The Avengers Academy is born following the Initiative, where young and unregistered individuals with incredible powers would be taught how to use them to prevent endangering normal humans. Veteran Avengers take in superhumans with destructive powers and teach them how to be heroes instead of villains.
Dark Beginnings
When Norman Osborn, AKA Green Goblin, takes over America’s superhuman infrastructure, he seeks out several young superhumans for study, including Jennifer Takeda, AKA Hazmat, who uncontrollably emits toxins and radiation; Ken Mack, AKA Mettle, who learns his skin conceals a metallic exoskeleton; Humberto “Berto” Lopez, AKA Reptil, whose mysterious amulet can partially change him into prehistoric animals; and Maddy Berry, AKA Veil, who can transform into any gas. Osborn’s cruel experiments leaves Reptil psychologically traumatized, Takeda so toxic she has to constantly wear a protective suit, Mack trapped in his inhuman metallic form, and Berry slowly destabilizing. Osborn is also joined willingly by would-be celebrity Brandon Sharpe, AKA Striker, whose fame-hungry mother overlooked her Hollywood agent boyfriend’s sexual abuse of her son until Brandon electrocutes him, and Jeanne Foucault, AKA Finesse, a girl with photographic reflexes similar to the mercenary Taskmaster (whom she believed was her father) and highly underdeveloped social skills.
Though Osborn falls out of power and his successor, Steve Rogers (formerly Captain America) fears these six troubled youths have the potential to become Super Villains. He establishes the Avengers Academy and persuades them to join, selling it as a school for the Avengers of tomorrow.
Dynamic
Dr. Henry “Hank” Pym, a founding Avenger, inventor of the wondrous Pym Particles, and explorer heads the Avengers Academy when it first opens. He recruits several mentors to lead the group of young hopefuls, including Greer Nelson, AKA Tigra, former member of several Avengers teams as well as the New York Police Department. She teaches facets of law enforcement at the school. Pietro Maximoff, AKA Quicksilver, joins to guide the kids down a better path and pass down lessons he learned from Captain America. Both Vance Astrovik, AKA Justice, and Robbie Baldwin, AKA Speedball, teach the students about their own experiences as teenage heroes on the New Warriors team. The staff also includes the robotic Jocasta, Clint Barton, AKA Hawkeye, and Heracles, AKA Hercules. Several guest instructors are brought on as well.
The first class includes six students. Reptil, who had been a member of the government-sponsored Initiative and already acting as a hero; he is elected leader of the first Avengers Academy class. Like Reptil, the student Striker had also been operating as a hero, and an actor who was more interested in gaining fame and fortune with his powers. Hazmat, who produces radiation and as such needs to wear a containment suit to keep it from killing those around her. Veil, who could turn into any kind of gas; the surfer Mettle, whose body is covered in a metal iridium; and finally Finesse, who possesses an intuitive mind and the ability to copy physical actions that she sees.
Super-Powered Encounters
Norman Osborn, who wants to use the Avengers Academy for his own ends, is the academy’s first true foe. While he is in prison on the Raft, the students start a prison riot, forcing the Thunderbolts to intervene.
The insanely rich matter-transmuting industrialist Jeremy Briggs, AKA the Alchemist, frequently causes trouble for the academy and its members. He sets up the Briggs Foundation, an organization dedicated to finding alternatives to what he considers the harmful hero/villain paradigm perpetuated by the Avengers. He even convinces some of the students and staff, such as Jocasta, to join his cause.
Other fierce foes include David Cannon, AKA Whirlwind, Marvin Flumm, AKA Mentallo, Parker Robbins, AKA the Hood, and Arcade. The mutant and energy vampire Marius St. Croix, AKA Emplate, attacks the new class of academy students in an effort to escape his other-dimensional prison.
The new Sinister Six pose a threat to big corporations when they steal their data and attack their offices. The Academy students face them head on, battling Calvin Cuttle, AKA Squid Kid, Qaari Beck, AKA Mysteriant, Cindy Shears, AKA Rhinoceress, Ignacio, AKA Willow-Wisp, Ailouros, AKA Apostate, and Billy Connors, AKA Lizard Boy. Though their members Beck and Connors end up aiding the students, turning on their own team.
