Synopsis / Summary / Plot
In the past 4 issues teams of Avengers have found themselves in situations where their memories of how they got there, and probably reality itself, have been manipulated. And apparently we haven't seen all the occasions. A voiceover has continually assured us that this is all being done for the team and Earth's benefit, to teach them and give them tech to be ready for an upcoming mega-menace. But the Avengers have begun to figure out what's happening.
Now they're in the middle of another of the scenarios where they (Black Panther, Blade, Captain America, Captain Marvel, She-Hulk and Thor) are chasing Spider-Man through New York. And the voiceover says he has a plan to get rid of the team's suspicions. Spidey is trying to convince them that a villain called the Grand Manipulator 'shuffled' the Avengers thoughts yesterday during a fight in a warehouse. He did it using a gadget called a Resequencer which Spidey has got hold of and is taking it to a friend at the University who'll deactivate it to mend their minds. And it must be done in the next 10 minutes or the change will be permanent. But CapA says it's Spider-Man's mind that has been messed with, and Thor asks him kindly to hand the device over because if it's deactivated badly it will fry all the minds in NY. Spidey says he doesn't want to fight them because he'd probably lose, which the Thunder God agrees with. So the lone hero chooses the only sensible option ...
... he puts the device in his handy satchel and web-slings away. Straight into the gauntleted hands of Iron Man. But SM does something to short out IM's armour and he gets away. He's had 12 hours to devise ways to defeat each of them. She-Hulk doesn't see how he'll defeat a super-fist but he dodges out of her way, this time into the hand (around his throat) of CapM. Until he tosses a capsule into her mouth which bursts to fill her mouth and throat with webbing. As he escapes again he assures her it will dissolve within a minute. CapA hurls his shield which the amazing arachnid catches and uses to smash through a window into an office, where he finds Blade waiting for him. They exchange blows until Panther joins them, and then CapA. Spidey manages to hold them off until Cap grabs his bag, only to find it empty because SM has the Resequencer in 1 hand and a web bomb in the other. He throws it and it explodes to tangle the 3 foes in webs.
He web-slings out the window to be met by Thor who grabs the shirt of his costume. Which Spidey wriggles out of and swings off. CapM and She-Hulk can't find him but Iron Man does. After a chase the Golden Avenger slices through SM's webline with a repulsor blast and then menaces the downed hero with another dose. Thor turns up and offers Spidey his shirt back in exchange for the device. SM accepts the deal and they swap. But the Asgardian thinks it's suspiciously easy, and CapA deduces that it isn't the real Resequencer. Spider-Man admits that this was all a delaying action while his University friend deals with the real thing. The fliers Captain Marvel, Iron Man and Thor zoom to the U just in time to hear Professor Samuel Crassus say it's deactivated. The 3 heroes find that their minds are still OK, and Spidey web-lines in to gloat that he was right.
The slower heroes join them as Iron Man explains that things aren't as simple as Spider-Man thinks. He shows him footage downloaded by his armour from the warehouse security system yesterday which shows SM affected by the Resequencer. And then he shows the same footage downloaded *now* from the same source which shows it was the Avengers who were affected. IM and BP claim that *both* versions are real, as are the conflicting memories in their minds. 2 versions of reality coexist in the same timeline.
Prof Crassus now starts to dissolve into Kirby dots as he admits to being the Grand Manipulator who can manipulate reality, and his long 'friendship' with Spider-Man didn't exist until yesterday. He's been messing with *their* reality in the past issues to keep them distracted from discovering his *true* plan. He claims to be a merger of a human with an alien dimensional explorer. And now he'll use the Resequencer to mould the world in the way he wants. He switches it on but it starts to do something to *him*. Spidey explains that his memories of their friendship didn't ring true so he'd made a few precautionary adjustments to the gizmo. And the 'Professor' collapses 'dead'.
Spider-Man and the Avengers apologise to each other and go their own ways. The voiceover congratulates itself on a job well done. This will give him the extra time he needs before the Avengers are ready for the truth. However Captain America hangs back and addresses the empty room. He says he's not fooled by the 'Grand Manipulator'. He says he knows the real mastermind is still out there. And the level of reality control displayed here has made Cap sure he knows who it is - the Beyonder.