Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Kang The Conqueror has attacked the original Avengers several times from the future so they decided to take the fight to him. But several problems intervened in this mini-series and they never made it. But now Kang is teleporting 4 of them (while Thor is absent) to the future anyway.
Captain America, Giant-Man, Iron Man and Wasp tumble through the timestream and arrive at the despot's feet with a thump. He gloats that he will dispose of them and then go back for Thor, which will leave their century of Earth wide open for conquest (but what about the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Dr Strange, the X-Men and Daredevil?). Wasp asks why he's so-interested in that time and he replies that as a master of time he conquers worlds when they are at the peak of their civilisation so the he can plunder their 'treasures' like her. So saying he zaps her. Her lover GM leaps to her aid but she zaps Kang back. Cap uses his shield to protect them both form a retaliatory blast.
They all try to rush the foe but he erects a force screen between them which repels the Golden Avenger's repulsor rays and Cap's shield. IM figures the field must require a lot of energy and flies off to investigate. Cap rallies the remainder of his troops and Giant-Man tries hitting the forcefield with a giant fist. But Kang responds by changing the field so it encloses them in a small space. Which quickly gets smaller. Cap gets GM to shrink to Wasp-size before the field shrinks to man-size. He himself has to scrunch up but his shield stops the field getting even smaller. Kang is impressed. He's collected other versions of the shield but none of them were made from the special material that is this strong.
While he's gloating again we see in the background Shellhead approaching the top of a huge pylon that we saw on arrival. There's a large explosion there, and we learn that Kang refers to it as a solar tower. The shrinking forcefield dissipates so that was obviously its power source. As the tower melts Kang bemoans the rare silicon isotopes involved in its workings that took him years to harvest from many worlds. Iron Man returns with the damaged ball from the top of the pylon and smashes it in front of the Conqueror.
As the team converge on Kang he activates an older technology that doesn't rely on that power source. It's a time square like Dr Doom invented and the Avengers fall through it. The villain says they may not find their way back to their home time/world. But even if they do he has all the time in his world to devise more ways to defeat them.
Falling through the timestream again this time they're buffeted by winds which threaten to scatter them but they manage to keep together. They pass through many times/realities:- The Avengers of 20XX. A collection of heroes vs Galactus (who of course the Avengers haven't seen yet). The Young Avengers and Iron Lad. An army of Earth-616 Avengers. A scene from the Infinity Gauntlet event. Avengers on a Skrull spaceship during the Kree-Skrull War event (Av#96 to be precise). The villainous Squadron Sinister (I believe rather than some of the heroic Squadron Supreme). Ultron (which terrifies Henry Pym even though he hasn't created it yet). Wasp with Yellowjacket (Henry Pym) and Goliath (Clint Barton) (c. #66-74). Wasp meeting Vision for the 1st time (#57). Black Widow and Red Guardian (#43-44). Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and Hawkeye's arrows (ie most of Cap's Kooky Quartet).
Then they arrive with another thump in front of the newsstand from #1, and a glance at the Daily Bugle's front page coverage of their battle with Sindri tells them they are in the correct time. Iron Man raises the usual question of how they can know that this is *really* their timeline? Giant-Man wonders what all those visions were (with and without a capital V)? Cap says they might have been illusions, or maybe glimpses of their future. But for now they'll stick to their own time and be ready to defeat Kang whenever he turns up.