The lead story follows Hardball, Komodo, and their respective teams. They fight Zzaxx at the Hoover Dam (which Hulk did in the cartoon series from like 10 years ago) and Hardball and Komodo team up to take him down using Hardball's electromagnetic power-balls to pretty much destroy him. Hardball opens up about his brother's health and Komodo opens up about how she got her powers, and Hardball uses this knowledge to assist his Hydra masters. Of course, Komodo tricks him and the two teams from before take on Hydra and Senator Woodman who turns into a giant lizard (looking remarkably like the Creature from Monster Squad). You see, Hydra told Hardball that if he helped them this time, they would fix his brother. So he had to turn on his girl to save his brother.

But he turns on Woodman. Kills the leader of Hydra and usurps command of them. Leaving Komodo and the Initiative to clean up the mess and leaving his friends behind.

Which was crazy. He had an out, but he chose door number two and immediately changed his entire life. That's the beauty of this story, you expect him to go one way, and Gage takes him in another direction entirely.

The second story follows Trauma and his secret origin being revealed to the new staff physician, Physique, who helps him deal with some of the stresses of being him. Having the one person who wasn't afraid of him be revealed to be a Skrull kind of took a toll on him, but we also learn that he had to be separate from his family as his mom went nuts, his dad was worried he might kill Terry, his friends and brother couldn't be around him because he was unable to control his powers around them.

It was all very sad.

But we also learn a big thing about Trauma. About who his real dad is. And it's a doozy. So:

SKIP THIS NEXT PART FOR SPOILERS BE HERE

His real dad is Nightmare. An old-school Marvel villain from the 60s. One of the ones you'd see fight the Defenders or Doctor Strange by himself. A pretty awesome twist, and it's nice to know that Trauma isn't just a new mutant or something.

So, all in all, great issue. As always, this book moves things forward (even in a special) at a time when a lot of other books are just middling and trying to catch up with current events by telling past stories. Gage and Slott know how to kick ass and make the characters seem like real people, making tough decisions, and the art by Steve Uy was yet again perfection. I've learned to love his art as time passes on, and he's always a welcome addition to this fantastic book.