Revolution, Part 4

Yesterday

After breaking into a SHIELD facility to find out if Captain America (Steve Rogers) was truly dead,[1] the New Avengers — Luke Cage, Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Wolverine (Logan), Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew),[2] Iron Fist (Danny Rand), and Doctor (Stephen) Strange — have their headquarters searched. This is being done by Iron Man (Tony Stark)’s Avengers — the Wasp (Janet Van Dyne), Wonder Man (Simon Williams), Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers), Ares, and the Sentry (Bob Reynolds) — with the help of Brother Voodoo (Jericho Drumm). Drumm enters Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum and uses his power over voodoo to try and determine if Stephen is using some kind of spell to mask the presence of the New Avengers.

There is a tense moment where Doctor Strange counters Brother Voodoo’s spell. This stresses out Luke Cage’s wife, Jessica Jones, who wants to get their newborn daughter to safety before a fight breaks out.[3] Luckily, Stephen is able to rebuff Jericho’s spells and the voodoo master comes out empty handed. While the rest of Iron Man’s Avengers head back to base, Tony decides to remain behind for a moment. He walks inside and talks to his former allies directly because he knows they are hiding inside the Sanctum somehow. He tries to appeal to them all by telling them to just give up and register with the government so they can stop living as fugitives. It is the right thing to do after they lost the recent superhero civil war.[4] When nothing happens, Iron Man leaves the scene.

When the coast is clear, Doctor Strange drops his cloaking spell and Peter Parker asks the others what they are trying to accomplish. Luke says that they are going to help people on their own terms without government interference. Spidey understands this, but wonders how long they are going to be living like this because it really sucks.[5] Luke reminds everyone that the New Avengers were first came together during a prison break at the Raft. It was then they discovered rogue elements in SHIELD trying to illegally mine Vibranium in the Savage Land. They also learned that there was something rotten in Hydra. This all happened around the same time that Nick Fury went AWOL.[6] He believes that these and the civil war are all connected in some way and that they have to remain on the run in order to expose whoever is behind this massive conspiracy and why. He tells the others that if any of them want to leave to join up with Tony Stark, they are welcome to do so.

While there are still so many unanswered questions and they can’t be sure there is some kind of conspiracy, Logan reminds them that they have to rescue Maya Lopez. They all agree that this is what they need to do, if only to get out of the United States for a little while.[7]

That’s when the team is in for another surprise when Doctor Strange sense someone else outside their hideout. Conjuring a spell so they can get a good look, they are shocked to see that it is Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye. The other New Avengers think that this is some kind of trick since they believe that Barton is dead. However, Stephen assures them that this is the real Barton and they let him back inside. Stephen asks Clint if he was successful in finding the Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff). When Barton says he did not, Logan can tell he is lying about something. All Clint will say that what he did find won’t help anyone even though Wanda has a lot to answer for.[8]

Once this is all out of the way, Clint asks the team what they are doing. When they explain that they are going to Japan to rescue a friend there is debate on if they should have Clint come along with them.[9] Luke is against the idea because he isn’t sure they can trust him even if Clint has no love for Tony Stark or the registration act. In order to prove that everyone has the best of intentions, Doctor Strange casts the Spell of Tartashi on the group and it determines that everyone in the room can be trusted.[10] The group then agrees to take Clint with them. However, when he tells them that he is not Hawkeye anymore, the team decides to have him suit up as the Ronin instead.

Now

After rescuing Echo from the Hand, the team finds themselves in a clash with this clan of ninja assassins at the Yoshida Fortress in Osaka. With the Hand is their leader, the assassin known as Elektra.[11] Given their outlaw status, Luke has just offered the possibility of working together. Luke says that all they want to do is recover Maya Lopez and return to America and that fighting over her gains neither side anything. He also asks Elektra if she knows anything about the conspiracy they are dealing with. Elektra claims to know nothing about it, and Wolverine warns Cage to stop playing around.

Incidentally, Cage was merely trying to buy them time to recover from their last brawl. Unfortunately, things don’t go as planned when Echo suddenly wakes up. One of the Hand ninjas then tosses her a sword and she plunges it into Doctor Strange’s chest. This causes another fight to break out between the New Avengers and the ninjas. As the battle intensifies, Echo approaches Elektra and is welcomed as a member of the Hand!

Recurring Characters

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

Continuity Notes

1. At the time of this story, Steve Rogers was seemingly killed in Captain America (vol. 5) #25. In reality, he was hit with a chronal bullet that sent him through time to relive his life over and over again. He will be freed from this purgatory in Captain America: Reborn #1-6.

2. The woman who appears to be Jessica Drew here is actually a Skrull spy named Veranke as will be revealed in Secret Invasion #3. Per New Avengers #42, she switched places with the real Jessica Drew in Giant-Size Spider-Woman #1.

3. At the time of this story, the baby is unnamed because Luke and Jess haven’t decided on one for her yet. Unnamed here, Jessica and Luke named her Danielle “Dani” Cage in New Avengers #34.

4. This story comes on the heels of the Civil War event where the US government passed the Super Human Registration Act (SHRA) which forces superhumans to register with the government. Many in the New Avengers joined Captain America in rebelling against this law and ultimately lost, as told primarily in Civil War #1-7. This law will remain in the books until Siege #1-4.

