Soon, Hercules is walking down a city street, fuming over Wasp’s treatment of him when he chances upon an overturned tractor-trailer blocking traffic. He flips it back on its wheels and accepts the driver’s offer to treat him to a beer….
Several blocks away, Wasp is sitting in her limo, fuming about Namor’s departure and Herc’s insult when she hears an alarm from her apartment. She flies there directly and discovers
Paladin waiting for her. He apologizes for the break-in and asks her to tell him what’s bothering her. Then the phone rings and they are off to the Passaic County jail….
Captain Marvel drops in on FBI Agent
Derek Freeman via the sunlight steaming through his window.
CM is interested in
Moonstone’s escape from police custody after the altercation at
Avengers Mansion (last issue). Freeman ties it to several recent escapes of noted bad guys including
Grey Gargoyle,
Whirlwind, and
Mister Hyde. He asks her to dinner; she is pleased but busy so they arrange to get together soon. Monica returns to the Mansion and finds
Dane running tests on his
Ebony Blade, having discovered in the fight with Moonstone that it can absorb energy. They then move on to the matter of her powers. CM can manifest as any sort of energy and Dane suggests that she could become neutrinos and wants to test her against the sun….
At the New Jersey jail, Wasp questions
Rita DeMarr, whom she fought as the new
Yellowjacket, wanting to know how she obtained
Hank Pym’s suit and technology. Her lawyer and his assistant arrive to advise her not to answer—but Wasp recognizes the “lawyer” as
Paul Duval, the Grey Gargoyle. The assistant turns out to be
Screaming Mimi who unleashes a shriek that fells the others. Paladin recovers quickly and fights
GG. Wasp topples Mimi who lets out another scream, this one inducing hallucinations in Wasp….
Captain Marvel is flying around the sun, monitored by Black Knight. Then Wasp’s emergency beacon goes off. CM is an eight-minute call away. Dane contacts Hercules who is in a bar, arm-wrestling five sailors simultaneously and he beats them all, breaking the radio receiver in his wristband.
Captain America picks up the message but he is hours away on his motorcycle. Black Knight worries: he must help Wasp as quickly as possible but if Captain Marvel encounters trouble and he isn’t there….
Back at the jail, Wasp breaks out of the stone wastebasket the baddies had trapped her in and Paladin, stuck under a stone filing cabinet, tells her to pursue the baddies. On the way out of the building she discovers multiple jail staffers turned to stone by Grey Gargoyle. Wasp goes on ahead and, catching up to the bad guys’ getaway car, shoots out a tire with her sting, causing a crash. Yellowjacket receives a call from their mysterious leader who tells her how to escape. GG is chasing Wasp all around when Black Knight arrives on the
atomic steed, using the Ebony Blade to slice up the stone tree GG is using for a weapon. GG grabs the blade and it absorbs his power, turning him back into a normal man; BK knocks him out. Paladin arrives, having nabbed Screaming Mimi as she tried to run. Captain Marvel arrives, having returned to the Mansion and seen BK’s message. BK worries that he endangered CM so he could look like a hero in front of Jan and is jealous that Jan and Paladin seem chummy….
Later, Black Knight tells Captain America about the incident: neither Grey Gargoyle nor Screaming Mimi would say why they broke Yellowjacket out of jail. Cap says he will look into it and Dane asks him about Paladin. Then they receive a call from Namor, the
Sub-Mariner: he has been repulsed at Atlantis and admits he will need the
Avengers’ help to take back his kingdom or
Marrina will die….
Story continued in
ALPHA FLIGHT #39.
For the special marvelite in you