Writer: Kurt Busiek
Moondragon senses Patsy's distress and calls on the Avengers for help. The only available Avengers are Scarlet Witch, Captain America, and IronMan, so Moondragon calls for more assistance in the form of Hawkeye who also brings along Songbird. The Avengers arrive to help Patsy in Centerville.
They find the sons of serpent and their leader behind the activities in the town. The Avengers confront the sons of serpent and the Salem seven who are called on by the sons of serpent's leader. In the midst of battle Patsy finds out that the serpent leader isn't the mastermind behind everything. The Avengers are helped by one of Patsy Walker's friends to defeat the leader of the Sons of serpent. With the leader defeated the Salem Seven disappear and the sons of serpent henchmen give up. The Avengers, Moondragon, Hawkeye and Songbird leave while Patsy decides she will stay in Centerville. She wonders who was really behind the demon possession of the town while someone watches her from inside a building.
Comments: I wasn't expecting to enjoy this annual as much as I did. It was better than the Thunderbolts and the artist who did the Thunderbolts annual was better here as well.
Hawkeye and Songbird's involvement in this annual was very minimal. They could have been easily substituted for any other Avenger could have been available at the time. They throw a few punches, make a few comments and just generally help out that's their role for this issue.
The second artist used in this issue for Chapter two was interesting as it has an old style look to it and fits with what was going on at the time Patsy entering Centerville and seeing that the whole town has been turned into an amusement park. The flashbacks and exposition used are very helpful to get to know Patsy Walker as I didn't know much about the character to begin with. I find it interesting that whole town and comics were based around her whole life, this is something I really haven't seen before and gives her a different background then other heroes.
Hawkeye bringing Songbird along because of some thing that might happen in the future and him saying he didn't know why he brought Songbird along was cheap. I also didn't like how they had to have a little box saying "But anyone who's read Avengers Forever knows Hawkeye's got buried memories that tell him Songbird will be an Avenger in the future." Uh, no. That's a possible future, it could happen that Songbird joins the Avengers. As far as anyone knows Songbird might never join the Avengers or their might be a change of plans or the writer might leave before that happens way in the future. It's not definite and I dislike how they keep saying something will happen when it's not certain.
The sons of serpent just seem to represent generic henchmen to be used and they seem out of their element being a white supremacist group.
The Salem Seven? Can they have anymore characters that I have limited knowledge on? And they are supposed to be dead and they just disappear at the end?! If they are supposed to be dead let them stay dead there wasn't much point to them showing up besides fighting the Avengers anyway. It's a good thing they disappeared hopefully to back where they came from by the end of the issue.
This was all a good set up for the HellCat limited series something I wouldn't have even took a look at before reading this. I'm still undecided whether I will pick the limited series up or not I'll have to see when it comes out. Overall I enjoyed the issue besides some of the problems it had and being a little hesitant about a whole annual focusing on Patsy walker.
Thunderbolts and all associated characters are the property of MARVEL COMICS TM&©2003.