AVENGERS #340, #341, & #342

"CLAY SOLDIERS"
Plot: David Michelinie | Script: Scott Lobdell
Pencils: Paul Abrams | Inks: Robert Jones & Chuck Barnette
Letterer: Brad K. Joyce | Colorists: Renee Witterstaetter & Marie Javins
Edits: Ralf Macchio | More Edits: Tom DeFalco

The Plot: Captain America, Wasp, Hercules, She-Hulk, and Iron Man attend the opening of New York's new super hero medical research and treatment facility -- but the festivities are interrupted when a woman races toward Captain America for help, but gets hit by a car in the process. In Cap's arms, the woman warns him that "he's crazy" and that Cap must help "the children." Then she passes out. Later, at Avengers Mansion, Wasp and Jarvis dig up information on the injured woman, learning that she is married to a weapons manufacturer named Itzhak Berditchev, and that the couple has ten year-old quintuplet sons. Realizing these must be the children in question and suspecting that Berditchev recently stole some plutonium from Austria, Cap and Wasp send Jarvis, undercover as a gunrunner named Armond Carlyle III, to infiltrate Berditchev's estate while they follow.

At the estate, Jarvis gains entrance as Cap and Wasp sneak around the grounds. Wasp feigns unconsciousness when sprayed with gas, and Cap races into Berditchev's hedge maze. Jarvis is taken prisoner by two of Berditchev's sons, but manages to escape them. Elsewhere, Cap speaks with Berditchev via a video screen and learns that he saved Berditchev, then a child, from a Nazi concentration camp during World War II, and that Berditchev has since patterend his life -- and the lives of his sons -- around a twisted understanding of Cap's ideals. Soon, Cap overcomes Berditchev's assassin, Bulwark, while Jarvis and Wasp appeal to the children and turn them against their father. When everyone eventually crosses paths in Berditchev's control room, the munitions dealer has a nervous breakdown. He and Bulwark are arrested, and the Avengers prepare to turn his sons over to their recovering mother.

Continuity Notes: In the opening pages, Iron Man mulls over his "recent health problems" as seen in issues of his own title, while Hercules confides in She-Hulk that he feels like the "token god," covering while Thor is unavailable due to events in his ongoing series. There's also a reference to the Avengers' encounter with Thane Ector and the Collector last issue. Later in the story, Jarvis recalls his injuries at the hands of the Masters of Evil in AVENGERS #275.

In the issue, Wasp wears the costume she's shown using on the cover, but it's colored yellow-and-blue instead of blue-and-white.

AVENGERS #338 & #339

"INFECTIOUS COMPULSIONS" | "FINAL REDEMPTION"
A tale of loss and endings by
Writer: Bob Harras | Penciler: Steve Epting | Inker: Tom Palmer
Letterers: Bill Oakley w/Rick Parker (issue 338)
Colorists (issue 338): Witterstaetter, Mossoff & Tinsley
Colorists (issue 339): Tinsley, Mossoff, Scott & Skolnik
Editor: Ralph Macchio | Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

The Plot: (Issue 338) Within the Bretrhen's habitat, Beast, Black Panther, Quasar, and the Collector bury Naka. But no sooner have they completed this task and begun to anaylze the area, than another being bursts from the ground: Olar, oldest of the Brethren. On Earth, in Thane Ector's citadel, the fool visits Sybyl Dorn as she prepares to challenge and kill Thane Ector for betrying his people. At Avengers Mansion, Vision, Crystal, and Lockjaw return from a trip to the moon with Hank Pym, Beast, Black Panther, Quasar, the Collector, and Olar in tow. Beast reveals that the Brethren are little more than evolved germs, and the Avengere prepare to study Olar, with his permission, for more data.

The fool, however, has been spying on the Avengers and collects a recording of the group making their plans. Just as Sybyl Dorn has roused the Brethren against Than Ector, the fool appears and shows all present that the Avengers have captured Olar and are consorting with the Collector. Now believing the Avengers to be no better than the Collector himself, Ector turns on Sersi and orders his people to attack Avengers Mansion. After they leave, Sersi confesses to the fool that she knows the Brethren's secret. Meanwhile, Pym and Beast are studying Olar when someone knocks them out and kills the oldest Brethren. The Brethren then arrive and attack. Thane Ector gets past the heroes and begins beating the Collector, until the Collector reveals a new, stronger form and says that it was he who released the Brethren and sent them to Earth.