The
Avengers (
Black Widow,
Crystal,
Giant-Man,
Hercules,
Vision and
Wasp) plus
Century and
Thor are attacking their own mansion, which is occupied by
Kang's
Anachronaut army.
These Anachronauts are members of Kang's new army. None of them are original Anachronauts from the
Citizen Kang crossover. Compared with the squad that attacked in
Avengers: The Crossing, which didn't include
Malachi and
Tobias, this bunch all look like clones of the twins, particularly of Tobias.
Moonraker and
Swordsman have been severly injured, But there is no reason given why
Deathcry,
Hawkeye,
Masque and
Quicksilver don't accompany the rest of the heroes from
Avengers #394.
The Avengers have to break through Stark's 'security towers' to get at the mansion, set up in
Avengers #392 ostensibly to keep in any enemies who broke in through the mysterious door in the basement.
Captain America joins them, which confuses the crowd because they thought he died in
Captain America #444.
The Avengers see
Yellowjacket (
Rita DeMara) appear briefly. Rita is nearing the end of the time hops that brought her back from an alternate 31st Century, as seen in Avengers: The Crossing.
Thor is in a weakened condition due to the
Worldengine story in
Thor #491-494, and is bested by Tobias.
The other heroes make it the door in the basement, along with
Jarvis, the Avengers' butler. Hercules uses the security code teenage
Luna left in his mind to open it. Teenage Luna from the future accosted Hercules during one of her brief manifestations in Avengers: The Crossing, and left something in his mind. The information was somehow extracted using an image inducer in Avengers #394. It is only now that we are told it was the combination to the door. The door has been lurking, unusable, in Avengers mansion basement since
Avengers #382 (and behind the scenes since #375).
Iron Man opened it in The Crossing, letting Kang's minion
Neut through.
A hologram of Iron Man congratulates the Avengers and urges them on, as Tobias catches up with them.
The door sucks everyone into the timestream, but Giant-Man stops Crystal, Hercules and Wasp from following the rest. Century uses his teleportation staff
Parallax to guide Black Widow, Captain America, Jarvis and Vision to when they want to go, but doesn't follow them. Unfortunately Tobias does follow.
Black Widow, Captain America and Jarvis wind up in the mansion '10 years ago', and meet a younger version of the butler. Before it was Avengers mansion it was the Stark family home. Jarvis insisted on coming on the mission because he's the only one young
Tony Stark is likely to believe. Younger Jarvis agrees to help them. Older Jarvis realises this is the day Tony's mother Maria dies.
19 year old Tony Stark is on his way home from M.I.T. with his girlfriend Meredith (who will reappear later in his life as
Meredith McCall and
Meredith Alden). They drive past pre-teen
Peter Parker with his
Uncle Ben and
Aunt May. Tony mentions being taught by
Prof Slaght. This professor turned up recently in
Iron Man #314-318.
Tobias has landed outside the
Baxter Building before the
Fantastic Four live there, and is seen by mailman
Willie Lumpkin.
Blind teenage
Matt Murdock finds damaged Vision in an alley, and helps him to the Stark place, passing as-yet-unpowered
Sue Storm and
Ben Grimm on their way to a top secret meeting with
Reed Richards. He wonders what
Stick would make of Vision.
Tobias confronts
Howard and Maria Stark, demanding to know where their son is. Black Widow and Captain America rush to their defense. Matt Murdock and Vision arrive at the mansion just as the fight starts, and Vision leaves Matt outside.
Tony gets there and rushes in, followed by Matt, just as Tobias flies off with his parents.
After Jarvis convinces Tony about what is going on, Tony tracks his mother via a communicator he built for her, to
Latveria where
Dr Doom has just taken over. Tobias has gone after Doom's time machine, to get back to the present.
Black Widow, Captain America, Vision, old Jarvis and young Tony follow him. Tony dons a
SHIELD-agent-like suit with a metal gauntlet and power pack he has invented. Matt Murdock wants to accompany them, but Black Widow stops him. Black Widow's exchange with Matt (who will of course become
Daredevil) has overtones because of their on-off romance in years to come.
The heroes attack Tobias, but Tony's parents get killed by falling masonry. Malachi rescues Tobias in Luna's time-chair, which he had found difficult to control. It doesn't say how Malachi got hold of the time-chair, after dying Luna left it with the Avengers in Avengers #394.
Dr Doom, who has recently taken over Latveria, sends the heroes back to the future via his time machine, to get them out of his way.
This leg of the Crossing continues in
IRON MAN #325.