New Avengers #4
Breakout!, Part 4
Credits/www.comics.org/issue/235205/
After a massive breakout at the Raft super-max prison, Captain America (Steve Rogers) and Iron Man (Tony Stark) have decided to reform the Avengers.[1] Jessica Drew is the last recruit to show up for the first meeting of the New Avengers.[2] As she arrives, Iron Man (Tony Stark) and Captain America (Steve Rogers) are telling SHIELD Deputy Director Maria Hill that they are reforming the Avengers. Hill is unhappy to hear that the Avengers are getting back together because this hasn’t been sanctioned by the spy agency.[3] That’s when Captain America reminds her that he has a full champion license that allows him to form any team whenever he wants whenever it is needed, without prior permission.[4][5] Stark adds that there are over 40 villains on the loose that got out under SHIELD’s watch and he figured that they’d appreciate the extra help. When Hill says nothing, Iron Man adds that they weren’t calling to get permission. That’s when Maria asks to speak to Captain America in private, which Steve agrees to do.
Soon, Jessica has changed back into her Spider-Woman costume for the first time in years. While they are waiting for Cap, Jessica and Spider-Man (Peter Parker) explain to Luke Cage how they aren’t related other than having similar names.[6] They also wonder what happened to the Sentry (Bob Reynolds) who helped them out during the prison break and hasn’t been seen since.[7] This is as Steve gets off the phone and he tells them that they will be dealing with the Sentry shortly after they complete their first mission. He takes them back to the issue of the jailbreak they all tried to stop and pulls up the records of the over 40 villains who managed to escape.[8] They then go over the footage to figure out who was responsible for the jailbreak in the first place. The footage is blurry, but when they pull up the only clear frame, Spider-Man instantly recognizes the mystery man as his foe Electro, aka Max Dillon.[9] Iron Man then uses his Iron Man technology to scan for any digital footprints left by their assailant and gets a hit in the Boston area.[10]
Going through his records Spider-Woman notes that he is there because of a women. This is based on prison phone records and where he has been eating whenever in the area. It all connects to a waitress named Mia Salem. When asked how they are going to get there, Iron Man takes them to the latest model of the Avengers Quinjet that he had built just prior to the original Avengers disbanding. As they board the plane, Spider-Woman asks if Daredevil (Matt Murdock) will be joining them. Cap tells her that he’s still working on getting DD on the team.[11] As they take to the air, Iron Man promises to teach them all how to fly the Quinjets when they have quiet days.[12]
At that same time, Max Dillon has showed up while Mia Salem is at work. He tells her that they got to go right away. He just made a big score and he wants to take her away from this life of drudgery and tells her they could be living it on a beach in Wakanda. Mia is shocked by Max’s sudden appearance but she soon realizes that he was responsible for the massive jail break in New York the night before. That’s when the New Avengers show up to take him in. However, before Electro can blast them with electricity, he is trapped in an energy sphere that prevents him from causing harm. When they start demanding who hired him, Max says he wants a lawyer. That’s when Luke asks how Spidey used to get Electro to talk. The web-slinger says that he used to web up his hands and hit Dillon until he talked. Cage likes the idea and asks for his fists to be webbed up. However, when Spider-Man does this, Electro faints out of sheer fright before he can start talking. As Spider-Woman calls SHIELD for a prisoner transport, Luke learns that the webbing can’t come off until it dissolves in a couple of hours, much to his chagrin. Jessica then comes up with an idea how they can learn more about Electro’s breakout.
The team then returns to the scene of the crime, where Spider-Woman offers the recaptured inmates a box of donuts in exchange for what they know about Electro. Mister Hyde is the first one to crack, telling Jessica that Electro came specifically to bust out Karl Lykos, aka Sauron. When they go back to the Quinjet, Jessica tries to pull up SHIELD’s file on Lykos only to find that it is classified. Luckily, Spider-Man has dealt with Lykos in the past and can fill them in on the fact that mutant energies turn him into the humanoid pterodactyl known as Sauron.[13] Since Sauron’s regular stomping ground is in the Savage Land, Spider-Woman checks the SHIELD outpost put there and discovers that it has gone offline.[14]
As the approach the Savage Land, a prehistoric jungle existing in the middle of Antarctica, Spider-Man laments how any plane trying to fly in usually crashes. Iron Man boasts that none of the wall-crawlers trips there had him as a pilot. While they do nearly crash, Iron Man manages to get them safely on the ground. However, that doesn’t mean they are safe as — seconds after landing — their ship is trampled by a tyrannosaurus rex. As Iron Man engages the massive dinosaur, he tells everyone to split up and run into the nearby jungle. As Luke and Spider-Woman run for cover, Jessica sarcastically quips that she is glad she signed up with the Avengers. When Luke responds in stunned silence, she asks him what’s wrong. Seconds later she gets the answer as an arm reaches out of the foliage and and puts three Adamantium claws against her throat, the calling card of the X-Men’s Wolverine!
Recurring Characters
New Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Luke Cage, Spider-Man, “Spider-Woman”), Electro, “Edwin Jarvis”, SHIELD (Maria Hill), Mister Hyde, Wolverine
Continuity Notes
This story follows the events of the Avengers Disassembled storyline where the Scarlet Witch went mad and decimated the team. See Avengers #500-503 and Avengers Finale #1. The jailbreak at the Raft happened over the first two issues of this series.
