, the rest of the Avengers are still struggling to keep the situation under control. When Janet is possessed by a symbiote, Carol orders the Sentry to handle her.
While working on the symbiote problem, Tony also can’t stop himself from thinking about the Skrull situation. He’s finds himself wondering if the threat is real or not. If it is, the implications are huge. He wonders how long ago this plot was in the works and fears that it might reach back to when he and his fellow Illuminati were briefly prisoners of the Skrull Empire. If that’s the case, he wonders if what is real and what was a Skrull ruse. Everything from the civil war, to Captain America dying, to friends and allies all acting in ways he previously thought impossible.[6] He realizes that this paranoia is getting to him and is relieved when Reed’s computers come up with an antidote so he doesn’t have to think about the broader implications of this secret invasion and focus on the crisis at hand.
After testing the cure on a infected dog, Tony confirms that it is safe. He then loads up with enough of it to restore everyone who was infected. In the aftermath of the battle, Doctor Strange casts a calming spell on the innocent bystanders so they remain calm. During the recovery efforts, both teams of Avengers put aside their differences to get the job done. However, as they are helping people, Iron Man notices that Ronin is his old friend Clint Barton. He is shocked that Clint sided with the renegade New Avengers. However, Barton doesn’t have a lot to say to Tony as he personally blames him for the death of Captain America. Its then that Iron Man’s computers have been able to determine the trajectory of the “Venom Bomb” and he flies off to its point of origin. This leads to a tense moment between both teams, and Carol orders her group to continue helping the bystanders and allows the New Avengers to leave without any trouble.
Meanwhile, Iron Man reaches space and finds that the source of the Venom Bomb was a satellite in orbit. His computers scan it and determine that it belong to the nation of Latveria. Tony is horrified to discover that this was an unprovoked attack by Doctor Doom. He decides that Doom picked the wrong day to attack American soil and gears up his team to bring the Latverian monarch to justice!
Recurring Characters
Mighty Avengers (Ms. Marvel, Iron Man, Wasp, Wonder Man, Black Widow, Sentry, Ares, “Spider-Woman), New Avengers (Ronin, Luke Cage, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Doctor Strange, Iron Fist, Echo), Symbiotes, “Hank Pym”, HERBIE
Continuity Notes
Janet and Hank were married for years, starting in Avengers #60. However, they were divorced after Hank struck her in Avengers #213. The two have been in an on-again-off-again relationship ever since. About their most recent break-up in England….
This is not the real Hank Pym, but a Skrull impostor named Criti Noll. Noll replaced Hank prior to the events of House of M #1. As seen in Mighty Avengers #15, this was not long after Janet left Hank when they were in England. Also, the growth formula given to her here is a trojan horse for the planned Skrull invasion of Earth, as we’ll see in Secret Invasion #1-8 (issue #8 in particular).
This is not the real Jessica Drew but another Skrull infiltrator named Veranke. She took the place of the real Spider-Woman circa Giant-Size Spider-Woman #1 as seen in New Avengers #42.
We get a run down on the various symbiote hosts. The alien race is not mentioned here but they are later identified as the Klyntar in Guardians of the Galaxy (vol. 3) #23. The hosts listed here include:
Venom symbiote hosts:
Spider-Man (Peter Parker): Who first bonded to the Venom symbiote in Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars #8 until he rejected it in Amazing Spider-Man #258.
It then moved onto Eddie Brock, who first appeared as Venom in Amazing Spider-Man #299. He wore the symbiote for years.
She-Venom was Anne Weying, ex-wife of Brock who temporarily possessed the symbiote on two occasions in Venom: Sinner Takes All #2-5 and Venom: Along Came a Spider #2-3.
Wolverine: Yeah, Logan was possessed by the Venom symbiote in Venom #10. However, its later revealed that he was also possessed by the Grendel symbiote in 1965, as told in Web of Venom: Ve’nam #1.
Brock later auctioned the symbiote off to Angelo Fortunato in Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #6, but it abandoned him to death in issue #8 of that series.
It eventually chose Mac Gargan (formerly known as the Scorpion) in Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #10. Mac is the current host at the time of this story.
Carnage symbiote hosts:
Cletus Kasady, the original host to the Carnage symbiote was first bonded to it in Amazing Spider-Man #344. It bares mentioning here that Kasady’s original symbiote was consumed by Venom in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #10 and he is wearing a virtually identical symbiote that he found in the Negative Zone in Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man #14. This story doesn’t make that distinction likely because not many people are aware that Kasady made this switch (including the writers in most cases, but I digress, it has been confirmed in the King in Black Handbook #1 that there is a distinct difference between the two).
John Jameson, son of J. Jonah Jameson, was briefly a host in Amazing Spider-Man #410.
Ben Reilly: The clone of Peter Parker. He was possessed by the Carnage Symbiote in Sensational Spider-Man #3/Amazing Spider-Man #410/Spider-Man #67/Spectacular Spider-Man #233.
