One evening, Edwin Jarvis, Tony Stark’s butler, takes his mother out to dinner; on the walk home late at night they are accosted by a trio of thugs bent on mayhem. Suddenly the hoods are taken down by some special arrows, courtesy of a purple-clad archer who calls himself Hawkeye. As the hero turns to leave, Jarvis calls him back….
Elsewhere, Captain America is a prisoner in the dungeons of Count Nefaria at his castle in New Jersey (!). His fellow Avengers come to the rescue, with Iron Man, Thor, and Giant-Man crashing through the stone walls. In another room, Wasp finds Rick Jones and his Teen Brigade and warns them to leave—too late, as the Count’s henchmen enter, guns blazing….
At a neighborhood bar, Hawkeye confides in Jarvis how his plans to become a masked hero were derailed when he was mistaken for a crook by the police, a misunderstanding that led to several brushes with Iron Man and compounded by his association with the Soviet spy Black Widow. As they talk through the night, they walk the streets and sunrise finds them at the gate to Avengers Mansion….
At the castle, Nefaria is captured and evidence gathered from his computer files proves he is the head of the Maggia crime ring. The Avengers get a sudden call from Rick and discover Wasp, critically injured by bullet wounds….
In East Transia, Pietro and Wanda Maximov—Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch—take refuge from the snowstorm in an inn. They are tired of the fugitive life but don’t know where to go where they will be accepted in view of their status as mutant criminals….
Wasp is rushed into surgery at a nearby hospital where she is placed in the hands of the noted Dr. Svenson. Iron Man wonders whether the loss of an Avenger is too high a price to pay for their mission. He wants to talk to Cap about their security clearance depending on Cap’s participation on the team but Cap is preoccupied. He can’t rest until he has hunted down Baron Zemo, Bucky’s killer and suspects that this preoccupation with vengeance is what led to his capture by Nefaria which in turn led to Wasp’s injury. Cap walks out leaving Tony alone. In the hospital chapel, Hank is praying for God to spare Janet’s life when Thor enters to tell him to have faith, the matter is in the All-Father’s hands and even if she should die, she will be honored as a warrior in Valhalla. Hank, who with the rest of the Avengers, believes Thor’s claims to divinity to be an act, or at worst a delusion, takes offense but at this point, Dr. Svenson arrives to announce that the operation was a success….
At the Mansion, Jarvis and Rick are relaxing after hearing the good news when suddenly the lights go out. Jarvis is knocked unconscious and Rick is taken prisoner by Baron Zemo….