At the
Temple of Balthaak,
Inferno attacks the archaeological party (
J. Vernon Mann,
Abner Little,
Princess Zanda, Count
Andreas Zorba) until
Iron Man recovers enough to seize her and carry her up into the sky; She throws him off and by her complaints about the cold,
Shellhead recognizes her as
Samantha McGee,
Tony Stark’s hired pilot. She blasts Iron Man hard enough to blow his circuit breakers and jets off to meet the other
Exemplars.
IM’s system reboots and he contacts the other
Avengers;
Jarvis fills him in on
Thor’s battle with
Juggernaut and the appearance of
Conquest and
Bedlam (
THOR (1998 series) #17)….
At a
Stark-Fujikawa platform near Tahiti, executive
Yoshiro Hachiman is overcome by an odd call and dives into the water where he finds the
Temple of Valtorr; touching the
Verdant Vial transforms him into the next Exemplar,
Decay and he kills everyone on the platform….
In Australia, Game Warden
Nicolette Giroux enters a cave where she finds the
Waterfall of Watoomb; standing under it turns her into
Tempest….
On his way to the action, Iron Man calls
Pepper Potts and has her take care of important matters that will have to be postponed. As Tony Stark he arrives back at the archaeological site and they all go to the Andes where fellow Collector Col.
Nigel Pigman has discovered a temple and Count Zorba is transformed into
Carnivore. Tony dons the armor and battles the new villain while Dr Mann discovers some runes that explain everything that has been going on. Once upon a time, eight great mystical entities entered into the
Wager of the Octessence to determine who was greatest: they each created a totem which would transform a human into an Exemplar…. Meanwhile, Tempest and Decay stop by to pick up Carnivore who wants them to wait while he kills Iron Man—but then Thor arrives. Impatient, Tempest tears a chasm in the earth and the two Avengers are swallowed up while the trio of Exemplars take off. Thor and Iron Man bust out but the bad guys are gone. Dr Mann finishes his account: once all eight Exemplars are empowered, they will create a great mystic engine to destroy free will among humanity. They will then divide the Earth into eight parts, one for each of them to rule—and then they will go to war until there is only one left….
Continued in
PETER PARKER SPIDER-MAN v.2 #11.
2nd story
“Fast Lane Part 1 of 4: Media Blitz”
Writer: Glenn Herdling. Pencils: Gregg Schigiel. Inks: Richard Case. Colors: Paul Mounts.
Synopsis: An anti-drug public service announcement featuring Spider-Man appearing in several Marvel comics this month.
Give that special marvelite a timely gift
Story #2Media Blitz! (Fast Lane Part 1 of 4)
Writer/Penciler/Inker/Letterer:
. Colorist:
Paul Mounts.
Synopsis