CARNAGE versus NEW AVENGERS

Breakout! Part Two (Marvel)
Where: New Avengers #2 When: February 2005
Why: Brian Michael Bendis How: David Finch

The Story So Far...
A sequence of violence and tragedy leads The Avengers to officially disassemble, but their absence creates a gaping hole in the heroic fabric that demands it be filled!

When Electro is hired to stage a breakout at the high-tech SHIELD prison, The Raft, he plunges the city of Manhattan into darkness, and frees eighty-seven of its most dangerous super-criminals!

Fate conspires to bring together a team of New Avengers to thwart the breakout! Former Spider-Woman Jessica Drew is on the island as an Agent of SHIELD, while Luke Cage was accompanying Daredevil in his civilian identity of blind lawyer Matt Murdock. When the breakout begins - the trio must fight for their lives as the serial killing Carnage stalks the shadowy halls beneath the island, but the deadly symbiote isn't the only one lurking in the dark...

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Luke Cage 5 (Super-Human)
Intelligence: Queen Veranke 4 (Tactician)
Speed: Daredevil 4 (Olympian)
Stamina: Luke Cage 5 (Marathoner)
Agility: Queen Veranke 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting: Daredevil 5 (Martial Artist)
Energy: Queen Veranke 3 (Explosives)
Total: Queen Veranke 26 (Metahuman)

Being trapped at close quarters with a fleet of escaping super-villains is bad enough. When one of those escapees happens to be the symbiote-wearing serial killer Carnage -- you know you're in real trouble!

The heroes are: Matt Murdock, Luke Cage, and Jessica Drew, with The Sentry.

This small group happens to be on hand when the breakout occurs. They aren't technically Avengers yet, but this experience will pull most of them into the orbit of a new team to be assembled by Captain America and Iron Man.

Blind lawyer Matt Murdock is better known as Daredevil, whose keen radar-senses, agility, and skilled martial arts mostly offer evasive tactics that might provide a useful distraction for an opponent like Carnage.

Luke Cage is the power player of the opening trio. Along with his super-human strength and durability, his unbreakable skin has proven resistant to symbiote attack, as was later seen in New Avengers #36. That means he should at least be able to tackle Carnage head-on and offer his teammates some defense.

SHIELD Agent Jessica Drew is better known as Spider-Woman, but little do the heroes realise she is in actual fact the shape-shifting Skrull Queen: Veranke! 

Like the woman she's imitating, Veranke has great strength, agility, and wall-crawling abilities comparable to Spider-Man, but has the added imitated talent of generating bio-electricity into stinging venom blasts.

We saw Iron Man use an electric charge to fend off Venom in Iron Man #302, but the symbiote was relatively undeterred. The aliens' real weakness is fire and high-powered sonics, but as we saw when Silver Surfer confronted Carnage, the intelligent symbiote also knows to fear more broad threats to its survival.

The ace in the hole - or rather, a Raft cell - is The Sentry, whose "power of a  million exploding suns" is still nebulously defined at this point, but will make light work of The Thing and Hulk a few years later.

Sentry, aka; Robert Reynolds, will need to be motivated to leave his cell and risk reviving the dark alter-ego of his powers, The Void, but once free we know he can stare down a symbiote without too much trouble. If you know anything about the character or this fight, there's a pretty good chance you know what's coming...

The Tape: New Avengers Ranking: Daredevil (#8)

What Went Down...

With a full scale riot raging across The Raft; Matthew Murdock leads his partner and protection detail deeper into the facility. He pleads with the silent occupant of a dark & lonely prison cell: "Mr. Reynolds, please, we could really use your help."

His words appear to fall on deaf ears and with danger lurking beyond them at every turn, he asks SHIELD Agent Jessica Drew to show them to the stairs.

A spark of her Spider-Woman "venom blast" helps light the darkened corridor, but not enough to alert Luke Cage or the other bewildered agents of the toothy grin lurking in the shadows behind Foggy Nelson.

Foggy's indignant concern for "insanity" catching up with them is an unfortunate irony as the serial killer Carnage steps into the light. His large extending hand and symbiote strands curl in the air around the hapless lawyer.

