New Avengers (2010 series) #19

Protesters besiege Avengers Mansion as Daredevil drops in. Nanny Squirrel Girl greets him with baby Danielle Cage, and his enhanced sense of smell can't ignore the fact that her nappy needs changing. He asks where the team is and she says they've gone on a mission. DD was made a (New) Avenger (at the end of #16) and wonders why they didn't call him. Doreen Green has no answer to that but thank him for saving (during #16 in the Fear Itself event) her and Danielle, who chooses that moment to puke. Her hero worship causes her to come on to him, but he mentions the diaper and she runs off.

The team are at the Stark Resilient lab in Paramus, New Jersey which has just (#17) been destroyed by a self-destructing robot based on Ultimo. Various members help each other out of the rubble and pilot Mockingbird brings their skycraft back after fruitlessly chasing a drone that stole a sample of Wolverine's blood. Iron Man claims that the original target was to steal his armour. Tony Stark reckons that Logan's DNA would be priceless on the bio-weapons market, and he believes AIM was behind this.

The New Avengers weren't actually in last issue. Instead it had flashbacks to before the attack in #17, showing Norman Osborn recruiting his new Dark Avengers. This issue includes an fb to within that issue (confusing much?). In it we see Gorgon and Madame Hydra watching Osborn talking to the DAv (obviously without their Dark Wolverine who *is* Gorgon). The pair discuss Norman's multiple personalities and narcissism. Ophelia Sarkissian admits to also being a narcissist as all true leaders are, and she includes Gorgon in that. Osborn wants Tomi Shishido to play Wolverine which he finds humiliating, which Sarkissian considers less humiliating than having been publicly beaten by Logan. Gorgon starts to strangle her for that insult but she suggests they should follow Norman until he fails as always, brought low by his own madness. And then *they* can take over. They separate, each thinking about killing the other.

The NAv have left Tony Stark to deal with the wreckage and they return to base in their enhanced quinjet. Spider-Man thinks *Norman Osborn* was behind the attack. He's unhappy because their super-boss Captain America has told them to leave the escaped Osborn to him. Luke Cage agrees that Osborn will be up to *something*. Ms Marvel and Wolvie don't *know* whether Osborn was involved. Mockingbird thinks they should concentrate on taking him down anyway. Luke is worried that his wife Jessica Jones is awfully quiet. She now confesses that when Osborn escape from prison (#16.1) he told her that he was going to kill their baby Danielle. And she doesn't know what they can do about it.

In the present Osborn is again addressing his DAv, now including Gorgon as Dark Wolverine. Trickshot (Barney Barton) asks him why he's created this team when the previous version failed (during Norman's Dark Reign). Scarlet Witch (June Covington) adds that most of their predecessors are dead (definitely an overstatement). Norman counters that they worked until everything fell apart (in Siege), but this incarnation is much more powerful. They have a Hulk (Hulk's son Skaar). Barney is a better marksman than his brother Clint (Hawkeye) and Gorgon is a finer warrior than Wolverine. And as they enter *their* aircraft he adds that he has a man on the inside of the NAv.

Our team including Dr Strange and Iron Fist who I haven't mentioned so far and Daredevil are having a meal when Victoria Hand, their liaison with Cap, walks in with an egg on her shoulder thrown by a protester. Luke tells Danny Rand *not* to give the mob the satisfaction of seeing him come out to talk to them. Spidey continues to be suspicious of Hand who used to be Osborn's right-hand woman. She gets angry but calms down to tell them she's been in a meeting with Maria Hill (back leading SHIELD) and Sharon Carter (of the Secret Avengers). But then she gets a message that they're needed in Miami. They take the quinjet again, apart from Jessica who stays behind with baby Danielle despite Squirrel Girl's assurances. And Hand sends someone some coordinates and says she's bought him a head start.

The quinjet arrives over a farm somewhere that's obviously not Miami. Pilot Mockingbird says Hand must have given them the wrong coordinates and asks for an update. Then they're off again. But when they get there they see monsters lying in a scene of devastation with the Dark Avengers standing over them. Norman Osborn is assuring the populace that this seems to be an isolated Atlantean attack and that his Avengers, absolutely nothing to do with Commander Steve Rogers, will continue to protect the people of the USA.