Avengers: The Initiative #21-22 (2009)

In the aftermath of Secret Invasion, we learn that Clone Thor (from back in the Civil War) has been in the basement at The Initiative’s base.  He wakes up and goes nuts.

Another Thor-version, Thor Girl, is there at the base and they fight. 

The rest of The Initiative join in. 

Clone Thor makes short work of most of The Initiative.

The fight scene is crowded and hard to follow, but I think what happens is that Trauma makes Clone Thor see his worst fear–the real Thor.  But even that doesn’t save the day.  The New Warriors show up to further crowd the battlefield.

I get that having dozens of characters per issue is part of the theme of this series, but when you couple that with an artist like Humberto Ramos, it can become exhausting.

It ends with Clone Thor growing bored of the battle (like me–it’s gone on for two issues) and flying off in search of Real Thor so he can give that dude a beat-down, too.

Meanwhile, other members of The Initiative are searching for their former team-mate Hardball who has started dating the new Scorpion and has become the leader of Hydra.  Not sure how I missed that happening.  The team members go to Madripoor and while they don’t find Hardball, they do find the body of MVP suspended in a tank full of goo.