Stormwatch: Team Achilles #20 is an issue of the series Stormwatch: Team Achilles (Volume 1) with a cover date of May, 2004. It was published on March 10, 2004.
Synopsis for "New Beginnings"
Following the Authority's takeover of the United States, Team Achilles are branded as wanted criminals by the Authority. In the Palace of Nations in Geneva, Ben Santini promptly walks into the office of the Secretary-General of the UN and openly berates her for letting the UN to allow the Authority taking over America and doing nothing to prevent this, even if secretly funneling any kind of support for Team Achilles against the Authority. The Secretary-General defends herself, stating that neither the UN lacks the funds and that she herself was against the creation of Achilles from the beginning while her predecessor decided for their formation. She fears that Santini's approach would lead to all-out war between superheroes and humanity and now it almost has. Furthermore, she insists Santini to leave as his presence will be reported to the Authority and endangering everyone in the building.
Santini, however, reveals that he came to the Palace of Nations to start a fight with the Authority so he can tell them how the UN are funding Achilles. He also hopes that he can make the Authority to overextend their rule over the world and overstretch their resources, thus making it easier for Achilles to easily neutralize them one by one. Once every civilian vacated the Palace, Midnighter and the Engineer confronted Santini to seek his arrest. Midnighter kicks Santini, but the latter reveals to be Alias who then incapacitates Midnighter. Flint then appears and strikes down the Engineer and sends her to Liberia through a Project Entry portal.
The real Santini enters the scene and makes an offer to Midnighter; he wants the Authority to leave America and take over a "deserving" and very less democratic country such as China. If Midnighter doesn't accept, then Santini will have him tortured by Alias. Midnighter refuses and spits out one of his teeth at a pillar near Santini, severely damaging it. Santini then has Flint shock Midnighter to destroy his radio-communication with the Authority and literally slingshot him into a Project Entry portal to a rice paddy in China.
Two weeks later, Santini and Flint are now married and are in Venice to meet a Signore Medici. Their contact meets them and acknowledges the fact that the UN has turned its backs on Team Achilles, they are being hunted by the Authority, and their weaponry funding is gone. Medici is representing a consortium of wealthy and influential people who are interested in hiring Achilles and are opposed to the Authority. Santini and Flint are surprised by the large amount of money the consortium is offering, and learn that the consortium are the modern day version of the Knights Templar. Santini is unsure if he could trust the consortium and he wants to meet their heir to confirm their deal. Medici agrees and arranges a dinner meeting at Ristorante Antico Pignolo to discuss a working arrangement.
Santini and Flint return to their hotel. Santini has Tefibi run a background check on Medici, whose real name is Giovanni Basilio Medici and a illegitimate descendant of the Medici Grand Dukes of Tuscany. It is also reveal that he is working for the "PFPUH" group - Pro Fide, Pro Utilitate Hominum ("Defender of the faith, For the welfare of humanity"); they are the Knights of Malta. Santini shares with Tefibi about Medici's consortium being the Knights Templar, the religious military group who conquered Jerusalem and founded the Holy Grail. But Santini interprets the Grail as representing the bloodline of Jesus Christ, who, contrary to public opinion, did not die on the cross, but lived to have children whose descendants were taken to France by the Templars and their "secret society buddies" the Prieure de Sion. Christ's secret heirs became the Merovingian kings in which the Templars and the Prieure de Sion are supposedly working behind the scenes to have the Merovingians "upon the throne of the world." They are opposed by the Catholic Church's Dominicans and the Knights of Malta, who eventually destroyed the Templars, in which Santini believes that the Church refuses to be "undercut" by the bloodline of Christ and have since wanted to exterminate Christ's descendants. Santini suspects this ancient conspiracy to be far more than fiction and he cannot tell which side Giovanni Medici is playing: the Templars or the Maltese.
Santini attends the meeting with the Templars and he finally meets Gauserand de Montpesant de Molay, the current heir of Christ. Gauserand proves his divine heritage to Santini by turning Santini's glass of water into wine. Santini is impressed before asking Gauserand if he can raise the dead in which he confirms. Suddenly, Santini pulls out a hidden gun and shoots Medici in the head. Team Achilles, who are disguised as waiters, hold the Templars at gunpoint as Santini tells Gauserand to revive Medici back from the dead to prove himself to be the actual descendant of Christ or he will kill everyone in the room.
Appearing in "New Beginnings"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Giovanni Basilio Medici
- Gauserand de Montpesant de Molay
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Sonny Terns
- Deadhead
- Dhul Fiqar
Locations:
- Geneva, Switzerland
- Palais des Nations (Palace of Nations)
- Venice, Italy
- Project Entry Universe
- The Caribbean
Items:
Notes
- This issue sets after the events of Coup d'État: Stormwatch: Team Achilles.
- Dhul Fiqar is seen as a prisoner in the Project Entry Universe rather than being allegedly sent into the sun in Stormwatch: Team Achilles #6.
Trivia
- The concept of Jesus having descendants, which emigrated to France and founding the Merovingian dynasty, who are supported by a secret society called the Priory of Sion, and the Church trying to exterminate Jesus's bloodline are based on the pseudohistory book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code shares a similar premise.
See Also