The Collective, Part 2

The New Avengers — Captain America (Steve Rogers), Iron Man (Tony Stark), Spider-Man (Peter Parker),[1] Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew),[2] and Wolverine (Logan) — have arrived at the hang out of some drug dealers in a bad part of Detroit.[3] Their appearance scares off the dealers and also catches the attention of a local news team. When they approach Captain America with questions, he directs them to his teammate, Luke Cage for comment. Cage is not happy about it, but he tells the news crew that he was inspired by how crime is dealt with in New York City.

He explains that the mayor there increases police visibility in high crime areas. What that does is convinces those who are breaking the law to leave the area. After a few weeks, the police presence is moved to the next block and so on. What Cage noticed was that not only did crime go down in the affected areas, but they stayed down because the crooks feared that the cops might come back at any time. Cage then goes on to say that when Captain America first asked him to join the New Avengers he wanted to do something more than fighting supervillains. He says that the team will now be showing up and just standing around to scare criminals away. He is also using this tactic to embarrass the powers that be to do something about the problem. To illustrate his point, he shows the news crew that an abandoned house next to an elementary school is being used as a crack house. He hopes that the attention the media is bringing today will press the city of Detroit to do something about that. While Luke is talking to the media, both Cap and Iron Man are pleased with how great Luke is at public relations.

Things are cut short when the Avengers suddenly get an emergency alert. As soon as their Quinjet is in the air the team is put in contact with Maria Hill, the Director of SHIELD. She tells them that a strange entity seemingly of unknown origin had touched down in the town of North Pole, Alaska, destroying the entire village. The being has since been making their way south and already killed Alpha Flight, Canada’s super team.[4] Since that encounter, the entity has been making their way down south and is currently crossing the Great Lakes and will arrive in Cleveland in moments. With lives at risk, the Avengers begin putting out calls to anyone who can help them out. Wolverine can’t get ahold of the X-Men, and isn’t surprised since mutants have been keeping a low profile since the House of M. They do manage to get ahold of Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers) who races to their location. Cap asks that Hill send Agent Daisy Johnson. She is reluctant to do so but agrees on Steve’s insistence.[5]

Lastly, Steve calls Lindy Lee at the Watchtower and asks if her husband, the Sentry (Bob Reynolds) can help them out. Unfortunately, Bob isn’t having a good mental health day and is curled up in bed.[6] While Steve is busy trying to coax the Sentry to get out of bed, Iron Man tells Spider-Man that he will be going to the SHIELD helicarrier and using his seldom used scientific background to try and figure out a way to stop this entity without civilian casualties.

Iron Man then leaves the Quinjet to make first contact with the creature. Still connected with Maria Hill, Tony scans the creature and reports that its energy signature doesn’t match any used by known alien races. Landing on the ground, Iron Man gets the entity to stop and tries to talk to it. It tells Tony its name is Michael, but before he can get him to explain why he is there, the entity is attacked by Ms. Marvel.[7] When Iron Man races after them, Michael unleashes a power blast that repels them and the Quinjet. Ms. Marvel ends up crash landing on the highway to Toledo. When she gets up from the crash she is shocked to discover that her Binary powers have returned![8]

Recurring Characters

New Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Luke Cage, “Spider-Woman”, Wolverine, Sentry), Ms. Marvel, The Collective, SHIELD (Maria Hill)

Continuity Notes

1. This issue marks the first issue of New Avengers where Spider-Man is sporting his “Iron Spider” costume. This suit of armor was built by Tony Stark in Amazing Spider-Man #529 in an effort to make Peter a more effective crime fighter. Peter will continue to wear this armor until Civil War #5.

2. The woman who appears to be Spider-Woman in this story is actually a Skrull spy named Veranke, as will be revealed in Secret Invasion #3. As per New Avengers #42, she swapped places with the real Jessica Drew circa Giant-Size Spider-Woman #1 in order to infiltrate SHIELD and (later) the Avengers head of a Skrull invasion of Earth.

3. Someone spraypainted “The 198 will rise again” on the wall. This is in reference to the 198 known mutants who retained their powers after the mutant gene was mostly wiped out by the Scarlet Witch in House of M #8. See Decimation: The House of M - The Day After #1 and X-Men: The 198 #1-5.

4. This all happened last issue. We’ll learn that the entity’s full name is Michale Pointer next issue and in issue #19 he’ll be dubbed the Collective. Alpha Flight was seemingly wiped out last issue as well. We’ll learn that Sasquatch survived in Civil War: The Initiative #1. Guardian, Vindicator, Shaman and Puck (Eugene Judd) will be resurrected in Chaos War: Alpha Flight #1. As of this writing (April, 2024) Major Mapleleaf and Puck (Zuzha Yu) are still considered among the deceased. Wolverine is particularly upset about this because, he has a long association with the group as first revealed in X-Men #109. Alpha Flight Special (vol. 2) #1, would later go on to reveal that Logan helped found the team back in the day.

5. It is mentioned here that Daisy is a Nick Fury loyalist that was involved in Fury’s illegal coup of Latveria. When this secret mission was exposed, Fury went into hiding. See Secret War #1-5.

6. The Sentry has a history of mental health problems that stem from childhood trauma and drug abuse which manifests in the form of an entity called the Void. At the time of this story, Reynolds had recently broke a mental illusion that made everyone forget about him. For more on this and the Sentry’s mental health see Sentry #1-5, Sentry/The Void #1, New Avengers #7-10, and Sentry (vol. 2) #1-8.

7. Iron Man asks if this entity is Michael Korvac. It is note (as I stated above). Korvac, first seen in Giant-Size Defenders #3, was a cyborg from the 31st century of Reality-691. The Avengers once fought him when he obtained god-like powers as seen in Avengers #167-177.

8. Carol obtained cosmic level powers after she was experimented upon by the Brood back in Uncanny X-Men #163. These powers eventually faded by to her normal levels by Avengers (vol. 3) #4. The return of these Binary powers will prove short lived, as she will be back to her usual levels by the end of next issue.

Topical References

• The New Avengers are interviewed by reports who identify themselves as being from CBS News. This should be considered a topical reference because CBS is a real world TV network.