Synopsis / Summary / Plot
In the last 2 issues most capital cities in the world have disappeared into dark vortices, in most cases along with their countries' government. The shrunken UN has asked the Avengers to lead the world out of chaos.
Wasp and Yellowjacket were taken with Washington DC. Last issue they discovered that the cities had all been transported somewhere and crammed together, causing friction at the borders. Then YJ was rendered unconscious and Wasp faced albino scorpions and a group of (large to her) men, their costumed leader with a Scorpio sign on his masked forehead.
Now the leader has insect-sized Henry Pym suspended on a wall where some of the scorpions are pinned by 'light daggers'. He fires daggers through Pym's hands and introduces himself as Scorpio and his ankh-shaped weapon is the Zodiac Key. We see Wasp held in a small force-bubble while behind him stands the In-Betweener in a larger such prison. Scorpio explains his plan. He claims that the Key contains the destined 1,000-year future of humanity. Many including the (Bavarian) Illuminati held the key in the past but failed to understand it, and so the last millennium didn't go as it should have. But now the Brotherhood Of The Ankh (standing behind him) have given *him* the job of replacing mankind's false leaders and taking the world correctly into the new millennium.
In Avengers Mansion Jack Of Hearts reviews Avengers activity around the globe. Thor has prevented an army coup in Argentina. Triathlon and Wonder Man deal with similar problems in India and North Korea, and Firestar and Justice in South Africa plus Photon somewhere unspecified. Iron Man joins him to make sure he gets his 10 hours in the Zero Room immersed in Zero Fluid (which stops him from exploding).
Last issue Carol Danvers and Jennifer Walters found Wanda Maximoff in her room floating in midair and speaking in not her own voice. Now she wants to know where Order is before spewing magic flames. Warbird's response is to knock her out with a blow to a nerve at the back of her neck.
Later She-Hulk, Warbird and IM are with Ant-Man, Black Panther, Falcon and Vision as angry Sub-Mariner, his hands gouging chunks out of the team's conference table, demands to know why they are here worrying about Scarlet Witch's illness when they should be stopping the vortexes sucking the oceans dry. Captain America enters with Henry Peter Gyrich who is crowing about using diplomacy to prevent a strike against Lebanon. Namor backs down before Cap who says Wanda is receiving medical care - but Vision ghosts off to watch over his ex-wife anyway.
Tony Stark reports that his scientists haven't been able to figure out where the 'black holes' come from. Panther says he's sent the data, without asking permission, to an associate who has an idea. And he opens a video-link to Dr Doom (who obviously wasn't taken with Doomstadt in #57) who ignores the team's anger and tells them that the energy signature of the vortices matches that of the Zodiac Key, created by the chaos-bringers of the 13th Dimension. He also says that the Zodiac Key decayed to dust a few weeks ago in the possession of SHIELD (which isn't actually where it wound up at the end of Elektra (2001) #1-5) so he proposes that the Brotherhood Of The Ankh have created a new 1 in their Dimension.
Stark ends the transmission with an armoured fist through the vid-screen and then rounds on T'Challa for compromising their security (which BP denies). Warbird reminds them that Panther admitted (BP(1998)#9) that he only joined them originally (#51 of our original run) to spy on them as potential threats to Wakanda (which is news to at least She-Hulk). Now he's allied with 1 of their enemies, and Carol was thrown off the team for less.
Ant-Man interrupts the recriminations with a question. If the Zodiac Key is a key, what does it unlock? Nobody else here had ever thought of that. But Scarlet Witch has an answer when she enters in costume supported by Vision. Her hex power turned out to be Chaos Magic, which links her to universal chaos. She reminds them of the In-Betweener who is the balance between Chaos and Order. She now knows that he has been split into his chaotic and ordered parts which has allowed the vortex doorways to be opened. Order is on Earth (we saw him watching the Avengers in #57) and Chaos possessed her (last 2 issues) in order to find him. She can sense where he is and they must take him through a vortex to reunite In-Betweener which will close the doors. But they only have a limited time before the barriers between the worlds break down completely.
The giant Order part is in Rocky Gap, Virginia studying a tortoise to death when the Avengers arrive. Wanda Maximoff tells him they are here to take him to his brother. But Order reacts badly to the taint of Chaos on her, and sends most of the team hurtling through a vortex that manifests overhead. Only Ant-Man, Scarlet Witch and Sub-Mariner manage to hold on to tree trunks, and Cap's shield remains behind too. But Scott Lang and Wanda are now unconscious, leaving only Namor to attack. Order weathers his punches and strangles his foe, saying that he doesn't *want* to rejoin his brother. But then on the last page Thor drops in.