The Silver Surfer (Norrin Radd): Yeah, the Silver Surfer got briefly possessed by the Carnage symbiote, that was in Amazing Spider-Man #430-431.
Here it is stated that Cletus Kasady and his Symbiote were potentially killed by the Sentry who flew him into space and ripped him in half. That was in New Avengers #2. However, Clete managed to survive as we’ll see in Carnage #1-5.
Other symbiote hosts listed here are:
Hybrid (Scott Washington): was bonded to four symbiotes at once in Venom: Along Came a Spider #2. Here, it is stated that his current status is unknown. At the time of this story he was last seen in Venom: The Hunted #3. He will turn up again in Venom (vol. 2) #15.
Patricia Robertson: Was bonded to a clone of the Venom symbiote from Venom #10 through 18.
Toxin (Patrick Mulligan): was merged with the Toxin symbiote in Venom vs. Carnage #2. It is stated here that his current status is unknown. Mulligan was last seen in Toxin #6 at the time of this story. It is later revealed in Venom (vol. 2) #12-13 that Mulligan was killed by the demon Blackheart who then stole his symbiote.
Reed examined the Venom symbiote after Spider-Man rejected it, as seen in Amazing Spider-Man #258. The reason why the Fantastic Four aren’t present is because the team is on a time travel adventure to the days of the American Frontier as seen in Fantastic Four #554.
Last issue, “Spider-Woman” brought Tony a Skrull that had been posing as Elektra recently. Lets break it down and the contextless montage of images that we see in Tony’s mind here:
Tony’s fear that the Skrulls set this in motion when they captured the Illuminati is true. As seen in New Avengers: Illuminati (vol. 2) #1, they were captured just after the Kree/Skrull War circa Avengers #89-97. This led to Emperor Dorrek VII to order a new Super Skrull program as we saw in New Avengers #40. It took them years to create their virtually undetectable Super-Skrulls. While he suspects Reed Richards as a Skrull, Reed wasn’t replaced.
The Skrull who replaced Elektra is known as Pagon, as we’ll learn in Mighty Avengers #15 she replaced the real Elektra prior to New Avengers #1. The New Avengers made this discovery in New Avengers #31.
He references the superhero Civil War and Captain America’s opposition and apparent death. The war was over the Super Human Registration Act, a new law required superhumans to register with the government. Captain America was one of the heroes who opposed the SHRA, but eventually surrendered after he realized that the general public supported it, as seen in Civil War #1-7. This law will remain in the books until Siege #4.
At the time of this story, Captain America was seemingly killed by an assassin’s bullet in Captain America (vol. 5) #25. In reality, he was hit with a chronal bullet and is now reliving his life in a loop. He will be freed from this purgatory in Captain America: Reborn #1-6.
He is thinking of Spider-Man, because Peter Parker initially publicly supported the SHRA as seen in Civil War #2. However, he later renounced that support making him an outlaw as seen in issue #5 of that event.
We also see SHIELD Deputy Director Maria Hill, Ares, Ms. Marvel, and Pepper Potts. None of these people are Skrulls.
Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell) is depicted here because was seemingly pulled forward in time in Civil War: The Return #1, allegedly sometime before he died of cancer in Marvel Graphic Novel #1. This is indeed a Skrull spy (named Khn’ner) as revealed in Captain Marvel (vol. 6) #1-6.
Spider-Woman is also a Skrull, but we covered that already.
The Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff) is depicted here because she had gone insane and attacked the OG Avengers leading to their disbandment (Avengers #500-503/Finale #1) and later temporarily warped all reality. Although reality was restored to the status quo it came at the expense of most mutants being de-powered (House of M #1-8). Wanda was not a Skrull.
Hawkeye (Cline Barton) is here because Clint was killed in Avengers #502. He was later resurrected during the House of M. However, he ditched the Hawkeye identity to become the new Ronin as seen in New Avengers #27.
Black Bolt, leader of the Inhumans is also depicted here. He was another member of the Illuminati. He is replaced by a Skrull as seen in New Avengers: Illuminati (vol. 2) #5. He was replaced during the World War Hulk event as explained in Secret Invasion: Inhumans #3.
Topical References
Iron Man’s verbal password to gain access to the Baxter Building’s lab facilities is “Ed O’Neil”. O’Neil is a former NFL football player who was on the Detroit Lions (1974-1979) and the Green Bay Packers (1980). He went on to be coach for various teams in various leagues that I am too lazy to list. He should not be confused with actor Ed O’Neill (with two Ls) of Married… With Children and Modern Family fame. That all said, since O’Neil was long since retired when Tony makes this reference, this wouldn’t necessarily be considered a topical reference. An obscure football player like O’Neil would make for a great password when you think about it.
Spider-Man refers to Doctor Strange’s calming spell as “Magic Lexipro”. Lexipro is a brand name for an anti-depressant called Escitalopram. As such this should be considered a topical reference as this is a real world brand.