Synopsis
Avengers #317 synopsis by
T Vernon
Rating:
At Avengers HQ, Edwin Jarvis has lost contact with the Avengers who have set out into space to battle Nebula on her own ship. He tries to contact team member Quasar as being experienced in space but when he sees the size of Nebula’s ship—and the hint of one even larger behind it, he nearly panics, doubly wishing for the arrival of Quasar….
Meanwhile aboard Nebula’s ship, the Stranger has crashed his way onto the bridge, searching for Nebula. The Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Sersi, Vision, Spider-Man, Starfox) are stunned but Spidey is able to point the giant cosmic being to where she is tied up. Stranger picks her up but she is still under the effects of Starfox’s ability to excite the pleasure center of the brain. Spidey jumps up to remind the Stranger who he is but Stranger just ignores them all and departs with his prisoner for his own ship. The Avengers stand confused by this. Cap asks Sersi if she could read Stranger’s mind but she is terrified at what that could do to her brain; Cap informs her that they will have to learn the extent and limits of her powers later. Cap decides they will head over to the Stranger’s ship and are overwhelmed with its massive size; Cap calms down a nervous Spider-Man but as they are about to leave, a huge robot called Blockade comes over from the Stranger’s ship to stand in the hull’s breach and prevent the Avengers from crossing over to the larger ship. The Stranger contacts them by astral projection advising them to heed the robot’s warning but Cap says they will not leave until they learn what he is planning to do with Nebula. He informs them that Nebula stole from him. While he was away from his ship, Nebula and her sidekick Gunthar found a way to evade the security defenses and enter his ship. They located a special room and, despite Gunthar’s warnings not to mess with the Stranger, she cut her way through the sophisticated electronic lock and they entered the massive hold. And she stole the Infinity Union. This, the Stranger explains, is a combination of three devices of such enormous power that it can channel all forms of ambient energy into the user, which, in Nebula’s hands, could spell the end of the universe….
Back on Nebula’s ship, Iron Man and Starfox are questioning Gunthar about Nebula’s plans and they learn about the Infinity Union. The baddie reveals that Neb’s ultimate plan is to create ultimate entropy, the death of all there is; he also reveals that the device has been booby-trapped so that if anyone other than Nebula touches it, it will result in the annihilation of this entire sector of space. Iron Man races off to warn the others aboard the Stranger’s ship…
…where the Stranger is contemplating the unconscious Nebula whose mind is still blocked by Starfox’s manipulation of her brain so he is unable to scan it for the whereabouts of his stolen property. Stranger can guess what she wants the Infinity Union for as the recent blips in the universe hint at her scheme but does she realize that the power needed to temporarily eradicate the universe would have been absorbed by the Infinity Union? He increases the power of his psychic probes to try to locate it, causing severe distress to Sersi and Spider-Man, whose Spider-Sense goes mad. Cap determines that no one should have possession of the deadly device and so their goal is to locate and destroy it, moreso when Iron Man arrives with the warning. The Avengers fan out to search the ship. Spidey, still trying to get used to battling cosmic menaces, locates the Infinity Union with his Spider-Sense. Recalling Shellhead’s warning but worried that the Stranger or Nebula might find it, Spidey shoots a web toward it—and it activates, blasting Spidey across the room….
Meanwhile, Quasar arrives at the Avengers Mansion construction site, looking for any of his teammates. He locates Jarvis in the communications room; Jarvis fills him in on the Nebula situation, showing him her and Stranger’s ships near the moon. Quasar is shocked—and then the screen explodes, hurling them across the room….