Explosion!

When responding to an explosion of gang violence, Wonder Man’s rage causes him to beat one of the shooters to death. This is just as the Avengers West Coast — Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, US Agent, Living Lightning, and Spider-Woman — have come to talk to him about his recent emotional instability.[1] In stopping Wonder Man, the gangster are able to make their escape. The team tries to reason with him, saying that his current behavior is unlike him. However, Simon tells them that nobody really knows who he is, not even himself.

When it is noted that the gang members are fleeing, the leader of Armed Response — a private security firm — inform the Avengers that they are handling the situation. Right in front of media cameras they state that had they been hired the Hollywood producer who was just murdered would still be alive. When Armed Response leaves, the Avengers debate on what to do and figure they should wait for the police to arrive before they act on what just went down. Wonder Man then grows angry and fights his teammates off, calling them all cowards and that he can get to the bottom of things.

US Agent then accuses Wonder Man of being one of the doppelganger impostors that they recently fought during the Infinity War. Something that Williams points out is impossible, reminding them all how everyone who was captured and replace — Simon included — were prisoners of the Magus and freed after he was defeated.[2] While they are convinced that he is the real Wonder Man, they are disturbed by his new outlook and think he is mentally unwell. Simon counters this by saying that he has embraced his new darker persona and promises that he will be more effective than the Avengers more non-violent approach. With that, he leaves the Avengers West Coast to deal with the clash between Armed Response and the few remaining gang members because he has better things to do than debate morality with them. After he goes, everyone agrees that they need to go after Simon because something is very wrong with him.[3]

Meanwhile, Jamie Flores has discovered that when she sleeps her spirit can leave her body, allowing her to fly. These powers have come about after she, her mother, and other friends of Wonder Man were recently bombarded with his ionic powers.[4] She flies to the scene of Wonder Man’s recent battle after hearing about it on the radio to see if she can do anything to help. When she arrives on the scene she witnesses a member of Armed Response executing one of the gang members. The sight is so startling she suddenly wakes up back in her body at home. When she tries to tell her mother what she has seen, Alex tells her daughter to give it a rest because she has a massive headache. Alex eventually loses her cool and when she yells at her daughter she somehow projects an image of Wonder Man in the process.

At that same time, Simon’s agent Neal Saroyan is watching the news coverage and wonders why Spider Beach isn’t out there being Wonder Man’s sidekick. He calls the Beach home and discovers that Spider is at home practicing his air guitar.[5] He tells the youth to get out there and find Wonder Man. Spider decides to comply with his agent’s wishes but wonders why his skin is itching and wonders if it has anything to do with the ionic energy he was exposed to recently.

While this is all going down, Lotus Newmark has her first run of Armed Response advertisements on the air. She hopes that the recent chaos in and around the city — both criminal and super powered — will boost the demand for her new organization. The only thing left to deal with is potential interference from Wonder Man. To this end, Lotus has called in both Splice and Rampage to deal with him once and for all.

Meanwhile, Wonder Man is leaping across the city lost in thought. He thinks that his time with the Avengers is long over, particularly since the man who encouraged him to be a hero — Iron Man — is now dead.[6][7] He soon spots the gang members that fled the original battle via jetpacks and begins following them. As he does, he is unaware that he is also being followed by the Avengers in their Quinjet, Ginger Beach who is out looking for him, as well as Splice and Rampage. When Wonder Man catches up with the crooks he grabs the one in charge and demands to know who hired them. When he doesn’t know, Simon begins getting violent and almost kills them when the Avengers arrive to stop him.

This time, Simon fights back against his comrades and as his rage increases he is able to fight them off all at once. US Agent is the first to recover and tries to fight Wonder Man one-on-one, but Simon easily defeats him. That’s when Spider arrives on the scene, but Simon has no time for his nonsense. However, when he tries to physically remove Spider from the scene the youth suddenly splits into multiple duplicates of himself. Wonder Man realizes that this was a product of Spider’s exposure to his ionic energy and once more blames himself for destroying everything around him. When a recovered Scarlet Witch attempts to reason with Simon, she asks what has gotten over him. Becoming enraged once more, Wonder Man decides to give Wanda a first hand experience on what happened to him.

Recurring Characters

Wonder Man, Avengers West Coast (Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, US Agent, Spider-Woman, Living Lightning), Armored Response, Lotus Newmark, Splice, Rampage, Alex Flores, Jamie Flores, Neal Saroyan, Spider Beach

Continuity Notes

1. Wonder Man is going through a bit of a rough time during the time of this story. First, his powers were thrown out of whack by a nega-bomb explosion in Wonder Man (vol. 2) #9. This has caused his powers to be tied into his emotional state. He has also begun to question his humanity again after having his mind probed by Galactus in issue #14. As of last issue, Simon has decided to divorce himself from humanity and give in to his new savage persona.

2. The Magus attempted to use the power of the Infinity Gauntlet to replace the universe with one of his own making and make everyone his slaves. In order to prevent Earth’s heroes from interfering he created an army of evil doppelgangers to attack and try and take their places in advance of everything else. Obviously, this plan was foiled, but not before Wonder Man was assimilated and captured. He was freed along with the others when the Magus was defeated. See Infinity War #1-6 and Wonder Man (vol. 2) #13-15.

3. US Agent is unsurprised by Simon’s mental break, pointing out that his brother — Eric Williams — is the villain known as the Grim Reaper. Eric became the Reaper back in Avengers #52 and has been a common antagonist to the Avengers. The west coast team had recently fought him in Avengers West Coast #65-68.

4. Jamie and co were all bombarded when Wonder Man’s powers flared out of control in Wonder Man (vol. 2) #11-12.

5. Neal has been trying to force Spider into being Wonder Man’s sidekick, something that Simon has resisted since Wonder Man (vol. 2) #3.

6. When Wonder Man first got his powers in Avengers #9, it was so he could infiltrate and destroy the team. In the end, their heroics convinced him to turn against Baron Zemo even if it meant dying. Simon didn’t really die however, he entered a death-like state while his body metamorphosized into a being of pure ionic energy. See Avengers #151 and 164.

7. At the time of this story, everyone believes Tony Stark died in Iron Man #284. In reality, Stark faked his death so he could undergo treatment for his failing central nervous system. He’ll reveal he is still alive in issue #289-290.

Topical References

• Neal Saroyan is depicted as having a CRT television. This should be considered topical as this is an obsolete technology.

• He also has a Marvin the Martian figurine on his desk. This should be considered topical as well.