Synopsis / Summary / Plot
All-New All-Different Avengers #3 Synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Last issue the not-yet-Avengers were fighting the Chitauri Warbringer in a subway tunnel when their hidden foe Mr Gryphon flooded it. Now Nova is being beaten up underwater by the rest of the unteam for causing Warbringer to come to Earth and threaten to destroy it. But he revives to find it's only Thor doing chest compressions to resuscitate him (but the hallucination justifies the cover). It turns out she, Iron Man and Vision got the rest of them out of danger.
Sam Alexander wonders why his Nova helmet didn't protect him from drowning. Ms Marvel is miffed with him (again) when she learns he lied to her in #1 when he said his name wasn't Sam. Iron Man wants to leave the teens (those 2 and Spider-Man (Miles Morales)) behind when they go after the Chitauri, but Miles persuades him (with a speech including the word 'responsibility') that he needs all the help he can get to protect civilians.
So they fly off (including Captain America who I haven't mentioned so far), with Iron Man and Nova giving Ms Marvel and Spidey a lift.
Mr Gryphon had told Warbringer about an ancient Chitauri object of power split into 3 pieces on Earth (conveniently all in New York City/Long Island). The Avengers failed to stop him getting the 1st 2 bits. Now Warbringer (with Gryphon) digs up the last part in a Long island graveyard.
The mere proximity of the 3 objects opens a huge window in the sky to show a horde of Chitauri warriors slavering to invade. Gryphon flies up with WB towards the gateway where the assembled artefact will open it. Warbringer ignores Gryphon's babbling about wanting the artefact for himself once this use has diminished its power to a more controllable level. And that WB may need his help communicating with the troops. But the alien is puzzled by the unfamiliar uniforms and weapons of the Chitauri on the other side of the portal.
But such questions become moot when Warbringer is struck by lightning from Mjolnir. He drops the parts to be caught by IM, Cap and MsM. Then flying punches by Nova and Vision keep him occupied while Tony Stark's AI analyses the bits to deduce that joining them together will open the window. He intends Cap, MsM and Spidey should keep the 3 sections safely separate while the heavy hitters take the enemy down.
But just then the Chitauri fries Vision's circuits and uses him as a bat to swat Nova and Thor. Shellhead realises he'll need a better plan. As he flies up to knock Vizh out of Warbringer's grasp he explains that he wants Spider-Man to be ready to assemble the artefact on his command, and then destroy it immediately before the alien army has a chance to come through.
Vision recovers and the 4 heroes start herding their foe towards the portal. But the cloaked Mr Gryphon has descended to Earth and used his magic to raise the dead from their graves to attack the 3 on the ground and seize the fragments. Sam Wilson and Ms Marvel fight them off as Miles listens to Stark's countdown. Spidey urges Iron Man to hurry, but Warbringer is fighting back.
Suddenly Nova rockets in and pushes the alien towards the window. They resume their grudge match from his own series as Iron Man resumes the countdown. On zero Spider-Man connects the bits, as Nova shoves Warbringer through the now-open gateway and veers off at the last instant. Then Gryphon controls his seething anger as Spidey crushes the artefact and the portal closes. And the zombies vanish.
Everyone assembles on the ground. Iron Man wonders what brought Warbringer here. Thor muses that the alien seemed to know Nova by name. Sam is about to confess that the Chitauri wanted revenge on him, but Vision interrupts by saying that the Chitauri race have probably often fought the Nova Corps, and so he probably just recognised the uniform.
Iron Man invites them all to be the Avengers. He says he doesn't have the money for equipment or salaries these days. But they all volunteer, especially the eager teenagers.
Meanwhile Warbringer has landed among his fellow Chitauri. But it turns out the portal was a gateway to the far future. And these aliens consider him a useless primitive, and kill him.
As the heroes part Nova flies after Vision to thank him for letting him keep secret his responsibility for Warbringer's rampage. The android tells him it will remain a secret as long as Sam remembers he owes him 1. The teen realises he's just been blackmailed.