Synopsis
Avengers: War Across Time #4 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
The original Avengers were fed up with Kang attacking them from the future and tried to use the Fantastic Four's time machine (while the FF were away) to go fight him in his own time. But instead they accidentally brought Sindri, king of the Asgardian Dwarves, from his home in Nidavellir. Sindri demanded to be sent back but the team don't know how so the angry Dwarf teamed up with the Lava Men to attack Manhattan and steal Thor's hammer Mjolnir.
The foes have retreated back underground and Thor is now panicking because he knows that in a minute without the hammer he'll revert to mortal Donald Blake. He digs a hole in the ground to try to follow them but then runs off. Captain America decides to follow his plan and keep digging. Wasp spots a nearby bulldozer and Giant-Man and Iron Man remove its shovel to use in the task.
Deep underground Sindri gets the Lava Men to lead him to the heart of their volcano. If it is hot enough he will be able to unforge Mjolnir and release the power Odin put in it. He can use that power to get home, even if that happens to destroy Midgard (and Thor).
Don Blake watches as Giant-Man's shovel and Iron Man's repulsors burrow into the Earth. He muses that if he had Mjolnir he could call his father Odin for help. But then if he had the hammer he wouldn't need the help.
Now the Avengers have bored through to a natural tunnel system where they're attacked by a horde of Lava Men. The 3 men fight back while Wasp goes looking for Sindri and the hammer. The caverns feel cooler away from the Lava Men, which gives her another idea. She heads back to the others and asks IM if his armour has a thermal scanner. She suggests they head for the hottest part of the tunnels. But she wonders what they'll do when they get there. Cap smilingly suggests they use a magic trick to retrieve a magic hammer.
In the future Kang and his army have conquered another world but he's disappointed to have found nothing useful or interesting there. When a soldier asks whether *all* the planet's leaders should be killed Kang shoots him for questioning his orders. Another guy rushes up to tell him that he must return home because the machine to summon the Avengers to the future is ready. Kang shoots *him* for daring to tell him what to do.
The Avengers reach Sindri before he can throw Mjolnir in the volcano. He sends the Lava Men against him and they begin to overwhelm Giant-Man and Iron Man. GM escapes by shrinking to ant size so Wasp can carry him to safety. Cap nimbly avoids the grasp of the Lava Men and goads Sindri into throwing the hammer at him. He dodges the flying mallet which keeps on going out of the cavern as Cap reminds the King that when thrown Mjolnir always returns to its owner, ie Thor. Sindri tries to throttle him but the die is cast.
Up above the mallet zooms up out of the hole in the ground and into the hand of the waiting Don Blake. There's blinding lightning ...
... and Thor joins the combat below and quickly ends it. He summons a storm to wash the Lava Men away and douse their flames. The he grabs Sindri and carries him off to Asgard for judgement, leaving his teammates alone again. But a light takes them to the future.