Synopsis / Summary / Plot
This issue opens by backtracking a few hours to a courtroom where Typhoid Mary is being arraigned. But the glassy-eyed judge releases her without bail over the protests of the prosecution and even the defence. Mary cartwheels out of the court and is met by a man named Ivan in a car who claims his employer arranged her freedom and has a job for her.
Now we continue from last issue as Dr Lusk and Black Cat at the Brooklyn Psychiatric Institute discuss their brainwashed drones project. Lusk remarks that they have several cops and judges under their control (as we have just witnessed), but Felicia Hardy wants drones in SHIELD and other organisations. Lusk butters her up by saying that her idea for sending drone muscle out in superhero costumes worked a treat. It confused witnesses and avoided their activities being tracked back here. (Last issue we saw 'Daredevil' and 'Punisher' drones in action. P committed suicide when caught and D succeeded in acquiring hacker Jeremy Ellsden's laptop - unfortunately Ellsden died in the process.) Equally unfortunately the SHIELD personnel files Ellsden stole but then wouldn't give them are still missing. Cat couldn't find them in his apartment (so that's who we saw breaking in last issue) and now she decides to burn the Brooklyn place down because it's compromised.
They meet up with Ivan and Mary who had been watching the 2 drones in action. They report that Punisher committed suicide rather than be caught but Ivan figures the cops will be able to identify the body and trace him here through parole records. But they also report that Ellsden died in front of Hawkeye's brownstone apartment block so BC tell them to go there with Dr Lusk, find the USB drive with the info on and turn Clint Barton into a drone.
Last issue ended with Deadpool and Hawkeye fighting over the USB. Now we see Clint's apartment wrecked and the 2 heroes agreeing that the fight was pointless. Then Kate Bishop walks in. Wade gives a knowing leer and suggests she's a little young for Clint. She hits him over the head with a lamp because she thinks he attacked her friend (and maybe because of that remark). Then she apologises and compliments Wade on his Freddy Kreuger makeup. Clint enlightens her that he's Deadpool and that's his real face. The embarrassed girl tries to apologise again.
Clint tries to throw Wade out but there's a candy-seeking kid at the door in a Watcher costume with a bullet hole in the forehead. (DP thinks it's too soon after Original Sin for that.) Kate's waiting for an Ooper car (but she's only just arrived!). Meanwhile she's use Clint's electricity to charge her phone. Clint explains the crime scene tape at the front door by telling her what happened. How Ellsden hacked SHIELD personnel files to sell but then had a crisis of conscience. He came here for help but Clint turned him away. However he left a thumb-drive which only contained that explanation but no files.
Now Hawkeye and Deadpool intend to search his apartment. DP contacts Agent Scott Adsit at SHIELD asking him to find Ellsden's address. Meanwhile he suggests they head to the coroner to see if the cops have an ID for last issue's fake Punisher. Clint reminds him to keep the bottom of his mask up she he can read his lips (Clint's hearing aid was damaged last issue). And off the duo go leaving Kate to wait for her cab.
But the coroner won't let them in the morgue. Hawkeye tries to phone someone who can get them permission but DP takes the more direct route of knocking the coroner out. They take his unconscious body inside on a trolley and find their target. Wade takes the rare opportunity to look at a body in a worse state than his own while Clint finds an address for the corpse at Brooklyn Psychiatric. On the way out Wade plays a prank on the stirring coroner by placing his hand in a bowl of cold water.
Meanwhile Kate finds she has a 42 minute wait for her Ooper car so she has a look at the USB message Ellsden left. And she realises she recognises the background outside his window. So she takes a picture of the screen on her phone, cancels her ride and heads out to investigate on her own.
Our dynamic duo arrive at the Psychiatric place in their own Ooper (which Wade is sneakily charging to Wolverine) as Black Cat is busily dousing it with petrol. She hears them and sends all available drones to hold them off. They are confronted with musclemen in superhero costumes (including 1 in Hawkeye's original duds) chanting "I am a patriot". Clint reminds Wade not to kill them because they're brainwashed. The climax is the huge Daredevil guy from last issue who slams Hawkeye's head through a wall where he comes face-to-face with Felicia Hardy. She pulls a gun on him and demands Ellsden's list.
Luckily Daredevil pulls him back through the wall and starts to slam him against other walls. But 'Pool sets off the sprinkler system with a cigarette lighter. And then he rips free a power cord and jabs it in the resulting pool of water. The electric shock renders everyone else including Clint unconscious. DP is OK because he's wearing rubber soles (a precaution in case he ever has to fight Thor). But then he waves the power line around and electrocutes himself to join them on the floor.
Meanwhile Kate has located Ellsden's apartment block and navigates the fire escape looking for an apartment with the same angle of view outside its window. She finds it and enters the open window (where Black Cat broke in last issue). Somebody inside puts a gun to her head but she disarms him with a judo throw. He informs her he's SHIELD Agent Adsit and it's apology time again.
Deadpool and Hawkeye revive. Black Cat has gone without burning the place down. DP asks Hawk if BC cast her bad luck spell on him. And they explain what's been happening to cops who arrive. Later they take an Ooper back to drop Clint off at his apartment block before Wade goes home to check on Emily Preston and their kids. When Clint gets to his apartment door he sees that someone's broken in. And inside a female greets him, whose silhouette suggests Typhoid Mary.