The story picks up right where it left off last issue, with
Iron Man cradling the body of the wounded
Jasper Sitwell and vowing to find and destroy
Spymaster. After a recap of the last two issues, the scene switches to
Whitney Frost, who reads of Jasper’s critical injuries in the paper and realizes that she loves him. Changing into the guise of
Madame Masque, she goes swinging over the rooftops to clear her head….
At the police station, Iron Man confronts the captured
Espionage Elite (though it appears
Farley London and
Marya Penskyov are missing) and threatens them with violence if they do not reveal the whereabouts of the Spymaster. Their lawyer,
Matt Murdock, stops the
Avenger from doing anything rash and the hero stalks out to search on his own….
The Spymaster, meanwhile, returns to the underground lair of his employers—
Zodiac. The leader
Capricorn berates him for failing the mission against
Stark Industries but needs him for a new one. Capricorn assigns the agent to capture
Daredevil….
Iron Man stops by
SHIELD HQ to check on Jasper and
Nick Fury shows him the
Zodiac Key, the sentient artifact confiscated from the villain
Scorpio in
AVENGERS #72 (see
Rob’s synopsis at the
Captain America Library!), and asks whether Stark can divine its use. As Fury touches the device, though, it seizes control of his body, spinning and firing force bolts through the room.
Shellhead encases it in a
repulsor field and Fury recovers….
Madame Masque encounters Daredevil on the rooftops but they are almost immediately netted and drawn into a skyship. Inside they fight but Spymaster knocks them unconscious with a blast from a ray gun….
At the Stark labs, Iron Man and
Kevin O’Brien are analyzing the Zodiac Key when Nick Fury drops by. The big mystery is that the key is drawing energy from outside the continuum. Meanwhile, the homing device in the Key has led Zodiac to the Stark building where they burst in planning to capture Iron Man. Capricorn and his three agents do battle with Shellhead, Fury, and Kevin but in the end they are defeated when Kevin’s mind is overcome by the Zodiac Key and he is forced by the Key’s mysterious voice into using it against his compatriots. Back at Zodiac’s HQ, the three captives are put in stasis tubes along with Daredevil and Madame Masque. As the villain’s gloat, the mystery voice commands then to release Nick Fury. Against his will the
SHIELD Director is drawn toward the Key and compelled to take it, though he senses it will mean disaster….