Casey and Dragotta spend approximately half this issue on a psychedelic trip. It’s not even through the Marvel Universe; they just have the Teen Brigade tripping while discovering the In-Betweener’s place in the universe. Sort of.

Casey goes so far as to hide their discoveries and decision-making to surprise the reader at the end. Except, of course, it makes absolutely no sense so it’s not much of a surprise. Most of Vengeance plays out crazy and then, a few pages (or an issue) later, Casey explains it.

Here, the Teen Brigade saves Doctor Octopus from the teen villains. It gives the issue a great big fight scene, which Dragotta relishes. It also gives Casey the opportunity to write some amusing banter for Doc Ock, even though he now looks more like the brain from “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

Vengeance‘s a wondrously confusing mess of pseudo-anti-mainstream goodness.