Synopsis / Summary / Plot
The previously page shows the Illuminati making Captain America (Steve Rogers) forget about the incursions and their drastic plans to keep Earth safe (New Avengers #3), and him remembering in our #29. It then skips to the 8 months later period where in #35 SHIELD's Avengers (Captain Marvel, Hawkeye, Invisible Woman and some War Machine drones) captured Amadeus Cho and demanded to know where the rest of the Illuminati are.
Now 2 SHIELD helicarriers make an unauthorised flight over Rome and break into an underground city where some of the Illuminati were detected in NAv#25. Hawkeye enters the ruined city and finds it deserted. Steve Rogers is running the operation from 1 of the helicarriers, flanked by Captain America (Sam Wilson), Invisible Woman and Maria Hill. Clint Barton calls them down to see what he's found.
Watched over by War Machine drones the team investigate a hologram of Beast and Hulk playing chess. A repeating loop has them eruditely discussing their situation. Beast's question as to whose move it is prompts Steve to move a relevant piece, which triggers the hologram participants to start talking to them. (This is the message Beast left at the end of NAv#25, which has an embedded code.)
Beast greets Steve, and then spends the most of the message explaining how he worked out the high odds that Rogers would be here, along with Clint, Maria, Sam Wilson and Susan Richards. (And he slips in some Latin phrases, including 'ab intra' next to the reference to Sue.) Then he says Steve's just not clever enough to catch them.
Rogers has shown his anger against the Illuminati earlier by insisting no-one refers to them by their old superhero names, which they've disgraced. Now he sends everyone else away, and smashes the hologram with a convenient metal bar with a lump of concrete on the end.
Later Steve finds Susan reviewing a recording of a speech by an ambassador to the UN who had learned about the the threat to the universe of the multiversal collapse and the incursions by parallel Earths. Also that the Illuminati knew about this and had been keeping it secret (in New Avengers). (And I guess that Rogers and the Avengers kept it quiet for a while during the past 8 months too.) Sue shows Steve new behavioural analysis which indicates that 95% of the UN delegates agreed with her proposal. (The actual wording in the comic is less clear than that.)
2 days after that speech Terrax addressed the UN on behalf of the Cabal which had taken over (NAv#23) from the Illuminati the job of destroying incursion Earths. He asked for approval to carry on. At the time Rogers attacked Terrax with his cane, which in Sue's opinion played into their hands.
A week later the UN agreed not to stop the Cabal. And gave them Wakanda, which included the Illuminati's Necropolis base where they kept their antimatter bombs.
Captain Marvel pops in to say that the President is angry about SHIELD entering Italy without permission, and to give her latest report. Steve asks Sue to stay - after the good job she did capturing Amadeus Cho (#35) he's increased her clearance rating.
Carol Danvers shows them satellite footage of T'Challa leaving his sister Shuri in Wakanda (NAv#24) and translocating to Rome. It was that translocation that enabled SHIELD to pinpoint the Illuminati's base which they raided this issue. (But we saw in NAv#25 that the Illuminati know that SHIELD can track their translocations, and so abandonded the place.)
Carol doesn't say anything about evidence that Beast, Mr Fantastic and Hulk had been in the Rome hideout, presumably because they were expected. But she does mention that Captain Britain was there as well as Black Panther. This confirms 1 previous linking of CB with the Illuminati. Sue figures the multiversal Captain Britain Corps must be taking up much of his time dealing with the collapsing multiverse. Steve figures that job will mean Brian Braddock has much useful info about the problem, and suggests they try to contact him via his sister Betsy, Psylocke of the X-Men. But Carol reminds him that the X-Nation protects her as well as Beast. Going after her would be another international incident they can't afford.
Similarly Black Bolt is protected by the Inhumans of Attilan, assuming he's there.
Danvers also reports that Roberto Da Costa/Sunspot has bought AIM, although he only went public about it 2 days ago (and somehow superspy agency SHIELD didn't know about it earlier). Hyperion is working with them. (We found all this out in #35, with more details of what they're doing last issue.) Carol makes a sly dig that they'd have their own rich guy to buy stuff if Steve hadn't alienated Tony Stark.
Finally she tells them that there was an incursion at the time Panther translocated from Wakanda to Rome. (We saw that incursion in NAv#24, and tracking that translocation is what led them to Rome this issue.)
Steve dismisses Susan and asks Carol if she has any more news. Danvers stalls by asking if he's located Black Widow or Spider-Woman. Steve angrily replies that she knows that they removed their tracker implants - and if they don't want to be found then they won't be. He wonders if they've joined Iron Man, wherever he is.
Steve lets her go, but warns he that he expects her to report on the efforts to find Reed Richards and Tony Stark every time, even if it's only to say there's nothing to report.
2 days later Susan Richards meets with husband Reed in an abandoned subway! It transpires she's a spy worming her way into SHIELD. Apparently ab intra ("from within") was a code message for her. She reports that Steve Rogers has given her top clearance. She passes on Amadeus Cho's prisoner ID, travel schedule and tracking frequency. so they can rescue him.
Reed asks after their children. Franklin thinks he disappointed his father, but Reed blames himself for asking him to do whatever he failed at. Valeria and the other Future Foundation kids may have found a solution (to the incursions?). Sue passes on a note from Val, but all it says is "You can't win. Time to start figuring out how not to lose".