Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Lawyer Connie Ferrari tells the Great Lakes Avengers (currently Big Bertha, Flatman, Mr Immortal and newbie Good Boy (Good(ness) Silva who can go werewolf) in their HQ in an abandoned Detroit Stark factory) that they mustn't tell *anyone* how they kidnapped villain Nain Rouge (aka Detroit Councilman Dick Snerd) and Good Boy almost killed him, before they dropped his body off at Butler Hospital. (All that happened last issue.) Now she leaves for New York and tells them to lie low.
Big Bertha also leaves for a modelling job and says she'll be back later and they should save her some food. On the way out she passes a guy at the front door. She tells him that the others are inside lying low and not to ask about unexplained assaults. The others fear she's talking to a cop! But it turns out to be Good's brother Lucky who's released himself from the same Butler Hospital, still bandaged up from the injuries he sustained when Nain's goons destroyed their house. He heard about the Councilman who got mauled, and he recognised her handiwork when he snuck in to give the guy a Tito Frehley. (I was as ignorant as some of the other characters as to what that is.) Now he thinks that the 2 of them should leave town tonight.
Bertha's photoshoot is in another seemingly abandoned building, Corktown Meats, and the low-budget setup causes her to threaten to fire her agent Jen. BB goes to tell the photographer that she won't do the job. We see that they want her to use her mass-control superpower to do a before and after ad for Dr Nod's Good Bod Supplement. They'll shoot her as Big Bertha, and then slimmed down to the sort-of size she 'wore' as supermodel Ashley Crawford. Dr Nod himself pops in and asks her what the problem is. He assures her that his supplement is legitimate. (As is his other product DN's Hot Cod, a microwavable fish oil supplement.) He only needs her to 'cheat' because his backers are demanding an ad now. He can see she has scruples but maybe $20,000 dollars will make them go away.
Val Ventura (Flatman) tries to talk Good out of leaving, but she says she's doing it for the team's sake too. He promises they'll protect her, but she reminds him that their record so far is being arrested and nearly fired as Avengers. The easily-depressed team leader admits that they were described online as America's Alpha Flight which was meant as an aspirational compliment. (Well, AF have had a lot more issues than the GLA.) As usual he says he makes a poor leader, but she reminds him that no-one's died on his watch which gives him a much better score than when Mr Immortal was in charge. Then she goes anyway.
Bertha (looking I think bigger than usual) is doing the job. The photographer gets her to look really unhappy about being fat. She's relieved when her mobile rings. She pretends it's a call to superhero action but actually it's Good (presumably wanting to inform her about quitting). She's leaves the 'studio' to take the call but on the way out she overhears Dr Nod talking to someone (presumably a backer) and saying that she suspects nothing, and something about shooting her in the neck. But he realises that she's overheard and comes after her. Bertha goes and grabs Jen and then smashes through an outside wall (several stories up) and prepares to leap across to the roof of another building. She tells her agent this was a trap, but Jen reveals that she was in on it and sticks a hypodermic into BB's neck. They fall to the street, Bertha cushioning Jen's landing.
Good is unhappy about Bertha not answering her text. Lucky brings a load of snacks he's just bought and they get in his car for a road trip, their 1st since their parents died. Good's worried that they've no money and nowhere to go. Lucky points out that she's (technically) an Avenger so maybe Captain America will put them up. Good thinks it's an unspoken rule.
Bertha regains consciousness in hi-tech manacles she can't break free of. Dr Nod tells her to relax because he's got everything he needs from her. It turns out Jen didn't inject her with anything but extracted stuff from her. They've mixed that with mutant growth hormone to produce pills that can give anyone total control of their body shape for 24 hours. Now he release her and says she's free to go. But instead she proposes to wreck their whole operation. However he reveals that he, Jen, the photographer and a lighting tech have already taken the pills. And they bulk up as Dr Nod and the Bod Squad.
The last page takes us to Butler Hospital where staff discover that someone has applied magic marker to comatose Dick Snerd's face, and they declare it the best Tito Frehley they've ever seen.