New Avengers #29 — Nick Peron

Mar 22

Mar 22 New Avengers #29

Revolution, Part 3

Now

The New Avengers — Luke Cage, Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Wolverine (Logan), Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew),[1] Iron Fist (Danny Rand), Doctor (Stephen) Strange, and Ronin — have come to Japan to rescue Echo (Maya Lopez) from the Hand.[2] Seeking refuge from the Silver Samurai (Keniuchio Harada) at the Yoshida Fortress in Osaka. Unfortuantely, the Hand — led by Elektra — have followed them back and are looking to kill them all.[3] As the New Avengers prepare for battle, Spider-Man wishes they could go back to dealing with Brother Voodoo (Jericho Drumm)…

Yesterday

The New Avengers had gone to the Raft to investigate if Captain America (Steve Rogers) was truly alive. Upon arriving they discovered that it was all a trap set up by Iron Man (Tony Stark)’s Avengers — The Wasp (Janet Van Dyne), Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers), Wonder Man (Simon Williams), the Black Widow (Natasha Romanov), Ares, and the Sentry (Bob Reynolds.[4] They are then surrounded by an army of SHIELD Cape-Killers and a power dampening device is flipped on. In order to give his teammates time to recover, Doctor Strange casts a spell that makes Tony’s team see their greatest fears. The Sentry is haunted with images of the Void killing his wife, Lindy. For Wonder Man it is the image of his brother, the Grim Reaper. Ms. Marvel is terrorized by the aliens known as the Brood. While Ares is chastised by his father, Zeus. The Wasp is hassled by an image of her ex-husband, Yellowjacket. The Black Widow is similarly haunted by the Crimson Dynamo, who accuses her of being a traitor to her native Russia. Lastly. Iron Man is visited by the image of an undead Captain America.[5] The team quickly snaps out of it and discover that the outlaw Avengers have escaped thanks to Doctor Strange.

Moments after the New Avengers return to the Sanctum Sanctorum, Iron Man’s team arrives outside. They don’t buy the idea that Strange sold his home base and that it is going to be the future location of a coffee shop and make an excuse to go inside. However, Stephen has cast a spell that makes him and the New Avengers invisible to anyone who enters the building without saying the right magic word. Unconvinced that the outlaws are still hiding somehow, Iron Man has his armor do a full environmental scan and it turns up nothing. As everyone leaves the seemingly empty building, Tony does turn for one last fleeting look but catches nothing. Once they are all gone, the New Avengers decide to split up for the evening and agree to meet up later.

The following morning, Iron Man’s Avengers show up at the Rand Corporation to confront Danny Rand for his activities as Iron Fist. Danny denies the accusation, saying that he was working at his office all day. He suggests that it was some kind of impostor, reminding them that there have been three people posing as Daredevil recently.[6] That’s when Danny’s lawyer, Jeryn Hogarth, speaks up. He tells Stark that Danny is already registered as a lethal weapon and that his need to sign up under the Super Human Registration Act is being appealed in court. Hogarth then asks Tony to provide proof that his client broke into a SHIELD facility the night before. Iron Man uses his armor to make a holographic projection of the security footage showing Iron Fist among the New Avengers that evening. Hogarth then threatens to have Tony’s technology and all of their records subpoenaed and tied up in court for a lot longer than he will be Director of SHIELD. Seeing that they are going to get nowhere, the Avengers leave, but not before Ms. Marvel tries to get Danny to convince Luke and Jessica to register as they are putting their baby at risk.[7]

After they are gone, Jeryn begins scheming to release their recordings of this confrontation to the media in an effort to make Stark look bad. Danny vetos this idea, saying that they won’t do such a thing. That’s when his secretary pages Rand to tell him that Dakota North has come on behalf of the law offices of Nelson and Murdock. North has come with an important package that arrived at her office for Matt Murdock. Unfortunately, Matt is away on other business and has asked that it be brought to Danny.[8] Inside, Rand finds Echo’s Ronin costume and her letter to Murdock telling him of everything that has been going down in Japan. Danny soon calls a meeting of the New Avengers to tell them what is going on and that’s how they ended up agreeing to go to Japan to rescue her. However, Wolverine warns them that things are done differently in that country and that they better be ready to fight dirty or they might as well stay home.