Murdock charges to his friend's aid while Jessica Drew fires a venom blast directly at the murderous symbiote!

Whipping tendrils miss all but the strongest of the group. Luke Cage takes a direct hit to the gut, but against his toughened skin all that tears is his shirt!

Cage does his best to grapple with darting pseudo-appendages while Carnage sets his sights on Spider-Woman and any "one" of her internal organs.

Matt Murdock rushes Foggy to the relative safety of a nearby empty cell and orders him not to open the door under any circumstances. The terrified lawyer complies, entrusting his fate to the man without fear like so many times before.

Many wild tendrils fill the dark and narrow corridor with spastic chaos, searching for any unfortunate target they might strike. Murdock is easily knocked off his feet as one of them slaps him violently.

Agent Drew warns her compatriots of the symbiote's ability to feed off the people it makes contact with. The warning appears to inspire Carnage to lunge toward the shooting guards and make "easy snacks" of them.

Carnage continues trying to pierce Luke Cage's unbreakable skin in vain, while Agent Drew blasts his back with venom blasts to no avail.

Recognizing the hopelessness of the situation, Murdock tells the Spider-Woman to grab the guards and make a run for it. He doesn't notice the hulking figure approaching behind him to make matters much worse: Mister Hyde!

Any pretense of the blind lawyer is dropped as Matt Murdock is dragged into a one-on-one battle with his old adversary, calling upon his radar-like senses and years of martial arts as Daredevil to deal with the threat.

Meanwhile, a slightly bewildered Luke Cage continues to wrestle with Carnage. 

Agent Drew, still blasting the symbiote with her bio-electric stings, informs him that the villain usually deals with Spider-Man -- a second course Carnage hopes to sample once he's finished devouring his present company. Drew moves in closer to feed the symbiote a direct venom blast down its gaping maw!

Still completely unaware of how the Raft breakout happened, or the rampage of its 87 inmates raging on the surface above; Agent Drew redirects her focus to finding an escape, and calling for much-needed reinforcements.

Her prayers are answered as Robert Reynolds steps confidently through the corridor. Imprisoned in his tattered yellow uniform, the forgotten Sentry is none the less a vision of a hero as he stands before Carnage and catches a symbiote tendril with the palm of his unflinching hand.

It is the calm before the storm as reality is bombarded with the impossible power of a million exploding suns! A barrage of explosions blast through the lower levels of The Raft and into the night sky where The Sentry soon flies!

Clouds part as The Sentry carries Carnage toward Earth's outer atmosphere and silently ends the killer's rampage!

No scream is heard as Cletus Kasady is ripped in two at the waist, and the red symbiote flitters helplessly against a backdrop of stars and a blue planet. The cold reality of defeat like Carnage has never felt before!

The Hammer...

I'm guessing the majority of people reading this were already aware of The Sentry flying to space to rip Carnage in two, but I'm not so sure everybody knows there was an entire struggle before that.

The Sentry's attack was one of the most talked about moments of 2005. It was an immediate sensation! A "meme-able" lightning rod for the otherwise visually muddy prison riot intended to deliver us to a fresh perspective on a Marvel mainstay: The New Avengers.

All these years later it's almost hard to remember it was a controversial time for what is now one of Marvel's biggest mainstream brands.

Writer Brian Bendis took a wrecking ball to the classical lineup, abruptly launching a series of deadly attacks from within and without as Avengers Disassembled.

The violent affront riled up longtime fans who were dismayed to see Avengers (Vol.1) come to an abrupt end after a forty-two year run with only one year-long interruption. The revamp was an even bigger departure than The Ultimates, which had retooled the slightly stuffy Avengers concept with edgy modern politics, and uniform seams, for the en vogue Ultimate Marvel imprint in 2002.

This was hardly the first time The Avengers had dealt with upheaval in their lineups, but unwritten rules were clearly being violated.

The knock on the New Avengers strategy was that it was "JLA-ing" the group. The addition of iconic Avengers holdouts like Spider-Man and Wolverine -- and the Superman-analogous Sentry -- contributed to the comparison. These were independently popular characters associated with other offices.

In practise the "New" relaunch wasn't quite as all-star focused as Grant Morrison's '97 Justice League, nor was it a refinement of a classic model. It was a major departure from what was broadly understood as "Avengers™".

