Synopsis
Falcon (Sam Wilson), Hercules, Thor (Jane Foster), Vision and Wasp (Nadia Pym) have gathered at their HQ in the top floor of the Parker Industries-owned Baxter Building. Their Avengers Identicards no longer work and the place is a mess. Peter Parker has closed down the company and sold the building. All the important equipment has been removed. It was all owned by PI and is presumably to be sold in the bankruptcy proceedings. Only furniture and personal effects have been left, but not all have survived intact.
Spider-Man joins them and tries to defend his 'boss', but eventually decides the best course is to join in the condemnation. (Peter/Spidey deliberately crashed his company to keep it out of the hands of Dr Octopus and Hydra during Secret Empire in Amazing SM #31, but from the outside it appears that it failed due to faulty products and Parker didn't give any warning.) The team are now without a base.
For the moment they split up. Falcon and Thor fly off together. Hercules and Vision go for a chat. Leaving Spidey with Wasp who took an immediate dislike to him when they 1st met. The original Janet Pym Wasp was the same, and blamed it on natural wasp/spider enmity. Spidey tries to win Nadia over by taking her someplace special.
Jane and Sam talk in flight. He is glad to have handed the role and responsibility of Captain America back to Steve Rogers, and now glories in flying once more as Falcon. But he wants to discuss her cancer. He's the only Avenger who knows of her secret id and of her illness when in human form, and he's honoured his promise (#7 of the previous series) to keep both secret. He adds now that he was wrong then to say that he would stop her if he thought she was trying to commit suicide by super-battle - she's the mistress of her own future.
But now that he's stopped being Cap he thinks he's no longer suitable to be team leader, and he asks *her* to do it.
Cut to Herc and Vizh in a coffee shop (Herc is trying to live down his hell-raising reputation). Back in this series' 1st storyarc Vision learned that he would survive into the far future. He asks Hercules what it's like to be a near-immortal.
The Olympian demi-god says that like all gods he doesn't think of himself as long-lived but that humans have such *short* lives - to him the blink of an eye. When he was younger he moved among men (and especially women), but their inevitable deaths grieved him so he withdrew. But later he came to the realisation that he should rejoin humanity and experience the brief relationships to the full. That way he can give *them* immortality in his memories.
Meanwhile Spider-Man is taking Wasp to a science fair so they can bond over such stuff. But on the way they see a crashed circus lorry and lots of escaped animals. Nadia herds a bear back into the truck but is menaced by a lion which she shrinks. Spidey is beset by a horde of monkeys but climbs into the truck with them to deposit them there, while Wasp disagrees with him about whether they are macaques or marmosets.
Afterwards Spider-Man complains about missing a lecture he wanted to hear at the fair, but Wasp is glad they were able to help the animals. She asks him why he always thinks the glass is half empty, and he wonders why Nadia always thinks of it as half full. But they do agree on 1 thing - why is the glass always twice as big as it needs to be? Bonding at last!
Jane asks Sam if he's retiring as Falcon too. If not, why does he think he can't lead as *Falcon*? Does he think the team follow the costume rather than the man? She puts her helmet on his head, which of course doesn't make him Thor. He says that the face of the Avengers is traditionally 1 of the big 3 (Cap/Iron Man/Thor). But Jane says he has the experience to be the leader (much more than she has). And anyway the face of the current team is Spider-Man because he's the most recognisable.
Sam agrees to stay as leader, but an app on his phone alerts him to news of a problem for the team to tackle. With no Identicards to summon the troops Thor does the honours with lightning and thunder. The Avengers assemble and Falc informs them that Crimson Dynamo and Titanium Man have taken hostages at the American Embassy. They have no quinjet so Vision carries Hercules and Thor has Spider-Man in tow by web-line (even though Wasp offers, maybe to shrink him). They all fly off into battle.