All-New, All-Interlude Avengers #133 – ‘Know You’re Not Alone’

Posted on by phil.wrede
The Fabulous Frog-Man and his father - Vincent Patilio (“played” here by an action figure of Ben Mendelsohn from the MCU) - sit on the edge of an NYC rooftop at night. The title of this comic strip, “All-New, All-Interlude Avengers Presents… ‘Know You’re Not Alone’,” is visible at the top of the image.
Frog-Man steels himself for a good talking-to from his father, but Vincent doesn’t berate his son.
Vincent claps his son on the shoulder, telling him that if he keeps doing good, he might make up for all the bad he did back in his day.
Frog-Man cries into his hands as his father compliments him.
At Avengers Tower, Beast annoyedly watches a broadcast from J. Jonah Jameson’s late-night-style talk show, which promises to be a profile about the recently-revealed benefactor of the Starjammers, billionaire industrialist Jay Hansen.
The video begins, with Hansen (“played” here by an action figure of David Xanatos from the Gargoyles cartoon) standing proudly outside a construction site. He waves at the camera.
Various images of Hansen with nepo baby/retired astronaut/newscaster John Jameson, the President of the United States (named for legendary comics creator Jack Kirby, and “played” by an action figure of Bruce Campbell from the Evil Dead series), reading a large book, and looking determined.
Hansen stands outside his corporate headquarters with his team of heroes, the Starjammers (the Black Knight, Drax, Nebula, Corsair, Yondu, Mantis, and a mysterious Captain America).
Hansen gives the camera a thumbs up before the segment concludes, with a promotional graphic for his business (“Hansen Industries - where the future is Han-tastic!”). On a different level of Avengers Tower, the mutant hero Sunfire shouts angrily at the screen where he had been watching the presentation.
Iron Fist joins Sunfire, attempting to calm him down. When that doesn’t work, the Eternal Kingo further tries to defuse Sunfire’s temper.
The broadcast continues, as Jonah announces a commercial break. Beast is incredulous as the Reverend William Stryker (“played” by an action figure of Michael Fassbender from his appearances in the X-Men movies) steps onscreen, talking vaguely about the dispiriting state of the world today.
Stryker continues, entreating the viewers of his commercial to take control of their world, and correct its course. There is, apparently, somebody to blame, but he doesn’t specify who (readers familiar with Marvel Comics canon know that he will, eventually, be blaming mutants).
Stryker announces his candidacy for the presidency as his commercial concludes, and Beast opens up a communications channel to his old friend, Scott Summers, to commiserate.
From X-Force’s secret headquarters in New Mexico, Cable, Dazzler, Cyclops, and Domino answer Beast’s message, and confirm that they all saw exactly what he saw.
Cable (who is Cyclops’ son from an alternate future) tries to have a moment with his father, but Cyclops has no interest. Meanwhile, back in Avengers Tower, the android Jocasta and Tony Stark discuss how these videos, in addition to the earlier Tracksuit Mafia-led riots, really took attention from Tony and Reed Richards’ announcement about the palladium discovery the Fantastic Four made in the Negative Zone.
At the White House, President Kirby and his personal Secret Service agent, Adams (“played” by an action figure of Peter Weller from Robocop, and named for legendary comics creator, and creators’ rights advocate, Neil Adams) have their own conversation, while at the NYC Mayor’s office, Mayor Gruenwald (“played” by an action figure of Peter Capaldi, and named for longtime Marvel Comics writer/editor Mark Gruenwald) and his military advisor, Major Steinberg (“played” by an action figure of Elisabeth Sladen from Dr. Who, and named for longtime Marvel Comics employee/admin “Fabulous Flo” Steinberg) greet the mutant Jean Grey, who is apparently on retainer with the mayor’s office.
It seems that the mayor’s office hired Jean to subvert future assassination attempts against the mayor himself. Jean has a very specific view of her duties, and refuses to do anything more for her employers, unless they increase her pay…
Back at Hansen Industries HQ, Jay is furious that his big PR stunt was undercut by Jonah’s airing of the Stryker ad. He meets with his advisors, the mutant Emma Frost (AKA the White Queen), and Dr. Clark Connors (“played” by an action figure of Sean Connery, from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade).
Frost and Dr. Connors think they know of a way to spin this development to Jay’s advantage, despite what he thinks of it.
The credits for the comic strip, citing the Unsplash users (and filmmakers) whose photographs were the background art, the use of fonts by Blambot, the ownership of Marvel by Disney, the creation of Marvel characters by actual human beings, and the figure photography/script/graphic design/lettering by me, Phil Wrede.

I alluded to this week’s comic being something of an interlude in the “main story” of the Phil Wrede Marvel Action Figure Comic Universe, but it ballooned into something larger than I anticipated, when I made that claim! It picks up dangling plot threads from months and months ago (we haven’t seen Kingo since last November, and it’s been over two years* since Sunfire and the rest of X-Force attacked the Vault, to try and free Shatterstar from his imprisonment!)

But, it also weaves wholly new ones – adding to the cast not one, but two mutant telepaths, as well as a previously-unspoken-of opponent for President Kirby’s reelection campaign, and the Fabulous Frog-Man’s father! All this, while trying to contextualize Jay Hansen in an Iron Man (2008)-esque way, and remixing a classic Marvel character in a hat tip to my friend Andrew Clark! As interludes go, this one is not especially quiet, even if it is lacking in explosions, punches, and sparks.

Hey, speaking of explosions and sparks – it’s been a busy enough 2024 that you might have forgotten about the attempt on the Mayor’s life, right around last Thanksgiving. If that’s not a tough enough question, how long has it been since we last saw Domino? Has it really been since last July?

*Yes, Sunfire and Red Guardian had their Counter-Invaders adventure a few months after the Assault on the Vault, but I’m not really sure where the Counter-Invaders sit in PWMAFCU continuity…

2 thoughts on “All-New, All-Interlude Avengers #133 – ‘Know You’re Not Alone’”

  1. Pingback: All-New, All-Interlude Avengers #134 – ‘Come Into Your Own’ – PizzaRat dot Net
  2. Pingback: All-New, All-Interlude Avengers #135 – ‘Everything in Constant Swing’ – PizzaRat dot Net

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