 ROUNDUPS CENTRAL |  | EARTH'S MIGHTIEST COLUMN: AUGUST 27, 2008 | | Wizard Universe's Regular Rundown of Marvel's Mightiest Teams! This week: Avengers The Initiative, Mighty Avengers and New Avengers! | | | By John Coleman | | Posted 8/27/2008 | |  | | Born out of the aftermath of the superhero Civil War, the Initiative is the program that serves to train registered super humans to use their powers safely and effectively. Those trainees that prove their mettle will be placed on one of the super teams being created for each of America's fifty states, those that fail wash out of the program and are sent home. For regular recaps of Avengers: The Initiative, New Avengers, and Mighty Avengers, swing by with each new issue for insight into the costumed conspiracies and super powered slugfests that break out every time the Avengers assemble!
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
PREVIOUSLY IN AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE:
• The Skrull Invasion has begun, and the Initiative has felt its effects. Infiltrated by a Skrull disguised as Hank Pym, the founding Avenger and Initiative leader known as Yellowjacket, the Skrulls have put into place a plan to have a Skrull on every team in the 50 State Initiative.
• The Initiative graduate known as 3D-Man (formerly the Avenger called Triathlon) received a pair of special goggles from his predecessor, the first 3D-Man. These goggles allow 3D-Man to see through the Skrull's shape shifted forms and reveal the alien beneath. He found a Skrull infiltrator on his Hawaiian Initiative team, the Pointmen. Realizing that a Skrull presence on his team had larger implications, 3D-Man returned to Camp Hammond to warn the others.
• However, the Initiative trainee called Crusader is actually a disguised Skrull. However, he is not part of the Invasion and actually wants to be a hero. Afraid that 3D-Man's goggles would reveal him, Crusader used the Freedom Ring to temporarily switch the goggles' effects. To 3D-man, everyone at Camp Hammond appeared to be a Skrull. He fled, not knowing what else to do.
• The Skrull Pym convinced a large number of Camp Hammond's trainees to head to Manhattan to face the bulk of the invasion force. The recruits had no idea that they were being led to a slaughter…
AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #16
Dan Slott & Christos Gage (W)/ Stefano Caselli (A)
SYNOPSIS ASSEMBLE!
• Believing everyone at Camp Hammond to be a Skrull, 3D-Man fled in an Avengers Quinjet. Unfortunately, when the Skrulls knocked out all the world's Starktech with an advanced virus, the Quinjet crashed. 3D-Man finds himself trapped in the wreckage…until She-Thing, a member of the New Mexico Initiative team, The Mavericks, comes to his rescue.
• Once she has him free, however, his goggles reveal her true form…that of a Skrull. Realizing he has seen through her disguise, she moves in for the kill…
• She never gets to make her move, as she is shot from behind by some mysterious new arrivals…
ENTER: SKRULL KILL KREW
• Ryder and Riot are the last surviving members of a team of mercenaries who used to hunt Skrull infiltrators. They convince 3D-Man to join up with them. Although he is a bit unsure about some of their methods (and eating habits), he agrees.
• Meanwhile, back at Camp Hammond, Yellowjacket returns to the base to find a few remaining occupants, notably War Machine and staff members Physique, Trauma, and Blitzschlag. The Skrull Pym, surrounded by numerous other Skrull infiltrators disguised as Cape-Killers, is surprised to find War Machine still functioning. With all the Starktech down, War Machine's armor should not be operating. It seems there are some obsolete Stane International technologies that have allowed War Machine to recover from the virus.
• War Machine gets a distress message from Tony Stark, advising him to trust no one and sending him on an urgent mission. Although Yellowjacket is reluctant to let him leave, War Machine flies off. Yellowjacket quickly orders the three staffers to prepare the base to receive wounded from the battle in Manhattan, and they run off, leaving the the Skrull imposter to enact his true plan…to turn Camp Hammond into the Skrull base of operations on Earth.
• What "Pym" doesn't realize, however, is that one cadet stayed behind and is now observing this very strange behavior…
THE IRREDEEMABLE ANT-MAN!
• In Times Square, the Skrull invasion force begins to execute the fallen Initiative members, starting with the recruit called Proton.
• Crusader watches the carnage, torn between honor and safety as he debates whether to join his people in the invasion or to side with his heart and fight alongside his Earthbound comrades.
• The timely arrival of Nick Fury and his new group of Howling Commandoes helps Crusader make his decision. When he hears that Captain America told Nick Fury about him, the Skrull finally picks a side…he decides to fight for Earth!
CRUSADER: HERO OF EARTH!
• In Arizona, the Desert Stars are dealing with the fallout from the failure of all Starktech. They are caught by surprise when the Skrull Kill Krew and 3D-Man show up and attack one of their members…the man called Blacksmith who is a Skrull in disguise!
• Most of the Desert Stars are knocked out of the fight, but former Initiative cadet Komodo fights alongside the Krew.
• The Skrull uses her as a human shield to defend himself against the Kill Krew. That doesn't turn out to be the best idea…
SHOOT THE HOSTAGE
• Komodo's regenerative powers allow her to recover from the wound and she convinces the Kill Krew that their next stop should be Vegas…so she can save her boyfriend, the Initiative graduate called Hardball.
• Meanwhile, back at Camp Hammond, Ant-Man is the only witness to the arrival of Skrull forces on base as Yellowjacket turns over command of the base to a Skrull captain, while he heads to New York City to help their cause there.
• The most cowardly and unheroic member of the Initiative is now the only one in a position to do anything about the invasion…
OVER HIS HEAD
Click here for our Mighty Avengers round-up! | |  | | | | | | | |
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