The framing sequence for this story is Jarvis writing to Black Widow to update her on the team’s recent international adventure combatting the global terrorist group ULTIMATUM. They used to be led by Flag Smasher, but now they’re let by a dude named Ultimator. (Smasher’s break from the group is talked about in Captain America’s 1999 annual.)
He’s a one-issue villain, and he’s completely neutralized fairly quickly.
Although there are some missteps.
The rest of the issue has the seasoned team members going over the mission with their Reserve members, the couple Firestar and Justice, who made some potentially fatal mistakes. Captain America orders them to have additional training.
Jarvis also writes a bit more about his own past, saying his mother is alive and living in America. She moved to the U.S. after WWII, and young Jarvis followed her to become Howard Stark’s butler. We also see some of the additional Avengers Mansion staffers. Never knew they existed before this issue.
We also get check-ins showing that Michael “Guardsman” O’Brien is still working security, Peggy Carter is on communications, and Fabian Stankowicz is still tooling around making stuff. They have a brief adventure with Jarvis.
Jarvis asks Widow to come back, and in the narrative we see what she did when the Avengers were thought dead after Onslaught, when she tried to form a new Avengers team and hung out with Daredevil for a bit.
It’s good to get this backstory about Widow. We saw glimpses of it during the early Thunderbolts issues.
I’m hoping this is signalling that Widow will come back to the team. I’d love to see George Perez draw her again.
Peggy Carter has GOT to be dead, by now, unless she’s shooting up with Nick Fury’s Infinity Formula- she was a sweet young thing back during World War II, meaning, that by the time of these stories, she would have to be a serious octogenarian! If she IS still alive by this point, she would need to be at the old folk’s home gumming her cud, not working support for the Avengers! ( or anybody else! ) Edwin Jarvis’ mother first appeared in these pages, behind the scenes, in a very important capacity, in volume one, issues# 54 and 55, during the ‘Masters of Evil/Ultron/Jarvis Betrays the Avengers’ sequence, so there is a nice bit of 1960’s continuity, there. I am always all about continuity. Thank you!