Synopsis / Summary / Plot
We begin in Latveria with Dr Doom carrying Captain America's shield and Thor's hammer, and leading other Avengers (Black Panther, Iron Man and She-Hulk) into battle ... against another Dr Doom with mystic runes on his dark armour. The foe shrugs off Mjolnir blast and repulsor blast and then punches Shulk in the face. Friendly Doom stops a return blast with Cap's shield but bad Doom quickly overwhelms him. IM says the Avengers teleportation system is blocked so our Doom has to provide an escape portal.
The voiceover from last issue repeats that there's a big menace looming in the future. We see images of Captain Marvel, Iron Man, Spider-Man and Thor dead and the heads of BP and DrD impaled on stakes. It is a menace from the stars coming for revenge and the voiceover swears to prevent it from succeeding.
The good Dr Doom, Jennifer Walters and Tony Stark (looking more like Kang The Conqueror) convene in Avengers HQ (the body of the dead Celestial Progenitor). We learn that the 2 Caps (America and Marvel) and Thor are prisoners of the bad Doom, and Blade is missing. The only way to prevent bad D raising an army of demons is to destroy the Soulsplitter Stone which will remerge the 2 Dooms into the original. Jen and Tony aren't ready to try *that* yet, and Stark reveals that he's nicked a magic tome from Doom's library. Good D recognises it as the Book Of Wrath and starts poring through its unstable spells.
Stark suddenly realises he doesn't actually remember the events of the previous 2 days where Dr Doom experimented with the Soulsplitter and split into his light and dark halves. He tells the others that he *knows* what happened but doesn't remember it happening to *him*. The 2 Avengers leave good Doom who finds it very interesting. The voiceover can't understand why this is happening again (like Blade last issue), and he'll have to keep tighter control.
Iron Man now contacts the supposedly-missing Blade who we see still in Latveria killing demons, and he asks him to sneak back into Doom's castle while he himself makes a noisy entrance. Inside the castle dark Doom has the 3 other Avengers captive. Only Captain America is conscious and claiming with assurance that other Avengers will be staging a rescue any minute. Doom detects IM's approach and infiltrates the armour's AI causing it to crashland. But Doom didn't see She-Hulk coming and takes several punches before hitting back and taking her down. Then good Doom portals in. They trade blasts but it is g-Doom that falls, until he pulls out the Book Of Wrath. b-Doom pretends to be afraid, but then laughs because he knows nothing in that book can harm him.
But all this was a diversion to let Blade grab the Soulsplitter Stone. He throws it to g-Doom. B-Doom knows that if the Splitter is even slightly damaged the Dooms will be merged and lose their identities in the return of the original. He tries to talk g-Doom out of it but g-Doom knows that b-Doom will kill him if he gives in. So he crushes the Stone in his fist ... and original Doom lives again.
Iron Man's AI has recovered and he arrives to find his teammates all returned to base. Doom dismisses him and he goes to join them in Avengers HQ (including Black Panther who didn't seem to do anything this issue). There he discovers that his AI has lost all record of the last 2 days, which he finds interesting. And the voiceover is worried again.