Avengers Undercover #5 *Spoilers and Thoughts*

[insidemyhead]

I'd argue she ANTICIPATED being caught as well. And its part of whatever scheme those 3 cooked up.

Fracking Constrictor and his nasty tenta-wrists.

But did anyone else find Madame Masque's whole shpiel about Cammi, Hazmat and Anachronism inspiring leadership or whatever, back in Arena a little bit WTF?
Cammi, sure, but Hazmat and Anachronism?
Hazmat was really more "followed" than leading -- in a "we better watch her" kind of way.
And Anachronism may have attained some kind of accidental, reluctant Alpha status after beheading KB, but really all that lead to was some gilly time with Nara and some pre-existing, heavy eye fecking from Cullen.

<shrugs> Right?

Agreed. I like Anachronism, but he was largely focused on Nara, and Hazmat made some big mistakes and spent a big chunk of time chillin' on the beach. Including them in that leadership speech really threw me.

[Sprite]

Those last two pages. Ouch.

This was a solid issue, and I'm glad that the plot's starting to pick up. I wonder how Alex's return is going to play out.

Is it just me, or is Nico drawn as significantly less "Asian" in this issue? If I just looked at the art without knowing that it was Nico, then I'd have trouble telling that she's supposed to be of Asian descent. She looks more
like a White Goth girl. Given how these kids have been treated (SHIELD was going to lock them up, really), I almost wouldn't blame them for taking Zemo's offer. The "heroes" of the MU haven't exactly been very helpful to them recently.

I say she's a victim of Kev Walker's style. I can't help but feel that his women all have the same face save for maybe Cammi and (for obvious reasons) Deathlocket.

[BroHomo]

I hope Alex sticks around

[Sutekh]

The "heroes" of the MU haven't exactly been very helpful to them recently.

It does seem that the heroes who are more or less responsible for these kids (the original Avengers Academy teaching staff, particularly Pym and Tigra, Brian Braddock of said Academy, etc.) seem to be actively working for Zemo by abandoning these kids, refusing to help them adjust, etc.

The Runaways haven't really had a lot of 'adult supervision,' so it would make at least a lick of sense for people not to be pouring out of the woodwork to offer Nico and Chase any help (other than, *their own teammates,* like Karolina and Molly and Victor!), but for Hazmat and Mettle, for X-23, or for any surviving Braddock Academy kids, it's pretty uncharacteristic that their friends and / or mentors A) haven't taken them in and B) didn't help them track down Arcade. Some of them actually have a history of that sort of thing, such as when the Avengers Academy crew hunted down the Hood and beat / humiliated him to 'avenge' what he did to Tigra! (X-23, as well, has some seriously impulsive friends, who are literally doing *nothing* at the moment. A 'JGS revenge squad' of Hellion, Rockslide, Dust, Mercury, etc. haring off to get some payback for Laura would totally make sense.) Similarly, as we saw recently at the end of the last Young Avengers mini, a lot of teen heroes have each on speed-dial. Prodigy, *another* former teammate of Laura's, updates his facebook page, and twenty-five young heroes, from places as diverse as the Initiative, are showing up over the next four hours.

A lot of people are being written pretty OOC for this storyline to happen as it is, which, I guess, fits with the previous storyline in Avengers Arena.

Even for the Runaways, it's odd that so few superheroes seems to care that a bunch of teens (that some of them have met and befriended!) were brutalized in this manner, particularly when multiple heroic groups take in kids in places like the Future Foundation or Jean Grey School. It's like 90% of the Marvel Universe had to be ignored for this story to occur, but, since it's not set in an alternate universe, and all those 616 characters *do* exist, they just look like terrible, terrible people for not even caring or lifting a finger.

[king of hybrids]

well, at least it's to be expected in pym's case (Seriously, who puts a guy known in-universe for his A) mental instability, B) epic incompetence and C) being a wife-beater in charge of kids?)

[Starfish]

While we're on the topic of adult heroes screwing over kids, I recently picked up the short-lived Iron Man Legacy series, because I heard it's a story set before the events of Runaways and features the Pride as the main antagonists. What we've learned by the end of it is that Stark and his Illuminati friends not only knew exactly what the Pride was up to, they fought and stopped them from sacrificing Tony's love interest to the Gibborim. So once the bad guys are defeated and handed over to the police, our heroes take care of the Pride's innocent, hapless kids (that they obviously knew about because Stark sneaked right past a clueless Alex to free some of his friends out of the Wilder's dungeon of bloody murder), right?

