Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Kang The Conqueror was attacked by new villain Myrddin (in Timeless (2023)). He sought succour from the Avengers and in return warned them about the upcoming Tribulation Events. Now he can't tell them any more because he's in a coma but the 1st Event is here, the Impossible City now orbits Earth.
Within the City we see the Ashen Combine - 5 interdimensional city-slayers, who now pick 5 juicy cities to attack. Idol Alabaster lands in Vatican City, Italy to harvest the worship that powers her. The Citysmith takes Toronto, Canada and begins to twist it and its population into an artwork. Lord Ennui picks Manila in the Philippines as a city that never sleeps and brings its people the gift of stillness. In Sydney, Australia the Dead reawakens the dead. And in Helsinki, Finland Meridian Diadem's minions start capturing people.
The Avengers are assembled in the Jarvis Lounge atop a New York skyscraper. Captain Marvel just tells them each to pick a target and go for it but Black Panther (T'Challa) advises a more thought-out approach. Carol Danvers realises the truth of his words. She tells Tony Stark to assemble data from satellites and other sources, and the synthezoid Vision to process the information at his high speed. Scarlet Witch and Thor should prepare to send others to designated targets, but everyone will attack either the 5 individuals or their orbiting base.
Stark has found nothing about the foes in all the databases (eg SWORD's) they have access to, but he's passed all current data to Vision who analyses it as follows:- Manila is suffering an entropic attack, and Toronto a metrokinetic attack (a term he invents). Vatican City has a psi-event and Sydney is invaded by ghosts. In Helsinki there's an army taking prisoners. There's nothing he can say about their base. Meanwhile CapM has already designated targets.
Idol Alabaster, looking like a giant egg with a face and wings and taloned feet, is perched atop the Egyptian obelisk in St Peter's Square psychically compelling the people to bow down and worship her. Thor approaches and denies that she is a god because that's not how gods gain worshippers.
The Citysmith is an alien draped in a hooded cloak which shrouds his features in darkness. Only his evil grin is visible as he moulds the city to his whims. The emotions of its citizens are of course part of the artwork, but I don't see how any emotion remains but terror. Iron Man confronts him in his new blue stealth armour and criticises the result on artistic grounds.
In Sydney what Vision called ghosts are really exhumed corpses. They aren't classic zombies but the dead who seek revenge on the living. Scarlet Witch now stands between them. She isn't at this point faced by their raiser who is a humanoid with a noose around his neck and a hangman's hood over his head.
Vision's opponent is the robotic Meridian Diadem who wears what looks like an electronic tag around 1 ankle. Her armoured 'children' have gathered people in chains to be punished for their crimes. When Vision asks what crimes they have committed she replies that all organic beings commit crimes, and she will submit them to correction and the best of them will join the ranks of her 'children'.
The crowned and 6-armed Lord Ennui surveys the surrounding people he has put to sleep and laments that it evokes no feelings in him. He wonders if this time he'll feel something when they start to die, but suspects not. Captain M arrives to assure him that this time *will* be different.
Meanwhile Panther and Captain America (Sam Wilson) invade the Impossible City, which we learn is a sentient being whose memories the Ashen Combine deleted.