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Damage Control #4: Review

Feb 1990
Dwayne McDuffie, Ernie Colon

Story Name:

The Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D Affair!

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

Damage Control #4 Review by (October 28, 2019)

Review: And the series’ first connected storyline comes to a close with a happy ending for all of the good guys. Pretty cool though maybe just a bit below the first miniseries. Cute moment: Bart betting a young co-worker that he doesn't know what the letters in SHIELD stand for. To be honest, I don't know myself.

Comments: Issue bannered “Acts of Vengeance,” a crossover series of the time. Stan Drake and Marie Severin share the inking duties. Title is a callback to the TV series THE MAN FROM UNCLE wherein each episode was titled “The ___ Affair.” SHIELD Agent Alexander Pierce is the basis for the villain played by Robert Redford in CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER. Oops: Henry Peter Gyrich has his first two names reversed in this story. Sole appearance of Dittomaster. Sign of the times: desktop computers are a new and marvelous thing.






 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Damage Control #4 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

Captain America and Thor are trying to rescue people from a burning building but they are not allowed in by the Fire Department because the building is unsafe. Damage Control has to stabilize the structure first but the DC workers are on strike against the company's new owners....

In Washington D.C., Comptroller Albert Cleary is working with Nick Fury and his overly enthusiastic Agent Alexander Pierce to pull off a hostile takeover of Damage Control. Meanwhile, Henry Peter Gyrich is seduced by an attractive woman who turns out to be shape-shifting villain Dittomaster, who overcomes and impersonates Gyrich. The baddie then attends a meeting with Mrs Hoag, intending to force her to sign the majority report on the Super-Hero Registration Act and then kill her. Mrs Hoag is far too sharp for that and clobbers the fake Gyrich as Nick Fury arrives to arrest him....

Back in New York, Robin Chapel persuades Lenny Ballinger to call the men back to work to shore up the collapsing building but even then it's still dangerous. R&D guy Gene Strausser, released from prison by Nick Fury supplies them with a number of devices that would support the building from inside—but first they need to be put in place inside the structure. Cap volunteers and John Porter accompanies him to show him where they should be placed....

Mrs Hoag with Albert, Nick Fury and Pierce confront Michael Souris, the new boss, and reveal that they know he is gutting DC to cover a loan from Kingpin Wilson Fisk. They tell him to sell the company back to Mrs Hoag and she will give them the money; if he refuses, they will inform the Securities and Exchange Commission—and the Kingpin. With the company back in good hands, Robin goes to see the Kingpin and tells him that he no longer has any connection to Damage Control. The Punisher, who had earlier planted a wire on her, learns that she wasn't one of the bad guys and refrains from shooting her. A few minutes later, Nick Fury confronts Fisk telling him to stop his attacks on SHIELD....

After Cap has placed Gene's devices in the collapsing building (and John has rescued a child), Gene presses a button and a web of braces shoot out, propping up the structure fully. Mrs Hoag settles the strike. The staff goes back to work. Cap understands the importance of Damage Control. And the huge building with the letters DC on top is carried away, sold to a comic book company which has made a great deal of money from a recent movie (It's DC and the 1989 Batman film, just so's we're on the same page). Soon they've repaired all the damage done by the “Acts of Vengeance” battles and Anne hopes that this will be the end of it. It isn't....



Ernie Colon
John Wellington
Ernie Colon (Cover Penciler)
Ernie Colon (Cover Inker)
? (Cover Colorist)


Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Captain America
Captain America

(Steve Rogers)
Kingpin
Kingpin

(Wilson Fisk)
Punisher
Punisher

(Frank Castle)
Thor
Thor

(Odinson)

Plus: Alexander Pierce.

> Damage Control: Book info and issue index

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