No “I” in Team
The first class of the Avengers Academy are each superhuman and highly-troubled teens. But with seasoned Avengers steering them in the right direction, the team often fights super-powered foes. Veil and Striker become best friends, while Hatmat and Mettle share a romantic relationship for a time as well. The academy also often allies with the Future Foundation, various Avengers off-shoot teams, the Thunderbolts, and the X-Men.
The second class at the academy learns together under veteran Avengers such as Carol Danvers, AKA Captain Marvel, and Shuri, and guest instructors, such as Peter Parker, AKA Spider-Man, Logan/James Howlett, AKA Wolverine, and Piotr Rasputin, AKA Colossus. The students include defender of the disadvantaged Aaron Fischer, AKA Captain America, Daywalker Brielle “Bri” Brooks, AKA Bloodline; the trans mutant and circumstance-switching Shela Sexton, AKA Escapade; the wielder of the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak, Justin Jin, AKA Kid Juggernaut; the young runaway and heir to the Oscorp and Alchemax fortunes, Normie Osborn, AKA Red Goblin, and the young genius and Inhuman Lunella Lafayette, AKA Moon Girl, and the transdimensional Devil Dinosaur that she shares a psychic link with. The students are often told to stay behind when Super Villains attack, but they, like the class before them, don't listen to their elders and attempt to tackle the villains themselves.
An Academy’s Attendance
Some of Osborn’s test subjects did not enroll, however; sociopathic elemental manipulator Jeremy Briggs elected not to attend, instead establishing his own outwardly-benevolent corporation; healer Kelly Garnett pursued humanitarian work with Briggs’ support; cold-generating Steve Beaulieu became an independent Super Hero in his native Buffalo; and shapeshifting Weston Minkovitch shunned the super-heroic lifestyle altogether. Rogers placed Hank Pym, then using the alias Wasp, in charge of the Academy, and staffed it with Avengers veterans Tigra, Quicksilver and Justice, as well as Justice’s former New Warriors teammate Speedball; all were chosen for their success in overcoming their own troubled pasts.
Pym also called in various Avengers as guest instructors, including Rogers, Brunnhilde, AKA Valkyrie, Danny Rand, AKA Iron Fist, Dr. Stephen Strange, AKA Doctor Strange, and Noh-Varr, AKA Protector. The Academy was housed in the Infinite Avengers Mansion, a chain of buildings hundreds of miles long in extradimensional Underspace and built atop what Pym believed to be the enlarged energy form of his late ex-wife, Janet Van Dyne, AKA the Wasp, hoping to restore her physical form when he was sure it was safe; in reality, it was Carina Walters, the believed-deceased daughter of Avengers foe Taneleer Tivan, AKA The Collector. Numerous copies of Jocasta, a sophisticated robot with Van Dyne’s brain patterns, staffed the Mansion. After settling in, however, the students secretly accessed the Academy’s files and discovered the Avengers saw them as potential villains. Finesse also deduced some of Quicksilver’s more unsavory past actions, which he blamed on a non-existent Skrull imposter, had been his own; with this knowledge, she blackmailed him into teaching her techniques his now-estranged father, Max Eisenhardt, AKA Magneto, had taught him years before in the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.
On a field trip to the Raft super-villain prison, Hazmat (Takeda) generated an electromagnetic pulse that deactivated the prison’s security systems, and she, Mettle (Mack), and Veil (Berry) confronted Osborn in his cell, seeking revenge. They ultimately decided not to hurt Osborn, instead helping their instructors subdue other inmates trying to escape.
Avengers Academy became public knowledge when Pym’s old foe, Whirlwind, alerted to their location by the publicity-seeking Striker and his mother, attacked the students and Pym during a Manhattan outing. On their first mission, they were sent to apprehend escaped mind-controller Mentallo; he turned them all against each other, save for newly elected class leader Reptil, who transformed entirely into a dinosaur for the first time; his mind could not be controlled by either Mentallo or himself, and he badly injured Mentallo before he was subdued.