5. Spider-Man specifically says being an outlaw sucks worse than fighting Typeface. Typeface is a typewriter themed vigilante that he first faced in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #23.

6. The New Avengers were formed, tried to stop a prison break and discovered SHIELD’s illegal mining in New Avengers #1-6. Later, they discovered that Hydra was also compromised in New Avengers #11-13. Nick Fury went AWOL after it was revealed that he staged an illegal military operation in Latveria, as seen in Secret War #1-5. Luke is correct to suspect that this is all by design as all of these events were being orchestrated behind the scenes by the Skrulls ahead of their invasion of Earth. See Secret Invasion #1-8.

7. Here, Spider-Man states that he needs to tell his wife that he is going to Japan. He is referring to Mary Jane Watson, whom Peter has been married to since Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21. However, in Amazing Spider-Man #545, their marriage will be erased from existence. In the new timeline, Peter and Mary Jane are only engaged and have been in a long term relationship this entire time. As such, Peter would likely refer to Mary Jane as his girlfriend, or fiancée or something to that effect.

8. This whole bit is a really huge thing. So lets get into it:

   • In the recent past, the Scarlet Witch went batshit crazy and attacked her fellow Avengers. This wrecked Avengers Mansion and cost the lives of some of her teammates, including Hawkeye. See Avengers #500-503.

   • Later, Wanda used her powers to alter reality, turning Earth into a world where mutants were the dominant culture. Among all the things that were changed, Hawkeye found himself brought back to life. Earth’s heroes then confronted Wanda and forced her to change things back, as per House of M #1-8.

   • However, in doing so she also eliminated the x-gene from the human gene pool and depowered nearly all of Earth’s mutants, making them an endangered species as we found out in Decimation: The House of M - The Day After #1.

   • Clint also found himself alive again and went to look for Wanda, as seen in New Avengers #26. What he found was a woman who had no memory of her past and he decided to leave her be out of fear that making her remember would only make things worse. Wanda will be living this life until Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #5.

9. There are some casual references made during this discussion they are:

   • Clint pointing out that Spider-Woman was once considered dead. That isn’t entirely accurate. In reality, the world was made to forget her existence in Spider-Woman #50. However that magic spell didn’t really last very long and ultimately in order to survive Jessica had to give up her powers in Avengers #240-241. Her powers would come back in fits and starts until she was recruited by Hydra who offered to give her back her powers in Giant-Size Spider-Woman #1. We all know what happened next.

   • Clint also talks about how Peter fucked up his life. He is referring to how Parker revealed his identity to the world in Civil War #2 when he was a supporter of the SHRA. He ended up regretting that and defected to the anti-registration side in Civil War #5. Luckily for Peter, he gets that genie back in the bottle following the events if Amazing Spider-Man #545. In the new timeline, Peter gets the aid of Doctor Strange who casts a spell to make everyone forget Peter Parker was also Spider-Man, as seen in Amazing Spider-Man #641.

   • Clint asks if the team are a new group of Defenders. This is a reasonable question since Doctor Strange was a founding member and long standing member of that group dating back to Marvel Feature #1. Clint even had a brief stint on that team from Defenders #7-11.

10. The reason why Strange’s spell cannot detect that Spider-Woman is a Skrull is thanks to an incident in the past following the Kree/Skrull War (Avengers #89-97). This led to the formation of the Illuminati, a group of heroes that would meet in secret to discuss how to best deal with global threats. Strange was a member. One of their first missions was to confront the ruler of the Skrull Empire and warn them against invading Earth again. This led to them being captured and examined. Thanks to the information they uncovered, the Skrulls were able to make themselves virtually undetectable. See New Avengers: Illuminati #1 and (vol. 2) #1.

11. This is not the real Elektra but yet another Skrull spy as we’ll learn next issue. Her name is Pagon and per Mighty Avengers #16, she infiltrated the Hand just prior to New Avengers #1.

Topical References

• A banner outside Doctor Strange’s Sanctum states that it is the future location of a new Starbucks. This is a real world brand and its reference should be considered topical.

• Clint refers to Iron Man’s Avengers team as “corporate Muppet Babies”. The Muppet Babies was an animated spin-off of The Muppet Show, a variety comedy series starring puppets created by Jim Hansen. In the cartoon, the Muppets were all babies living in a nursery and had adventures using their powers of imagination as well as stock footage from popular movies of the time. Something like this would normally be considered a topical reference except for the fact that Disney owns both Marvel Comics and the Muppets. As such, this would now be considered a form of brand synergy.

The Initiative Reading Order

Civil War: The Initiative #1, Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #13, 14, 15, 16, 17, Thunderbolts #112, 113, 114, 115, Omega Flight #1-5, Moon Knight (vol. 3) #13, Captain America (vol. 5) #26, 27, 28, 29, 30, New Avengers #27, 28, 29, 30, 31, New Warriors (vol. 4) #1-8, Black Panther (vol. 4) #27, 28, 29, 30, Iron Man: Agent of SHIELD #15, 16, 17, 18, Avengers: The Initiative #1, 2, 3, Fantastic Four #547, 548, 549, 550, Punisher: War Journal (vol. 2) #6-11, Mighty Avengers #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Sub-Mariner (vol. 2) #1-6, The Order (vol. 2) 1-4, Penance: Relentless #1, 2, 3, 4, 5