Synopsis
Last issue the current Avengers managed at last to battle their way through Mephisto's diversions to join the prehistoric Avengers in 1 Million BC, but at the cost of Starbrand (Brandy Selby) ageing dramatically. In the Avengers Assemble Alpha 1-shot the 2 teams met in Marvel style by spending most of the issue fighting each other. Until their common foe the Multiversal Masters Of Evil attacked. Doom Supreme ripped Agamotto's eyes out and killed the caveman 1M BC Starbrand by turning him into a ball of red flesh. Meanwhile Avenger Prime left his Tower in the God Quarry to view this event but was stabbed by multiple alternate Mephistos. The Universe-616's Mephisto revealed his true plan which was to lead his gang of alternates back through AP's portal to invade the Quarry.
This issue will concentrate on the Avengers/MMOE clash while Avengers Forever #12 will host the fight between the Mephistos and Avenger Prime's army for Avengers Tower.
Captain America and Iron Man rally their set of Avengers to attack the MMOE but they and the 1M BC group are devastated by a single blast from Dark Phoenix who then sends in her hound, an alternate Wolverine, to finish off any survivors. The 1st person he comes across is the 1M BC Ghost Rider, but as he starts slashing with his adamantium claws he's surrounded by chains of flaming bones (like long flexible spinal columns). And GR emerges whole and victorious with his fiery mammoth by his side. During the fight a voiceover from GR reminds us that he was born a caveman who sold his soul to wield the flames to judge sinners, hoping to purge the world and redeem himself. But he knows it's a losing battle.
Now Odin, Thor and the current Phoenix (Maya Lopez) emerge also unscathed, followed by the others from both teams. (We aren't told what saved them. Maybe it was Phoenix who protected them from Dark Phoenix' power? Or the mystic power of Agamotto who's binding up his eye-sockets?) This time it's Cap and Odin who do the rallying. (But the voiceover that accompanies the following battle seems more omniscient than GR's even though it uses the same style of box.)
Odin takes on Doom Supreme who magics up a tentacled monster to defend him. 1 of said monster's limbs takes Mjolnir away from it's master. But Valkyrie (Jane Foster) comes to the rescue using her All-Weapon Undrjarn as an energy axe to cut Odin and Mjolnir free. The hammer flies to *her* (as if sensing she will use it in the future). She whacks Doom with it then tosses back to Odin. In the 1-shot they were at each other's throats but now they join forces and weapons to attack the fallen leader of the MMOE.
Meanwhile the current Phoenix and the 1st Iron Fist combine martial arts attacks against Black Skull. Captain Marvel, Iron Man and Sub-Mariner assail Dark Phoenix. Kid Thanos is up against CapA and the 1st Moon Knight. Agamotto and Thor face King Killmonger in the armour of the Asgardian Destroyer. Our Starbrand pays her respects to her deceased predecessor. Nighthawk is dodging bombs from Ghost Goblin, querying how he got his magic power including forging the bombs out of the skulls of dead Ghost Riders. Then the 1st GR joins in and his vengeance fire reduces GG to an alternate Norman Osborn before punching through his heart. Hawk tells GR that like him he is a 'child' of Mephisto (the devil created the current version of the Squadron Supreme to which he belonged). He claims that they have to be better than their 'father', but GR contradicts him - they have to be worse to win.
The voiceover has been saying that the cave-men the 1M BC Avengers are fighting to protect see the battle as a war of the gods. And as usual to appease those gods they sacrifice 1 of their number who is 'different'. The voice wonders why they continue to fight for the future of such people.
Doom and Dark Phoenix are surviving the assault against them, including 2 versions of Mjonir from Odin and Thor. DP complains that Mephisto was supposed to keep the future Avengers away. Doom says that the devil plays by his own rules, and they agree to deal with *him* when they've finished with this lot. To that end Doom unveils a new strategy. To get rid of the the future Avengers he unleashes a mystic plague that will rid the world of all their cave-man ancestors. It spreads at unnatural speed but Valkyrie and GR+mammoth are able to outrace it. However Val still doesn't know how to stop it. But GR knows that everything burns, and he and his ride set about doing that. Val tries to help people survive the plague, but she knows that neither of them can save more than a small fraction of the populace. GR pauses to ask her if the future world is worth the fight. She replies that she *has* to believe it's true. He tells her to make *sure* that it is before he and the mastodon give their all to consume all the plague in flames.
Meanwhile Agamotto and current Phoenix are magically flaying the Venom symbiote off Black Skull. CapM and Iron Fist have King Killmonger down. CapA gives a rousing speech while taking on Dark Phoenix. Odin and Thor bring down thunder and lightning on Doom.
And way out in space Lady Phoenix 'hears' the thunder and rushes back to save the world she abandoned (in the Av 1M BC 1-shot). Her voiceover tells us she's returning for her son Thor.