Synopsis / Summary / Plot
During the robot revolution the new Force Works team were sent to investigate a situation on the South American island of Lingares involving a nuclear explosion. There they found an army of Deathloks fighting the giant robot Ultimo. To boost their numbers the Deathloks are converting other islanders to their cyborg state. They were about to do this to James Rhodes (War Machine) when he was saved by MODOK.
Rhodey persuades Mockingbird, Quake and US Agent to go along with the insane evil MODOK. USA suggests instead WM fly off to get better help, but Jim won't leave them and the islanders. But MODOK has a plan.
He explains that when the nuclear bomb went off it made Ultimo temporarily vulnerable, and he has built a weapon to simulate the radiation to weaken him again. The only power source on the island sufficient to power it is War Machine's arc reactor. He tells Quake to use her seismic power, which attracted Ultimo last issue.
She does and the giant robot approaches, but the Deathloks come with him. And they're just as willing to attack our heroes as they are Ultimo. As the others hold off the Deathloks, MODOK fires his weapon and WM flies up to take a shot at the Ultimo's head with his shoulder-cannon. He blasts the head to smithereens but then crashes to the ground depleted of power.
While fighting Deathloks, Mocky and USA took time to chat with them. They learned that it was MODOK who woke Ultimo up, and then he created the Deathloks to capture the robot. But they rebelled against him. And now the evil genius reveals his ultimate plan as the giant head on a tiny body slots in to become the new head on the giant body, and he dubs himself UltiMODOK.
Force Works take cover in MODOK's control bunker. As the villain batters at the door US Agent tells Quake it's time for the Poseidon Protocols. The pair are under orders from Maria Hill to use Quake's power to sink the island as a last resort. But Daisy Johnson is unwilling to sacrifice the island's population (not to mention themselves). And Rhodey has an alternative idea.
They use a generator in the bunker to give his armour *some* power. Not enough to reuse MODOK's weapon but enough to get it flying. Then we see War Machine buzzing around the baddie distracting him. But then we also see that Jim Rhodes is still in the bunker, and the only 1 missing is Quake.
Meanwhile Bobbi Morse has hacked into the bunker's computer and located MODOK's Deathlok blueprints. Apparently this is what Hill sent her here for in the 1st place (and the rest of the team were sent in #1 to back her up). USA offers a thumb drive to download it to but Mocky doesn't trust him and uses her own. (This means that Hill and at least 2 of the team knew more about the situation than their earlier reactions would indicate.) Rhodey of course doesn't want such information given to *anybody*. The argument is interrupted as Deathloks break in.
Outside Quake Machine is still annoying UltiMODOK. The villain is 'impressed' that WM has *any* power left after using the Subatomic Outgoing Broad-Isotope Gun (acronym SOBIG). But Daisy doesn't have the power to do much damage.
Mockingbird and US Agent keep the 'Loks at bay while Rhodes takes over the computer-searching. He finds a weakness they can exploit. The Deathlok leader (who they met last issue) has a chip in his cyborg brain that controls all the others. Stop him and they stop them all. USA dives to the attack and rips the leader's head off. But the others don't stop so JR tells John Walker to toss the head to him.
UltiMODOK finally swats the WM armour with a tree and it goes into shutdown. Then the villain picks up the armour and removes its helmet, and is shocked to find Daisy inside. Now in close proximity Quake unleashes her seismic power and opens a chasm below the giant robot. But it's too big to fall in.
Then the other 3 FWers arrive with the Deathlok army in tow. Rhodey has implanted the control chip in his own brain and he now controls them all. The 'Loks swarm over UltiMODOK and force him into the crevasse. He holds on by 1 giant hand but Jim and 2 cyborgs climb on it and prise its grip away. As the big baddie falls to his doom taking Rhodey with him Bobbi dives in to grab him and Johnny Walker grabs her ankles and pulls them both to safety. (It seems that the chip's prime directive was at least partly responsible for him risking his life to get rid of Ultimo.)
Next day, after the chip is removed from Jim's brain, Maria Hill is expressing her disapproval of their actions. Rhodes teamed up with terrorist MODOK and inserted unknown tech in his brain to join rebel cyborgs. Johnson refused to follow orders and risked millions of lives to save a few islanders. And it seems Morse destroyed the Deathlok files. Hill says she has a scrub team on Lingares destroying all evidence of what happened there, but now she'll have to call them off and send a salvage team to get the info. But Walker tells her not to bother because he's got a copy of the files on his own thumb drive, which he gives her. Hill still tells them they're all fired.
After she's gone Daisy wheels convalescing Jim away in disgust. But Bobbi tells John she's sure he never downloaded the files himself. She thinks he just gave Hill a blank drive so she wouldn't halt the scrub team's destruction. Johnny won't admit such an altruistic act but says maybe he's not very good at tech stuff. Bobbi doesn't believe him.