Guest-starring the Avengers Academy! A scared-straight visit from the next generation of Earth's Mightiest Heroes goes horribly wrong and Luke Cage isn't sure which of his Thunderbolts he can count on to regain control of The Raft! Also, can Cage keep objective when he realizes one of the prisoners is the man who once controlled his wife: the sinister Purple Man? Find out in the latest chapter of the book that ToyFare magazine says "can't not be awesome"!
The events in the issue are framed in the form of a report written by John Walker recounting a blackout of unknown origin that occurred on the Raft. Returning to last issue’s events, Crossbones and a Ghost-controlled Mach V take on mutated SHIELD agents with their weaponry while Man-Thing surprises Moonstone by saving her and aggressively tearing apart a mutated creature. While pursuing a creature trying to escape, Crossbones slips on some guts and slides down a slope close to the corrupted terrigen crystals and appears to inhale the fumes. The team regroups and Juggernaut seals the hole to the cave. They head back to the Raft and all team members check out as uncontaminated (to Crossbones’ surprise) and Cage is notified by Fixer that Hank Pym had arrived with the Avengers Academy students for a “scared straight” program.
Walker’s report states that the blackout occurred shortly a fter the students’ arrival. Moonstone and Ghost had been reprimanded for their interactions with the students and ten minutes later the power grid went down due to an electromagnetic pulse. Cage immediately notes that three students were missing and tells Juggernaut to split up with him and look for the students. Meanwhile, Songbird attempts to control inmates on the women’s block and asks Moonstone for help. While Moonstone stays put in her cell, Troll (or Gunna), the troll-Asgardian from previous issues, pries apart her cell bars to help Songbird.
While Cage is looking for the students, he encounters the Purple Man. Next, a montage of panels depicts three fights occurring on the Raft: John Walker versus inmates; Songbird and Troll versus female inmates; and Cage versus inmates under the Purple Man’s control. After Cage defeats the inmates, Purple Man assumes he can mind-control Cage, but Cage informs him that he also had nanites installed that shield his brain from any input from the Purple Man. He then caves the Purple Man’s face in with a head butt. Eventually power was restored, inmates were returned to their cells, the missing students were scolded, and the legend of the Raft grew as word spread of how the chaos ended after the blackout.
The events of the blackout are covered in Avengers Academy #3 & #4 from the student’s point of view.
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