Entertainment
 

50-State Initiative (Earth-616)

From Marvel Database

(Redirected from Initiative)
Team TemplateTeam Template
Official Name
50-State Initiative
Status
Status

Team Identity

Universe

Base Of Operations

Organization

Current Members


Allies
U.S. Government, S.H.I.E.L.D.

Enemies
Any criminal threat

Origin
Origin
After the tragedy in Stamford and the Super Hero Civil War, it was created to train young heroes, and to put a super team on each state.

Place of Formation
Washington D.C.


First appearance

Contents

History

Start of The Initiative

In the aftermath of the Civil War, the pro-registration side stood victorious and launched the 50 States Initiative which called for one S.H.I.E.L.D. sponsored super team for each state. The series focused on the training facility located at Camp Hammond, in Stamford, Connecticut. In addition the series explored the people on those line ups and the unique situations that came with these new locations. Each issue revealed more about the teams from each state. It would also show these teams adapting and growing through different situations, and was confirmed to play a major part in World War Hulk, resisting the Hulk's return. The first group of young heroes that had been sent to 'Hero Boot Camp' in Stamford, Connecticut, the site of the explosion that launched the whole civil war. The issue largely followed the young heroes MVP, Cloud 9, Armory, and Trauma, as well as their drill-sergeant, Gauntlet. MVP was established as one of the most capable young heroes there, and began to express some feelings for the shy and self-conscious Cloud 9. During a training exercise, however, Trauma's powers accidentally caused Armory to lose control of her powers, and MVP was apparently killed pushing Cloud 9 out of the way. In response, they got rid of Armory's powers, and kicked her out of the camp. Henry Peter Gyrich, who was overseeing the entire project, informed everyone present that the mishap 'never happened.' While the recruits struggled to deal with the aftermath of MVP's death and Armory's wash out, Justice continued to be unhappy with Gauntlet's constant use of "New Warriors" as an insulting term. As the kids finished the obstacle course, Trauma again lost control of his transformation, first feeding off of Cloud 9's guilt at being responsible for the death, and then transforming into an image of a beaten and bloody Janet Van Dyne when Yellowjacket attempted to intervene. As Justice and Gauntlet cleaned up the situation, Dr. Pym was called to the lab where Baron Von Blitzschlag informed him and Gyrich of MVP's anatomy; instead of being enhanced by the Super Soldier Serum as everyone believed, he was actually an "Übermensch", the ultimate human specimen. As Blitzschlag and Gyrich lauded the benefits of such a test subject, Pym again had a crisis of conscience, only enhanced when the German scientist recounted his past "villainous" acts and remarked "I am your greatest fan." When a crisis over Texas, where the President was visiting, involving the HYDRA Terror-carrier required that the recruits join the fray, Cloud 9, Komodo, Hardball, Gauntlet, War Machine, Justice and Yellowjacket all arrived on the scene (with Hardball, Gauntlet and Komodo donning jet packs and Cloud 9 being revealed as the best marksman of the bunch when she received a pulse rifle). As the attack escalated, Yellowjacket deployed the secret weapon he developed to infiltrate the carrier's shields, a small vibranium capsule which he hid inside of. When he breached the shields, he grew to enormous size and forcibly redirected the carrier to crash, purposely riding it out. Meanwhile, Trauma, who had wanted the program to strip him of his powers and become normal again, was instead escorted by Gyrich to a room holding Beast and an unseen mutant who was a "specialist" who could help Trauma learn to control his powers. The "specialist" in question was the former mutant, Danielle Moonstar, who possessed similar powers to Trauma. After the events of the Terror-carrier incident, Hardball spoke to Komodo about Justice apparently having learned of MVP's fate. While he talked, he turned to see not Komodo but a strange girl sleeping next to him. Meanwhile Trauma and Danielle Moonstar discussed what training he would receive. Though the locals gave Hardball a decidedly cold reception, a mysterious individual took him aside and asked for information on S.P.I.N. Tech which Komodo was currently being briefed on. As the most promising of the new recruits, she was being given an official assignment to take down Spider-Man. S.P.I.N. Tech, as it turned out, was a new type of nanotechnology that, when fired in projectile form, could cause a superhuman to lose access to his or her superpowers instantly. When one of the Scarlet Spiders spotted Spider-Man fighting Hydro-Man, The Shocker, and Boomerang, War Machine and Komodo head to the scene of the battle. Though Peter had everything well in hand, Komodo and War Machine arrived and cause the Sinister Syndicate to flee, and Spider-Man was left to battle the duo. He quickly incapacitated War Machine with a blast of webbing that shut down his armor--but not before War Machine mysteriously stated that even though Peter would be stripped of his powers, the world would not be left without a Spider-Man. While Komodo fared much better, Spider-Man's wit and the threat that her failure would result in her losing her powers caused a slip-up, which he used to defeat her and slip away easily. However, a mysterious third party, which War Machine called "Red Team" and which had been cloaked during the fight, was revealed to be a group of people in duplicate versions of Tony Stark's Spider-Man armor. The story ended with Komodo's desperate plea not to be stripped of her powers, as she disliked being normal and considered her other self to be a nobody.

