Synopsis
Avengers (2023 series) #25 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
Last issue the team came back from their space heist to discover that Dr Doom had taken over the world. Since then they've been working against him in One World Under Doom #1-3, and in #3 they and some Masters Of Evil attacked Latveria as a distraction while Scarlet Witch, Baron Mordo and the Goblin Queen used magic to try to find out how Doom persuaded the world's leaders to give in to him. (And it turns out he just talked them into it.)
This issue starts with a glimpse of that battle.
But we turn to a different group also calling themselves the Masters Of Evil who intend to fight against Victor Von Doom, the self-styled saviour of the world. The (Mad) Thinker has gathered together Dreadknight (mortal enemy of Doom), Exterminatrix (who had escaped from different metal-clad tyrant), Madcap (who's just mad) and Mr Hyde (who's just glad to be out of Roxxon's jail). Exterminatrix takes exception to Madcap's japery and shoots him in the head, but his healing factor gives him a rapid recovery. Thinker claims to have scientifically predicted the current state of affairs and long planned for it, and now he can give them the Avengers' orbiting Impossible City as a base.
Another look at the battle in OWUD#3 show Captains America and Marvel flung away, and Sam Wilson is injured. Overriding his protest Carol Danvers calls the City to teleport him up to the med bay ...
... where he's attended to by 3 of the android bodies that the City's AI uses as remote appendages. Part of the AI's consciousness is at this point occupying 1 of the droids to supervise the medical emergency. He says the patient has a fractured left arm and ribs. Sam bemoans the fact that he's the only Avenger who's not superhuman, apart from being able to talk to birds. His wings and shield are artificial aids. The AI says the he and Black Panther are his favourites. But then the other 2 androids collapse and the AI says something is happening.
Thinker contacts Quasimodo mk X who says he's ready to execute the plan. MT tells the other Masters that he attacked the Avengers in their City (#11) by sending a group of his Man-Slayer androids. The team defeated them and him but it was part of a cunning plan. The City AI co-opted the Man-Slayers for his own purposes but they secretly infected the system with a virus based on MT's Quasimodo AI, which has now taken over.
The City's partial AI in the android body tells Sam that the main AI has gone through a hard reset and he's lost contact with it so he's now the only part of the AI's consciousness left. He's also lost contact with Earth. They realise that they 2 are the only ones available to deal with whatever this is.
Quasimodo mk X teleports the MOE aboard the orbiting City and reports that he has control of 3/4 of the base's functions. Thinker shows his teammates the Avengers' captives the Ashen Combine, and they can use the city-killing predators as the equivalent of a nuclear threat. They can use the City's teleport system to deliver them or any other weapon wherever they like. Thinker wants to use them as a deterrent, but Madcap just wants to use them against a city now.
Cap and the AI are watching from a high vantage point. Madcap spots them but doesn't mention it to the others. Sam can't fly or fight with his injuries and the AI can barely function with the android's limited processing power. But Sam suggests the AI can use the plastoid Man-Slayer's shape-changing power to allow the pair to combine into a useful fighting unit.
Madcap's wandering through the Impossible City quoting Ezekiel's prophecy against Tyre and planning a horrible end to a city (it's unclear whether he means the City or 1 on Earth). He also comments out loud how Thinker doesn't know there's an Avenger on board, does he Captain America? Sam Wilson, now encased in the plastoid as a winged armour and carrying his shield, asks why the villain hasn't told the others about him. The madman replies that Cap is the weakest Avenger so why should he share him. He fires bubbles from his gun that if they touch Sam's skin will render him temporarily insane. Cap throws his shield and decapitates the foe. Sam knows that Madcap will survive this but takes the head with him to delay things. 'They' fly off to figure out how to deal with the others. And we see MC's body get up and start wandering around.
Back in the chamber where the 5 members of the Ashen Collective are encased in 'amber' the Masters have left but there's a message from Black Panther asking for extraction. (He's been 'within' Meridian Diadem since #20 organising the people trapped inside.)
The MOE are planning to demonstrate their might by using the City's mass-translocation drives to drop an asteroid on New York City.
EnemiesPlus: Dreadknight, Exterminatrix, Madcap, Mr. Hyde (
Calvin Zabo), Quasimodo.