Nick Peron

View Original

Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #13

Nick Peron

The Deal, Part 1

Credits

Five Days Ago

Monument Circle in Indianapolis, Indiana is the site of a terrorist attack where 100 victims were killed by some kind of DNA bomb that horribly mutated them before they died. SHIELD Director Iron Man (Tony Stark) brings Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers) to get a good look at the scene.[1] Given the method used, they both agree that this was the word of Advanced Idea Mechanics. Unfortunately, SHIELD has been pre-occupied with other things and have lost track of the rogue scientists. Carol blames this on the Super Human Registration Act (SHRA) shifting SHIELD’s resources to hunting down unregistered superhumans.[2] A law that claimed the life of Captain America.[3] Tony reminders her that she supported the law when she went to capture Julia Carpenter.[4] This angers Carol to the point where she hits Iron Man as hard as she can.

Now

After a bombardment of phone calls, Carol has finally found the time to sit down with her publicist, Sarah Day. The media is having a field day about Ms. Marvel punching Iron Man, but things have gotten even crazier. Tony later invited her to see the new SHIELD Helicarrier he is charge of. At first he acted like nothing happened until he told Carol that he wanted her to become the leader of the new team of Avengers he was putting together.[5] She told him that she needed to sleep on it and discuss it with Sarah, mostly because she had another issue she wanted to discuss with her. The reality is that she doesn’t think she needs Sarah’s services anymore and can’t justify the expense. Sarah insists that Carol still needs her services and that she should find some kind of goal, be it supporting a charity of her choice or writing another book.[6]

Going back home to think this over, she decides to call William Wanger to ask him out on another dinner date. Even though he was kind of put off when their last date was interrupted by a superhero emergency, he looks forward to seeing her again.[7] That’s when Araña (Añya Corazon) stops by while out on patrol. She has been released from the hospital and tells Carol that her spider carapace armor is gone for good, otherwise she is fine. Despite the fact that her father has taken out a restraining order on Carol, Añya came to tell Carol that what happened wasn’t her fault. Still the near-death experience has really affected her and Carol’s attempts don’t do much to assuage her fears of getting hurt again. Unfortunately, Araña has to go before Carol can make things any worse.

Ms. Marvel then goes back to Avengers Tower to talk to Iron Man about his offer again. She admits that she doesn’t understand why he wants her to lead, particularly after she hit him a few days ago. He explains that inviting her to Indiana had two purposes. The first was to see if she could give some fresh insight into what AIM might be planning since she has been encountering them a lot lately. The other was a to test his gut feeling that Carol was the leader he wants for the Avengers. He says she passed the test because she was able to suspect that she hasn’t always made the right decisions, the meeting was an attempt to push her buttons. After a moments consideration, Carol tells Tony that leading the Avengers would be an honor, but it won’t be enough. The reason why she has been making an effort to improve her public image is because she wants to make a difference in the world.[8] She has decided to use her publicist’s advice and demands access to SHIELD’s resources to form a unit to surgically strike at high profile targets. This would be in the off hours outside of her duties as an Avenger.

Later, Deputy Director Maria Hill is on the SHIELD Helicarrier demanding to know where two of her agents, Baines and Locke, are. That’s when Tony Stark contacts her and instructs her to turn on the news. Hill watches a press conference being given by Sarah Day where she announces that her client and a team of highly skilled SHIELD agents just took down an AIM cell in Indiana. This is part of a new unit that Ms. Marvel will be leading called Operation: Lightning Storm.

Soon, Ms. Marvel is set up with a new SHIELD mini-carrier of her own to operate from. As she is showing Wonder Man (Simon Williams) around, they are interrupted by Agent Sum. He has a report on their hunt for Julia Carpenter who escaped from the Negative Zone prison during the big breakout during the civil war.[9] Carol uses this opportunity to introduce the rest of her team: Agent Locke from the SHIELD psy-ops division and Agent Baines from the tech division. She has been keeping tabs on Julia since her escape and SHIELD has been able to track her down to Brooklyn, New York. Carol explains that she wants to try and help Julia after the disaster in Denver and Simon — having been there himself — agrees to lend his support in this effort. However they need to work fast because SHIELD’s psychics detect that Carpenter is brimming with hatred.

At that same moment, Añya Corazon has reported in to work at her job at the Chicken Cow fast food restaurant. Her boss has issues with the bruises on her since she is working the cash register and it will make the company look bad. When he is unwilling to temporarily put her in the back kitchen, Añya has decided she has had enough and quits on the spot. As she storms out she is confronted by Arachne who demands to know where they have taken her daughter!

Recurring Characters

Ms. Marvel, AIM, Operation: Lightning Storm (David Sum, Baines, Locke), SHIELD (Iron Man, Maria Hill), Araña, Sarah Day, William Wagner, Wonder Man, Chewie

Continuity Notes

  1. Here, Tony states his first thought would have been that this was a mutant mass suicide had the mutant gene not been mostly wiped out. He is referring to the after affects of the Scarlet Witch’s reality warp as seen in House of M #8 and Decimation: House of M - The Day After #1. The loss of the mutant gene will remain the status quo until Avengers vs. X-Men #12.

  2. This story follows the events of Civil War #1-7, where the government passed the SHRA requiring all superhumans to register with them. This divided the superhero community in half with Iron Man and Captain America being the leaders of each opposing side. Ultimately, Cap’s side surrendered and he turned himself in.

  3. At the time of this story, everyone believes that Captain America was assassinated when being brought to trail in Captain America (vol. 5) #25. In reality, he was shot with a chronal bullet that now has him trapped in a time loop until he is rescued in Captain America: Reborn #1-6.

  4. Carol gave her full support of the SHRA and was tasked with hunting down Julia Carpenter (aka Arachne, aka Spider-Woman) in Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #6-8. However, she ended up arresting Julia in front of her daughter, Rachel, and this has caused her support to waver.

  5. Some things about this: After the civil war, Tony became the Director of SHIELD, as seen in New Avengers #25. He asked Carol to lead the team of Avengers he is forming in Mighty Avengers #1. Carol also mentions how Tony used to be her sponsor in Alcoholics Anonymous. Starting in Avengers (vol. 3) #4, Carol started drinking as a way of coping with the loss of her cosmic level powers and pressures of being an Avenger. Eventually Tony convinced her she had a problem and that she needed to go to AA, as seen in Iron Man (vol. 3) #25.

  6. As we learned in Ms. Marvel Special #1, Carol once wrote a fictional book about her time as the cosmically powered Binary. Also mentioned her is Carol’s recent battle with William Traveler as seen in Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #4-5.

  7. Carol and William’s date was interrupted when Araña came crashing in with a crisis involving the Doomsday Man, see Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #11-12. Later in this issue, Arña mentions how she lost her spider carapace, that happened in those issues as well.

  8. Ms. Marvel has been trying to be the best hero she can be after her experiences in the House of M reality warp as seen in Giant-Size Ms. Marvel #1.

  9. Captain America’s forces staged a jailbreak at Prison 42, the Negative Zone prison where unregistered superhumans were being kept in Civil War #6-7.

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