World War Hulk

Main article: World War Hulk

Gyrich tried to persuade Trauma to join his Shadow Initiative, thinking he could be a powerful member. However, Trauma's trainer, the former mutant, Danielle Moonstar, objected to Gyrich's claims. Shortly after the Hulk returned from space with his Warbound, Hardball became involved in a covert operation to steal a piece of the S.P.I.N. technology. Meanwhile, Justice took Cloud 9 to the Van Patrick home as part of her therapy, after the death of MVP. Upon reaching the home, both were shocked to discover MVP answering the door; though Justice and Cloud 9 were dispatched to where the Hulk's battleship appeared before inquiry can be given. With the missing cartridge of S.P.I.N. technology going undiscovered by Tony Stark; Stark's attempt to remove Hulk's powers during their conflict failed and Hardball was directly responsible for the early failure to contain the Hulk and prevent massive amounts of damage and casualties. Initiative members were assigned to protect the crowd and refrain from engaging the Hulk, though after Iron Man's failure; Rage instructed the team to disregard orders and engage Hulk and his Warbound, while Henry Peter Gyrich ordered his secret team containing Bengal, Trauma, Constrictor, Mutant Zero and the Scarlet Spiders to the conflict to save the Initiative trainees. The Shadow Initiative snuck into Madison Square Garden, where the Hulk had built an arena to deliver captured heroes for their punishment. It was there where they were confronted by some of the Hulk's Death's Head guards, and Mutant Zero defeated them all. Across Manhattan, Hank Pym, along with Justice and O.N.E Sentinels, who left the X-Men, were setting up the devices that were a part of Iron Man's plan to fully send all of Manhattan and those who live in it into the Negative Zone. Trauma then transformed himself into Thor, this was due to Korg's fear of the Thunder god. Cloud 9 nearly killed Elloe by filling her lungs with smoke, however she was stopped by Trauma who saw this. Soon the team was confronted by the Hulk, himself, in which he defeated almost all of the Shadow team members. Trauma tried to defeat the Hulk in various forms of the Hulk's enemies, but when the Hulk wouldn't flinch at the sight of his old foes this left Trauma as a weak human. Later on in the hospital where Trauma was recovering, he made amends to his former team mates, especially Hardball and Cloud 9. While Danielle Moonstar showed Gyrich of Trauma's failure. In that move Gyrich then demoted Trauma from an Omega threat, which Gyrich first saw him as, to a Class 50.

Killed in Action

After the events of World War Hulk, the camp's drill-instructor, Gauntlet, was brutally attacked. His attacker left a mark on his body: 'NW'. Gauntlet had made several nasty remarks about the dead New Warriors, leading to speculation that the attacker was an Initiative recruit who was a former New Warrior. Justice, Debrii, Slapstick, Ultragirl and Rage were imprisoned and interrogated. When Gauntlet awoke he claimed he was attacked by the Ghost, and the suspects were released. However, unbeknown to everyone Gauntlet's attacker was revealed to be a former New Warrior: Slapstick. Taskmaster replaced Gauntlet as Camp Hammond's drill instructor. Taskmaster was seen studying MVP's and Spider-Man's moves, in order to teach the MVP clones, in their role as Scarlet Spiders. Several new Initiative recruits arrived at Camp Hammond, including Ant-Man, Crusader, Melee, Geldoff, Dragon Lord, Geiger, Red Nine, and Diamondback. However, the results of the previous clonings of MVP impressed Initiative administrators enough to attempt to fill places within the Fifty-State Initiative with further clones of MVP. In Avengers: The Initiative's first, and currently ongoing, multi-part story; Killed in Action (starting issue #8), a new Michael Van Patrick clone was fitted with the Tactigon, Armory's former alien weapon and set forth, under the name "KIA", on a murderous rampage throughout Camp Hammond in an attempt to seek revenge for MVP's death. The KIA clone caused destruction killing and injuring many initiative trainees and staff.

