History
The Paladins were a team of former 50-State Initiative recruits that banded together to work as super heroes without government supervision.[1] Desperate for public attention, the Paladins were pulled into Veronica Eden and Todd Baker's conspiracy that would see each take control of Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. to manipulate the conflict between the two organizations whichever way they saw fit. The Paladin's role in this plan would see them participate in staged fights against Hydra.
Eden's plan was postponed after she failed to take the reins of Hydra and was arrested. Fearing for their prominence, the Paladins broke into the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier Adjunct, where Eden was storing the super-computer Overseer, and reactivated one of its robot guardians, the Myrmidon, to manufacture an enemy. The robot instead chased them off and reactivated its master. With Fifty-One being the only Paladin willing to warn somebody of the threat they had unleashed, the rest of the team subdued him, and he was brainwashed telepathically by Think Tank. The Paladins then fabricated a story about Fifty-One going rogue and turned him into their arch-enemy, orchestrating fights with him any time their visibility was waning.
Fifty-One eventually built up enough resistance to the mental control and freed himself.[2] He broke Eden out of custody so she could facilitate him access to the Hydra Supreme Armor to sneak into the Adjunct and shut down the Myrmidon. The Paladins tracked him down to an abandoned S.H.I.E.L.D. warehouse and stumbled into Iron Man and Captain America in the process. Following a shoot-out between the heroes and Eden's gunmen, during which Fifty-One and Eden escaped,[1] the Paladins fed the heroes into the narrative that Fifty-One was a villain and that he intended to activate Myrmidon. They continued their pursuit to The Annex, a S.H.I.E.L.D. storage bunker. Iron Man and Captain America secretly followed the Paladins and beat them to confronting the fugitives, but Fifty-One escaped as soon as he armored up. The Paladins then helped the heroes take down Eden.[3]
Following Eden's capture, Captain America sent the Paladins away, suggesting they stepped out of the limelight and built up their aptitude as super heroes. Iron Man and Captain America had Eden take them to the Adjunct, where Fifty-One helped them fight a Myrmidon, but was injured in the process.[4] After being swarmed by the army of Myrmidons, Iron Man left the Adjunct with Fifty-One to seek medical aid. Iron Man delivered Fifty-One to the Paladins, unaware of their true intentions. The Paladins took their former teammate to their apartment HQ, where they planned to kill him.[2] They were interrupted by the arrival of Myrmidons who intended to kill Fifty-One themselves. Having learned the truth, Iron Man returned for Fifty-One and took him back to the Adjunct. After Fifty-One used his telepathy to assimilate himself into the Overseer and override the computer's consciousness with his own, the Paladins arrived at the Adjunct to take a stand against Iron Man and Captain America, knowing that they were now seen as villains, but were soundly defeated.[5]See Also
- 5 appearance(s) of Paladins (Ex-Initiative) (Earth-616)
- 2 image(s) of Paladins (Ex-Initiative) (Earth-616)
- 5 member(s) of Paladins (Ex-Initiative) (Earth-616)