In the last few issues of both titles the
Thunderbolts and the
Avengers have been worrying at the same problem from different ends. Now
Earth's Mightiest Heroes have invited the
TBolts, still technically wanted criminals, over to
Avengers Mansion to discuss strategy. Most worried is seemingly African-American
Mach-2 Matt Davis who is really
Mach-1 Abner Jenkins who is supposedly in jail. Also present are team leader
Hawkeye,
Songbird and
Charcoal with tech-whiz
Ogre on a hologram link from the
'Bolts HQ, plus
Black Widow who was helping them last issue. (
Moonstone is missing and
Jolt is (Marvel-)dead. And Ogre is secretly actually ex-member
Techno in disguise.)
The Avengers are here en masse:-
Goliath,
Iron Man,
Scarlet Witch,
Triathlon,
Vision,
Warbird and team leader
Wasp with disapproving Government liaison
Duane Freeman and guest
Madame Masque.
Iron Man explains that
Count Nefaria has gained control of sometime-Avenger
Wonder Man and TBolt'er
Atlas, all 3 of them beings of ionic energy, and he's also got the
Maggia working for him. He's got some world-control plan and his daughter Madame Masque is helping them figure out what it is. (All in
Av#31-33.)
The TBolts side of things has been in
#42-43. Black Widow, with kibitzing from Hawkeye, tells the Avengers that after she left them in
#32 she went to investigate the Maggia and discovered that they were collecting machinery to control ionic energy. She went to the Thunderbolts (last issue) for info on
Baron (Heinrich) Zemo's ionic process that empowered both Atlas and
WM. Then they all went to search Zemo's old castle in Central America where they encountered
Cyclone of the Maggia. He escaped but they caught ionic energy scientist
Karl Malus (after the end of the issue) who told them what he knows of Nefaria's plan in hopes of leniency.
Goliath and Ogre agree that Nefaria is building an ion emission device but they don't know why. Malus then leaks some more info. Nefaria's control of Atlas and Wonder Man was to demonstrate he could control anyone with any small taint of ionic energy (which it doesn't actually prove). Iron Man puts 2 and 2 together and deduces that his ionic bomb spreading ionic energy all over the globe will make everyone his puppet.
At this point
Captain America and
She-Hulk (who quit in
Av#25 and
#32 respectively) join the throng, answering a call for aid. But we take time out to catch up with 2 subplots.
Last issue Moonstone invaded the
Fantastic Four HQ but was caught by
Invisible Woman and
Mr Fantastic looking at their database. We see screens showing the
Kree Captain Marvel,
Ms Marvel, the
Supreme Intelligence,
Ronan the Accuser and the
Inhumans - all Kree-related. The duo try to restrain her while assuring her they mean her no harm, but she can't bring herself to trust them (an echo of Madame Masque in the preceding Avengers issues), and evades them with her intangibility. She screams in alien and flies off, phasing through the walls. Their computer translates her words from an ancient Kree dialect as "I have to look within the
lifestones". Reed Richards surmises that this has something to do with the origin of her powers (from a Kree
Moonstone gem).
And
Andrea Sterman continues her investigation into a Government conspiracy behind the death of a
Roxxon employee by contacting a Washington TV journalist
Jack Norris. He arrives waving a copy of her book about
Nomad and wants to know why she called him a 'desk-bound file clerk' in it.
Andie responds that she also said he was the best information gatherer
SHIELD had. (This was all in his previous job.) Now he says he couldn't find anything on
Winsdshear/Colin Hume and his mutant invention
Hard Air than she already knew (see last issue). But he found links to deleted data which indicated that Roxxon had a research grant for Hard Air from her old employer the
Commission On Superhuman Activities.
Back at the main plot Goliath, Iron Man and remote Ogre have been looking for a large ionic energy reading to indicate where Nefaria is building his bomb, but all they've found is random ionic background radiation. Ogre suggests they look instead for somewhere that used to have a high-ish reading but now has none because Nefaria is masking it, and they find a suspicious place in Canada. Meanwhile Malus has been helping
Whitney Frost recreate the product of her
Nefaria Protocols, an
ionic lock gun to dampen down ionic energy.
In other meanwhiles:-
She-Hulk and Wasp are showing Mach-2 and Songbird around the Mansion, saying the Avengers have inducted reformed criminals before (like Hawkeye,
Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch) so the duo could have a chance. (We saw Songbird as a future Avenger in the
Avengers Forever limited series, but then
Captain Marvel (Genis-Vell) was with her so that must be an alternate future. However she will be part of
Sunspot's
New Avengers team.)
The 2 real African-Americans on the teams are bonding. Triathlon tells Charcoal that he and the only previous A-A
Falcon had to be levered into the team by the Government. (Presumably
Black Panther doesn't count because he's not American.)
Charlie Burlingame comments that they have similar costume designs. They both have nested triangles on their chest, but
Delroy Garrett doesn't say that his is because he's a member of the
Triune Understanding.
Cap gets together with Hawkeye and Widow.
Steve Rogers tells
Clint Barton he's impressed by his leadership of the Thunderbolts. He'll also inquire via SHIELD if Jolt's murder was part of something bigger.
Once the teams are getting ready to head for Southwestern Alberta, Ogre signs off. Since he's alone in the
Mount Charteris base (or so he believes) he drops his disguise and wanders around as the currently-robotic Techno, expressing his disgust for meat-life. He muses to himself about his secret search for the missing
Baron (Helmut) Zemo and his attempt to recreate life. (Here we see his 3 containment pods, 1 with the replaced Ogre, the 2nd which we suspect contains Jolt, and the so-far unrevealed 3rd.)
Then
Scourge, who has been haunting the place cloaked for several issues, uncloaks himself and accosts his next victim. They spar verbally and Techno accuses him of murdering Jolt (between
#34-35) as well as reporter
Gayle Rogers and Roxxon employee
Bobbie Haggerty (both in
#35-36). He also tells Scourge that killing *him* will kill the 3 in the tubes. Scourge says he knew that but he's checked with his bosses and it's OK, and he attacks with an energy-crackling double-bladed sword.
For our last subplot bit we return to Moonstone at the last listed (in the
FF's database) site of the Inhumans' city
Attilan in the Himalayas. But she finds it gone (again). She takes her frustration out on the ground and rhetorically asks the universe where else on Earth she can find info about ancient Kree history. Then she sees the Moon and figures there's someone else who would know. (Cue next issue a visit to the Kree Supreme Intelligence currently a 'guest' of SHIELD on the Moon.)
Back again to the main plot where the combined teams are about to infiltrate Nefaria's castle in it's new home at the Crowsnest Pass in the Canadian Rockies. She-Hulk throws 2 huge rocks to smash holes in the castle walls.
Neffy (as Hawkeye calls him) sends out Atlas and Wonder Man to investigate. Charcoal, Iron Man, Mach-2, Vision and Warbird take them on. In the battle the
Golden Avenger drops the ionic lock weapon.
But this is all a distraction while Black Widow, Captain America, Goliath, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, She-Hulk, Triathlon and Wasp sneak in through the sewers. The others were hoping they could draw Nefaria out while the sneakers dealt with the bomb, but the plan doesn't seem to be working. Mach-2 retrieves the fallen weapon and fires it at the ionic 2. Their ionic energies are temporarily neutralised and they fall to the ground.
Suddenly the sneaky team are forcibly ejected from the castle via another new hole in the wall. And Nefaria follows, dwarfed by his humongous bomb. Mach-2 fires the ionic lock at *him*. But he laughs it off.
Crossover to be concluded in
AVENGERS #34.