Spider-Man had flirted with membership many times in the past, but always swung away from most groupings with Reserve status at most. He was the star of Marvel Team-Up and the centre of the Marvel Universe, but a perennial solo act at the end of the day. His change of heart comes after being mobbed by Raft escapees in the opening New Avengers issues -- a fight for another day.

Daredevil did a more convincing job staying solo by flat-out turning down Captain America's recruitment offer after Raft riot clean-up. It turns out this was an accidental bit of consistency as DD's incumbent secret identity as mystery man "Ronin" was widely guessed by fans, publicly spoiled by a news outlet, and clashed with ideas for ending Bendis' acclaimed DD run with Murdock in prison.

Slow starts were a writer trademark, but it turned out a lot of parts would be sold separately during the chaotic assembly of the New Avengers.

Extensive pre-promotion had featured art of the entire group -- including an affectionately referred to "bubble boy" that was replaced with what became the Ronin design. That made it surprising when Wolverine and Ronin didn't appear for five or more issues. Spider-Woman, it would turn out, was actually a Skrull in disguise all along, and Sentry didn't come back down to Earth until the second story arc, which focused on his formal introduction to the Marvel Universe canon.

Prior to this The Sentry had effectively existed unto himself. His secret history was told with isolated one-shots and mini-series in 2000. It was writer Paul Jenkins' millennium hoax, which supposed that the character was a forgotten creation from Marvel's classic pantheon. A sort of 'Superman with headaches', as Marvel likes to describe of its heroes, with an elaborate backstory.

Without the burden of consequence, Sentry's secret history had been able to rewrite the status quo for several heroes. He was Mister Fantastic's best friend, mentored Angel, made Hulk a beloved public figure, and got Peter Parker a Pulitzer prize for photography. All undone when knowledge of his existence was erased to avoid unleashing his dark nemesis and alter-ego: The Void.

Officially bringing the character into the on-going Marvel Universe seemed like a risky proposition to many, but also an interesting challenge. The bombastic defeat of Carnage gave him a major scalp upon entry, but the glib dismissal of a nineties hangover wasn't enough to convince everyone the idea could work.

After Civil War Sentry passed through the ranks of the registered "Mighty" Avengers, before a direction leaning into fans' disdain placed him among the villainous Dark Avengers. An epic battle in World War Hulk proved to be a rare highlight during the short run, but after just five years, his death in Siege was a widely expected foregone conclusion. A fail state brought about by a long awaited return of Thor, and short-lived shift towards a somewhat traditional Avengers.

If you'd like to experience The Sentry's re-entry into the Marvel canon, and the dawn of the New Avengers, you can check out today's featured fight in its entirety collected in New Avengers: Breakout or New Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis: The Complete Collection Volume 1.

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Winner: The Sentry (w/ Luke Cage, Jessica Drew & Matt Murdock)
#71 (+51) The Sentry
#8 (--) Daredevil [+1 assist]
#9 (--) Luke Cage [+1 assist]
#194 (+101) Queen Veranke [+1 assist]
#133 (-12) Carnage (Symbiote)
#145 (-10) Carnage (Cletus Kasady)

THE AVENGERS versus THE HAND
Revolution Part One (Marvel comics)
Where: New Avengers #27 When: April 2007
Why: Brian Michael Bendis How: Leinil Yu

The story so far...
In the wake of Wolverine's tenure as a Hydra puppet, Elektra has taken control of The Hand, but it hasn't been the gift to peace some may have expected it to be.

During the superhero Civil War the hero called Echo has been investigating in Japan under the created guise of Ronin. Her operations in the Japanese underworld have attracted the attentions of Elektra and her new Hand clan.

An SOS distress she sends out to her jailed friend Matt Murdock proves to arrive too late, and Echo is killed, only to be resurrected by The Hand to be an instrument of Elektra. That is, unless her friends make the save!
Better late than never...

Previous Form:
Secret Avengers [#16]: Were swiftly defeated by the pro-reg Avengers.
Spider-man (#1): Successfully teamed with the Avengers, Zombies, Human Torch, Ghost Rider, Namor & Iron Man.
Wolverine (#3): Successfully teamed with the Avengers, Zombies & the X-Men.
Luke Cage (#143): Yet to feature in any significant capacity.
Elektra (#10): Victories over Bullseye, Catwoman & Echo.