Secret Invasion

Main article: Secret Invasion

The Revolutionary, a member of Pennsylvania's Liberteens, was actually a Skrull in disguise. This was apparently part of a plan to put "a Skrull in every state" by infiltrating each superhero team of the Initiative. Crusader (Z'Reg) (a Skrull who lived on Earth and an Initiative cadet) discovered that camp director Yellowjacket was actually a Skrull impostor, Criti Noll; he almost told the camp's counselor Trauma but changed his mind. When 3-D Man, Delroy Garrett, arrived in Camp Hammond to announce to everyone assembled that the Initiative had been infiltrated by Skrulls, Crusader feared that he would be exposed as a Skrull despite his good intentions. Crusader used the Freedom Ring to reverse the goggles' power so that they caused 3-D Man to see Crusader as human and all humans as Skrulls.[1] Later 'Yellowjacket-Skrull' gave orders to Gauntlet to dispatch the cadets to help the Young Avengers fight the Skrulls, and Proton (Geldoff) was killed during the battle. The Skrulls defeated the cadets and Young Avengers, but then Nick Fury arrived with his "commandos."[2] Meanwhile Ant-Man (Eric O'Grady), the only cadet still on Camp Hammond witnessed how "Yellowjacket" welcomed a Skrull commander to the base and during the big fight against the Skrull army, Crusader, after seeing the death of Proton decided to fight for Earth.[3]

After defeating a Skrull impostor disguised as 'She-Thing', 3-D Man joined up with the Skrull Kill Krew and found out that in every Initiative state team there was one Skrull-impostor and decided to kill them all. Komodo joined the team as well,[4] and they then added her lover Hardball. The Skrull Kill Crew thought they would not be able to track through all the states on time, but then former Avenger Jocasta appeared with Point Men member Devil-Slayer. Devil-Slayer's teleportation ability would aid them in killing all Skrull impostors within the 50 State Initiative.[5]

The group moved on to other Initiative bases, killing the Skrull impostors, Delroy Garret's goggles also identified Equinox as a Skrull who was then killed by Cloud 9 and adding Cloud 9 and Gravity to their group. The Skrull then sent a broadcast throughout the world, telling their sleeper agents to activate themselves, which sowed even more distrust among the remaining heroes. While in Philadelphia, the Revolutionary was revealed as a Skrull and was defeated by Gravity and Hope. When they came across a fight between Thor Girl and Ultra Girl, Delroy's goggles identified Thor Girl as a Skrull. With help from Gravity, Delroy used Thor Girl's own hammer to kill the Skrull impostor. Ant-Man managed to escape the Skrulls on the back of a Shock Trooper, and revealed to the Kill Crew the Skrulls' last resort plan; to use all the Initiative bases to create a massive Negative Zone portal that would take the entire country. With six bases left, the Crew split up, and used the still-living heads of Moonstomp, Catwalk and Dice to help point out Skrulls. Devil-Slayer teleported them to the bases, but collapsed under the strain.[6]

The Initiative members combated their Skrull opponents who had received their mission to activate themselves to start distrust amongst the teams. At the Battalion's HQ, Tigra, Ryder, and Cloud 9 fight a Skrull posing as Razorback. Hardball and Moonstomp helped Action Pack fight a Skrull posing as Frog-Man. Gravity and Catwalk helped the Great Lakes Avengers fight a Skrull posing as Grasshopper. Komodo and Riot helped the Command fight a Skrull posing as Conquistador (who assumed a Skrull/Devil Dinosaur-like form). Dice and Jocasta fought their way through activists to get to the Skrull posing as Skyhawk who succeeded in his part of the mission. Delroy Garrett and Ant-Man joined the Rangers in fighting a Skrull that posed as Red Wolf's wolf companion Lobo. After it was shot by Shooting Star, a crowd uprising occurred when Delroy's goggles identified some of the crowd members as Skrulls. Delroy's goggles were hit by a thrown rock giving Delroy's allies a hard time figuring out who was a Skrull and who wasn't. During the struggle, Delroy discovered that he could see who was a Skrull without his goggles. This turned the tides against those Skrulls disguised as crowd members. During the fights across the USA, Spinner and Whiz-Kid both apparently died in various fights. At the final fight at Camp Hammond, Crusader killed Criti Noll and then 3-D Man shot Crusader after discovering his identity as a Skrull. Upon dying from his wound, Crusader somberly stated that it could have ended differently and magically disappeared.[7]

Dark Reign

Main article: Dark Reign

Following the aftermath of the Secret Invasion, the Fifty-State Initiative was shut down and the Thunderbolts Initiative was established when Norman Osborn took over as director.[8]

