New Avengers Annual #1
Happily Ever After
A Few Months Ago
Yelena Belova wakes up in a hospital after being horribly burned by Sauron during a mission in the Savage Land.[1] She is then approached by a Hydra agent named Connelly. He shows her footage of an old Avengers foe called the Adaptoid.[2] He has hired scientists from Advanced Idea Mechanics to give Yelena these same powers, which will allow her to change into her pre-burned state. In exchange, he wants her to get revenge on the New Avengers. He also says that while Spider-Woman is an asset of theirs, accidents happen. Seeing that she has no choice in the matter, Belova tearfully accepts the offer.
Now
Jessica Jones arrives at Avengers Tower with her newborn child in hand. She is furious at her boyfriend (and the baby’s father) Luke Cage for leaving her to handle the baby alone.[4] Present are the entire team of New Avengers — Captain America (Steve Rogers), Iron Man (Tony Stark), Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew), Wolverine (Logan), and the Sentry (Bob Reynolds) — as well as the Avengers’ butler Jarvis,[5] Peter’s Aunt May, his partner Mary Jane Watson, and the Sentry’s wife Lindy Lee. While the women fawn over the new baby, Jessica parks it on the couch and is given a glass of water by Jarvis. When looks goes to check and see if Jessica is ok, she surprises him by saying she accepts his earlier proposal to get married.[6] Luke is so excited he loudly tells everyone else, and Jessica is heaped with even more praise that she was not expecting nor comfortable with.[7]
Meanwhile, Tony Stark, Captain America, and the Sentry go down to the street to meet with the Mayor of New York City to give him a tour of Avengers Tower. This is to assuage the city’s concerns about the sudden appearance of the Sentry’s Watchtower on the roof.[8] That’s when Tony spots someone in the crowd that he things he recognizes. When he tries to get a good look he discover that they’re in big trouble.
Back upstairs, Jessica Jones has called her mother to tell her that she accepted Luke’s proposal. Everyone rushes to the window after hearing a boom from down on the street. They get there in time to watch the Sentry fall from 36 floors. The rest of the team quickly scramble out the window.
On the grown, Yelena Belova had used her new Adaptoid powers to mimic the Sentry’s powers and is taken away by the power. When Ms. Marvel confronts her, she mimics Carol’s powers as well. Realizing what they are up against, Marvel tries to tell the others to stay back. Unfortunately they don’t listen, allowing Belova to mimic all of their powers as well and knock them all away with a single blow. She then starts chasing after Captain America, who has commandeered a car to try and get the mayor to safety. Cap hopes that his driving is better than the Adaptoid’s ability to fly. He wins that bet when he makes a sharp turn, causing Yelena to slam into the side of a building.
This has slowed her down long enough for the Sentry to recover and confront her, and he’s mad. He begins battling Yelena in the air, but all this does is allow her to fully adapt his powers. She then strikes Bob with a powerful blow that sends him crashing to the ground again. This time, his fellow Avengers are there to break his fall. Ms. Marvel then rejoins the fight, hoping that her ability to absorb energy will level the playing field. By the time Tony Stark arrives in his Iron Man armor, Carol is swatted away. When Tony mentions that he fought the original Adaptoid, Spider-Man quickly comes up with a way to turn this Adaptoids power on her. This gives Tony inspiration and he tells the rest of the team to keep her busy while he goes back to Avengers Tower.[9][10]
Eventually, Iron Man returns and shoots the Adaptoid from behind. When she retaliates, she discovers that he hasn’t come alone. In fact, Tony has brought along autonimous versions of all of his previous suits of Iron Man armor to help him out.[11] While dog piling her with multiple suits of armor works at first, the Adaptoid fights them off. However, her powers begin causing her agony. The Sentry confronts her and tells her that his powers take a lot of experience to control and that by absorbing them, she has also absorbed his dark half, the Void.[12] The Sentry tells her that if she surrenders and gives up who sent her after them, he will help her control the Void.