Tale of the tape...
Strength: Luke Cage 5 (Super Strength)
Intelligence: Spider-man 5 (Professor)
Speed: Iron Fist 4 (Olympian)
Stamina: Luke Cage 5 (Marathon Man)
Agility: Spider-man 5 (Cat-like)
Fighting Ability: Iron Fist 6 (Warrior)
Energy Powers: Dr. Strange 6 (Mass Destruction)


Statistically speaking, the tape clearly lines up to favoure the Secret Avengers, but what it fails to consider is the overwhelming presence of The Hand, which supplies an unending supply of disposable ninja. Thus, we should consider that on the terms of team numbers, Elektra far outnumbers the seven Avengers.

Not that these Avengers are a team of piss-ants. On the contrary, there's an interesting blend of characters close to the street, with firepower to back them up when things get rough. The line-up of seven features; Luke Cage, Spider-man, Iron Fist, Dr. Strange, Spider-Woman, Wolverine, and Ronin; aka Hawkeye.

Yes, Hawkeye is the second Ronin, as revealed in the recent New Avengers #30, but more on that in The Hammer. For the time being, let us consider that Hawkeye has gone into combat without his bag of trick arrows. Good or bad?
Well, at least he isn't going to explode any time soon ["Not like this!" - Misgivings Mike], but on the same time, now he's without his trademark weapons!

For those who came in late -- Hawkeye was trained in the early days by the Swordsman, so presumably he's going to be proficient with the Ronin blade he's packing, but one would have to question his willingness to use it.

Willingness to do what's necessary probably isn't going to be much of an issue with Elektra or her Hand ninja, which are all trained in the deadly anatsatsuken assassin arts! Elektra in particular poses a threat to the safety of the team, but they're not without their counter threats.

Wolverine is the best there is at what he does, and that's eviscerating, slicing, dicing and juicing, wherever possible. If push comes to shove, he's the guy who'll do what's necessary to make sure the good guys come out with the least casualties. Meanwhile, on the less lethal but not less deadly side is Iron Fist, who can pound-for-pound match most of the Marvel universe's best fighters!

Throw in the mystic prowess of Earth's Sorceror Supreme, the web-slinging spectacular Spider-man, and the impenetrable hero no longer for hire, Luke Cage, and you've got yourself a pretty formidable unit!

The Math: The Avengers (Total) Elektra (Average)
The Pick: The Secret Avengers

What went down...
After three days of conditioning at the bottom of a hole, Echo might be beginning to slip, but the sound of fighting no doubt inspires her to hold on just a moment longer. Good thing she can't hear what the fighters are saying...

The Avengers find themselves set upon fairly swiftly by the hordes of the Hand ninja. Given their personless nature, there's no holds barred against these animated humanoid collections of goop and mystic meat. Wolverine takes great advantage, slicing through what resembles a neck while Spidey quips about some of their more recent adventures.

As Wolverine lets the inner animal out, Hawkeye remarks, perhaps ironically, on the exchange of discussion during the fight.

Cage pounds his way through some ninja, while Iron Fist remarks upon his distaste for banter during combat. "You're doing banter now, Fist." "No, I'm not." "I didn't say it was good banter."

Though their exchange is corny, their skills remain as sharp as ever. Iron Fist warns Spider-man through a dodge, following through with a fully charged fist of iron that rips straight through the faux-flesh of Hand ninja, reducing them to mist.

Hawkeye, the new kid on the team, enquires about Dr. Strange's techniques, which until this point have involved silently going about his business. The good Doctor reveals his prestige, a series of simple transient spells that reduce the ninja to sleeping, or crying for their mommies.

Elektra enters the fray, furiously bringing her sai down to Cage's chest with an incredibly sloppy, and uncharacteristically undisciplined axe handle motion.

Cage's "unbreakable" skin protects him from damage, allowing him the opportunity to grapple with Elektra, pulling her in for a face-to-face. Introductions are brief; "Rrr... I got a message from Matt Murdock." "Yeah?" "He told me, if I see you, to give you this..."

