New Avengers, The (2025 series) #4

Jackal (or a clone of him) created evil clones of the Illuminati with enhanced powers. A new group of Thunderbolts or New Avengers has coalesced around Winter Soldier and Black Widow to fight them. Currently in Hokkaido, Japan those 2 plus Carnage (Eddie Brock) and Wolverine (Laura Kinney) are fighting their teammate Sub-Mariner (also an original Illuminati) who has been mentally taken over by his clone Imperius Rex.

Wolvie had already been wounded by Prof X-Tinction but as we rejoin the action Subby has already taken down BW and Carnage and only WS still stands against him. This issue's occasional voiceover is by Namor, and right now he's saying that his faith in the Atlantean god Neptune has been broken but he still prays to someone to stop him killing Bucky Barnes, and for the strength to stop being used like a puppet. Bucky breaks free and kicks him into a car smashing it open, and recovered Natasha Romanoff fires a bullet to explode the gas tank under him. But it's the return of Clea Strange who stops his rampage with the Crimson Bands Of Cyttorak. (Last issue she quit to go after Guru Strange, the clone of her husband Stephen Strange.) However IR's Atlantean telepathy forces Namor to break even that confinement and fly off.

Meanwhile off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsular in Russia Iron Man's clone Iron Apex lies at the bottom of the sea (where we left him in #2). We see his armour reboot and revive him.

Meanotherwhile SM has arrived in the bay of Brisbane, Australia where he's greeted by Imperius Rex who's grown much larger and more monstrous. He swears to conquer the world and rises like Godzilla with tentacles to smash Story Bridge, then sends Subby as his spear crashing through several skyscrapers. Namor prays for deliverance and it arrives in the form of Wolverine through a magic portal who attacks him causing more damage.

Then we backtrack 2 minutes to where our team are arguing over priorities. Bucky is trying to track Namor but Nat wants to pursue their higher priority the even-more-dangerous Mr Ouroboros, clone of Reed Richards. Laura finds the above battle on her mobile phone and Bucky says that's where *he*'s going to help his friend and teammate. Tasha admits that teammates should always have each other's backs, and Bucky reminds them that Bruce Banner (last issue) made them Avengers. NW and WS have already been on that team but Clea scoffs at the idea and loner X-person Laura is dead set against it. But Eddie Brock is all for punching a giant monster. So they all go through Clea's portals with Laura.

While Wolverine was aimed at Sub-Mariner, Clea and Winter Soldier landed on top of a skyscraper for a command position and Black Widow and Carnage went to rescue civilians at ground level from a mini-tidal wave. But the Carnage symbiote wanted blood and Eddie Brock begged to be allowed to attack Imperius Rex. However it's Clea who takes that task and opens a portal to the Dark Dimension (her home) around 1 of the foe's limbs and cuts it off. (The tentacle lands on the severed head of the Black Bolt clone which was presumably sent there in #2.) But IR just regrows it as *3* tentacles and heads into the city. Meanwhile Carnage has abandoned BW.

Wolvie is still fighting Subby trying to stop him without killing him, despite Namor himself asking her to save him from the dishonour of being a pawn of the villain. He tries to incite her to berserker rage with insults, but she keeps slashing him and urging him to fight the monster's control. King Namor draws on his frequent rage against the surface world and starts to throw off the yoke. Simultaneously IR's body is somehow invaded by the Carnage symbiote which seems to be eating him alive. And Sub-Mariner flies down and rips the skeleton out of the body. And we realise that he's been praying to the spirit of his mother Fen of Atlantis.

The 6 gather on the devastated shore. Bucky and Subby metaphorically shake hands, and Namor and Laura exchange mutual respect. They all congratulate Eddie Brock, but inside Carnage is talking about killing the others 1 by 1 (including Hulk who's only sort-of on this team - see last issue).

They all return to Bucky's New Mexico safe house to consider how to go after their main target Mr Ouroboros. He's desperately searching his stuff for a device he got from Tony Stark. But Nat calms him down with some sex. Outside the others know what's going on. Clea says she wishes *she* was so lucky. Laura asks isn't she seriously married to Dr Strange, but Clea says that her Faltine people are like that - but she still rejects advances from Eddie and Namor. Bucky eventually surfaces with a hardware patch for his cybernetic arm which allows him to use Stark satellites as a sensor array to look for cosmic rays (which Bruce Banner predicted Reed would be experimenting with last issue). He locates such in Banos De Agua Santa, Ecuador where we see that a huge mound of rock has appeared in the middle of the city, destroying a large portion of it.