New Avengers #16
The Collective, Part 1
A massive source of energy streaks down to Earth from space. It ultimately strikes the town of North Pole, Alaska. The discharge is powerful enough to wipe out the entire town. However, there is one survivor, a lone man who emerges from the rubble of the post office. Glowing with energy he lets off a thundering scream.[1]
Meanwhile, aboard the SHIELD helicarrier, Director Maria Hill is put in touch with Tony Stark, aka Iron Man. She expresses her displeasure that he publicly revealed his New Avengers without consulting her first.[2] Tony insists that there was no time to run it by her. However, this wasn’t the reason for her call. She wants Tony to tell her what the House of M is. Stark plays dumb, but Hill works for the largest spy agency on Earth and knows a few things. Specifically, how the New Avengers and the X-Men were recorded flying to Genosha not very long ago. Then, suddenly, shortly thereafter it was like the mutant gene ceased to exist turning the mutant race into an endangered species overnight. She also has a prisoner named Eileen Harshaw who has been sitting in her padded cell repeating the phrase “House of M” over and over again.[3][4] Stark plays dumb, saying that they merely went on a vacation to Genosha because Spider-Man hadn’t been there before. When Hill presses him for the truth, he terminates the call.
Before she can call him back, a red alert is sounded prompting her to head into the helicarrier’s situation room to find out what’s going on. Her staff informs her of the strange energy signature that struck and annihilated the city of North Pole and how a powerful being is being tracked as he walks south through the state of Alaska. She orders the President of the United States to be informed. SHIELD fighters are also scrambled to that location. The commander of the unit gives them visuals on their target who is giving off some kind of energy wave from the his body. Even more bizarre is the fact that he seems to be running and flying inches off the ground at the same time. That’s when the strange man notices he is being followed and looks directly at the squadron, even though they are 22 miles in the air. Seconds later, the signal cuts out as the SHIELD fighter squad is annihilated.
The entity quickly crosses the boarder into Canada, and it is recommended to Hill that they alert a team of superheroes to deal with the threat. However, she refuses to call in the New Avengers and asks who else is available.[5] Ultimately, they are able to get in touch with Canada’s super team known as Alpha Flight. The team — consisting of Guardian (James Hudson), Vindicator (Heather McNeil), Shaman (Michael Twoyoungmen), Sasquatch (Walter Langkowski), Major Mapleleaf (Louise Sadler, Jr.) and both Pucks (Eugene Judd and his daughter Zuzha Yu) quickly deploy to confront the entity in the Northwest Territories. The entity seemingly kills them all in the blink of an eye and continues on.[6]
As the entity speeds his way across western Canada and into New York State, Maria Hill speaks to the President of the United States over the phone. When the President demands that Hill get someone with the knowhow to deal with this threat, she tells him that the Fantastic Four are currently unavailable. She tries to skirt around who to contact until the Commander-in-Chief demands that she get in touch with the Avengers. Realizing that she has no other choice, she tells her staff to get in touch with the team before cursing under her breath.
Recurring Characters
SHIELD (Maria Hill), The Collective, Tony Stark, Alpha Fight (Guardian, Vindicator, Shaman, Sasquatch, Puck (Judd), Puck (Yu), Major Maple Leaf
Continuity Notes
The identity of this man and what he is called is slow burned through out this story arc (I hate it when they do that, can we just do this shit in a single issue?) His first name is revealed to be Michael next issue, in issue #18 his last name is identified as Pointer. They start referring to him as the Collective in issue #19. Get it? Got it? Good.
The New Avengers were formed back in New Avengers #2. While they kept a low profile, the sudden appearance of the Sentry’s Watchtower on the roof of Stark Tower in issue #10 forced them to make a public announcement, as we saw last issue. At the time of this story, the general public had believed the Avengers to have disbanded following the events of Avengers #500-503/Avengers: Finale #1.
The House of M is the general term for when the Scarlet Witch used her powers to warp reality, turning the world into one where mutants were the dominant species on Earth. When Earth’s heroes remembered their true reality and confronted her she eventually realized it was a mistake and restored reality to normal. Believing mutants were the problem, she depowered nearly the entire population and prevented new ones from being born. Those involved decided to keep this all a secret to protect the few remaining mutants from reprisals. See House of M #1-8 and Decimation: House of M - The Day After #1. This will remain the status quo until Avengers vs. X-Men #12.
Eileen Henshaw is the mutant terrorist known as Phantazia, who first appeared in X-Force #6. Her real name was revealed in X-Men Unlimited #2. This story states that she was depowered following M-Day, this will be her status quo until she appears again (powers restored) in Dark X-Men (vol. 2) #1.
SHIELD tries to contact the Fantastic Four with no success. That’s because, at the time of this story, the team is pre-occupied with stopping the Hulk’s rampage through Las Vegas. See Fantastic Four #534-535.
The appearance and apparent death of Alpha Flight is a bit confusing given the status of each of the characters here prior to this issue.
Part of the confusion stems from the fact that Guardian, Vindicator, Shaman, and the original Puck all left Earth on a mission to return members of the Plodex race back to their home world following the events of Alpha Flight (vol. 3) #1-6. This was presumed to take a long time and so they left Sasquatch and his team of new recruits to defend Canada in their absence.
Further complicating things was that — shortly after this — Sasquatch’s team got involved in a case involving the time traveling mutant known as Flashback and they ended up creating a time paradox where the OG team members were pulled forward in time and made part of the current roster, as seen in Alpha Flight (vol. 3) #9-12.
Chaos War: Alpha Flight #1, stands to clarify the matter: Between Alpha Flight (vol. 3) #12 and this issue, the Alphans who went into space came back to Earth. There is no explanation as to what happened to their time displaced counterparts from the past, but the presumption is that they returned to wherever they came from because (as of this writing in April, 2024) they have not been seen again.
That all said most of the characters who seemingly died here will be seen again:
Sasquatch is revealed to be the lone survivor of this attack in Civil War: The Initiative #1.
Guardian, Vindicator, Shaman, and Puck (Eugene Judd) are all resurrected in Chaos War: Alpha Flight #1.
For whatever reason, Major Mapleleaf and other Puck (Zuzha Yu) remain among the deceased time of this writing in April, 2024.
Topical References
Although unseen and not mentioned by name, the language and affectation used by the President of the United States in this issue is patterned after George W. Bush, who was the Commander-in-Chief when this comic was published in 2006. Bush finished up his second term as President in 2009. As such, the implied references should be considered topical.
