Breakout!, Part 1

The Avengers have been attacked by one of their own, leaving many dead and their mansion destroyed. Without the financial capital to keep the operation running, the team was forced to disband. This was six months ago…[1]

Max Dillon, aka Electro, is behind hired on a job by a mysterious employer.[2] After discussing what he is being hired for and his price, Max asks his employer if he should wear his costume or not. They say it is entirely up to him, so Dillon decides to do this job in his Electro outfit.

Later, a helicopter lands on the Raft, a maximum security penitentiary off Ryker’s Island which houses convicted super-villains. On board is lawyer Matt Murdock (aka Daredevil), his partner Foggy Nelson, and their bodyguard, Luke Cage.[3] When the disembark from the chopper they are greeted by SHIELD Agent Jessica Drew, formerly known as Spider-Woman.[4] Foggy is scared shitless about being on the Raft, but the others manage to coax him to get out. Soon, Jessica has taken them down to the lower levels. As the pass by various cells she gives Murdock and his companions a rundown of everyone that is currently incarcerated there. Luke is particularly interested in known if the Purple Man (Zebadiah Killgrave) is held there. Despite the fact that Killgrave is drugged to keep him in check, Luke gives him a dirty look through the two way monitors.[5]

As they go deeper (below sea level) into the facility, Jessica also assures Foggy that all of the security measures in place will absolutely prevent anyone from breaking out. When they reach the holding cells for the most dangerous criminals she says billions of dollars have been put into the facility. That’s when the power suddenly goes out. At first, Jessica assures them that one of the many redundancies in place will kick in the back-up generator. However, when this doesn’t happen, Drew realizes that the situation is a lot more serious than a minor black out. It’s not even just the Raft, either, it is the entire city of New York that loses power. Seconds later, a massive jolt of electricity blasts open the side of the prison.

In the city, Peter Parker is about to spend the evening with the love of his life, Mary Jane Watson. She manages to talk him into watching a romantic comedy. That’s when the power goes out and they see the explosion from Rykers. Mary Jane tells Peter he should go out as Spider-Man, but when she turns to tell him, he has already changed and is web-slinging that way. As he gets close to the water, the wall-crawler remembers he’s going to need someway to get across to Rykers. As fate would have it, a helicopter zooms past on its way there. Spider-Man hitches a ride on the chopper, but it is soon struck with a bolt of electricity, causing it to crash. Spider-Man manages to dive into the water at the shore of the island. As he climbs out of the water, he is helped up by Captain America (Steve Rogers) who survived the helicopter crash. When he asks Spider-Man what’s going on, the web-slinger insists that he doesn’t know anything.

Inside, Electro has breached the holding cells and uses his electrical powers to free everyone from their cells. As a literal army of super-villlans begin coming out of their cells, Dillon tells them that they all owe him big time for springing them all.

While down in the lower levels, Murdock tells Jessica that they’re going to need the help of the inmate he came to see. Drew doesn’t know who this Robert Reynolds character is. Murdock explains that he was asked to see this man on behalf of Reed Richards. Inside the cell they find the Sentry, a hero nobody remembers. When Jessica asks why he is locked up in the Raft, Murdock explains that Reynolds had killed his wife.[6]

Recurring Characters

Captain America, Spider-Man, “Spider-Woman”, Luke Cage, Daredevil, Sentry, Electro, Mary Jane Watson, Foggy Nelson, “Elektra” (unidentified), Armadillo, Barbarus, Blood Brother, Blackout, Brother Grimm, Bushwacker, Centurious, Controller, Grey Gargoyle, Griffin, Jigsaw, Mandrill, Mister Fear, Molecule Man, Purple Man, Scarecrowm Shockwave, Slug, Typhoid Mary, U-Foes (Vector, Vapor, X-Ray, Ironclad), Vermin, Zzzax, SHIELD

Continuity Notes

1. In the Avengers Disassembled storyline the team was attacked by the Scarlet Witch. She caused so much damage that the team was forced to disband. See Avengers #500-503 and Avengers Finale #1.

2. This unidentified person is later revealed to be a Skrull posing as Elektra during a period where the impostor was running the ninja cult known as the Hand. See Mighty Avengers #16.

3. At the time of this story, Luke Cage has been hired to be bodyguard for Matt Murdock after his double identity was leaked to the public in Daredevil (vol. 2) #32. Murdock has been denying these allegations and having Cage as his bodyguard helps sells the idea that Matt is an ordinary blind lawyer with no superpowers.

4. This is now the real Jessica Drew but another Skrull infiltrator named Veranke, who has taken her place. As we’ll learn in Secret Invasion #3. New Avengers #40 will explained that Veranke swapped places with Drew circa Giant-Size Spider-Woman #1.

5. The reason why Luke is interested in Killgrave is the fact that he terrorized, raped, and manipulated Luke’s then girlfriend, Jessica Jones. See Alias #22-28 for the whole sordid affair.

6. The Sentry is a hero that has been around since the early days of the Modern Age. However, due to the threat posed by the Void — his darker half — he has forced the world to forget all about him. See Sentry #1-5, Sentry/Fantastic Four #1, Sentry/Hulk #1, Sentry/Spider-Man #1, Sentry/X-Men #1, Sentry/The Void #1. Although it is stated here that Sentry’s wife — Lindy Lee — is dead, this is only what the Sentry believes this to be true. We’ll discover that Lindy is alive and well in New Avengers #7.

Topical References

• The introduction to this issue states that the Avengers disbanded six months prior to the main story. Avengers #503 was published in December, 2004, while this story was published in January, 2005. This could be considered a factual reference rather than a topical one. See below for more information.

• Mary Jane wants to watch a romantic comedy starring British actor Hugh Grant. At the time of publication (2005), Grant was best known for his roles in such films as Notting Hill and Bridget Jones’ Diary. This is topical as Grant is a real world actor and a more contemporary example can be used.

The Six Month Gap

Although Avengers #503 and New Avengers #1 were published a month apart, the narrative of this story states that six months have passed. Typically, when we are computing the Sliding Timescale, there is a general 4:1 rule happening that, until this point, was fairly easy to navigate on an issue-to-issue basis to get a general idea of how much time had passed. In this case, we do not have that kind of liberty. So how can we justify the passage of time between two stories published so closely together and not contradict that Sliding Timescale?

Well we look at all of the stories that were published around these two issues that take place in between them. Taking a look at the chronologies of the most popular characters in this title (as per the Official Marvel Indexes for Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man and X-Men and also comparing to the Marvel Chronology Project) we can see that a lot of stories are published between this period.

Captain America alone appears in Captain America (vol. 4) #30-32, Captain America and the Falcon #9-14, Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #11-12, Spectacular Spider-Man (vol. 2) #15-20, Captain America (vol. 5) #1-14, New Invaders #7-9, Wolverine (vol. 3) #23-25, Young Avengers #1-6, Secret War #1-5 and various single issue appearances. Over 50 appearances in all. You could easily say that all of these events happened over the course of six months easily.

Conversely, trying to make this all fit in a strict 4:1 ratio it condenses time 6 months to 1.5 months. Which one could argue is too short a time for all of the stories that take place in between Avengers #503 and New Avengers #1.

This is a case where you have to allow the Sliding Timescale some plasticity. It is a general ruler, not an absolute measurement of time.