Synopsis / Summary / Plot
In the All-Out Avengers mini-series the Beyonder secretly put groups of Avengers into situations that would teach them stuff they needed to know in order to face a coming threat. Last issue T'Challa and Tony Stark flushed him out into the open but he claimed this was a disaster. He explained that the Beyonders got their powers from a powerful being in a previous multiverse and then imprisoned him outside the multiverses. But now that Lost One is free and is hunting down all the Beyonders for revenge and to get his power back. Then the Lost One's 'herald' Tiamok Rath attacked. The Avengers defeated her but the Beyonder got away.
Beyonder reverts to his regular modus operandi again, and as usual in these 2 mini-series the issue starts in the middle of the resulting conflict. Lots of civilians in New York have been given superpowers and sent on a rampage. The Avengers are trying to subdue them without hurting them. We see Captain America (Steve Rogers), Captain Marvel, She-Hulk, Spider-Man (Peter Parker) and Thor with Daredevil, Dr Strange (Clea) and Spider-Man (Miles Morales) helping out. But we concentrate on Blade as he fights his way through foes to get somewhere.
But we turn instead the the dead Celestial that is Avengers Mountain HQ at the North Pole where T'Challa and Tony Stark are investigating power crystals they got from an alien planet (in AOA#4) which they have already used to boost the planetary defence shield (which they got in AOA#3). But they believe the crystals can do so much more if they learn how to control them and they're working on a particular device now. The only other current occupant of the HQ is the captive Tiamok who waits patiently for her boss to arrive.
Elsewhere in New York (Central Park?) Wasp (Janet Van Dyne) is battling a childhood friend (who we've never seen before) Constance who is 1 of those given a power and made 'evil'. She claims to have been always secretly annoyed at the way everything came easily to Jan but she never treated things seriously. Wasp reacts defensively but eventually hits back and gets her foe in a judo lock. But Constance directs her attention to where Mayor Luke Cage is getting killed by 2 other empowered citizens. Janet flies to help him by taking on 1 of his attackers, but this enables Constance to zap her in the back. Luke is still being blasted by his other opponent so he can't help Jan when Constance grabs her by the throat. She says that Jan's compassion made her a good leader of the Avengers, and made her go to her super-friend's aid just then. But that compassion will cause her death because she won't be able to bring herself to kill her old friend who's now going to kill *her*. And she claims that beneath the compulsion that she feels like all the other enhanced folks she really *does* hate Jan and will be glad to kill her.
Blade reaches the apartment of a blue-skinned alien female who he calls Sel Sennan (who we've also never met before). He tells her he knows she's a refugee from another world who's been passing as human here for 12 years. But now she's causing all the chaos outside. She explains that on her world she was surgically enhanced for military purposes to grant superpowers to soldiers in her vicinity. But she learned how to shrink the radius of effect to nothing and escaped to Earth. But suddenly her full power has just kicked in without warning and even stronger.
Blade tells her that it's the Beyonder that made that happen, but Black Panther and Iron Man are working on a way to cancel her power. But she doesn't believe him, and thinks that they'll just lock her away until they need her to make *their* powers stronger (which is presumably exactly what Beyonder intends them to do). She panics and that amps up her 'converts'. But despite that Wasp now has the upper hand over Constance. Blade calms Sennan down and BP & IM teleport in to apply their device as a patch on her arm which cancels her affect on New York. Constance apologises to Jan and says she doesn't really hate her but *does* find her annoying. Jan says the feelings mutual and they make up.
In her cell Tiamok talks to the Beyonder who she knows is listening. She tells him his efforts are futile. The Lost One is on his way here no matter what he does. But his troops the Warlords Of Thanos (ie the Black Order) will be here 1st.