In issue #1, we met the Fathom Five–a gang of Atlanteans who caused unrest on the surface world before being taken down by the Thunderbolts+Genis Vell. In these issues, the Fathom Five story continues.
Issue #2 has the T-bolts quickly besting the Wrecking Crew and handing them over to Code Blue custody.
But notably, Speed Demon joins the team during the fight.
Meanwhile, the Fathom Five are attacking cities around the world. Namor is at the U.N. disavowing any allegiance to the Fathom Five, and Reed Richards is on his side, when the U.N. is attacked by a gang of terrorists called “The Great Game.” (They’re a bunch of rich kids who first appeared during that horrible ’90s Spider-Man period where Peter Parker quit and was replaced by Scarlet Spider–an era that I very intentionally did not cover on this site.)
Beetle and Spider-Man fight the fires.
While inside, Atlas and Namor try to protect civilians.
Atlas gets really, really big.
More and more heroes pile into the narrative and Nicieza’s worst excesses begin to take over as we get too many plotlines to follow and more and more characters appear without having any meaningful scenes that would enable us to feel a bond with them. The New Warriors appear. So do Power Pack.
Genis Vell changes his name from Captain Marvel to Photon.
Purple Man emerges as another background conspiracy working with a mystery person whose identity will be revealed as Swordsman and then revealed even later as Andreas von Strucker. He stabs daddy.
That whole thing will just get more complicated. Daddy ain’t dead, and when Mach 1 continues to get instructions from Strucker, Strucker reveals that the team is funded by Hydra.
He even planted the bombs blowing up around Manhattan.
At the same time, a civil war within Hydra because of their recent “Enemy of the State” control of Wolverine, and we get a tie-in issue.
All of that is to explain the Struckers’ stories but…It’s just too much and the Fathom Five are still causing chaos, too.
Eventually, the Fathom Five are defeated by the Thunderbolts and others, including Radioactive Man. Most are taken into custody by surface world cops, but Llyron is taken by Atlantean troops who discover that he had gotten radiation poisoning from Radioactive Man and then transmitted it to the rest of Atlantis. (Uh….That really shouldn’t be contagious….)
See what I mean? It’s just all over the place with no center. I need a nap.
English (US) · 