Before she can confirm that it is Hydra, Conolly — who has been watching through a video feed — orders the AIM scientists to pull the plug. Within second, a molecular destruct sequent is activated that seemingly kills Yelena before she can name her employers. Iron Man is frustrated and begins grilling Spider-Woman about this due to her work as a double agent spying for Hydra.[13] Jessica insists that she didn’t know anything about it and Iron Man flies off in anger. When Steve tries to apologize for him, Spider-Woman knows Tony meant what he said.
Soon, this tense moment is forgotten as the wedding of Luke Cage and Jessica Jones is quickly organizes. While exchanging their vows, Jessica goes off script and tells Luke that she made this decision to marry him because they are so much better together than they are apart. She is inspired by him and no longer fears facing the villains that are constantly knocking at the door. More importantly, she points to their daughter, whom they made together. When she is done, the priest finalizes the wedding and the couple kiss. Shortly thereafter, Luke and Jessica take a wedding portrait with all their friends in the New Avengers.[14]
Recurring Characters
New Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Luke Cage, “Spider-Woman”, Wolverine, Sentry), Jessica Jones, Hydra (Connelly, Adaptoid), Lindy Lee, “Edwin Jarvis”, Aunt May, Mary Jane Watson, Dani Cage (unnamed), Misty Knight, Alisa Jones, Mr. Jones, Foggy Nelson, Jeryn Hogarth, (in flashback) AIM
Continuity Notes
Yelena got the Freddy Krueger treatment from Sauron in New Avengers #6. That said, this might not be the real Yelena Belova. New Avengers #41 reveals that the SHIELD agents she was working with were actually Skrulls. While never definitively proven, the Yelena Belova we see here is likely a Skrull impostor as well. This is due to the fact that Belova is seemingly killed at the end of this issue she will reappear alive and well (with no powers or burns) in Marvel Comics Presents (vol. 2) #5. That appearance takes place after the Secret Invasion event, so that’s the most likely explanation.
The “footage” of the Adaptoid shown to Yelena is taken from the cover of Avengers #45.
Might as well get the Spider-Woman situation out of the way for this summary. Lets get into it:
Until recently, Jessica’s powers have been on the blink since way back in Avengers #241. More recently, in Giant-Size Spider-Woman #1, she was approached by Connelly who offered to restore her powers in exchange for her spying on SHIELD. She took the job.
However, we also learned in New Avengers #14 that she took the offer on behalf of Nick Fury so she could spy on Hydra for him.
What nobody knows is that during the weeks that Jessica was undergoing treatment to restore her powers, she was replaced by a Skrull named Vernake who sought to infiltrate SHIELD ahead of a planned invasion of Earth. This will occur in Secret Invasion #1-8. The tale on when Veranke took Jessica’s place is told in New Avengers #42.
Hydra believes they have power over Jessica since Nick Fury went into hiding after the events of Secret War #1-5, as we saw in New Avengers #15.
Jessica Jones revealed that she was pregnant with Luke’s child in Alias #28 and gave birth to the child in The Pulse #13. Unnamed here, Jessica and Luke named her Danielle “Dani” Cage in New Avengers #34.
The man who appears to be Jarvis in this story is another Skrull spy, as we will learn in Secret Invasion #1. This Skrull took the place of the real Jarvis prior to New Avengers #1.
Luke proposed to Jessica in The Pulse #13-14 and until now she hadn’t given him an answer.
Mary Jane tells Jessica that she is going to love being married. At the time of this story, MJ has been married to Peter Parker since Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21. However, this will change after the couple make a deal with Mephisto to save the life of Aunt May in Amazing Spider-Man #545. In exchange, Mephisto alters reality so the couple were never married. As seen in Amazing Spider-Man #638-639, Pete and MJ don’t get married but remain engaged instead. In this new timeline, one could assume that Mary Jane would say something different here. Perhaps just a token congratulation.
The Watchtower was always there it’s just that nobody was able to see it because all memory of the Sentry was erased as well as evidence proving his existence following the events of Sentry/The Void #1. See New Avengers #7-10 for the details on how the Sentry escaped this purgatory.
Ms. Marvel tosses Wolverine at the Adaptoid in a technique she calls “Fastball Special, Avengers Style!” This was a technique that Wolverine devised with his fellow X-Man, Colossus, early on in their time on that team. The technique involved Colossus picking up Logan and throwing him at an opponent. This move was first depicted in X-Men #137.
