Synopsis / Summary / Plot
It's the anniversary of the founding of the Avengers and New York is holding an Avengers Day Parade. Megan McLaren is reporting from amongst the crowd while Chili Storm and Stuntmaster are hosting the event in the reviewing stand. The team have their own float bearing current members Captain America, Firestar, Iron Man and Justice, on-call Thor and founding ex-members Giant-Man and Wasp.
Spider-Man watches from a rooftop. He *could* join the celebrations because he *did* do a stint as an Avenger but he doesn't want the fabled Peter Parker 'luck' to mess the parade up. Cap is uncomfortable with the adulation of the crowd after the false Capmania drummed up by the Skrull Sensational Hydra in his own recent #5-7. He's also concerned about Iron Man's injuries that he sustained in *his* recent #8-10 against Mandarin. Vision is also on the float, his holographic form generated by a portable projector. He notes that Henry Pym has changed his uniform from Ant-Man-like to Goliath-like. Pym adds that he never dresses like his Yellowjacket version because that's when he was mentally ill. (But he'll soon confront his Yellowjacket persona in Avengers Forever.) Wasp, in a costume dating back to her very early days, asks Firestar and Justice how they're liking being Avengers. Vance Astrovik as usual is enthusiastic while Angelica Jones is more guarded. Hank tells Angel that absent Wanda Maximoff told him about her worries about her microwave power's affect on her health - he says he'll run some tests on her.
Chili and Stuntmaster run over the Avengers early days:- Formed after a battle against Loki in #1. Joined by Cap out of suspended animation since WWII in #4. Leaving Cap to head a new rookie team in #16. And briefly sketching in the variety of team members since then (we see a full-page montage). They also mention that GM&Wasp have now returned as reserve members.
The X-Men are watching on TV. When they see people celebrating Beast as an Avenger they complain that he's really 1 of *them*. Bruce Banner sees the event on a TV in a showroom window, but he's busy tracking down who killed his wife Betty in his title (so sometime before his #472-474 where he finds the culprit). Just-resigned Hawkeye is also busy having a meeting with the Commission On Superhuman Activities about his next job (which will be leading the Thunderbolts).
Scarlet Witch is also busy elsewhere. Wanda approaches Agatha Harkness' Whisper Hill mansion. She ruminates that the place was destroyed twice (Fantastic Four #184 and Silver Surfer #137?) but now it seems as good as old (200 years old). However she saw her witch mentor herself die (V & SW v2 #3) and be a ghost in the next 2 issues, but turn up alive again (in Av West Coast #50). Agatha and her cat familiar Ebony are inside and expecting her. Miss Harkness says she can tell Wanda's powers have evolved, but she wasn't expecting *that* to happen until some years in the future.
Her pupil tells her about #1-3 where Morgan Le Fay infected her with Celtic sorcery which changed her powers somehow. She was able to sense (#6) that the Squadron Supreme were controlled by the Corruptor, and to use the power of the Earth (last issue) to stop Moses Magnum. And she keeps conjuring up dead Wonder Man, last issue even when she was unconscious. Agatha says that Morgan accidentally caused Wanda's own power to mature ahead of time, which could be disastrous if SW can't control it. And the boundaries between realms are growing thin.
Back at the parade the hosts have moved on to talk about the Avengers' villains. And we see another full-page montage. And then we catch up with 3 in particular. Imus Champion (#5-6 and the Av/Squadron Supreme 1998 Annual) is in jail but his lawyer is confidant of getting him out. Ultron is plotting the end of humanity again. And someone is watching the parade from Hell.
Daredevil is also watching from a rooftop. He recalls that he turned down an offer of Avengers membership (Av#111) because his heightened senses would be hampered by a group. And the hosts talk about villains who have reformed to become Avengers. They mention Wonder Man, Black Widow, the original Swordsman and Living Lightning, but omit the original 3:- Hawkeye, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch.
Agatha Harkness tells Wanda Maximoff a secret about her birth. SW already knows that she and her twin Pietro were born mutants on Wundagore Mountain, and she later learned that the light on the Mountain that night was the chaos-demon Chthon imbuing her with the potential for magic. They were adopted by the gypsy family Maximoff but later fell in with Magneto, none of the 3 knowing he was their father. Agatha now tells Wanda that without Chthon's intervention she would have had an energy power. But instead she has access to Chaos-Magic which is the source of her probability-altering hexes. Up to now she's been controlling the results sub-consciously. But now she must learn conscious control.
The Fantastic Four are also watching the parade on TV. In Central Park a statue honouring the Avengers who were thought dead in the Onslaught event (that led to Heroes Reborn) has been taken down. In its place they are now unveiling a plaque to honour other deceased Avengers such as Swordsman, Mockingbird and Gilgamesh. But then there's a flash of light .,.
... and Grim Reaper appears through a dimensional rift accusing them of murdering their fallen team-mates. He hurls 7 energy bolts through the hole which raise up the corpses of the original Captain Marvel, Doctor Druid, Hellcat, Mockingbird, Swordsman and Thunderstrike and the ionic form of Wonder Man. CM attacks IM, Hellcat takes on Firestar, WM punches out GM, Mocky hits Justice with a battle-stave, Druid makes a grab for Wasp, Thunderstrike and Thor exchange hammer blows while Swordsman closes on Cap. None of the Avengers want to fight their 'foes'. Vision tries to talk Eric Williams down by reminding him that he reconciled with his brother Simon/Wonder Man and Vision who had Simon's brain patterns just before he died (for the 1st time in Vision & Scarlet Witch v2 #2). But GR just destroys Vision's hologram projector. All the other Avengers fall. Then a dome of energy cuts them off from the spectators and expands to push the people away.
Meanwhile Wanda tells Agatha that she *really* came to Whisper Hill to ask why she can bring Simon Williams back to life temporarily, and how can she make it permanent. Agatha laughs and says that's obvious. Simon has kept himself on the boundary between life and death because he loves Wanda. All she has to do is love him back. (It seemed to me that's exactly what she did in #8.)