Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Last issue Big Bertha and Good Boy discovered Nain Rouge drunk in the office in his bar, and also that he is secretly Detroit City Councilman Dick Snerd.
Now they've brought him back to Great Lakes Avengers HQ in an abandoned Stark factory and tied him up in a chair in a storeroom. Good(ness) Silva wants to know why they did that and Bertha can't actually give a good reason. Snerd says it's because they think he's a supervillain and they're Avengers. But he claims that he's the 1 actually helping the city by driving people (like Good and her brother) out of their slum homes, because then they can be replaced by businesses that bring wealth to the city. The fact that he as Nain Rouge owns those businesses is a mere detail.
So now he tells them his origin story. Some years ago crime in Detroit was rampant, but the US's superheroes were off fighting in outer space or alternate dimensions (he misses out just fighting each other). So he became a vigilante Nain Rouge (Red Dwarf) to make the streets safe. But he changed his mind after getting shot by a man who was threatening his own wife and child. As Nain Rouge he hired villains like Firebrand and Shriek to wreck slums, and as Dick Snerd he became a City Councilman by promising to make the city great again. And now he claims that he's done just that. Then he notices that his audience has grown bored with him. Bertha offers to go get Good a coffee and tells her to watch their captive. "If he moves, kill him." When Bertha's gone Snerd coughs, which Good takes as movement.
In another part of the building Flatman and Mr Immortal have returned, and Val Ventura asks Pansy if their Avengers lawyer Connie Ferrari called about dropping off some paperwork. Pansy says she's not their secretary and she's not sure they even have a landline. She tells them Big Bertha came in about an hour ago with some man and asked for some rope. Mr I asks who the man was just as Bertha enters the room and accuses him of being jealous. This sparks off an argument about their relationship. Apparently they got engaged but then Craig showed up drunk and called it off. Hollis responds by reminding her that she ditched her successful modelling career as slender Ashley Crawford to start again as a plus-size model when the team depended on her income to finance them. She resents his desire to control her life and asks how much being a freelance drunk was paying. All through this FM has been trying to get Bertha to tell him who the man is.
Meanwhile Good has taken on her much bigger wolf form and is menacing Snerd. She hates him because his super-goons put her brother in hospital, wrecked their house and set fire to the neighbourhood. Snerd says she doesn't scare him. She can't prove he's responsible for any of that (even though he admits it). And his lawyers are better than theirs and will have them all in jail. Good Boy admits he's right. But that means he must die, and she leaps on him. He's scared now.
At this point Connie Ferrari is arriving in a chauffeured limo. Connie's scanning her phone for local single superheroes and has come up with Brontosaur Russ. Disgustedly she complains to her assistant Amy that nobody measures up after you've date a real 1 (in her case Captain America). She advises her never to date a super-hero. Amy scoffs at the very idea, but we see her secretly exchanging texts with Gambit.
Val has just learned that Bertha kidnapped Snerd and he's worried what Connie will say, when Pansy alerts them that the lawyer's at the door. FM immediately panics and hides behind the fridge until Mr Immortal drags him out. Then he plans to take the Flatmobile and go start a new life somewhere, but BB stops him. She has a plan. They all don sunglasses and fixed smiles (to avoid betraying micro-expressions) and go out with orders to act naturally.
They invite the 2 women in and Ms Ferrari explains her plan to deal with the Council's injunction against them operating as superheroes. Because they're all mutants (as established at the end of the 1st mini-series) she thinks she can use an injunction against X-Factor as a precedent. But she's becoming increasingly suspicious of the team's behaviour, especially when Val starts sweating and excusing himself to get water while declaring that his actions were perfectly normal. Then she hears noises from the storeroom and demands to know what's happening in there. Flatman bars the way and begs her not to kick them out of the Avengers. Bertha persuades him to let Connie through. And inside the room they see Good, Snerd's body and a lot of blood.
The last scene is outside Butler Hospital as a nurse confiscates a pack of cigarettes from a patient with cancer. Then the Flatmobile drives past and dumps Snerd's body wrapped in a curtain along with his Nain mask and a note saying 'I'm a criminal'.