Avengers (vol. 3) #16
Mistaken Identity
After being busted out of prison, the Wrecking Crew have been teleported to the hideout by the Doomsday Man, the man who restored their powers. They aren’t happy however, because this came just as they were robbing a bank. However, the Doomsday Man can just as easily give as he can take away, and realizing that they could lose their recently regained power, they agree to follow his plan. He tells them that he wants them to capture Ms. Marvel, but the Doomsday Man’s records are greatly out of date and he doesn’t know where to find them.
The Wrecking Crew — mistaking Ms. Marvel with the female Captain Marvel — do, and have their new master teleport them to New Orleans where they go on the rampage.[1] At that moment Monica Rambeau, the former Captain Marvel, is out at sea in the charter fishing boat owned by her and her father, Frank. Monica is daydreaming about her time on the Avengers when her thoughts are interrupted by her father,[2] who tells her about the Wrecking Crew’s rampage in the city. Changing into Photon, Monica uses her powers to fly back to New Orleans at the speed of light to face the villains.
Meanwhile, at Avengers Mansion, its is Justice’s turn to be chairperson that week and he finds himself gripped with stage fright. After stuttering through the meeting, Vance chastises himself for acting like such a star struck loser. His teammate and lover Firestar tries to get him to cheer up, but it isn’t until Jarvis recounts a time when Hercules helmed a meeting with fetid cheese breath after devouring a gyro that Vance start to feel better. Back in the meeting room, the other Avengers are trying to come up with ways to make Vance less nervous when they are visited by their old teammates Dane Whitman. He tells them he decided to stop by after returning to America and learning his old team, the Heroes for Hire, have since disbanded.[3] As they are catching up, Photon comes flying through the wall in her energy form, weakened after her ordeal with the Wrecking Crew, she has come to get the help from her old team. Along the way, Monica tells the Avengers that the Wrecking Crew seemed to grow stronger every time she used her powers against them.[4]
They arrive in New Orleans just as the Wrecking Crew is about to attack a Mardi Gras parade in an effort to drawn Monica out of hiding. Not expecting the Avengers, the Wrecking Crew split up and send the team on a merry chase across the French Quarter. In the ensuing battle, Justice rushes to join a fight between the Black Knight and Piledriver only to get seriously struck in the head by the flat of the Knight’s blade. This injury, distracts the other Avengers long enough for the Wreckers to nab “Captain Marvel” and prepare to teleport back to their master.
However, the Doomsday Man has been scanning the Wrecker’s captive and notices that she doesn’t have a Kree energy signature. Realizing that the Wrecking Crew nabbed the wrong woman, the Doomsday Man is able to track down the real Ms. Marvel, aka Carol Danvers. At that moment, Carol is spotted outside a liquor store by Janet Van Dyne, aka the Wasp. Still bitter over quitting the Avengers, Carol insists that she is only a social drinker and doesn’t have a problem. When she is suddenly teleported away, Janet turns into the Wasp and flies off to find her fellow Avengers and tell them what happened.
Back in New Orleans, the Scarlet Witch tries to use her hex powers to prevent the Wrecking Crew from teleporting away. Unfortunately, something goes wrong and instead of stopping them from going anywhere, Wanda accidentally catapulted them into another dimension.
Recurring Characters
Avengers (Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Wonder Man, Justice, Firestar), Doomsday Man, Wrecking Crew (Wrecker, Thunderball, Piledriver, Bulldozer), Photon, Black Knight, Warbird, Frank Rambeau, Edwin Jarvis
Continuity Notes
The Doomsday Man wanting Ms. Marvel and the Wreckers confusing her with Captain Marvel all comes down to the convoluted naming schemes for characters. The details:
The Doomsday Man is actually two Ms. Marvel foes that were merged together when caught in a Psyche-Magnatron explosion that merged AIM scientist Kerwin Korman with the Doomsday Man robot. See Ms. Marvel #1-4.
However, the merger and why he wants Ms. Marvel to free him isn’t explained until next issue. The fusing process requires Kree biology to help free Kerwin from the Doomsday Man, hence why he wants Ms. Marvel since she has the needed Kree DNA. Kerwin remained in storage/stasis at an AIM warehouse until the place was busted by the New Warriors in Avengers (vol. 3) #13.
What Korman doesn’t know is that Carol Danvers, aka Ms. Marvel, has changed her name a few times since he first fought her. She started calling herself Binary in Uncanny X-Men #164, and more recently, Warbird in Avengers (vol. 3) #4. At this point in time she has never been called Captain Marvel, a title she won’t take on until Avenging Spider-Man #9.
The Captain Marvel that the Wrecking Crew is going after is Monica Rambeau and she started calling herself Captain Marvel in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16. However, after meeting Genis-Vell, the son of the original Captain Marvel in Avengers Unplugged #5, she decided to change her name to Photon.
Monica was offered to join the Avengers from the moment they met her in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16, officially joining the roster in Avengers #227. She was a mainstay on the team for a while, becoming leader in issue #278. However, when she was forced to retire after losing a great deal of body mass when using her light powers in water circa Avengers #293-294. She eventually regained her health and started fighting crime again in Captain Marvel (vol. 2) #1.
Black Knight mentions how he joined Heroes for Hire and how he was appointed the second coming of King Arthur by the mystical Lady of the Lake. This happened in the first two issues of that series. He left the team to help train the Knights of Wundagore following the events of Heroes for Hire #15-16, Annual 1998, and Quicksilver #11-12. While he was gone, Heroes for Hire disbanded in Heroes for Hire #19.
The Black Knight recounts how he and Monica (as Captain Marvel) fought the Wrecking Crew in the past. This happened in Avengers #274, during the Master of Evil’s siege on Avengers Mansion.
It was revealed in Avengers (vol. 3) #4 that Carol had picked up a drinking habit. Refusing to admit she has a problem, Carol quit the Avengers in issue #7. She won’t get help until Avengers (vol. 3) #26, when it is revealed she is now attending Alcoholics Anonymous.
Topical References
Wonder Man suggests that Justice picture the team naked to get over his fear of hosting a meeting, saying that he did the same thing once on Letterman. This should be considered a topical reference as Letterman hasn’t had a late night talk show since 2015. Although Letterman has a Netflix series as of this writing (May, 2022) given the short lifespan of Netflix shows and/or the fact hat Letterman is in his late 70s, his time as a talk show host are numbered.