Pym entrusted the team with escorting Carl Creel, AKA Absorbing Man, to prison, but when Creel escaped and overwhelmed them, Pym, readopting his Giant-Man identity, stopped Creel. Later, when the criminal Ulysses X. Lugman, AKA Slug, released a tape of deposed crime lord the Hood, brutally beating and humiliating Tigra, the students Striker, Veil and Hazmat tracked down the now-powerless Hood and assaulted him. When she saw the students’ video of their assault, however, Tigra was horrified and immediately expelled the three from the school, though Quicksilver persuaded Tigra to relent. Afterward, Finesse sought out Taskmaster and fought him but found the mercenary’s faulty memory left him unable to remember whether he was her father.
His reputation damaged by years of failing to kill his superhuman targets, flamboyant assassin Arcade began targeting teenage Super Heroes to bolster his credibility. He captured Reptil, Finesse, Veil and Striker, alongside Spider-Girl, Angelica Jones, AKA Firestar, and Benito Serrano, AKA Toro, of the Young Allies. With their friends in Arcade’s deathtrap-laden Murderworld theme park, Reptil and Spider-Girl were forced to go on a bizarre scavenger hunt across New York City; meanwhile, the others escaped their traps but ran into Arcade’s killer robots. Faking their deaths with Arcade’s own robotic duplicates, they turned the tables on the assassin and took him into custody. Afterward, Pym brought in Spider-Man as a guest instructor; while he initially had trouble connecting with the students, they bonded after a battle with Microverse criminal Psycho-Man.
To foster responsibility in the students, Speedball took them on a field trip to Stamford, Connecticut, where he and his New Warriors teammates’ battle with escaped super villains had caused an explosion that killed hundreds of civilians. While visiting the memorial to the fallen, the Academy class was attacked by the Cobalt Men, armored Osborn loyalists. With Hazmat unable to overload the Cobalt Men’s power cores after spending the day with power-nullifying mutant Leech, Speedball took down all the assailants himself. Hoping to bring the Wasp (Van Dyne) back to life and gain her instructors’ approval after a series of ill-timed outbursts, Veil enacted Pym’s plans to restore her, but instead brought back Carina. Her estranged husband, the mad demigod Michael Korvac, AKA Korvac, immediately sensed her presence and sought her out, demanding she leave with him; when she refused, he tried to take her by force, and Pym summoned Steve Rogers’ and Luke Cage’s Avengers teams. They battled Korvac while Jocasta evacuated the students and Carina to the Mansion’s safe room. One-by-one, the Avengers fell before Korvac’s cosmic powers; seeing no other option, Carina projected the students’ minds into the time-displaced bodies of their possible-future selves from Earth-11511. With their enhanced powers and improved skills, they proved a challenge for Korvac, although he quickly slew Striker, who returned to his original body and fled. Veil, now able to control Korvac by slipping her molecules between his, stalled the demigod while Hazmat blasted him with anti-matter, apparently destroying him; while controlling Korvac’s form, Veil also altered her original body’s structure, slowing its gradual discorporation. When Carina reverted the students to their original bodies, Reptil stayed in his adult body, his amulet’s magical nature affirming his subconscious desire to stay in his more powerful form.
Tigra arranged a prom for the students, inviting other young heroes to join them. After several misunderstandings and arguments, Pym and Tigra resumed their past romantic relationship, Mettle and Hazmat became romantically involved, and Spider-Girl convinced Reptil to revert to his youthful body; however, during the transfer, Reptil’s future-self’s consciousness took control of his teenage body, hoping to ensure his own future (where the Avengers ruled the Earth) came to pass. Earth-616’s Reptil was left caged, blindfolded, and gagged in his future self’s body. After apprehending criminal scientist Ruby Thursday, the students investigated the Osborn trainees who had not come to the Academy, visiting Briggs, Garnett and Minkovitch; they found that a rogue Wendigo had killed Beaulieu, but Finesse deduced that Briggs had arranged his demise and was trying to manipulate them as he had already manipulated other former Osborn students. The Academy class confronted Briggs but lacked the evidence to bring him in; Briggs tried to convince them to join him, but all six students refused.
