Every issue of this series has started with a character being interviewed. For #8, it’s Mullholland Black from before the Order got rebooted. Holly tells interviewer Pepper Potts that if she got her powers back she’d “get revenge.”
Flash forward. Holly has been kidnapped by the Black Dalhlias, her old criminal gang. She’s naked and in a tube.
The Dahlias are working with SHADOW, who have been the villainous organization behind most of the problems this team has dealt with all the way back to issue #1. In this issue, we learned that the organization is largely made up of androids, all of whom look the same.
One such android is out in the desert, where Aralune and Supernaut are hiding after Milo’s armor was destroyed and Becky’s shapeshifting abilities malfunctioned and turned her into a puddle. Together, they figure out a solution…
She covers Milo, creating a new armor suit for him, and they fight back against the SHADOW agents and their mutated hunting wolves. The two now call themselves “Hybrid.”
During the fight, the rest of the team arrive and save their team-mates.
It turns out that SHADOW is funded by the son of Obadiah Stane, Tony Stark’s old foe. He wants to get his hands on Tony Stark’s process that empowered The Order, and has been experimenting on humans to bring it about, so that he can create a generation of super-terrorists.
The dead souls of those people still linger in SHADOW’s based, and Holly is able to access their psychic energy and bust out of her confinement tube.
She takes on the Dahlias and does pretty well until Ezekiel comes up from behind with some kind of repulsor-ray type give and shoots her in the back.
He then straps her to a table and connects her to a device that is designed to siphon off her powers.
Meanwhile, her teammates have arrived and are fighting their way through the SHADOW security forces.
When the team finally reach the captive Mulholland Black, it turns out to be a trap–the doors close behind them and Stane sets off EMP that erases the effects of the empowering machine used by Tony Stark. This kills Heavy, whose powers were keeping him alive.
Iron Man and SHIELD arrive to clean up after the big battle, and find the de-powered Order team.
Stane flees with Holly, whose powers are now completely out of control, and he takes her to Los Angeles where she drives everyone in the city crazy.
Stane uses the chaos to flee, leaving the out of control Mulholland Black behind to cover his escape.
Without their powers, The Order still track down Holy. She begs Anthem to help her and he does the only thing he can.
He kills her.
In the aftermath, Pepper returns to Stark International and Stark re-powers The Order team to serve as the Los Angeles Initiative team.
This was a truly great series, but this ending feels kind of tacked on–like Marvel didn’t want to say goodbye to this team so left the door open for them to return. I would have preferred a more definitive ending–consistent with the overall tone of the book.
Still, I highly recommend this series.