When Spider-Woman is saved from a fall by Spider-Man and she apologizes to him, he quips “You need bigget web-pits”. This is in reference to the fact that Spider-Man originally had stylized webbing under his arms just as Spider-Woman does. This was part of his style when he first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15. Notably, original Spider-Man artist Steve Ditko often drew them in wildly large fashion. These “web-pits” come and go depending on which artist is drawing him.
This of course give the artist an excuse to draw all of the various Iron Man armors over the years. Most of the suits are easily identifiable. They are:
Two versions of his original armor, one in grey and the other in gold finish. These first appeared in Tales of Suspense #39 and 40, respectively.
His first suit of red-and-gold armor, first seen in Tales of Suspense #48.
The Model 4 armor which is hid trademark “classic” armor. It first appeared in Iron Man #85
His first suit of space armor which was built in Iron Man #142.
His original suit of undersea “Hydro-Armor” which debuted in Iron Man #218.
The original all black stealth armor that Tony developed in Iron Man #152.
The Silver Centurion armor that debuted in Iron Man #200
The red and gold armor (Model 9) that replaced the Silver Centurion in Iron Man #231.
Tony’s second suit of space armor, used during Operation: Galactic Storm, which was first seen in Iron Man #278.
Then there is a modular armor that Tony started using in Iron Man #300
The suit he wore during The Crossing starting in Iron Man #319 also make an appearance here.
And the armor worn by his teenaged counterpart from Reality-96020 started wearing in Iron Man #328.
The “safe” armor he wore starting in Fantastic Four (vol. 3) #15
The SKIN armor from Iron Man (vol. 3) #42.
The armor he began wearing in Iron Man (vol. 3) #50.
And lastly his second suit of stealth armor which he designed in Black Panther (vol. 3) #44.
The Void was one of the Sentry’s most recurring foes who seemed to get more powerful with every encounter. We’ll discover in Sentry (vol. 2) #1-8 that the Void is the remains of his past life of abuse, petty crime, and addiction.
Tony says he doesn’t take lightly being attacked at his home well before Wanda. He is referring to Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlet Witch. At the time of this story, she had recently gone mad and attacked the old Avengers, destroying their headquarters — the family mansion owned by Tony Stark — in the process. See Avengers #500-503.
As of this writing (April, 2024) Luke and Jess are still married, isn’t that sweet? The priest in this story is depicted to resemble Stan Lee. However, according to Official Index to the Marvel Universe: Avengers, this character is only credited as a “pastor”. There is a version of Stan that exists in the Marvel Universe (first seen in Fantastic Four #10). However, I think the distinction that this isn’t Stan is being made because he is appearing as a priest and not as himself. Much like how Stan’s cameos in most Marvel movies are not as himself.
Topical References
The TV that Connelly uses to show Yelena footage of the Adaptoid is depicted as a CRT model television. This should be considered topical as this is an obsolete technology.
The Mayor of New York City is depicted in this story as Michael Bloomberg. Bloomy was mayor from 2002 to 2013. His appearance in this story should be considered topical as he no longer holds that office.
Spider-Man makes a bunch of references while insulting the Adaptoid. They are:
When she crashes into the side of a building he says “Nice landing, Howard Hughes!” Hughes was an eccentric businessman and innovator at the turn of the last century. Among other things, he was a avid aviator and one of the things he was famous for. Since this is a historical reference rather than referring to someone in the present day, this wouldn’t necessarily be a topical reference. I suppose you could find a contemporary individual to use in place of Hughes, but “celebrity aviators” are a pretty niche group.
He also quips that he cannot figure out the joystick on an Xbox. This is a popular brand of video game consoles developed by Microsoft. Since this is a name brand, this would be considered a topical reference.
When he kicks her, there is an image of Bruce Lee taken from one of his films (I’m going to guess Enter the Dragon, since that was his most famous film). Since this is an artistic choice to communicate to readers that Spider-Man is using kung fu, this wouldn’t be a topical reference.
