The Little House I Used To Live In

Damage Control has been awarded the contract to rebuild Manhattan after World War Hulk. Although they have support from the superhero community, the Thunderbolts have arrived to make sure that every hero on-site is registered with the government under the Super Human Registration Act. While Lenny Ballinger wants to sort things out peacefully, Monstro is spoiling for a fight. Before things can get any more heated, Damage Control's account executive John Porter arrives. He tries to convince the Thunderbolts to stand aside and let them do their job for the sake of the city, but the group becomes too intimidating, particularly when Venom starts drooling on him. That's when Bart Rozum steps in and takes over the situation. He tells them that Penance will make his teammates hold off for a few days instead. When Penance asks why he should, Bart points out that he can tell everyone exactly why, but he knows that the Thunderbolt would not want that known to everyone around him. What nobody knows is that Bart is one of the few people who knows that Penance is secretly the hero known as Speedball. He recalls how Penance sought him out a short time back and revealed his identity. Bart attempted to convince Robert to get professional help to deal with his problems, but they fell on deaf ears. With the prospect of having his true identity revealed, Penance convinces his fellow Thunderbolts to hold off for three days. He warns all any heroes who are still helping with the relief effort after that time had better be registered. With this delay out of the way, the heroes are then put to work but are cautioned to watch out for alien technology.

Twelve hours later, Monstro and Visioneer are searching for a heavily damaged building for survivors. Although Visioneer doesn't sense anyone trapped inside, Monstero is sure that something is. Sure enough, when they go looking they find the remains of Arch-E, the Warbound's robot that was destroyed during the war. While Monstro is trying to recover it, the roof of the building collapses, but he is soon dug out thanks to the arrival of Black Goliath. Lenny soon arrives and tells them to get the robot back to the lab for examination and take a four-hour break. The following morning, John Porter arrives at work to learn that Robin Chapel is had worked all night. He tells Bart Rozum to get breakfast for the staff and tells Robin to get more sleep while he prepares for the day. Meanwhile, Ray Lippert checks in on Gene Strausser in his lab. Strausser shows Lipper his latest invention: an Adamantium razor. An invention he can easily afford thanks to all the Adamantium shell casings he recovered from the city. He also shows Lippert some of the material from the Hulk's Stone Ship, explaining that it has some strange psychokinetic properties.

Ray then is shown Arch-E, which Gene has managed to bring back to operating order. When the robot vows that his Warbound will rescue him, Ray tells him that he has some bad news for him. Suddenly, Gene gets a phone call from Lenny out in the field. Lenny has a situation that needs a scientist's expertise. Lenny tells him that the Chrysler Building has become sentient and is pissed off.

Recurring Characters

Damage Control (Lenny Ballinger, Monstro, Albert Cleary, John Porter, Bart Rozum, Robin Chapel, Eugene Strausser, Ray Lippert, Visioneer), Goliath, Arch-E, Thunderbolts (Songbird, Venom, Radioactive Man, Penance, Moonstone, Swordsman), Initiative (“Yellowjacket”, Triathalon, Thor Girl, Rage, War Machine, Komodo, Justice, Slapstick), Mighty Avengers (Iron Man, Ares, Wasp, Ms. Marvel, Sentry), Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, Thing, Black Panther, Storm), New Avengers (Luke Cage, Wolverine, Echo, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Iron Fist, Ronin), Daredevil

Continuity Notes

• In the flashback in this story, a few facts about Robert Baldwin's past are made:

  • That he used to intern for Bart Rozum from Damage Control Vol 2 #2-4 and Damage Control Vol 3 #1-4.

  • Baldwin was involved in the Stamford disaster that happened in Civil War. He eventually transitioned into becoming Penance to atone for that as seen during the events to Civil War: Front Line #1-11.

• Among the heroes are Skrull spies posing as Yellowjacket and Thor Girl as revealed in Secret Invasion #1 and Avengers: The Initiative #18 respectively.

• Monstro, Lenny, and Visioneer all talk about someone named "Slaying Mantis", they are actually talking about Eric O'Grady who was operating as Ant-Man at the time. O'Grady took on the Slaying Mantis identity so he could secretly work for Damage Control as seen in Irredeemable Ant-Man #9.

• Gene Strausser states that he promised to make She-Hulk Adamantium razors to shave her legs. This is a reference to Damage Control Vol 2 #3 a story wherein She-Hulk alludes to the fact that her old writer, John Byrne, quit her book Sensational She-Hulk because she used his razor to shave her legs.