Synopsis
Issue #3 ended with Captain America (Sam Wilson) telling the Avengers he had a plan to deal with Kang the Conqueror for good. Last issue we saw the result of that plan as Kang's time-spanning empire disintegrated and a medley of Avengers from various times came knocking at his door. Now this issue and next will show us what the plan involved.
We return to the end of #3 and Vision produces something he calls a time tether which connects the present with the heat-death of the universe, saying it will help with the plan. Spider-Man (Peter Parker) thinks this is beyond current science and queries if he built it himself. Another Vision-voice answers "Yes, but not for several centuries." as a figure phases through a wall into the room.
This is Vision of the far-future, an android who has survived by a long series of upgrades and replacement parts. He remembered Cap's suggested plan at this meeting and has come back to improve it.
He shows them Kang's fortress at the end of time, where the other end of the time tether is located. The tether is a quantum string stretching from now to then, and to it all these times are the same. Future-Vision gives the team time bombs to use in their attacks. He says if the attacks occur simultaneously relative to the tether then the energies would magnify and destroy Kang's citadel.
Thor (Jane Foster) says they're going to have to divide the team. And Cap suggests they need a bigger team - and they'll use time travel to get them.
The Avengers meeting room is in the Parker Industries Building (but the team don't know Spidey is PP). Current-Vision takes them down to the sub-basement where he found a time machine (see ANAD Av #13) which SM(PP) knew nothing about! It's a holdover from when this was the Fantastic Four's Baxter Building HQ. Future-V says he can travel in time at will but the Avengers will need the time machine.
While f-V is setting things up Cap whispers to current-V to ask if they should trust him. C-V says he met f-V in ANADA#13 when he used the time machine in another attempt to 'deal with' Kang. (So that's who the mystery 'living shadow' was in that issue.) Earlier today he revealed his identity to c-V and they 'melded minds' so c-V knows f-V speaks true.
Cap sends Spidey and fem-Thor to recruit the original Avengers (Giant-Man, Hulk, Iron Man, male-Thor and Wasp (Jan van Dyne)). Then he and fem-Thor (again) pick up a later version (Black Knight, Cap (Steve Rogers), Captain Marvel, She-Hulk and Sub-Mariner). Then Sam-Cap assigns teams. The Visions will be together - they appear to remain behind to monitor the situation. Sam-Cap will take Black Knight, Hercules, Hulk, and Spidey, Jane-Thor has CM, GM, original Thor and original Wasp. Nadia Pym/Wasp has Steve-Cap, IM, Namor and Shulk.
Sam-Cap's team go to Egypt in 2948 BC where Kang has an army of slaves building weapons and stuff. They face ancient warriors with futuristic guns. During the fight Hulk asks why Spidey talks to him as if he's an idiot. After defeating their foes the Avengers find the power source - a fusion reactor - and plant the time bomb on it. But more Egyptians fire a heat ray at them ....
Jane-Thor's team are on planet Sacniaa in 7215 AD. Original Thor is mystified that the female Asgardian has his Mjolnir. Jane's reply is "Spoilers". The scenery is a desolate waste of ash but CM and the Thors give Jan-Wasp and GM a lift to a still-green place where some aliens are at work. Wasp pretends they have come from Kang for a progress report. They are mining time - chronal energy - ageing stuff to death, hence the ash. But they also steal future time from things like a nearby colony of apes - who will now not evolve into an intelligent race. The Avengers start wrecking the project, including freeing the apes' future. But an alien starts to steal the future of GM&W, which Jan says will negate the future of the Avengers. On cue CM and Jane-Thor start to disappear, but for some reason so also does original Thor ....
In North America in 4022 AD Nadia-Wasp's team have been captured. Steve-Cap is being tortured for information but won't tell them anything. Guards take him back to the Avengers' cell and take Wasp away. The team have another problem - they can't risk changing history by doing anything to the Kang who is in this time. Nadia is taken to face him ....
Needless to say, to be continued.