Synopsis / Summary / Plot
We start with Tony Stark remembering showing an inert Vision to Henry Pym and Reed Richards. Vision's self-repair system had healed his body since Avengers Disassembled, but he wouldn't wake up. Tony was hoping the others had some ideas.
Pym admitted he didn't know how Vision worked because Ultron created him, not Hank himself. In fact Hank didn't know how Ultron worked either because he only created the original simpler Ultron. Each Ultron then created a more advanced successor.
Henry also said that he'd thought about going back in time and stopping himself from creating Ultron, but that would also mean preventing the Vision's birth. (Reed mentioned the idea of stopping Victor von Doom becoming Dr Doom. But then he'd have to go back and stop Hitler too, and all the way back to the Garden of Eden.)
At this point Vision just woke up for no apparent reason.
In the present as the assembled heroes trudge through the Savage Land Tony realises that it was Ultron that awoke the android then, to use him as his conduit from the future as discovered last issue.
The heroes are looking for Nick Fury's secret base. They have reached the cave entrance, but Emma Frost can't sense past its psychic shield. Captain America sends Invisible Woman in to investigate. She finds a vault door with a keypad for a code. But there's no code mentioned in the documents Black Widow and Moon Knight brought with them from Fury's safehouse in San Francisco.
Cap sends Red Hulk to smash his way in. He succeeds, but is downed by a gun in the hands of a mystery figure. Who turns out to be Fury himself. Who holds everyone off with his gun as he scans them to ensure they're who they appear to be.
We break off for an interlude which shows Ultron's takeover of the world is still an ongoing affair. Despite hearing about other cities that have fallen, the inhabitants of Austin are still not really prepared when flying Ultron drones tear into the place.
Nick says he discovered that Ultron's orders were coming from the future when SHIELD analysed the transmission that took over their helicarrier and crashed it into the Kremlin. When he saw the way things were going, he came here to this base he built after the Skrull Secret Invasion, because he had loads of technology squirrelled away here, including Dr Doom's time platform. He had waited a week for some superpeople to turn up to go with him to the future to tackle the problem at source.
Stark disagrees. Ultron must know that Vision told Luke Cage the secret last issue. So Ultron will be waiting for them. It's a trap. Wolverine also disagrees. he wants them to go *back* in time to stop Hank Pym creating Ultron. Even if it means killing him. Logan gets agreement from Stark that if *he* was warned not to build something because of the future consequences, he'd just see it as a challenge to find a way to build it *without* the bad results.
Fury interrupts the subsequent debate on morality and the unknown consequences of changing the past. He shows them some of the tech he has, and tells them to grab what they want.
Tony finds what he calls his Mark II Iron Man armour, which didn't have any external comms links, and so can't be invaded by Ultron. Captain America has his photonic shield. Rulk gets the axe of Ares. Spider-Man finds some of his web shooters (his current stuff was confiscated by Hammerhead and Owl when they captured him before #1). (The Otto Octavius inside is less gracious about the gift than Peter Parker would have been.)
Fury enlists Black Widow, Cap, Iron Man, Invisible Woman, Quake, Quicksilver, Red Hulk and Storm to accompany him to the future. Iron Man believes he knows where and when to find Ultron, based on their last meeting.
Emma Frost, Hawkeye, Monica Rambeau, Moon Knight, Spider-Man, Valkyrie and Wolverine are to stay behind and guard the base. Ka-Zar's in charge, and his Savage Land people will help keep watch. But (somewhat contradictorially) Fury tells them to destroy the place if his team don't make it back within 3 hours.
When the others have gone, Wolverine asks Hawkeye if he knows how to work the time machine. He doesn't believe the future team will make it back. He wants to go alone to the past, and he won't take 'no' for an answer.