Soon afterward, Tigra led the students into battle in Washington, DC, where Sinthea Shmidt, AKA Sin, possessed by Cul Borson, AKA Serpent’s herald Skadi, and her armored neo-Nazis besieged the city. Both Mettle and Veil were traumatized after killing some of the Skull’s soldiers during the battle. Meanwhile, Pym fought Absorbing Man and his wife, Mary McPherran, AKA Titania, both possessed by Serpent allies Greithoth and Skirn, respectively, in Dubai. The city was devastated, but Pym forced the duo through a portal to the Arctic. Regrouping, the couple ventured into Underspace to attack the Infinite Mansion. They quickly incapacitated Reptil, Veil and Mettle; as a feint, Hazmat pretended to be interested in defecting to their side, giving Striker and Finesse time to evacuate the fallen students. Once they were out of range, Hazmat bombarded the duo with radiation. Undaunted, the Absorbing Man absorbed the properties of the Mansion’s Pym particle generator and used his new ability to force the Mansion to grow uncontrollably, expanding it out of Underspace and endangering wherever it would land on Earth. Finesse proposed that the students activate the Mansion’s self-destruct mechanism, requiring two students to stay behind to keep the villains occupied and trigger the mechanism. Finesse nominated herself and Hazmat, the latter much to Mettle’s distress; when Hazmat accepted, Mettle chose to stay with her. The Academy instructors arrived, however, and rescued the students from the Mansion; Quicksilver activated the mechanism and sped away before the explosion. Greithoth and Skirn escaped, however, departing to aid the Serpent in his final battle with Thor Odinson, AKA Thor. Shaken by her experiences and angry at the Avengers for putting her into combat, Veil announced she was quitting.
During an Academy battle with Raft escapees Danielle Blunt, AKA Aftershock, Jason Pierce, AKA Ember, and Bradley Kroon, AKA Icemaster, Jeremy Briggs intervened, defeating the villains; before leaving, he offered Veil a position at the Briggs Foundation. Despite the urging of her friends, Veil departed; wishing to see America and reflect on recent events, Speedball and Justice left, too. With the Mansion destroyed, Pym found a less-isolated base for the Academy in the long-abandoned West Coast Avengers Compound in California. Pym also opened admission to more young heroes, bringing them in from across the country via Quinjet. Most enrolled as part-time students, but two came aboard full time: Julia Power, AKA Lightspeed, who formerly adventured with her siblings as Power Pack, and the White Tiger, sister of the late Hector Ayala, AKA White Tiger, and inheritor of his mystical amulets. The original students misinterpreted these events, believing they were being replaced and about to be expelled; when they confronted Pym about their suspicions, Striker’s temper led to a fight with new instructor Hawkeye and visiting Avenger Luke Cage.
Meanwhile, Jocasta had concluded Avengers Academy was too dangerous to be allowed to exist. Apparently unaware of his corrupt nature and secretly allied with Jeremy Briggs, she self-destructed her body to make a clean break from the Academy, making the students and faculty think she had been murdered.
Pym brought in Magneto and the X-Men to examine Jocasta’s remains, hoping they could find a clue to the culprit; when Magneto confronted Quicksilver, however, Finesse violently intervened, sparking a brawl between the students and the X-Men. When they finally resolved the misunderstanding, Magneto could provide few answers regarding Jocasta. The incident brought Finesse and Quicksilver closer together, however, with the former indicating she now wanted to emulate the latter, not Magneto. Soon after, Wolverine recommended his youthful female clone, Laura Kinney, AKA X-23, enroll in the Academy to socialize with people her own age. She had difficulty fitting in, especially when Reptil-11511 used her to drive a wedge between Mettle and Hazmat.
