In every installment of “If I Pass This Way Again,” we look at comic book plot points that were rarely (sometimes NEVER!) mentioned again after they were first introduced.

Today, in the first of what will somehow be a sporadic series of looks at the USAgent's bizarre history following Force Works, we look at his short-lived time as the head of the Venom villains known as the Jury.

USAgent became a member of the West Coast branch of the Avengers in an annoying fashion, when the United States government INSISTED that he be given a place on the team. When the Avengers moved from being under U.S. control to being part of the United Nations, then USAgent no longer had a guaranteed spot on the team and sure enough, when the heroes voted for who they, themselves, wanted to see as their official roster, he was not voted on to the team. He went solo, but sure enough, he soon found himself crossing paths with the Avengers again and when Tigra, Wasp and Hank Pym all decided to take a leave of absence from the team, USAgent was able to return to the team (along with new member, Spider-Woman). When the Avengers West Coast disbanded, USAgent became an outright free agent, disillusioned with all of the bureaucracy of it all. He was then recruited, though, to join the newly formed Force Works, a team made out of the former members of the Avengers West Coast.

He had a brand-new costume for this team and had photon shields and served on the team for the next couple of years. After Force Works disbanded, USAgent kept his new look when the Avengers reformed following Heroes Reborn (the team had disbanded after the apparent deaths of many of their members during a battle with Onslaught). However, he reverted to his old look during a Captain America storyline where the Skrulls tried to turn the world against Captain America.

Meanwhile, in Venom's first jailbreak in Amazing Spider-Man #315 (by David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane), we meet a prison guard at the Vault named Hugh Taylor. He is murdered by Venom as the villain escapes from custody...

Obviously, a whole lot changed between Amazing Spider-Man #315 and Venom receiving his own miniseries, Venom: Lethal Protector. Venom was now sort of being spun as an anti-hero rather than an outright villain. However, since he was there for the creation of Venom, Michelinie obviously knew about Venom's entire history and so in the Venom miniseries (written by Michelinie and initially drawn by Mark Bagley, Sam de la Rosa and Al Milgrom), Michelinie used that history to introduce the Jury, who were led and financed by General Orwell Taylor, father of Hugh Taylor.

The Jury's armor was based on the Guardsman armor that was used at the Vault. The Jury became recurring villains of Venom in what became his series of miniseries (Marvel didn't want to outright give Venom an ongoing series, so they instead did a series of miniseries, with the idea being that as soon as the sales dropped, they could cancel them, as, again, Marvel was not exactly comfortable with doing a Venom ongoing series).

Taylor, though, even sent them after Spider-Man, arguing that Spider-Man should have to pay for bringing the Venom symbiote to Earth after Secret Wars. Taylor got more and more sketchy and was eventually arrested and sent to prison.

The Jury were now at a loss for a purpose and so was USAgent and so in Thunderbolts #23 (by Kurt Busiek, Mark Bagley and Scott Hanna), they were each given a new purpose as corrupt businessman Edwin Cord hired them to arrest the Thunderbolts, who were, by this point, led by USAgent's old teammate and frenemy, Hawkeye. Not all of the members of The Jury came along, but most of them did. They fought the Thunderbolts and did not do that well...

USAgent, though, endeared himself to the team when he decided to stay behind to make sure that they were all right instead of continuing to fight against the Thunderbolts by himself (which is what he wanted to do). As you can see, USAgent had a new shield designed for him. It was filled with high-tech gizmos (a lot like how Iron Man had Captain America's shield rigged up when Cap first joined the Avengers).

In Thunderbolts #28, when Graviton attacked, USAgent wanted the Jury to come with him to help fight against the villain, but Cord wouldn't allow it.

In Thunderbolts #32 (by Busiek, Bagley and Hanna), Agent and the Jury tracked the Thunderbolts down but were shocked to see that they had walked into a fight between the Thunderbolts and the Secret Empire. Being basically good guys, Agent and the Jury stuck around to help take down the bad guys and Agent agreed to let the Thunderbolts go this time after working together...

Then, in Captain America #20 (by Mark Waid, Adam Kubert and Jesse Delperdang), USAgent visits the Army to pick up a new Vibranium shield (while mentioning that his main job at the time was still hunting down the Thunderbolts) and he chose a bad time, as this was when all Vibranium on the planet had become unstable and so Agent's new shield exploded on him...

He next showed up a year later, but the Jury connection was never mentioned again. It is worth noting that a new writer, Fabian Nicieza, took over Thunderbolts soon after that last Jury/Thunderbolts team-up, and while Nicieza was excellent in following up on most of Busiek's plots from the series, I guess he was not interested in following up on the Agent and the Jury, so they were just dropped all together and USAgent seems like he is working for SHIELD (or perhaps the military again) when he next shows up (which was designed to set up a future status quo for the USAgent, which I'll get to in a future column).

If you have a suggestion for a future edition of I Pass This Way Again, be sure to drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!