Synopsis / Summary / Plot
The demonic villain Hood found a building full of junkies whose 'expanded' minds had been filled with secrets spilling from the Watcher's exploded Eye. He used his invisibility cloak to hide them from SHIELD Agents. But when Young Avengers Hulkling, Marvel Boy and Prodigy turned up he persuaded them to help him extract all those secrets (from all over the multiverse) on the grounds that some of them might include stuff like cures for diseases. Prodigy built a cut-down Cerebro from bits and pieces and they tried it on the 1st druggie.
They continue to process the junkies. 1 of them seems to know what happened to the Marie Celeste. From another we hear that an early Doombot went back in time and broke down and it inspired the design of the Antikythera device. Meanwhile Marvel Boy texts Kate Bishop and America Chavez but can't persuade them to join the gang. And Teddy Altman texts Billy Kaplan and encourages him to continue his studying.
But eventually Noh-Varr's advanced Kree cellphone detects what Hood is secretly doing and he hits him. He tells them that the parts the villain supplied to build the Cerebrat from have taken the Watcher data from the subjects' minds, encrypted it and uploaded it to the internet. Now MB threatens Hood to get the decryption key.
Hood claims he really does want the info for medical cures, especially for his mentally ill mother. But he admits he *also* wants it for other secrets that he can use for nefarious purposes. He's not only uploaded the files but he's made them generally available. Loads of people have probably copied them already. He's also set up a dead man's switch so if anything happens to him the decryption key will be broadcast too. All the people, governments and organisations with big secrets that might be in there will be highly motivated to keep him alive.
But the YA don't care about that so Hulkling and Marvel Boy attack him anyway. However he turns on his demon face and powers and zaps the pair. And tells Prodigy to keep on processing the druggies.
Story 1:- Checkmate featuring Dr Doom
Script:- James Robinson. Pencils/inks Alex Maleev. Colours Cris Peter.
A sleazy investment broker named Gil Carmichael tells his friend Jerry Patton that he's come into possession of secret that will turn him from a millionaire to a billionaire. He'd heard that James Tanner had committed suicide after losing everything though following his advice, but not before Gil had his commission. Then he happened to walk past a superhero battle in midtown. He tried to back away from it but was caught in the blast from an explosion. And he suddenly found himself with memories belonging to Dr Doom with which he can blackmail him for a lot of money.
Jerry thinks it's madness to think he can outsmart Doom. From what he's heard Doom will have a counterplan in place before Gil has even worked out what he's going to do. But Gil says he's left evidence with his lawyer, his wife, his mistress and his bank manager and he'll let Doom know it without specifying the people involved. Then he calls to make an appointment with the villain himself.
When he gets to the Latverian embassy the receptionist tells him that Victor Von Doom has flown in specially from Latveria to meet him. While he's waiting he gets a call from his lawyer's secretary to say that he's committed suicide. He calls his mistress but silence answers the phone. He calls his wife to tell her to get away but she tells him that a suicide bomber blew up his bank, and then her phone goes dead. He calls Jerry to go to his apartment and check his wife's OK but a cop answers.
And then he's taken in to see Dr Doom.
Story 3:- Catharsis featuring an unnamed character
Script David Abadia & Pablo Dura. Pencils/inks/colours Erica Henderson.
A man is attending the 4th Annual We Can Be Heroes Parade in Alacantown NY when he sees someone dressed as Captain America at the same time as getting a memory (courtesy of the Watcher's Eye?) of an Inuit boy (himself) relieving himself against a block of ice. Then the boy looks up and sees Cap frozen in that ice (see the original Avengers #4). Now in the present he's ashamed of what he did.