The Academy soon took in yet another new recruit, telekinetic teenager Jimmy Marks, when they saved him from the anti-mutant Purifiers; both students and faculty were unaware of Marks’ true nature as the murderous half-alien Hybrid. Reptil-11511 knew, however, and formed an alliance with Marks; “Reptil” brought him students he thought of as “disposable” to slake his thirst for energy, hoping to guarantee his future. Eventually, Reptil-11511 saw the error of his ways and turned on his alien ally; subsequently, Hybrid mind-controlled Reptil-11511, White Tiger, and X-23 and set them against the rest of the students and staff. Veil returned and took down the rampaging Reptil-11511; psychic feedback sent the catatonic future-Reptil back to his own body, while Reptil-616’s mind returned to his present.
Once the dust had cleared, Briggs, Jocasta and their new allies, former Initiative recruits Roger Brokeridge, AKA Hardball, Melati Kusuma, AKA Komodo, Abby Boylen, AKA Cloud 9, and Ritchie Gilmore, AKA Prodigy, tried to convince the Academy cadets to leave the school and join them, but Pym made a stirring counter-speech about the positive impact being an Avenger had on his own life; Reptil also suggested that the Academy and Briggs’ organization could cooperate instead of warring. Robert Farrell, AKA Rocket Racer, and Machine Teen elected to leave with Briggs, but the rest of the student body remained.
Soon, the Runaways, children of deceased LA crime lords known as the Pride, sought out Reptil, whose amulet they believed could help them retrieve their pet Deinonychus, Old Lace, from the primordial Earth-78411. Despite the two teams’ initial misgivings, they soon befriended each other and rescued Old Lace.
When the Avengers and the X-Men went to war over the Phoenix Force, Wolverine and the Avengers left several young mutants at the academy to keep them out of the conflict. Though they weren’t prisoners, the young mutants did not stand for their confinement. Tensions rose and they staged a fake battle to make it look as if they escaped. The staff then allowed them to leave the academy. Meanwhile, Emma Frost and four other X-Men were transformed and empowered by the Phoenix Force and attempted to destroy all of Earth’s mutant-hunting sentinel robots. They arrived at the academy to take out student Juston Seyfert’s best friend, who was a Sentinel. The academy students and Pym stood against Frost as the Sentinel came to their defense and was blasted back by Frost, only to reveal that Juston was inside. Juston was removed and only stunned, which in turn caused the Sentinel to override its prime directive and protect him from Frost. She tore the Sentinel apart and melted its central processing unit and left, but not before she asked X-23 to come back with her and be with her people, but she refused. Frost remained unaware that academy faculty member Quicksilver had speedily swapped the processing unit with another, thereby saving what was left of the Sentinel and returning the original to Juston. Before Quicksilver rejoined his sister in the battle against the Avengers, Quicksilver helped repair the Sentinel in 10 minutes flat and reinstalled the processing unit, restoring it to life. As the only faculty remaining, Pym and Tigra closed the academy as the war between the heroes spilled over into the school and they couldn’t keep them safe.
The return of billionaire superhuman industrialist Alchemist (Briggs) then invited the remaining students to join his Briggs Foundation, a corporation that promised to end the problems caused by the world’s heroes and villains, and cure them from their extreme powers. He introduced them to Clean Slate, an aerosolized formula of DNA-changing nanobots programmed to remove powers from superhumans. Striker, Veil, Hazmat and Mettle accepted his offer, but Briggs then revealed his plan to deploy Clean Slate around the world, de-powering Super Heroes and Villains alike. The students refused to take part so Briggs sent the Young Masters of Evil against them and unleashed his formula, leaving the students powerless. Despite being powerless, they counterattacked, and Striker soon found an antidote to Clean Slate. Striker regained his power, only to be caught by Briggs who amplified his power in an attempt to kill him. Veil offered the antidote to Mettle and Hazmat so they could fight Briggs, and the pair, who had become a couple, chose their friends over their happiness and chance at a normal life. Together, they foiled Briggs and the students regained their powers with the antidote. They next raced to stop his worldwide launch of the formula via missiles, but they arrived too late. Despite their tardiness, the student Lightspeed, with Jocasta’s help, located and disarmed the missiles before they struck. Meanwhile, the other students battled Briggs on the ground. Finesse grabbed a weakened X-23’s claw and stabbed in him the femoral artery, causing him to surrender. Finesse tied off his wound, but Briggs threatened that he’d create a better formula next time. Finesse then removed his bandages and left him to die. In the aftermath of the battle, the students chose to embrace their powers. The school reopened and several of the students graduated.
