Young Avengers #8
Secret Identities, Part 2
The Young Avengers — Hulkling (Teddy Altman), Wiccan (Billy Kaplan), Stature (Cassie Lang), and Kate Bishop — have come to the rescue of their teammate Eli Bradly (aka Patriot) after he ended up getting caught in Mister Hyde (Calvin Zabo)’s drug lab. Upon being discovered, Eli locked himself up in another room prompting Wiccan to go after him. Blasting the door open, Billy is shocked to see that Eli is shooting himself up with Mutant Growth Hormone (MGH)![1] Eli tries to explain that Mister Hyde is stronger than before and he needs to boost his powers. Billy points out that being a super soldier, MGH won’t work on him and that’s when he suddenly realizes the truth: Eli never had any powers!
Meanwhile, the other Young Avengers are dog piling Mister Hyde. However, the villain injects himself with some of his own drugs and grows even stronger. He tosses Stature aside with ease with his new strength. That’s when Kate fires arrows up Hyde’s back to climb up onto his shoulders to choke him with her bow. Struggling to shake her loose, Hyde crashes into a wall, punching a hole in it. That’s when they all see that the sound of battle has attracted the attention of the NYPD. As the officers order everyone to stand down, Kate’s bow snaps in half under pressure. This allows Mister Hyde to finally grab her and use her as a human shield.
Meanwhile, Captain America (Steve Rogers) has paid a visit to Eli’s relatives, Faith and Isaiah Bradley. While talking to Faith in the kitchen, he asks where Eli’s mother is. Faith explains that she moved to Scottsdale, Arizona and only Eli stayed in the Bronx until he finishes his school year. Faith is wondering why Steve is so interested in Eli and Steve explains that he met the boy at Avengers Mansion. When she doesn’t understand, Steve tells her that Eli inherited Isaiah’s super soldier powers. Faith is shocked by this and Steve explains how the boy told him he got these powers from a blood transfusion after being stabbed in a fight. Faith is startled by this and then tells Steve that Eli told him a lie because that never happened.
At the same time, Jessica Jones is meeting with Cassie’s mother Peggy to tell her that her daughter is Stature.[2] Peggy was already suspicious and Jessica’s visit convinced her it was true. She then learns that Cassie gained her size-changing powers by fooling around with her late father’s Pym Particles. Peggy feared something like this would happen and that is why she sued for full custody.[3] This deeply concerns Peggy because Cassie has had a heart condition her entire life — in fact getting a life saving surgery is why Scott became Ant-Man in the first place — and she fears that the Pym Particles could have an adverse effect on her.[4] Peggy asks Jessica to talk to her daughter, because Cassie won’t listen to her about this. She also can’t bring this to her new husband, Blake, because he is a cop that hates superheroes. That’s when Jessica looks at the TV that has been on in the background of their conversation. It is showing news footage of the Young Avengers battle with Mister Hyde and she tells Peggy that she’s got to go.
Back at the scene of the battle, Mister Hyde threatens to kill Kate Bishop if the cops don’t allow him to leave. Luckily, Wiccan returns and casts a spell that causes Kate to briefly turn into a whisp of blue smoke, causing her drift to freedom before returning to human form. When she asks how Eli is doing, Bradley shows up all ‘roided up on MGH and knocks Hyde down with a single punch. Enraged, the Patriot orders Zabo to get back up so he can hit him again. The two brawl while the other Young Avengers unsuccessfully try to break the two apart. That’s when Eli pulls out another dose of MGH. Thinking that Patriot is going to inject himself again, Mister Hyde pins him to the ground. However, Eli was luring his foe close enough to inject him instead. With a second does of MGH, Hyde’s mass increases to the point that he can’t stay up right and he collapses to the ground.
Shocked by Eli’s transformation, Kate asks him what happened. Eli tells her that whatever Wiccan told her was a lie. That’s when the New Avengers — Cap, Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Luke Cage — and Jessica Jones show up. Steve orders Eli to stand down or they will make him stand down. The Patriot, enraged by the drugs in his system is ready to fight everybody. Luckily, Wiccan is able to cast a spell that knocks Eli out.
Hours later, Eli is woken up by the Vision and he discovers that he is in Tony Stark’s lab where they have been pumping the MGH out of his system. Learning how this Vision is animating Iron Lad’s old armor, Eli wonders if he could use its time travel capabilities to go into the past and change things. However, he dismisses the idea, knowing that even if he went back to do it all over again he wouldn’t have done things differently.[5] Instead, he decides to go and join the meeting between both Avengers teams.
He enters the room just as the Young Avengers are learning that Cap and his allies went to Cassie and Eli’s guardians to tell them what’s going on. Cassie is mortified but Jessica explains that her mother had already figured it out on her own. That’s when Steve confronts Eli about how he lied about his powers and asks for the truth. Eli finally comes clean and explains that when Iron Lad was recruiting for the Young Avengers, he was actually looking for Josiah, the son of Isaiah who inherited his father’s powers.[6] However, Josiah hadn’t been seen in a while. Eli lied to Nathaniel about having powers and started using MGH to cover up for that lie.
The Young Allies now realize this is why the Patriot specifically targeted MGH dealers.[7] With the truth finally out, Eli breaks down in tears. He then tells Captain America to save the speeches because he is quitting the Young Avengers![8]
Recurring Characters
Young Avengers (Patriot, Hulkling, Wiccan, Stature, Kate Bishop, Vision), Mister Hyde, New Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Luke Cage, Spider-Man), Jessica Jones, Faith Bradley, Peggy Burdick, (in flashback) Iron Lad
Continuity Notes
This scene pays homage to Green Latern/Green Arrow #85.
Here, Jessica is visibly pregnant. She discovered she was carrying a child in Alias #28. She will give birth to her daughter, Dani, in The Pulse #14.
Scott Lang (aka Ant-Man) had joint custody of Cassie since Marvel Premiere #47. However, years later, Peggy used for full custody after she remarried in Avengers (vol. 3) #62. At the time of this story, everyone thinks that Scott died in Avengers #500. However, as we’ll see in Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #6 he is pulled forward in time by the future Young Avengers.
Pym Particles do cause strain on the person who uses them, as their inventor (Hank Pym) learned when he developed the ability to grow in Tales to Astonish #49. Cassie’s heart problems were first detailed in the aforementioned Marvel Premiere #47.
More over, Patriot knows how trying to change history can have unforeseen repercussions. This is because when Iron Lad formed the Young Avengers to prevent himself from growing up to be Kang the Conqueror he inadvertedly caused more harm to history than good. See Young Avengers #1-6.
Josiah X was a test tube baby created by the military to see if the Super Soldier Serum in Isaiah’s blood could produce super-soldier off spring. He was briefly affiliated with a group called the Crew. See The Crew #1-7.
As we saw in Young Avengers #2.
Eli’s departure from the team will proved to be short lived as we’ll discover next issue.
Topical References
Cassie’s home is depicted as having a CRT model television. This should be considered topical as this is now an obsolete technology.
Eli states that nobody has heard from Josiah in a year. This should be considered a topical reference as this is noting the passage of time between the publication of his last appearance in The Crew #7 (January, 2004) and this issue (November, 2005). Modern readers should interpret this to mean that Josiah hasn’t been heard from in a few months as opposed to an entire year.