Pictured right is DD's message.

And, before you say what you're thinking, yes. It does still hurt a great deal. Or at least, so I'm told. Come on, it makes sense. Now, stop snickering...

Spidey stops to quip, but Wolverine pulls back the reins, ordering the wall-crawler toward the initiation pit, as apparently predetermined during team strategizing.

Spider-man webs the stunned Elektra up, and slips down the hole, landing with springy ease. He pulls his mask back to his nose, allowing the deaf Echo to read his lips. He explains that Murdock sent he and his Avengers to rescue her, but the tortured Echo is understandably reluctant to trust the rescue. Fortunately for her, she's too weak to put up a struggle, and Spidey slings his way back to the surface to rejoin his Avengers.

Still battling their way through the endless stream of red cloth and ninja, Cage is all too happy to call a strategic retreat. Wolverine gives the cue, signalling to Dr. Strange to make for a magical exit. While the Doctor conjures his spell, Iron Fist gives them some room, pounding the stoney ground of The Hand's lair, creating a seizmic shake under foot.

Elektra cuts herself free of Spidey's web with a sword, but by then it's too late. The Secret Avengers have made their escape -- for now.

The hammer...
While there wasn't really any physical conclusion to this encounter, there was a very specific mission objective achieved, and a physical dominance worth noting, considering the nature of The Hand. Thus, we crown The Avengers winners!

I'm drastically behind schedule, so it may not yet have occurred to you that this post is occurring on a Sunday! I think I may have mentioned that I wanted to revisit the issue once we knew who Ronin was, so when else would be a more fitting time to do a Sunday Super Special?!

We of course all now know that the new Ronin is in fact the post-House of M resurrected version of Clint Barton - Hawkeye. I think it's safe to say of all the picks, he was the most logical, given the telegraphing nature of New Avengers #26, which featured his return and search for Wanda Maximoff (after a quick visit with Dr. Strange).

We also know that Hawkeye came to be the new Ronin under the flippant conditions that without a costume, he would not be allowed to accompany the Avengers, who were otherwise interested in his aid. Hmmm... For a guy who made his name on gnarly, gritty, street level dialogue, Bendis just can't help but serve up hunks of ham, can he? This issue, particularly with that little hindsight, is positively dripping in ham and honey glazing.

Still, another benefit of hindsight is the progression of the story to better feature this new collective of Avengers. For the first time in the title's history it finally feels like there's a cohesive and grounded direction that actually involves the team! Hey, the team appearing in their book? I'd buy that for a dollar!

I'd be lying if I said I didn't think Hawkeye-Ronin was a debacle of the most hilarious degree. I think the circumstances are what really make it unfortunate, given the previous Ronin fiasco, and the justifiable media it generated.
Though the circumstances by which Barton becomes Ronin are laughable, the delivery would likely have been much more acceptable if it were allowed to be more forthcoming, and free of the marketing angle.

New Avengers, as highlighted during this fight, is a pretty light story that isn't going to excessive lengths to take it's self seriously.
It's a ninja-battling romp thrugh Japan that has the Secret Avengers out of all the red-tape clutter that's bogged the Marvel Universe down, that is freeing them up logically for this refreshing change of pace. It's a sound concept.
The costume-changing action figure antics fit right in with the banter exchange, and butt-kicking that goes with it. The frustration really just comes down the caged scrutiny and responsive secrecy that went along with it. It wasn't worth it.

Still, Ronin-II is out of the way now, and hopefully we can look forward to Captain AmeRonin sometime in season 07/08. Yuk-yuk. Jokes aside, New Avengers has finally found it's footing as a satisfying read, and it looks like this story still promises a lot to come. Groovy!

It's getting late again, and I'm still trying to catch up on updates, so stick around for the next Monday Marvel Ultimate Alliance update. We're skipping Tigershark and Kraken to get straight to the Dragon Man! Be here!

EDIT (June 17): You are no doubt aware by now that revelations from New Avengers #31 reveal that this was not Elektra at all, but rather a well trained Skrull facsimile! Rankings have now been changed accordingly.

The Fight: 5 The Issue: 5.5