All-New, All-Intelligent Avengers #144 – ‘As Bitter As I Am’

Posted on by phil.wrede
In the secret cave-like prison beneath his Long Island mansion, Justin Hammer (“played” here by an action figure of Jeff Goldblum from the Jurassic Park movies) looms ominously over his captive, the android Jocasta. The title of this comic, “All-New, All-Intelligent Avengers Presents… ‘As Bitter As I Am’,” is visible at the top of the image.
Jocasta indicates her defiance against Hammer’s plans, whatever they may be, and her confidence that he will make a mistake she can exploit. Hammer disagrees with her assessment of his, past and present.
Off to the side, the gangster Hammerhead (some relation to Justin Hammer? No relation?) tries to offer a beer to his associate, a Doombot on loan to Hammer from Latveria. The Doombot informs Hammerhead that it does not consume liquid, and also objects to Hammerhead considering drinking a beer while on duty.
Hammer turns the conversation, as many insufferable tech guys do in 2024, to artificial intelligence.
Jocasta tries to argue that the A.I. being impressed upon the public today is not at all true artificial intelligence, and Hammer cuts her off, enthusiastically agreeing with her. He believes he can leapfrog his competitors, the ones hawking this fake A.I., by reverse-engineering the architecture of her android brain. Jocasta is not enthusiastic.
Meanwhile, at the secret X-Force base in New Mexico, Beast and Domino are watching the Reverend William Stryker’s (“played” here by an action figure of Michael Fassbender from the X-Men films) latest televised religious service. Stryker thanks his audience for its enthusiastic support for his independent presidential campaign.
Stryker introduces what he describes as a new “wolf to our flock,” with the implication that this new face will be willing to do violence on behalf of him and his followers. It’s the X-Cutioner!
Domino and Beast are understandably horrified at this fresh public alliance; Stryker and the X-Cutioner begin to talk about taking America back (which has never really been subtle enough language to be coded, but especially not in 2024).
Stryker gives the floor to the X-Cutioner, who rants about how America used to be, and how he believes that past greatness can be restored (through barely implied violence, like a classic fascist).
As the broadcast concludes with the X-Cutioner encouraging Stryker’s viewers to join them in their quest, Domino and Beast start trying to figure out who with political or social power might come to the mutant community’s defense.
The credits for the comic strip, citing the Unsplash users 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/lettering by me, Phil Wrede.

This comic began equally as a way for me to apply my love for comics, photography, and toys, as it was a way for me to wrestle with the state of the world that I feel broadly powerless to impact. In 2024, I said I wanted to tell more stories that considered the impact the Avengers and their ilk have on the world, and the ways in which the real world (the one that we live in) could be impacted by superheroes/-villains and associated Marvel Comics creations. X-Men ’97, as I’ve mentioned before, really challenged me to take that storytelling challenge I’d put to myself more seriously, and I hope this week is where that seriousness truly starts to bear fruit, both in a sincere way (re: the Negative Zone mining operation, as well as X-Force, and Stryker’s presidential campaign), and regarding things I absolutely can’t believe are taken seriously (like the push for copyright-infringing and human-creativity-devaluing fraudulently labeled “artificial intelligence,” a product I can’t believe it took me so long to bring in Justin Hammer to grift on).

Since this is only the second installment of this latest storyarc in the Phil Wrede Marvel Action Figure Comic Universe, you really only have to click the “Previous” button above to officially get caught up, but in case you’d prefer to click a link with a title, well, here you go:

3 thoughts on “All-New, All-Intelligent Avengers #144 – ‘As Bitter As I Am’”

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