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. Likewise is “Jarvis” a Skrull impostor as well, as we’ll learn in the first issue of Secret Invasion. He replaced the real Jarvis sometime before the start of last issue.
Spider-Man asks where Nick Fury is. Which is odd since he should know that Fury has gone underground following the events of Secret War #1-5. Perhaps he’s acting dumb here.
When Cap makes his comment about having Champion Status, Spidey quips “I am not joining the Champions”. The Champions (of Los Angeles) were a short lived superhero team that was first formed in Champions #1. However, the team was prone to in fighting as well as shoddy equipment and a poorly constructed headquarters leading to the team disbanding. something that Peter saw first hand in Spectacular Spider-Man #17-18.
Peter also takes the time to brag about having clones. One of the more infamous aspects of the web-slingers mythology is the fact that he has been cloned on more than one occasion. The first instance (and longest enduring) is the Spider-Clone who later went on to call himself Ben Reilly, who first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #149.
There is a lot of Spider-Woman lore quipped about between Jessica and Peter in this story:
There is the issue of her name. When Jessica first appeared on the scene in Marvel Spotlight #32 she went by the name Arachne. Shortly thereafter she started calling herself Spider-Woman in Marvel Two-in-One #29.
Jessica claps back that Peter gave her his blessing when they first met, that was in Spider-Woman #20.
Peter then complains about how many other women started calling themselves Spider-Woman. The first was Julia Carpenter (appearing in Marvel Super Hero Secret Wars #6), Mattie Franklin (who started going by Spider-Woman in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #5), and the villainous Charlotte Witter (who also appeared in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #5)
The reason for all of these other Spider-Woman appearing is because Jessica’s powers have been on the blink since Avengers #240-241. For the next few decades Drew’s powers have fluctuated until they were finally restored to their previous level in Giant-Size Spider-Woman #1, only to be swapped out by a Skrull!
As an aside, Jessica asks Peter how his arm is doing. It was broken during the jailbreak as we saw in New Avengers #1.
As we saw in New Avengers #1, the Sentry was locked up in the Raft under his own volition because he believes that he murdered his wife, Lindy Lee. Nobody remembers who the Sentry is because he erased all knowledge of his existence to protect the world from his evil half, the Void. See Sentry #1-5 and Sentry/The Void #1. We’ll catch up with the Sentry (and he not dead wife) in New Avengers #7.
All the profile images of the Raft escapees were taken from various issues of Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Master Edition with the exception of the Armadillo, whose profile image comes from Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Deluxe Edition #1.
Electro has been part of Spider-Man’s rogue’s gallery since his first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #9. Tony asks if his full name is Maxwell, but Spider-Man doesn’t know. It absolutely is.
At the time of this story, Tony Stark’s body has been altered by the Extremis virus, allowing him to connect to any electronic system on Earth, as seen in Iron Man (vol. 4) #1-6. He will retain these abilities until Invincible Iron Man #8.
Jessica almost says Murdock’s real name out loud. At the time of this story, Murdock’s double identity was leaked to the press in Daredevil (vol. 2) #32. Everyone in the room knows that Murdock is Daredevil, so one can assume that Jessica is stopping herself from saying his name out of professional courtesy. Cap offered Murdock a spot on the Avengers in New Avengers #3, but was turned down.
Here, Spider-Man jokes about not having a quiet day since he was 11 years old. He is likely referring to the fact that he has been Spider-Man since he was a teenager, as seen in Amazing Fantasy #15. Saying that he was eleven was the web-slinger being hyperbolic. Per Civil War #2, he was 15 when he first became Spider-Man. Making him about 26 at the time of this story per the Sliding Timescale. That’s still a long time.
Spider-Man knows about Sauron because the two crossed paths in Marvel Fanfare #1-4. Here, Peter calls Sauron a mutant, but that is not correct. His powers (somehow) derived from being bitten by pterodactyls from the Savage Land, as revealed in X-Men #59-61. Peter is likely mistaken due to the fact that Lykos needs mutant life energies to transform in to Sauron and his frequent clashes with the X-Men as a result. At best, Sauron is a mutate as opposed to a mutant.
When learning that they are going to the Savage Land, Spider-Man says he needs to call his wife. He is referring to Mary Jane Watson, whom he had been married to since Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21. However, since this story, their marriage was erased from existence as seen in Amazing Spider-Man #545. In the new timeline, Peter and Mary Jane are engaged but never married during this period, per Amazing Spider-Man #638-639. In this new version of reality, one could assume that Peter instead calls Mary Jane his girlfriend or partner as opposed to wife.
Topical References
Mia Salem is stated as working at the Brown Derby. This is a real world chain of restaurants, however so far as I can tell they never opened a spot in Boston. That said, if this is a reference to the real world chain, this would be considered a topical reference.
Spider-Woman specifically offers them Entenmann’s Donuts, this is another real world brand and should be considered topical.
Spider-Man states that Lykos does this whole “Jurassic Park” think when he turns into Sauron. This is in reference to the media franchise based on the 1990 science fiction novel by Michael Crichton. It is a cautionary tale about cloning and genetic engineering wherein the ability to revive the dinosaurs to be used in an amusement part backfires spectacularly. It has spawned a second book as well as a movie franchise of six films (time of this writing in 2024). Given that the novel has since become a modern classic, this wouldn’t necessarily be a topical reference. I suppose once there is a new dinosaur related media phenomenon that could change.
