Synopsis
Kang has conquered the World. Last issue saw a strike against him by the Avengers' Resistance. He was about to destroy them with the weapons on his orbiting Damocles Base when it was attacked by the huge black pyramid that Triathlon and others got control of by defeating the Triple-Evil in #50.
Kang projected his giant image outside in space to dwarf his base and
the pyramid, but this holo-image can do physical damage. So Triathlon
used the pyramid's systems to give Captain America a similar image, and the 2 giants began to duke it out.
The pyramid is getting closer, and Firestar, Jack Of Hearts, Justice, Living Lightning, Photon, Quasar and Vision fly ahead leaving the physical Cap with Triathlon (currently merged with 3-D Man and his brother Hal) and the caged Jonathan Tremont (leader of the Triune Understanding revealed in #50 as a power-mad villain). As Cap and Kang fight, Steve Rogers and the physical Kang feel the effects of their blows. And within Damocles Kang also is told by his son Marcus, the Scarlet Centurion, that the Base is under renewed fire from the Avengers on Earth which threatens to break through the ship's forcefield.
This weapons fire comes from the Arctic base that used to belong to the Master Of The World (until Warbird killed him in #48). Now the Avengers have learned how to control it. Wasp is coordinating the fightback from the base. She has scientists Black Knight, Stingray and Yellowjacket monitoring the Damocles' variable forcefield and adjusting the weapons fire to compensate. Meanwhile she's sent Firebird, Iron Man, Thor, Warbird and Wonder Man into space for a direct attack. En route Carol Danvers
agonises over killing the Master. Firebird tries to apologise for her
angry outburst to Thor last issue but he just grimly flies on.
Cap
and Kang continue to pummel each other in giant-size while each
declares his confidence in winning. Damocles Base is simultaneously
firing on the pyramid, and Triathlon is having to concentrate on getting
damage to the structure repaired as well as firing the pyramid's own
weapons. But Quasar's group have now reached Kang's ship and are
starting their own bombardment. And Justice is telekinetically scanning
the Base looking for a forcefield control the synthezoid Vision can remote-control.
Tremont
tries to shake Triathlon's confidence by reminding the former Triune
member that he judged Jonathan evil for using power drained from his
acolytes against their will in order to try to save Earth from the
Triple-Evil's pyramid. But now Delroy Garrett is using the power of the pyramid to try to save Earth from Kang, and they both know where that power stems from.
Meanwhile Thor's team show up to add their fire power. Quasar suggests they all attack different areas of the forcefield, but Tony Stark
advises them that the field will adapt to each of their attacks. He
suggests their best chance is to all hit the same place to overload it.
And Wasp has sent them some extra help in the form of the Presence and Starlight.
(Last issue saw Wasp-coordinated rebellions all over the globe. 1 of
them was in Russia where these 2 started turning Kang's forces there
into radioactive green skeletons under their control.) All the
energy-casters pour their output into 1 spot on the forcefield, and Iron
Man detects that it's weakening. (In an aside Presence plans what
reward to claim after they've won, but Starlight warns him that she'll
leave him if he tries taking over Russia again.)
Back at the
giant-size fight Kang's holo-image suddenly dissolves. Kang himself is
wrenched out of his holo-projection armour. The continuing assaults have
damaged Damocles' systems and Marcus reports that they are now in
defensive mode. He suggests retreating to the future and returning
refreshed, repaired and rearmed to the instant they leave. Kang rejects
such trickery (though he's done just that before). He planned this war
well and should win it here and now. He anticipated the Presence and the
alien pyramid (as seen in #42). The only thing he doesn't
understand is how the Avengers now have the Master's tech. And Marcus
lets pass a 2nd opportunity to confess that in his infatuation with her
he aided Carol Danvers in defeating the MOTW (#48).
Cap
wants the pyramid to continue attacking Damocles Base, but Tremont's
words have made Triathlon wary of doing that. Delroy tells Steve that
the power of the pyramid consists of the lifeforce of all the aliens the
Triple-Evil has defeated, and their spirits are still in there. It was
OK to use them against their enemy the Triple-Evil, but not against
*Earth*'s enemy Kang. The spirits long to be free. Cap is conflicted but
he can't help but agree.
Jonathan Tremont is angry with
disbelief - the aliens' souls don't matter when the Earth is at stake.
He reveals that he's been secretly absorbing power to escape. But now he
bursts free and takes even more. Tremont in energy form flies out of
the pyramid towards the Base. He's mortally wounded by an energy blast.
But he unleashes all the stolen energy, joining in with the heroes. And
this tips the balance and the Damocles forcefield fails. The heroes
seize the opportunity to invade the base, and only Justice looks back at
Tremont's body floating in space.
In the Master's Arctic citadel
Wasp tells her science trio to scan the interior of the now-revealed
Damocles and send the info to the attack team, while still continuing to
make the Master's fortress blast away at Damocles in space.
Within
Damocles Iron Man, Photon and Wonder Man are downed by blasts. Justice
telekinetically stops enemy troops from attacking them. IM recovers but Vance Astrovik has to take Monica Rambeau and Simon Williams to safety.
Damocles
is now concentrating its fire on the MOTW base, and the Arctic
installation starts to fall apart. But Yellowjacket has located
Damocles' power core and Wasp delays evacuating in order to contact
Warbird and guide her to the site. When Carol Danvers gets there she
finds Scarlet Centurion as the last hurdle. Marcus says he doesn't want
to fight her but he will. Carol hesitates, but Jack Of Hearts bowls the
Centurion out of the way. And Warbird dives into the power core. When
she was Binary she channelled the energies of a star. She has
since lost the link to that star, but she can still handle that level of
energy. She absorbs it all and then releases it in a blast that shreds
the interior of Damocles Base.
The invading Earthers escape, but
Kang's troops aren't so fortunate. Kang himself stalks the dying craft
looking for his son. Marcus has been doing likewise, and when they meet
he urges his father to escape with him in the command pod back to the
future. However Kang says he'll stay to meet his fate, but Marcus must
go on to carve his *own* place in history. He pushes the Centurion into
the escape pod and triggers it manually from without. The pod flies
clear and then vanishes into the timestream.
And Kang is left on his giant sword-spaceship plunging afire into Earth's atmosphere.