The remaining students, X-23, Hazmat, Reptil, Mettle, Juston and his Sentinel, were later kidnapped by Arcade and thrown into his games on Murderworld. Some students seemingly perished, such as Mettle and Reptil, while Juston and his Sentinel were casualties of Murderworld. In the aftermath, X-23 left to join the time-displaced X-Men.
The academy ended up shuttered for several years, but reopened under Headmaster Captain Marvel (Danvers), who began to recruit new heroes. The academy’s location, however, was top secret, thanks to the Parallax Configuration, a device in the cellars of the academy that allowed the building to exist simultaneously in multiple locations and planes of existence. Newer recruits included Aaron Fischer, known as the Captain America of the Railways; the daughter of Eric Brooks, AKA Blade, and Daywalker Brielle “Bri” Brooks, AKA Bloodline; the modern Robin Hood and trans mutant Shela Sexton, AKA Escapade; the invulnerable Justin Jin, AKA Kid Juggernaut, grandson to Norman Osborn, AKA Green Goblin, Normie Osborn, AKA Red Goblin, and kid genius Lunella Lafayette, AKA Moon Girl, and the transdimensional Devil Dinosaur, who share a psych link.
This next class of students faced their first foe on campus, none other than the Nazi scientist Fritz von Meyer, AKA Swarm, who controlled a hive of bees. While a bee kaiju kept Devil Dinosaur busy, the students formed a plan as Escapade swapped consciousnesses with one of the bees to gather data for Lunella. Bloodline protected Escapade’s body while Aaron transferred his kinetic force-field to protect Lunella from the bees since she was allergic, meanwhile getting stung himself. Red Goblin suggested they disable the parallax configuration by disconnecting the M’Kraan Crystal shard in the school’s cellar, so the bees couldn’t attack the school. Justin ran to do so and upon touching the crystal, a woman emerged wanting to create something with him, but unsure of what to do, he declined and rejoined the group, who had defeated Swarm by disconnecting his skull from the bees. though Lunella noticed a logo on the skull and surmised someone had been mass-cloning Swarm skulls as infiltration weapons.
The students began learning from some of the best fighters on the X-Men: Wolverine and Colossus. Though, external things started threatening some of the students’ attendance, like Shela’s parents who put out a missing person’s alert for her, outstanding warrants across several states calling for Aaron’s arrest, and the mysterious Red Goblin, whom no one knew their identity but it was clear he was bonded to a symbiote, which made Headmaster Danvers nervous. But Danvers was resolved to give these students a home and sanctuary. In exchange for it they would have to be there for one another.
While Shela and Bri traveled to the city, the rest of the students spent a day at Coney Island, riding coasters and relaxing in the sun. The Red Goblin finally revealed himself to his fellow students since he couldn’t very well go looking like a goblin, and the lot of them didn’t know who he was. At Coney Island, Lunella and Justin got sucked into Murderworld through the local arcade and faced a murderous robot version of its creator, Arcade, while Aaron shared more about his life with Normie—specifically Alchemax, their role in killing the houseless. and how he ended up a corporate by-product of their experiments. Lunella and Justin soon escaped and reunited with the others, but they were all interrupted by Calvin Cuttle, AKA Squid Kid, a former friend of Lunella’s, who had gathered a group of costumed terrorists and attacked several major corporations—Roxxon, Stark Unlimited, Hexus, Alchemax and Oscorp—setting them ablaze. A news station covering the attacks mentioned that the heir to the Alchemax and Oscorp fortunes was missing and included a picture of Normie, revealing to the group who he really was. Normie, thinking he was a monster with his symbiote in tow, took off to fix things alone.
