Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Last issue the assembled Avengers liberated the world from Kang The Conqueror and his son Marcus, the Scarlet Centurion. Kang sent Marcus back to the future to rule his empire in his stead, and he himself went down with his orbiting Damocles Base as it fell to Earth.
The Base broke up during re-entry even though its anti-grav tech slowed its fall somewhat. The Avengers managed to divert most fragments to the ocean, and get most civilians in its path to evacuate. But when a large mass hit Gaithersburg, Maryland there were still some fatalities. Captain America, Firebird, Jack Of Hearts, Thor, Vision, Warbird and the combined Triathlon/3-D Man/Hal Chandler arrive there to see Kang emerge from the wreckage. His personal forcefield protected him from the crash but is now failing.
The Conqueror waves his sword and challenges them to come get him. Cap takes up the challenge and Thor holds the others back, saying that Cap will be enough. Then it's a battle of sword vs shield until Cap disarms his foe. Steve Rogers asks him to surrender, but Kang wants to die in battle and gives Cap the honour of killing him. So Cap beats him senseless with fists and shield.
Iron Man arrives when it's all over. Vision says that a relief operation is under way. Triathlon uses his new powers to encase the fallen foe in a forcefield and they send for a quinjet. Wonder Man's there now too, but Firebird is worried when Thor ups and leaves. Triathlon & co leave too, to go back to the Triple-Evil's pyramid to destroy it and release the trapped spirits within. Delroy Garrett says he's got a lot of thinking to do about his new state of existence and the Triune Understanding.
The other 7 Avengers head home to New York in the quinjet. They discuss rounding up Kang's army and finding a way to return them to their future world, and helping the world recover. Then Warbird raises another subject - she killed the so-called Master Of The World (#48). She has few qualms about blowing up Damocles Base (last issue) even though many of Kang's men died. But she killed the Master personally. OK it gave them control of his alien weapons which were crucial in the victory. But if he'd been alive then he probably could have defended Washington DC against Kang's weapon the killed everyone in the city (#49). Carol Danvers wants to be held to account.
But for now the team are welcomed home to Avengers Mansion with a ticker-tape parade. Scarlet Witch is liberated with the other prisoners she's been caring for in the Los Angeles prison camp (see #51). Hercules and She-Hulk are fêted in Paris. There are celebrations in Moscow. And in the MOTW's base in Canada Wasp pops the champagne to toast Black Knight, Stingray, Yellowjacket and the troops for their work manning the Master's weapons. Hank Pym celebrates by kissing his ex-wife Jan Van Dyne. But then the base's computer system asks for an override code.
Meanwhile Kang is the lone prisoner in a prison inside a mountain in Montana. He expects to be tried and executed, and is resigned to that fate. But then Marcus drops in to rescue him. He's frozen time within the mountain with a null-time field and carved his way to the cell with protonic arc. (We see a circular 'tube' that's been cut through stone and flesh alike.) Now he's released his father from the stasis field and they can leave. Kang is angry because he'll be denied the set-piece finale to his 'illustrious' career. But Marcus quotes Kang's own words back to him about enduring the inevitable but also seizing opportunities ...
... so then we see them both in the Damocles' command pod that Kang sent to the future with Marcus (last issue). Scarlet Centurion tells his father that he has 2 million men waiting to come back to this time and destroy the upstart Earth. Then they can go off and conquer other worlds. Kang has donned his armour but still insists that Marcus shouldn't have rescued him. He would have died at the peak of his power with his legend intact. And Marcus could have gone on to forge his own legend. Then he decides to show his son something ...
... and leads Marcus into his private chambers which have heretofore been off-limits (as seen in #46). The room is full of 'coffins' containing corpses which look quite like Marcus. Kang explains that even if they had won the Earth and held it he was going to retire and let Marcus use it as the centre of *his* empire. He reveals that all these others were Marcus' predecessors. But each of them proved unsuitable. But now he thought he finally had a son worthy to succeed him ...
... except Marcus betrayed him by becoming infatuated with Warbird and helping her infiltrate the Master's base (#48). And that led to the Avengers getting control of the Master's tech, which in turn led to the Avengers' victory. He would have forgiven him still if Marcus had taken the opportunities he gave him to confess (in the past 2 issues). And still he was content to die and let his son go on to glory, because betrayal is an accepted step to power. But now that Marcus has put him back in control, then Kang cannot afford a traitor in his ranks. So the Conqueror kills his son with a knife hidden in his thigh-boot.
A computer voice proclaims Marcus XXIII dead and asks if Marcus XXIV should be initiated. Kang holds his son's corpse and says "Not Yet". He has lost his son and heir and now has nothing but time.