Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Some Avengers (Captain America, Firestar, Iron Man and Thor) are having a training session in the Combat Simulation Room. Cap is exulting in the performance of his old shield, recently mended and restored to him in his own #22. That happened in Wakanda with the help of Black Panther. Cap and BP went on to other stuff after that, but BP#16-17 brought T'Challa back to New York and he's visiting Avengers Mansion and joining in the combat.
While he's here he's upgraded the Entangli-Cables which are now giving Iron Man a hard time. IM says he'll have to get his boss Tony Stark to upgrade the other obstacles. (Steve Rogers, T'Challa and Thor know that IM and TS are the same person, but Iron Man is keeping up the fiction because Angelica Jones and her boyfriend Vance Astrovik aren't in on the secret.) BP says the razor discs are fast *enough*, thank you. And Thor's whirling hammer can fend off a continuous barrage of missiles but is still trapped in place. And FS can use microwave bursts to deal with the heat-seeking missiles chasing her but there's too many of *them*.
The object of the exercise is for any 1 Avenger to get across the room to the off-switch, which they are signally failing to do. So Vance/Justice decides to join in despite the cast on his leg. He uses his TK to fly through the room, passing very close to each of the others along the way with a confidence that he had been lacking up until the end of last issue (when he was pivotal in the defeat of Ultron). He reaches the other side and switches off the 'opponents'. He explains that his route stopped the system from targeting him with new dangers, and the others were already handling the existing threats. Justice accepts his teammates' praise (and a kiss from Angel) and tells them that he'll soon be losing his cast and be back to active duty.
Cap finds Giant-Man and Wasp watching protesters outside the front gates demanding that the team induct an African-American member. A news report says there are other complaints as well:- Alkhema and Grim Reaper escaping from custody (but Alky escaped from the *Army* (#21) after the Avengers captured her, and Eric Williams was kidnapped from a psychiatric detention centre by Ultron (the Wizard #0)). The team insulted the Triune Understanding Church (#15). A quinjet crashed in Central Park (CA#21). And Utron destroyed Slorenia (#19), and that robot was created by an Avenger. Henry Pym thought he'd finally managed to put that behind him last issue. IM and BP join them and agree that the Avengers have had several black members in the past, including T'Challa. BP says he has to return to his duties in Wakanda and so can't rejoin them. But even if he could he wouldn't do so just to be a token to appease the public. But he adds that his recent experience (Wakanda being taken over by Achebe with powerful hidden backers) makes him suspect that someone may be orchestrating the protests.
Meanwhile Scarlet Witch and Wonder Man are hesitating outside Vision's room. Wanda Maximoff thinks it will be best if she tackles him alone. She enters to see him floating in midair in a lotus position. She tries to get him to talk about his revelation last issue that he still loves her (his ex-wife) despite freezing her out. The synthezoid says there's nothing to discuss. But her current lover Simon Williams can't stay out of the room and the argument. He says Vizh must be honest about his feelings to clear the air. But V replies that their relationship *isn't* the problem, Simon is.
'Victor Shade' points out all the similarities between himself and Simon, some of which are news to Wanda (and us). They both like jazz, chess and Walt Kelly's Pogo as well as science and maths. Simon thinks that's great until the android punches him through a wall and then ghosts up through the ceiling and away. Wonder Man follows him through a window (opening it 1st) and they meet up in the sky. When WM won't leave him alone Vision does his arm phased through the chest trick which effects even *his* ionic body. But Simon refuses to fight back and demands that his 'brother' explain what the problem is if it isn't him sleeping with his ex-wife.
Vision reminds Simon (and us) of his origin (recently redescribed in Av Forever #8) built by Ultron from the android body of the WWII Human Torch and the preserved brain pattern of the then believed dead Wonder Man. While Simon was 'dead' Vision was free to believe that his enthusiasms were his own. But later he found that they were really just copies of Simon's personality. At least he could believe that the love he shared with Wanda was unique. But that was shattered when he was reduced to an emotionless robot and their 'children' were exposed as a deception. Wanda's life too was shattered, so even when he regained his personality and emotions he pretended not to so as not to reopen her wounds. But then she fell in love with Simon, and it became clear to Vizh that her love for himself was really for the man he'd been copied from. Simon is a continual reminder that *everything* about him is fake.
Simon Williams counters that they *aren't* identical. As Ultron noted last issue their minds have both evolved since the original copying. Vision dismisses this as trivial technicalities. He believes everyone must pity the poor copy. Simon replies that on the contrary he *envies* his synthezoid 'brother' who doesn't have to live with the shame and guilt of his failures.
Now we get Simon's story. Simon Williams was always desperate to prove himself good enough to his father, which ended with him embezzling from his own company. He let his brother Eric take the rap, and the earlier Baron Zemo turn him into supervillain Wonder Man who 'died' fighting the Avengers. Eric Williams became Grim Reaper to avenge his death, which led to him becoming a supervillain and then a monster. But Simon woke up and was allowed to join the Avengers as a hero. His guilt made him later confess to the embezzlement on TV, but the public forgave him for that too. He became cocksure and dismissive of his teammates. When Vision's personality was taken away Wonder Man refused to let Wanda use his brain patterns to rebuild it. After the Kree Nega-Bomb incident in Operation Galactic Storm he became a violent killer. His 2nd death in Force Works #1 should have been punishment for it all. But now he's alive again and all has been forgiven again. Even the woman he mistreated now loves him. And he doesn't deserve any of it. But Vision can be the man Simon wishes *he* was.
Vizh says he'll have to think about this and flies off. Simon lets him go and returns to the others, with Vision's state of mind 1 more thing to add to his guilt.
Then we have an epilogue leading into next issue's story. We met the Exemplars in the Eighth Day event which ended in the Juggernaut 1999 1-shot with them scattered around the globe. Now we see 3 of them (Conquest, Decay and Stonecutter) retrieve a 4th Carnivore from a mountain in the Himalayas. They swear to find the other 3 and get revenge on the 8th Juggernaut who betrayed them. And then they'll set about conquering the world as was their destiny.