Those that had been replaced by Skrulls (namely Dum Dum Dugan, Edwin Jarvis, Frog-Man, Mockingbird, Razorback, She-Thing, Thor Girl) alongside Alicia Masters met with Doc Samson at Camp Hammond as part of a support group. While noting the hostilities of Red Nine, Annex, Geiger, Batwing, and Prodigy over the shooting of Crusader, Delroy stated that he was leaving the Initiative and joining up with Ryder to hunt down any Skrulls still hiding out on Earth. Taskmaster confronted Mutant Zero and discovered that she was really Typhoid Mary. The Gauntlet took control as head of Camp Hammond because of his position as the highest ranking officer left. Despite an offer by the Gauntlet, Hank Pym chose to leave the camp, because he "was never here".[9]

Next some of the latest recruits graduated and were assigned to different teams. Batwing became a member of the Shadow Initiative, Melee was assigned to additional training to become a Camp Hammond instructor for martial arts, Annex became a member of the Mavericks (New Mexico) and Red Nine of The Cavalry, Georgia. Geiger also graduated, but it wasn't mentioned where she was to be stationed. Camp Hammond instructor Stingray became the new leader of the Point Men (Hawaii). Because of their villainous past Sunstreak and Prodigy were not assigned to an Initiative State Team yet, but have to remain under training at Camp Hammond. Since Gorilla Girl felt she was typical cannon folder she decided to go home and be listed as a reserve member.

Meanwhile Baron von Blitzschlag encountered the Thor-clone (now dubbed Ragnarok), which was reactivated by a fail-safe programmed by the Hank Pym Skrull (Criti Noll), which required his access code to keep him contained. The clone apparently killed the Baron within a couple of minutes. Thereafter, Ragnarok was attacked by Thor-Girl who he beat after a long and heavy fight above Camp Hammond. Even a trick of Trauma (posing as the real Thor) was ineffective. Outside Gorilla Girl, on her way back home, got out of her car and opposed Ragnarok. As she was about to lose the fight a light appeared; The former New Warriors (now called Counter Force) appeared, ready to fight.[10]

The fight with the Thor clone raged on as Justice told Ragnarok that he had worked with the real Thor and that Ragnarok was unworthy of that name. After Ragnarok knocked out Rage and Slapstick, Debrii had the Scarlet Spiders hack into Ragnarok. However, Ragnarok killed Michael the Scarlet Spider. Ragnarok was about to vanquish Von Blitzschlag with pure physical force, when the crafty Baron dismissed the notion as futile. He stated that while he could easily kill everyone here and everyone in the world, he would not change the fact he was, in fact, an android-clone based on the real Thor. Unconvinced, Ragnarok was shown proof that such methods were possible when one of the Scarlet Spiders revealed he and his "brothers" were all clones as well. Blitzschlag told Ragnarok that the real Thor was living in Asgard, which was now physically in the realm of Earth (or Midgard) where it was floating above Oklahoma. Ragnarok resolved that it mattered not whether he was or wasn't a clone, but rather that his warrior's resolve was true. He flew off to presumably confront Thor and his fellow Asgardians.[11]

Following Ragnarok's attack, Counter Force decided to bury Michael Van Patrick's body and confess to the world about Michael's death and the clones. This gave Norman Osborn the opportunity to shut down Camp Hammond.[12]

Shadow Initiative

Main article: Shadow Initiative

It was revealed that there was a special "black ops" team within the Initiative, answerable only to Gyrich and known as the Shadow Initiative.

Characters involved

Among the characters confirmed as members of The Initiative (or just appearing on the cover) were:

List of teams by state


Paraphernalia

Equipment: None known.
Transportation: Jet-packs for the trainees
Weapons: Energy rifles


Notes

  • No special notes.


Trivia

  • No trivia.


See Also


Links and References

  • None.
  1. ↑ Avengers: The Initiative #14
  2. ↑ Avengers: The Initiative #15-16
  3. ↑ Avengers: The Initiative #16
  4. ↑ Avengers: The Initiative #16
  5. ↑ Avengers: The Initiative #17
  6. ↑ Avengers: The Initiative #18
  7. ↑ Avengers: The Initiative #19
  8. ↑ Dark Reign #1
  9. ↑ Avengers: The Initiative #20
  10. ↑ Avengers: The Initiative #21
  11. ↑ Avengers: The Initiative #22
  12. ↑ Avengers: The Initiative #23
Retrieved from "http://marvel.wikia.com/50-State_Initiative_(Earth-616)"