Avengers, Inc

Origin

During the Devil's Reign event, Mayor Wilson Fisk enacted legislation abolishing costumed crime-fighting from New York City, except his designated and government-run Thunderbolts. The law was so popular that when Luke Cage defeated Fisk in a campaign for mayor, Luke was unable to abolish it. Instead, he encouraged Janet Van Dyne to start an investigation consulting firm with no costumes. She had just created the Jarvis Lounge, a top floor lounge with an Avengers only VIP space, that could be used as a headquarters. Despite some reluctance, Janet eventually agreed to do it.

Creation

Avengers, Inc first appears in Avengers, Inc (2023) #1 by Al Ewing and Leonard Kirk. It is a spin off of Al Ewing's Wasp miniseries with Kasia Nie and Ant-Man miniseries with Tom Reilly

Major Story Arcs

The Mysterious Victor Shade

The first case Luke asked Wasp to look into was the murders of five Raft inmates, one of which Wasp was responsible for putting there, Whirlwind. Their killer had avoided every security measure, and Luke needed to know how. However, while Wasp was investigating the bodies, they were miraculously revived as if nothing has happened, except for Whirlwind's body, which was now possessed by an entity claiming to be Victor Shade, an old alias of The Vision. He even has a scar in the shape of a diamond on his forehead that made him appear like Vision. Turning her investigation to what happened to Whirlwind, Wasp hired Victor Shade as the first employee of Avengers, Inc so she could keep an eye on him.

They continued to investigate costumed villains dying from mysterious headshots. They eventually partnered with Moon Knight, who had seen enough crime scenes to know these were not caused by guns. There was less blood splatter than there should be and no scorching from the bullet. When Wasp came to the revelation that a burrowing insect could cause the injury and avoid the Raft security, she started to believe Hank Pym might have returned from the dead. She eventually found him when she paid a visit to the medical examiner who forged the morgue records for all the villains.

Pym freely volunteered all of his information to her. While stuck in the future, he used All-Father Ultron power to remove himself from Ultron and return himself to present, albeit aged and weakened. He started faking the deaths so that he could recruit villains to a new Lethal Legion that could stand guard until Ultron resurfaced. The Raft villains that were resurrected rejected his offer so were returned with their memories wiped. However, a biological version of Ultron remained inside Pym, manipulating him to assemble a team Ultron could turn into a hivemind army.

Thankfully, the Victor Shade personality revealed it self to be Ultron-12, a version of Ultron's software that saw Pym as a father. He had taken over Whirlwind's body to lay in wait for Ultron to make his move. Wasp also had a number of other heroes on standby. Together, they were able to free the Lethal Legion from Ultron's grasp.