The Amazing Avengers Issue 14

“Of Gods and Monsters” is the 14th issue and chapter of The Amazing Avengers.

Featured Characters

 * Avengers
 * Captain America / Peter Parker
 * Redwing
 * Captain Marvel / Mary Jane Watson
 * Jocasta
 * Black Panther / Felicia Parker-Reilly
 * Black Widow / Teresa Parker
 * Winter Soldier / Jack Parker
 * Mecha-Hulk / Amadeus Cho
 * Quasar / Gayle Watson / Phyla-Vell Neramani
 * Hulkling / Theodore "Teddy" Altman / Dorrek VIII
 * Star-Lord / Kevin Quill
 * Groot
 * Mantis
 * Silver Owl / Marina Morbius (first appearance; joins Avengers Academy)

Supporting Characters

 * Avengers Academy
 * Ms. Marvel / Kamala Khan
 * American Son / Gabriel Stacy
 * Spider-Boy / Miles Morales
 * Spider-Girl / Gwen Stacy
 * Inferno / Dante Pertuz
 * Sandboy / Finn Marko
 * Wasp / Cassie Lang-Van Dyne
 * Reptil / Humberto Lopez
 * S.H.I.E.L.D.
 * Tony Stark
 * Maria Hill
 * Henry "Hank" Pym
 * Commissioner George Stacy
 * Jefferson Davis
 * Dora Skirth
 * Marla Madison
 * Queen Tigress / Ava Ayala
 * Michael Morbius (first appearance)
 * Olympians
 * Athena (first appearance)
 * Hercules (first appearance)

Villains

 * Lernaean Hydra (single appearance; dies)
 * Hydra (defunct)
 * Arnim Zola (dies)
 * Viper / Madame Hydra (dies)
 * Attuma (first appearance; joins and leaves)
 * Living Brain / Luxias Crown (first appearance) (flashback and main story)
 * Crimson Spider / Flash Thompson (flashback only)
 * Living Brain's Shadowed Benefactor

Other Characters

 * Ben Parker-Watson
 * Phillip Parker-Watson
 * May Parker-Watson
 * Anna Parker-Watson
 * Felicity Parker-Altman
 * Luke Parker-Watson
 * Lyla Parker-Watson
 * Richard Parker-Quill

Premise
As S.H.I.E.L.D. armies grow closer to the final destruction of Hydra, Arnim Zola and Madame Hydra attempt to reestablish order by awakening the ancient Lernaean Hydra, leading Olympian champion Hercules, who is unable to handle this situation alone, to reluctantly enlist the Avengers' assistance. Meanwhile, the Avengers Academy trainees befriend young demigoddess Marina Morbius the Silver Owl, who is out to stop a new threat which was unwillingly unleashed by Crimson Spider.

Plot
A squadron of S.H.I.E.L.D. air fighters was sent to assault and destroy a super weapon of Hydra which is threatening to destroy Greece. All the sudden, a mysterious amazonian girl with unknown metahuman abilities arrives in the battle and obliterates the weapon as the S.H.I.E.L.D. pilots capture and imprison the survivors of the explosion. As Tony Stark is pleased to know that Hydra is meeting its final demise, Viper and Arnim Zola decide to make plans for the 'Ultimatum'.

Peter Parker, Mary Jane and their family are spending their summer holidays in Greece, where they are having field-trips around the city of Athens and enjoying beaches like the Petani Beach in Kefalonia. Their moments of peace are short-lived when a horde of monsters led by the Chimera attack Athens, forcing the Avengers to take action. Just as they defeat all monsters, the heroes watch as the Chimera is defeated and killed by Olympus' demigod champion Hercules, who had been hunting the Chimera for months ago. As Hercules decides to celebrate his victory with a party in Athens, on which he invites the Avengers to come along. The heroes speechlessly accept, although Captain America is certain that the real threat in Greece has not been dealt with yet. Elsewhere, Viper and Zola are raiding Hades' forbidden chamber to find the key for their ultimate weapon. Just as they claim their prize, however, they end up awakening something else... something beyond their control, which kills the two.

Meanwhile, the Avengers Academy students are enjoying their summer holidays in the beach of Coney Island, New York. There, Gwen Stacy and Kamala Khan encounter and befriend Marina Morbius, a young girl who had moved with her father Michael to New York from Athens, Greece. Just then, the beach is invaded by barbarian Atlanteans led by Attuma. Just as the young heroes suit up to battle the villain, they are soon joined in by Marina, who unexpectedly reveals her metahuman nature as the Silver Owl, an amazonian demigoddess from Mount Olympus and daughter of the Wisdom goddess Athena. The young heroes defeat Attuma as Silver Owl decides to turn him over to the sea god Poseidon. Silver Owl also reveals that she is in New York to stop her father's former boss and employer Luxias Crown, a engineer who was once considered a mad scientist in New York nine years ago until he was presumably killed by Crimson Spider. Flashback reveals, however, that Crown (who had clashed with his latest invention: a brain-draining machine) had been turned into a super-android nicknamed the "Living Brain". The young heroes chase Crown, who overhears of Hydra's latest schemes happening at Greece and rushes there voicing interest in using the new threat as part of his plans.

The young heroes chase Crown until they arrive in Greece to find Hercules battling the Lernaean Hydra. The Olympian arrogantly dismisses help from the young heroes (including even his niece Marina) by claiming that he has fought this battle before and will win on it again. The Avengers arrive, but they are also dismissed by Hercules. All the sudden, the beast gains the upper hand and grows near to kill him. Right before it can finish him, the Avengers and their trainees stop the Hydra and save Hercules, who ambitiously tries to call them off "because this is his fight" until Athena arrives and snaps that Hercules lost his fight because of his self-respect and greed over his own glory, convincing him that only teamwork can help him now. Crown attempts to use his android body's mechanisms to brainwash the Hydra, but it fails as the beast lunges him away. As the other heroes keep the beast occupied, Marina brings on the one weapon she and Hephaestus forged to kill the Hydra: the Eye of Medusa, a gemstone which allows the wielder to turn his/her victims into stone. With all heads of Hydra distracted, Marina uses the Eye of Medusa on the original head, causing the beast to be turned into stone and disintegrate, ending its threat and saving Greece and Olympus.

Hercules thanks the heroes for their help and apologizes for his rude behavior as he returns to Olympus to face more lectures by Athena. The heroes and their trainees (now joined by Marina) return to New York and continue their summer holidays in Coney Island's beach. Meanwhile, Crown (having survived the Hydra's attack on him) resurfaces from the sea as he is approached by a mysterious man in shadows who offers him an opportunity of revenge on Crimson Spider.