Ha, no, of course they don't care about any kids. And since Wilder basically runs the law in LA, the Pride are walking free again the day after. So what do our heroes do to deal with that powerful group posing a threat to all life on Earth (as Dr. Strange put it, realizing how dangerous these people are)? Cover it all up, of course. But don't worry, Stark gives Wilder a stern warning not to lay hands on the girl he cares about again, or he'll bring down the full might of the Avengers and X-Men on them. As for the Pride's other nefarious, world-ending activities? They're left unchecked to rule over LA and given free rein to continue their human sacrifice business, as long as they keep it to people Tony Stark doesn't want to have sex with.

[jbnewc]

Those last two pages. Ouch.

I say she's a victim of Kev Walker's style. I can't help but feel that his women all have the same face save for maybe Cammi and (for obvious reasons) Deathlocket.

Yup, most of the women have the exact same face. It even seems like some of the men have the same nose.

[strathcona]

QUOTE=king of hybrids;192719]well, at least it's to be expected in pym's case (Seriously, who puts a guy known in-universe for his A) mental instability, B) epic incompetence and C) being a wife-beater in charge of kids?)[/QUOTE]

I'll give you mental instability, but he has never been incompetent or a wife beater, nor does anyone in-universe see him that way.

[mugiwara]

So Constrictor is beating 11 yo girls now? Looks like that most of the characterisation he had until the end of Avengers the Iniative is going down in the toilet.
Not that I am surprised...

[Punisher007]

Yeah, didn't he more or less reform during the Initiative?

[javi150190]

It does seem that the heroes who are more or less responsible for these kids (the original Avengers Academy teaching staff, particularly Pym and Tigra, Brian Braddock of said Academy, etc.) seem to be actively working for Zemo by abandoning these kids, refusing to help them adjust, etc.

The Runaways haven't really had a lot of 'adult supervision,' so it would make at least a lick of sense for people not to be pouring out of the woodwork to offer Nico and Chase any help (other than, *their own teammates,* like Karolina and Molly and Victor!), but for Hazmat and Mettle, for X-23, or for any surviving Braddock Academy kids, it's pretty uncharacteristic that their friends and / or mentors A) haven't taken them in and B) didn't help them track down Arcade. Some of them actually have a history of that sort of thing, such as when the Avengers Academy crew hunted down the Hood and beat / humiliated him to 'avenge' what he did to Tigra! (X-23, as well, has some seriously impulsive friends, who are literally doing *nothing* at the moment. A 'JGS revenge squad' of Hellion, Rockslide, Dust, Mercury, etc. haring off to get some payback for Laura would totally make sense.) Similarly, as we saw recently at the end of the last Young Avengers mini, a lot of teen heroes have each on speed-dial. Prodigy, *another* former teammate of Laura's, updates his facebook page, and twenty-five young heroes, from places as diverse as the Initiative, are showing up over the next four hours.

A lot of people are being written pretty OOC for this storyline to happen as it is, which, I guess, fits with the previous storyline in Avengers Arena.

Even for the Runaways, it's odd that so few superheroes seems to care that a bunch of teens (that some of them have met and befriended!) were brutalized in this manner, particularly when multiple heroic groups take in kids in places like the Future Foundation or Jean Grey School. It's like 90% of the Marvel Universe had to be ignored for this story to occur, but, since it's not set in an alternate universe, and all those 616 characters *do* exist, they just look like terrible, terrible people for not even caring or lifting a finger.

There's an entire issue of Arena dedicated to see why nobody noticed the kids were missing. And Hank will pay Zemo a visit on issue 8

[MegaJay]

Hazmat was all the way in New Mexico at the start of the series so I'm assuming after Arena, she just didn't go straight back to the Academy.

I'm pretty sure SHEILD was hot on Arcade's trail and were probably on their way to pick him up in issue 3 but then he was killed on camera.

[Sardorim]

Hopefully Hank isn't an idiot and doesn't meet Zemo alone.

Besides, Finesse and Striker deserve to be there as well. Some of those in Undercover "ARE" their friends after all.

[mugiwara]

Hopefully Hank isn't an idiot and doesn't meet Zemo alone.

Besides, Finesse and Striker deserve to be there as well. Some of those in Undercover "ARE" their friends after all.

Tigra, Quicksilver, Hawkeye, Jocasta and Justice should be there too, since they were Hazmat's teachers. As well as Cap Britain and Meggan, if some of the Braddock Academy students are still alive.
In fact, a lot of super heroes should go with Hank because Zemo is enroling young super humans and that should be a huge deal. And they should send Drax after his ass too.
But they didn't do much effort to go after Arcade, so I don't expect them to move their asses for a bunch of youngsters. It's not like one of the main Avengers is in danger.

[Platinius]

I would relish the moment Hawkeye sends an arrow though Zemo's brain (not even he could it a target as small as Zemo's heart)