Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #16

May 11

May 11 Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #16

Ready, A.I.M., Fire, Part 2'

At the office of Sarah Day, publicist for Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers), Sarah has called a meeting with William Wagner. He has been dating her client and she wanted to speak with him about it. She thinks that if the truth about Wagner got out, it would damage her client’s reputation. Showing him the dossier she has on him, he realizes that she isn’t bluffing about knowing the truth. Sarah then tells him that she will keep his secret if he cuts all ties with Carol immediately.[1]

Meanwhile, Ms. Marvel and her Operation: Lightning Storm team have been hunting down members of Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM) to recover a DNA bomb before it can be used. What they ended up finding is a power struggle between AIM leader MODOK and Scientist Supreme Monica Rappaccini. What they don’t know yet is that this conflict has been exacerbated by Sean Madigan, a member of a rouge group that wants to carve up AIM’s organization for their own ends.

In the middle of the fight, MODOK uses his telepathic powers to mind control Wonder Man (Simon Williams) and force him to attack Ms. Marvel. When talking doesn’t work, and violence doesn’t seem to do more than property damage, Carol decides to switch tracks. After the pair come crashing down to the streets of Seattle, she makes the bold move to kiss him. This indeed frees Wonder Man from MODOK’s control but has a few unintended consequences. The immediate one being that a bystander manages to snap a picture on his phone of the two kissing, believing that he will make a fortune selling it. The second is that it makes the sexual tension between the two heroes obvious, leading to an awkward moment before they return to the fight.

Back inside the secret AIM base, the members of Operation: Lightning Storm — Agents Locke, Sum and a team of SHIELD Cape-Killers — are busy fighting with AIM. That’s when the terrorists unleash their Gnashers, genetically modified cannibalistic creatures to deal with the opposition. With a telepathic lock blocking her psi-powers. She radios to the mini-carrier and asks Agent Banes to block AIM’s teleportation tech so they can’t make a hasty retreat.

MODOK needs the DNA Bomb to cure his deteriorating mind and having learned that some of his own men have betrayed them he kills them on the spot. Sean decides to make a run for it only to be caught in the act by Monica Rappaccini. When he tries to teleport away, Sean discovers that it is not working. That’s when MODOK comes crashing through the wall to retrieve the bomb for himself. That’s when MODOK, Madigan and the bomb are somehow teleported away.

With the situation growing more untenable and Ms. Marvel and Wonder Man still MIA, Agent Locke orders Banes to bombard the area with a neural beam. Banes complies with this order even though it will greatly harm Locke due to her telepathic abilities. When the beam is fired, it incapacitates everyone on the scene, including Locke who begins to bleed from her nose and eyes. When Carol and Simon arrive on the scene, they find Agent Sum still standing and beating the crap out of a Gnasher, seemingly unaffected by the neural beam.[2] Monica Rappaccini is still standing when Carol finds Agent Locke, but she soon collapses as well.

A few hours later, Locke is back aboard the mini-carrier where a doctor can get a look at her. He warns her against pulling such a stunt like this again and reminds her that she shouldn’t put herself in combat situations. In the meantime, Wonder Man and Agent Sum search the immediate area for signs of Madigan, MODOK, and the bomb. All they find is the empty casing. Simon tries to look on the positive side, telling Carol that they at least captured the Scientist Supreme. This isn’t good enough for Ms. Marvel who heads to the brig to question their prisoner in the hopes she knows where the escapees went. As she goes, Simon wants to talk about the kiss they shared, but she tells him that it is not the time or the place right now.

When they question Monica, she explains how MODOK and Sean managed to teleport away even though they were supposed to be blocked from doing so. This leads to the possibility that there is a traitor among Operation: Lightning Storm that facilitated their escape. Monica also reveals that MODOK is sick and dying and that Sean Madigan is actually MODOK’s son, hence why he has paid special attention to him. She also outlines how Sean wants to break up AIM into smaller autonomous terrorist cells so they can do more widespread damage.

As all of these startling revelations are being made, Sean is loading the DNA bomb into MODOK’s hoverchair and priming a countdown. Once he has finished his work, he teleports MODOK into the middle of Times Square.

Recurring Characters

Ms. Marvel, Operation Lightning Storm (Agents Banes, Locke, and Dave Sum), Wonder Man, AIM (MODOK, Monica Rappaccini, Sean Madigan), William Wagner, Sarah Day, SHIELD

Continuity Notes

William Wagner entered Carol’s life when she and one of her variants crashed into his restaurant in Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #9. The pair went on two dates by this point in issues #11 and 15. Later, in Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #25, we will learn that Wagner is secretly a Kree sleeper agent.
This is the first hint that we get the Agent Sum is more than an ordinary human. While his exact origins are unknown, Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #26 reveals that he has been alive for centuries having been around as far back as the 13th century.

Topical References

The man who snaps a photo of Ms. Marvel and Wonder Man kissing is using a “flip” style cell phone with physical buttons and a small screen. These types of phones were popular when this comic was published in 2007. However, they have since fallen out of common use due to the advent of the smart phone and are on their way to obsolescence. As such, its depiction here should be considered topical.