Writer Christos Gage

Penciler Mike McKone

Inker Andrew Andrew Hennessy

Colorist Jeromy Cox

Letterer VC’s Joe Caramagna

Cover Dated October 2010

Cover by Amanda Connor and Paul Mounts

I own this, just for the cover.

Scared Straight, Part One of Three

Previously in this title, Norman Obsorn – as Director of HAMMER (formerly SHIELD) – found six fledgling superhumans and turned their powers up way pass eleven.  These students, thought they were suppose to be the next generation of Avengers, instead, they learn from Osborn’s files that they were on the risk list of becoming super-villains.  The students (and their powers) are – Veil (transform into various gases), Hazmat (toxins), Striker (electrically powered), Mettle (invulnerable powerhouse), Finesse (polymath) and Reptil (dinosaur morphing).  Reptil is nothing like his Super Hero Squad cartoon counterpart.  Some of the students took the news poorly.  Finesse has started blackmailing Quicksilver, so that he will train her like how his father, Magneto, trained him.  Hazmat is angry at Osborn, as she is stuck in her containment suit – for the rest of her days.  Mettle should be angry too, as he is a red solid steel type of fellow, but he seems pretty relaxed.  He is the Rockslide of the team.

The main faculty are – Hank Pym (as Wasp – as she is “dead” due to the events of Secret Invasion), Quicksilver and Tigra.  Oh, and New Warriors alums – Justice and Speedball (he is back to using this name, after being Penance since Civil War).

Now you know what I know about this title, thus far.  I have read issue 38 and I want to own issue 32.

This issue opens up with Hazmat’s origins, which is essentially Rogue’s origin – but much worst.  She’s kissing a guy, he starts to cough, they both agree to keep going, as they are both virgins and today is the day.  After running tests, the doctors found out that she is toxic.  She isn’t a mutant, so she figures she can’t join the X-Men or reach out to them – which I imagine they would have took her in.  Instead, Osborn tells her that he can cure her.  Instead, he amps up her powers.

Infinite Avengers Mansion.  Home of Avengers Academy, Now.  The students are sparring.  Finesse allows Reptil to kiss her, in front of the team.  Apparently, she teased him in one of the previous issues – that he hadn’t kissed a girl before.  Hazmat is mostly jealous over the fact that she can’t be kissing anybody.

Iron Man 2 must be coming out soon, as there are so many ads for pinball machines, backpacks and shoes.

Veil thinks Reptil and Finesse look cute together.  Hazmat rolls her eyes so hard and Mettle starts to flirt with Hazmat, though she thinks he is only messing with her.  He will eventually grow on her.

Justice shows up and tells them that the students are going to be getting some special guest star mentors, over the next week.  Since the Avengers have always been more of a team, compared to the X-Men’s family feel – this makes sense.  Plus, this is a great way to boost sales.

Intermediate Hand-to-Hand Combat . . . Instructor, Iron Fist.  Gage gets to show why characters like Taskmaster (and Finesse) only work, if they practice their powers.  One can’t merely look at Captain America throw his mighty shield, one needs to learn how to incorporate that into their own style or it isn’t going to last long in a fight.

Hank Pym’s big plan is to take the students to The Raft, the super villain prison.  Hazmat knows Osborn is there, and she wants to kill him.  The reason why the students are going there is to be Scared Straight.

Two Days Later.  Tigra and Hank Pym aka The Wasp.  I like this version of Tigra, where she doesn’t talk like a cat, instead, sounding like a real human character.  Tigra informs Pym that Valkyrie is currently instructing the lady students in the ways of combat.

Tigra explains the reasoning is due to all of the research that shows that ladies learn better in single sex classrooms.  This way they actually learn more male dominated subjects – math, science and armed combat.  I’m not sure how right that is, it doesn’t sound right.  Pym states that he read the same research, his problem is – does Valkyrie know that she is suppose to be teaching combat.

Superhuman Gender Roles.  Instructor, Valkyrie.  Valkyrie is expressing how disappointing men are – on the battlefield and in the bedchamber.  The Asgardian Valkyries embrace the concept of chastity.  She is about to go into the topic of masturbation aids.  Tigra barges into the room, upset about the topic at hand and ever more so that Valkyrie allows the ladies to be drinking Mead.  This is probably the most fun Valkyrie has ever been.

Hazmat tries to recruit Veil into the “Kill Osborn” plan.

Infinite Avengers Mansion Hanger.  Everybody is getting ready to go on their field trip.  Mettle wants in on Hazmat’s plan.  Pym asks Justice if Speedball is coming along, so he goes to check.

Speedball’s Quarters.  Justice walks in as Speedball is putting away his Penance mask.  It was Speedball’s fault that he had recruited some rookies to be the latest incarnation of The New Warriors.  They got a reality show and a fight broke out with some villains and Nitro exploded close enough to a school bus, killing a busload of students.  This sparked the entire Civil War plotline.  Feeling so reasponsible, Speedball quit his fun loving ways and turned into Penance.  Penace’s costume made it possible for Robbie to be stabbed by 612 spikes, which was how many people died in that explosion – 60 of them were children.  Something happened and now Speedball feels like he can be fun loving now (possibly Osborn being unseated and he is no longer a member of Thunderbolts, I’m figuring).  This page ends with Speedball revealing that he is still cutting himself.

The Raft Maximum Security Federal Penitentiary, Off the Coast of Manhattan.  Avengers Academy meets Luke Cage, who is running the Raft now.  They really make a big deal of Captain America villain, Crossbones, being at the Raft.

The first villain to try to scare them straight, is Iron Man villain – The Ghost.  His rantings about how Iron Man is almost as bad as most of his villains, seems to resonate more with the students.

There is a house ad for Secret Avengers 4, with Steve Rogers placing the Nova helmet on.

Juggernaut is up next.  He provides how his father use to beat him up every morning, and how that made him want to beat up others.

Outside the room, Moonstone (who I really liked in the original Thunderbolts) is brought in to evaluate the students.  She gives Speedball a hard time, as his energy signature is blue, like Penance’s instead of Speedball’s traditional, orange.  Wasp asks her to not mess with Speedball’s head.  Weird that we, the reader, don’t see the energy signature.

Reptil just wants to hear Juggernaut to proclaim “I’m the Juggernaut” which I like that he rolls his eyes but is willing to do it.

Hazmat shuts the power off, as she has the ability to create an electromagnetic pulse.  Crossbones tells Hazmat where Osborn is.

Osburn is not scared of Hazmat, Veil or Mettle, as the issue ends.

This is part of a crossover with Thunderbolts, and it concludes back in this title, next issue.

The letters page has letters from – Sophea Uk of Salem, OR / Brian Edwards of Toronto, Canada and Katie Tran of West Lafayette, IN.