Synopsis
In a lonely garage in Texas Miguel Santos is playing poker with some guys he's just bought a stolen car from. Their boss walks in and recognises him as Living Lightning. The undercover superhero says it's just Lightning now (to avoid confusion with criminal Living Laser) as he turns electric. The boss taunts him as an ex member of the Rangers (when they were an Initiative team), not good enough to be an Avenger. Santos blasts them harder than he should have.
After the authorities arrive Miguel complains to a detective friend that no-one remembers he was an Avenger, in the West Coast branch and later in the recombined team. It seems the cop is his boyfriend (we learned Miguel was gay when he attended a meeting of the Great Lakes Avengers thinking GLA meant Gay/Lesbian Alliance) but their planning for a date is interrupted by a red sky heralding what Santos describes as a Crisis, sorry, the end of the world.
The red sky is seen by Falcon in New York too - this time we see it emanating from an explosive point. A distracted driver flips his car into the air. Sam Wilson saves him while real falcon Redwing divebombs pedestrians to herd them out of the way of the crash. Beast monitors reports from all over the US even as we lose connection with satellites, and comms networks start to go down. And Spider-Man (Miles Morales)'s spider-sense goes haywire. There's a world-wide eruption of tornadoes, volcanoes and earthquakes - Dr. Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum is shaken. Aircraft are grounded and emergency services are snowed under.
Vision can't contact Alpha Flight space station. But we can go there where Aurora, Puck and Sasquatch tell us that from their perspective the Earth and Moon have vanished. Captain Marvel orders a more detailed investigation and wants Abigail Brand to contact friendly alien races.
Carol Danvers' fellow-Ultimate Black Panther is in Wakanda and still in contact with Beast and Vision. The Wakandan king will confer with other world leaders. Beast will check in with the U.S. Avengers currently in Europe. But his measurements suggest it isn't the satellites and Alpha Flight that have gone - Earth has been moved.
Vision has lost contact with Beast and Panther and joins Falcon who is urging people to vacate buildings because of the threat of quakes. But he can still reach nearby Thor (Jane Foster) who seems to be in Rockefeller Centre. The statue of Atlas falls over dropping it's huge globe. Hercules stops it from rolling over bystanders and lifts it on his shoulders like Atlas. (Although if this *is* the Rockefeller statue then presumably for dramatic purposes the version on Marvel Earth has a solid globe for the Earth rather than a metal frame representing the heavens.)
Elsewhere in the city Avengers' butler Edwin Jarvis and Wasp (Nadia Pym) are doing their bit to keep people safe. Jarvis is buried in rubble as he pushes a young boy out of the way of danger.
The Uncanny Avengers Unity Squad are in San Diego which is threatened by a tidal wave. Synapse tries to keep people calm with her mental power, but Doctor Voodoo is concerned because she's still recovering from injury (UAv#29). Human Torch (Johnny Storm), Rogue, Scarlet Witch and Wasp (Janet Van Dyne) are flying above the wave. Rogue rescues a boat and then Torch vaporises a lot of the water. Wasp rescues him when he falls from exhaustion. Wanda Maximoff prepares a spell to disperses the rest of the wave.
In New Mexico Hawkeye and Red Wolf from the Occupy Avengers series are investigating the ruins of Alanna Springs. They find a rubble-trapped woman but releasing her also frees some live electrical wires. Clint Barton nullifies them with an EMP arrow.
The U.S. Avengers (just back from rescuing Cannonball from space in the last issue of their series) are dealing with the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Sam Guthrie flies overhead to track the lava flow. Enigma fires blasts to slow it down. General Maverick, red-skinned but not otherwise Red Hulk, is presumably using a big gun to do the same. Squirrel Girl appears to be punching flying debris while wondering if Earth has been taken to the Negative Zone, the Microverse or the newly-discovered (Amazing Spider-Man #590-591 - not that recent) Macroverse.
Toni Ho is sitting in front of a contraption working her laptop with 1 hand while holding a ball of force in the other. She's oblivious to danger until her girlfriend Enigma flies her out of the way of a falling lump of flaming rock, reminding her that she hasn't got the Iron Patriot armour these days. The device is thankfully unharmed and Toni uses it to expand the force ball to surround the mountain.
Citizen V/Sunspot Roberto Da Costa has been standing around trying to keep in touch with other Avengers teams. Doreen Green interrupts to show him something burning up in the atmosphere and heading towards Rome. It abruptly changes direction and crashlands inside the Colosseum. As the smoke clears we see a black pyramid.
Captain America (Steve Rogers again now) is saving lives in Washington DC. His personal comms link to Falcon is still running until he suddenly freezes to a pale blue 'statue' along with his shield hanging in midair. Spider-Man (Peter Parker) is similarly frozen in mid web-swing in New York. The same happens to Black Panther in Wakanda and Cyclops, Hulk (Amadeus Cho), Nova and Viv Vision of the Champions in the Arizona desert. We see Colossus, Kitty Pryde, Old Man Logan, Rachel Summers (now called Prestige) and Storm of the X-Men affected in Central Park. Our Avengers teams don't get off unscathed. Enigma, Squirrel Girl, Vision and Jan Van Dyne are frozen.
All the still-moving Avengers (except the Occupy Avengers Hawkeye and Red Wolf) get a call to assemble at Avengers Mansion, including reservist Lightning. They seem to get there very quickly. Hercules carries frozen Vision. Wonder Man (who's Unity Squad status was left unresolved at the end of the UAv run) is there with his pal Beast (who *did* seem to be a Squad member).
Nadia-Wasp arrives late to tell them Jarvis has been taken to hospital. Rogue says he would want them to concentrate on the world's problem but Wasp insists on returning to the hospital. Beast tags along because his medical training might help. We now see that Quicksilver is also here, still chafing after being pushed out of the Unity Squad (for causing Synapse to be injured).
A voice announces herself as being the 1 who summoned them all here. Hercules, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch recognise her and welcome her back to the fold. We've never seen her before, but the Avengers' founders' statue behind her includes *her* in it.