New Avengers, The (2025 series) #9

Something happened in Osaka, Japan and previous issues have shown some days leading up to it and some after it. But this issue includes showing us what actually happened on 0-day itself.

On 0-day the villainous Killuminati (clones of some Illuminati members - at this time Guru Strange (clone of Dr Strange), Iron Apex (Iron Man), Lord Britain (Captain Britain), Luke Charles (Black Panther), Ouroboros (Mr Fantastic) and Rapunzel (Medusa)) are meeting in 1 of their bases on the Skeleton Coast of Namibia. A (malfunctioning) hologram representative of their mystery boss goes over their upcoming schedule:- Obtain something from Osaka and leave no evidence. Set traps for the New Avengers and lead them to this base. Make them think they're winning but also get them angry so they won't know it's all going wrong until it's too late. Then retreat to a lab in Hungary (that we've not seen before) where the final confrontation will take place. When it's over the Killuminati have been promised their freedom.

The actual work of creating the clones was done by a clone of the Jackal. That 1 didn't survive but they have another 1 who Iron Apex takes aside and asks if he can fix his face (damaged in combat in #2). Jackal declines because it is IA's broken ego that drives him. So 'Tony Stark' kills him.

On the same day the New Avengers gather at Bucky Barnes' safe house in the New Mexico desert. Carnage (Eddie Brock) and Wolverine (Laura Kinney) (sniping at each other) have already joined couple Black Widow and Winter Soldier, and then Clea and Sub-Mariner complete the lineup. Natasha Romanoff tries to tell them something but can't find the words until she's interrupted by an urgent call from (the real) Tony Stark who wants them to find out why people in Stark Industries' Osaka building are saying he's there when he isn't.

We see that *a* Tony Stark with a partially-bandaged face is addressing a hurriedly-convened meeting of all staff. He's accompanied by someone who's obviously Guru Strange in a suit. Tony is waffling on because the 1 person they want hasn't joined the audience yet. Then neurosurgeon Su Yin appears and Strange magically persuades her to take him to the vault where the object Natasha brought from Stark (last issue) is stored. She doesn't know what it is but is able to open the vault.  This sets off an alarm and Strange changes his suit into his Guru togs and turns to face incoming guards. A magic spell takes care of their bullets and then Luke Charles teleports in to deal with the humans. Guru and his thrall enter the vault and retrieve the object, and Su Yin confirms that no-one else knows about it. Strange tells 'Stark' they've succeeded so he winds up his speech with some insults. Charles is having fun with even more guards when Iron Apex cuts it short by blasting them all. Ouroboros slithers in and activates a machine (which it seems Reed Richards stored here?) which he says will create an unstable molecule field. They exit through the magic teleportal and we see the machine go off and Su Yin's body starts to go all wibbly. The effect spreads across Osaka. And we see our heroes arriving to save whoever they could. And the Carnage symbiote continues urging Eddie Brock to let him kill his teammates, but Eddie says he'll let him kill the Killuminati instead.

Now we join our heroes where last issue left off 3 days later in the Skeleton Coast base where they've just been attacked by a horde of Beast clones ... who now lie defeated. Suspecting they're being watched BW has Clea maintaining a Cone Of Silence spell which includes foiling lipreading. The symbiote still wants someone to kill. Widow maintains that they want to appear defeated but Clea maintains that they actually *are*. She reminds her that the day after Osaka she finally got round to confessing to them that she's gained a 2nd personality, and that 'other woman' is working for the Killuminati's boss. Now it all boils over. How do they know what's true and who to trust? Clea and Namor think they should kill her (and the symbiote is willing to do the job for them). Bucky and Laura stand by her. Clea casts a Pincer Of Proxenos spell to grab Winter Soldier but Wolverine grabs *her* and threatens to put claws through her brain. Natasha orders them all to stop and says she needs their help to get the 'other woman' out of her head before she makes her do more 'terrible' things. This strikes various chords in the listeners, especially Eddie who clamps down on his symbiote and rallies the team to get the villains who destroyed Osaka.

Iron Apex, Luke Charles and Ouroboros are watching the scene remotely from their new base in the Hungarian Bukk Mountains. They're invited to follow another Jackal clone to where the object they retrieved in Osaka is revealed to contain a hand with a Hydra ring on its finger.