After suffering defeat and losing his little brother, Stanley, in the process, Normie returned to the Avengers Academy and Danvers set out to get the Avengers on the case since she was running a school, not a superhuman response team. But the students couldn’t sit around and do nothing, so Aaron contacted a friend—Qaari Beck, AKA Mysteriant, one of the new Sinister Six and whom he had been seeing on the side. Beck couldn't abide by taking Stanley, so he invited Aaron and his fellow academy students to the docks where their secret base was located, and offered to disarm the sensors, allowing them inside to free Stanley.
Arriving at the docks, the fledgling team received a glowing green signal from Mysteriant and found their way onto the Sinister Six’s giant cargo ship headquarters. Infiltrating it, they were soon caught in a battle that kicked off with Mysteriant’s seeming death at the hands of Squid Kid, who had been spying on him, aware of his betrayal. Escapade liberated the captured Stanley by switching places with him, and got some help from the young Billy Connors, AKA Lizard Boy. Escapade was soon freed by Kid Juggernaut, who tore through the ship with Devil Dinosaur’s help. Despite their efforts, all the students were soon defeated by the Sinister Six, until Mysteriant returned from his seeming death. He leaked all of the info the group gathered on the corporations during their attack, exposing each company’s illegal and unethical activities, and the team disbanded seeing it as a win. But Squid Kid wanted to use the information to make money and absconded before anyone could catch him. Normie reunited with his family and planned to continue attending the academy, and Aaron welcomed him, recognizing that people are not their origins.
When Danvers asked former student Hazmat to join the academy as a Resident Advisor, she refused at first, noting what a failure the last school was, especially with the loss of Mettle. Meanwhile, drama and feelings raged at the academy: Justin was struggling with his feelings for Captain America, and Escapade and Bloodline kissed, but the latter freaked out a little, realizing she liked girls too. When Escapade was taken by the energy vampire, Emplate, Hazmat joined Bloodline to find and liberate her from his other-dimensional dungeon, a place they traveled to thanks to Bloodline’s “cat,” Walpurgis. Meanwhile, Emplate took Escapade’s swapping powers for a spin and entered the academy, capturing Kid Juggernaut to save for a later snack. Hazmat got thrown into Emplate's dungeon by his lackey, George Baker, AKA D.O.A., and came across Kid Juggernaut and one of Emplate’s everlasting meals, the invulnerable Mettle! Reunited, they shared a kiss. Though Mettle was restored to his former iridium-free self, he could still transform into his red-metal look, and he knocked D.O.A. across the room with one blow, as Bloodline returned and took his head. Bloodline carried a weakened Escapade and they all escaped, only to return to school where Emplate had taken hold of the other students, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Red Goblin and Captain America. Bloodline attacked Emplate with her Asgardian steak but with Escapade’s powers, he swapped with her so she was stabbed instead. Escapade then switched powers with all the members of the Avengers Academy, taking Emplate’s infection from them and into her body, while taking some of the student’s powers as well to defeat Emplate. She weakened him enough so that he was sucked back to his dimension. Escapade reunited with Bloodline and they shared a passionate kiss before she was taken to Reed Richards, AKA Mister Fantastic, for care and rest.
While Mettle got back to his old hobby of surfing, he noticed how full of garbage the ocean was. Attempting to surf, he panicked and transformed into his metal form, sinking. Saved by Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Mettle woke up to a robotic Arcade—a pet project of Moon Girl’s—and it triggered some bad memories. Hazmat yelled at Moon Girl, and Danvers intervened, consoling Mettle. She told him that she didn’t need a hero, she needed him to heal and be safe, and be himself. She then asked Mettle to become a resident advisor at the Academy, to which he accepted. Hazmat smoothed things over with Moon Girl, and they both approached Mettle with an offer to destroy the Arcade robot to help with his healing process, but instead, he put it to work cleaning up the beach.