That’s when Doctor Strange suddenly tells them to be quiet because he senses an approaching presence. This is Brother Voodoo, who has been tasked by SHIELD to investigate the Sanctum Sanctorum and use his magical skills to try and see if the New Avengers are hiding there. While Voodoo begins a magical ritual, Doctor Strange tells everyone to remain calm while he handles this….

Now

As the New Avengers prepare for battle, Luke Cage catches Elektra’s sword in his hand. She can’t cut him thanks to his durable skin and he tries to reason with her. He tells her that the New Avengers are now criminals in the eyes of the law and that. Given the circumstances it would benefit both sides to talk things out criminal to criminal!

Recurring Characters

New Avengers (Luke Cage, Spider-Man, Wolverine, “Spider-Woman”, Echo, Ronin, Iron Fist, Doctor Strange), The Hand (“Elektra”), Silver Samurai, Jessica Jones, Dani Cage (unnamed), Wong, Mighty Avengers (Iron Man, Wasp, Black Widow, Wonder Man, Ms. Marvel, Ares, Sentry), Jeryn Hogarth, Dakota North, Brother Voodoo, SHIELD (Maria Hill)

Continuity Notes

The woman who appears to be Spider-Woman is actually a Skrull spy named Veranke, as will be revealed in Secret Invasion #3. Per New Avengers #42, she took the place of the real Jessica Drew circa Giant-Size Spider-Woman #1.
Echo was stationed in Japan under the Ronin guise to keep tabs on the Asian underworld in New Avengers #11-13. She was exposed in issue #27 and the New Avengers have been trying to rescue her ever since.
Elektra is also another Skrull spy, this one named Pagon, as we’ll discover in New Avengers #31. Per Mighty Avengers #16, she took the place of the real Elektra prior to New Avengers #1.
This story takes place after Civil War #1-7 which saw the passage of the Super Human Registration Act, making all of the New Avengers outlaws for not registering with the government. Additionally, Captain America was seemingly killed in Captain America (vol. 5) #25. The team was tricked into investigating if Cap was alive after a bogus tip was given to Spider-Woman in Civil War: The Initiative #1. Cap’s death will prove to be short lived as he will be brought back in Captain America: Reborn #1-6.
There are a lot of references on display, some of them deep cuts. Others not so much. The dilly:
- The Sentry has always been haunted by the Void, his dark half since Sentry #1. The fear that the Void killed his wife was very real to Bob very recently. See New Avengers #7-10.
- Simon William’s brother Eric is the criminal Grim Reaper and he first appeared in Avengers #52.
- The reason why Carol Danvers is seeing the Brood is because she was once experimented upon by them in Uncanny X-Men #163.
- Zeus — as per Greek mythology — is the father of Ares. As demonstrated in Ares #1-5, Zeus only called upon his son when the Olympians required bloody retribution against their enemies.
- Yellowjacket shoving the Wasp is harkening back to the time that Hank struck her, leading to the end of their marriage. See Avengers #213 for the cringy tale.
- For much of her life, the Black Widow was a Russian spy until she defected from her homeland in Avengers #30. The appearance of the Crimson Dynamo is kind of ironic because her first recorded mission during the Modern Age was to go after Anton Vanko — the original Crimson Dynamo — who had defected to work for Tony Stark. See Tales of Suspense #52.
Danny’s not wrong about there being three Daredevils. See back in Daredevil (vol. 2) #32, Matt Murdock had his double life leaked to the newspaper. This led to Murdock ultimately getting arrested and spending time in prison as seen in Daredevil (vol. 2) #76-87. To try and trick the public that he and Daredevil were two different people, Matt had others pose as Daredevil while he was in the clink. One was Iron Fist, as we saw in Civil War: Choosing Sides #1.
Jessica and Luke’s baby is unnamed in this story because they haven’t decided on one yet. Unnamed here, Jessica and Luke named her Danielle “Dani” Cage in New Avengers #34.
At the time of this story, Daredevil is travelling the globe investigating the alleged murder of his law partner, Foggy Nelson. See Daredevil (vol. 2) #89-93.

Topical References

There is a banner hanging outside of Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum that says that it is the future location of a new Starbucks location. This should be considered topical as this is a real world brand.
Jessica Jones is reading an biography about comedian Andy Kaufman. Specifically, she is talking about an episode of Saturday Night Live from May 15, 1982. It was from a sketch where he gets in the ring with professional wrestler Jerry Lawler. Kaufman actually got injured, putting him in a neck brace. They kept the bit in. Since she is reading a biography on Kaufman this wouldn’t be considered a topical reference.