The Deal, Part 2

Two Days Ago

Carol Danvers (Ms. Marvel) meets with SHIELD Director Tony Stark (aka Iron Man) to discuss the situation with Julia Carpenter (aka Arachne, aka Spider-Woman). While Julia broke many laws by disobeying of the Super Human Registration Act (SHRA), Carol still doesn’t feel right about how it all went down. As Ms. Marvel, she went to the home of Julia’s parents to apprehend her. This led to a particularly violent arrest where the former Spider-Woman was stunned and arrested in front of her daughter, Rachel. Following Captain America’s prison break near the end of the civil war, Carol figures thoughts of her daughter is all she can think about and is the reason why she is still a fugitive on the run from the law after escaping prison.[1]

Even though Carol has just been set up with a new taskforce called Operation: Lightning Storm, she cannot start their mandate of taking down the worst-of-the-worst until she balances this out. She feels that she needs to do something to make things right for both Julia and her daughter. Tony is convinced to pull some favors so that Carol can do what she feels she needs doing.

Now

However, before Carol can go searching for Arachne, she tracks down Ms. Marvel’s former trainee, Añya Corazon just as she leaves work and demands to know where her daughter is.[2] Añya has no idea where Rachel could be, but Julia doesn’t believe her.

Meanwhile, high above New York, Operation: Lightning Storm’s mini-helicarrier is stationed overhead helping Carol find Arachne. They have pinpointed her location to the Bronx and SHIELD espers warn that she is enraged. This requires swift action but Wonder Man (Simon Williams) suggests another approach to Carol. Rather than confronting her in costume and with a team of SHIELD agents, they change into their street clothes to try and speak with her peacefully. As they zero in on Arachne’s location, Carol realizes that they are getting close to where Añya works. This causes her to transmute her street clothes into her Ms. Marvel costume and speed off. However, when she and Simon arrive at the scene they discover that Añya knocked out Julia all on her own without any help.

At that moment, in Anderson, Indiana, a pair of SHIELD agents have been stationed outside the scene of an Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM) lab that had been busted by Ms. Marvel days earlier. The two agents are incapacitated while their guard is down by two returning AIM scientists. They are on a mission to deliver an important package.

Later, Julia wakes up aboard the mini-carrier with Ms. Marvel sitting by her bedside. Carol insists that she doesn’t want to fight and actually feels bad about what went down and wants to help her find Rachel. Julia isn’t very sympathetic to Danvers’ feelings since Carol was the one who pursued her so aggressively. Julia is under the impression that SHIELD took her daughter away, but Carol insists that after Julia’s arrest, Rachel was handed over to her grandparents immediately. That’s when Julia explains that, when she broke out of prison, she went back to her parents home was empty and up for sale. She assumed that they had all been arrested for helping her out. Carol promises that she will use everything in her power to help Julia find her daughter.

When they exit Carol’s room, they bump into Wonder Man who tries to apologize to Julia as well and gets a frosty reception. They also run into Araña who wants to help even though her father has a restraining order on Carol. They go to the carrier’s situation room where they work with SHIELD Agents Baines, Locke, and Sum. Tracing financial records and scanning with the esper unit they are able to pinpoint Julia’s parents location as being in Ohio and that they can get there within the hour.

A short while later, Walter Cornwall is awoken in the middle of the night by a loud thud that has come out of Rachel’s bedroom. He gets up to check it out and walks in on his daughter’s tearful reunion with Rachel. Walter freaks out and tries to pull Rachel away from her mother, much to Julia’s shock and dismay. Her father says that he is trying to keep Rachel safe after she endangered her by bringing SHIELD to their door. The argument wakes up Walter’s wife Elisabeth who joins the conversation but things continue to escalate to the point where Walter threatens to call the police.

This prompts Arachne to grab her daughter and leap out of the window. Outside are Ms. Marvel, Wonder Man, and Araña. When they hear what’s happening, Carol reminds Julia that her parents have legal custody of her daughter. Julia refuses to bring her daughter back and reminds Carol that she wanted to set things right. Carol reluctantly agrees and they all retreat with Rachel back to the Lightning Storm mini-carrier. One aboard, Julia wants a full pardon and to be granted full custody of her daughter in exchange for joining the team that Tony and the Canadian Prime Minister are working on forming.[3] While this makes up for separating Julia and Rachel, Julia reminds Carol that regardless of that, she will never be forgiven for letting it happen in the first place. This makes Carol look down at the floor in shame.

Back in Anderson, the two AIM scientists search the ruined lab and are able to located another DNA bomb that was hidden in an extra dimensional space. Their leader, MODOK is pleased that they were able to find it and orders them to bring the bomb back directly to him.

Recurring Characters

Ms. Marvel, Operation: Lightning Strike (Agents Baines, Locke, and David Sum), Wonder Man, Araña, Arachne, SHIELD (Tony Stark), Walter Cornwall, Elizabeth Cornwall, Rachel Carpenter, AIM (MODOK)

Continuity Notes

1. This story takes place shortly after the passage of the SHRA and the superhero civil war which took place in Civil War #1-7. The manhunt for Julia and her arrest were chronicled in Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #6-8. She was busted out of prison by Captain America and his team of anti-registration heroes in Civil War #6.

2. Araña became a trainee under the watch of Carol in the same issues that Julia was a fugitive. Not long afterwards, Añya got injured in battle in Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #12 and her father forbade her from being near Carol ever again.

3. The group they are referring to is Omega Flight, which is formed to hunt down American fugitives of the SHRA that have fled into Canada. See Civil War: The Initiative #1 and Omega Flight #1-5.

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