Warning! Spoilers for Venom: Lethal Protector #1 ahead!

What is worse than a team of evil Avengers? A team of fake evil Avengers, of course, trained by the mercenary Taskmaster to imitate some of the Earth's Mightiest Heroes. This unlikely group of minions was just resurrected by its creator, David Michelinie, for his new Venom series, which takes place in the past of symbiote-wearing anti-hero.

With more than 60 years of history, Marvel Comics has such a vast range of characters that it is easy to forget some of them, especially those who do not make an impact. This is the case of an unlikely team that made its first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #367 by David Michelinie, Jerry Bingham, Randy Emberlin, and Renee Witterstaette. Spider-Man is investigating the Red Skull after learning that his parents were government agents who died on a spy mission against the villain, which leads him to an estate in Virginia. There, he meets the mercenary Solo, who is also on the Red Skull's tail. Together, they enter the estate, where they are confronted by Schmidt's bodyguard, Taskmaster, who sees this as a great chance to test his "special students." Taskmaster actually has an academy where he trains villains and goons, and he unleashes his "impressive" prospects against Spider-Man and Solo.

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Death-Shield, Jagged Bow, and Blood Spider have been trained to mimic the fighting style of Captain America, Hawkeye, and Spider-Man. They also possess equipment matching those of the heroes, and Blood Spider even has superpowers of unrevealed origins. None of that, however, helps them, and they are easily dispatched while their beloved instructor makes his escape. According to Taskmaster, they are supposed to be "A nasty version of the Avengers," but their performance is so abysmal that clearly, the authors were just having some fun in this comic.

Spider-Man fights Taskmaster's dark Avengers.

However, David Michelinie took the chance given by Venom: Lethal Protector, a new series set in Eddie Brock's past, to dust off this unlikely team. The series is written by Michelinie with art by Ivan Fiorelli and Bryan Valenza. The "nasty Avengers" do not fare much better against Venom, however. After a clumsy attempt at tailing Eddie Brock unnoticed, the trio gets ambushed by Venom. In the first couple of pages of Venom: Lethal Protector #1, Jagged Bow gets killed by the ruthless symbiote, while Death-Shield and Blood Spider run for their lives. Later in the issue, the two survivors are seen licking their wounds in an abandoned warehouse. They are debating if taking up a job as a pizza deliveryman is actually a better choice than going on with their costumed careers, when another unlikely villain shows up: Humbug. Hearing his name, Blood-Shield whispers, "And I thought the names that Taskmaster gave us were lame!" This pretty much sums up the sad story of this unlikely team of costumed villains.

The Dark Avengers return in Venom: Lethal Protector.

Venom: Lethal Protector will explore the early days of Eddie Brock after bonding with the alien symbiote. Having co-created the Venom character (together with Todd McFarlane), David Michelinie was obviously the best choice to write the five-issue miniseries, which has the same title as Venom's first solo title from 1993. The return of the forgotten trio of "nasty Avengers" in this Venom series is a great treat to long-time fans, and now that they are going to recruit Humbug in their ranks they will have a chance to finally leave a mark. Perhaps.

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