Synopsis
Avengers (2023 series) #26 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
Most of the Avengers are away fighting Dr Doom and Dormammu in One World Under Doom #3-5, but Captain America (Sam Wilson) is recuperating from injuries in their Impossible City orbiting base and Black Panther is still helping prisoners within Meridian Diadem, 1 of the Ashen Combine who are themselves prisoners of the Avengers in the City. But the City has been taken over by Mad Thinker's Masters Of Evil, and its AI reduced to 1 android avatar treating Cap's wounds. The android has become a winged armour to help Sam fight them, and they've already dealt with Madcap.
Thinker and fellow scientist Dreadknight (sworn enemy of Doom) are surveying the Combine in their crystal/amber prisons. Thinker intends to use them as a 'nuclear deterrent' but he's now got the City's android avatars (which were originally *his*, and were his way in to taking over the AI) preparing them to deploy automatically in case of attack. His own AI, Quasimodo Mk X, reports a signal occurring within the City which it can't trace because the City's AI is still resisting their control. Thinker authorises extreme force.
So the action switches to within the City's computer system as Quasi beats up a representation of the already broken AI. The evil AI boasts that it the best AI in the world, better even than Ultron, and the City AI can't stand against it forever so it might as well surrender now or be wiped out. The City replies that it would have welcomed oblivion when it was forced to serve the Ashen Combine, but now it will fight on because now it is an Avenger.
Now we join CA and his AI companion who now wishes to be called Suit, because that's what he currently is. Suit has also picked up the signal which uses the City AI's encryption, but that of course means Suit can read it. It's Black Panther requesting extraction from Meridian Diadem. Suit can't initiate the extraction remotely, they'll need to get to a direct interface with the prison.
At that prison Thinker is explaining why he didn't include a sorcerer in his MOE. Since Dr Doom is now Sorcerer Supreme any such magician would be outclassed. And anyway magic is so unpredictable (and MT relies on being the master of predicting probabilities). Suddenly a thrown shield knocks Dreadknight down and returns to Cap's hand as he faces Thinker. Sam stalls with an exchange of boasts while the AI plugs into a console and initiates the extraction. Just in time for CA to have to fight a recovered DK, who grabs his lance and mounts his bat-winged black stallion. MT calls the other 2 Masters (Mr Hyde, who's exploring the arboretum, and Exterminatrix, who's been enjoying killing androids dressed as superheroes) to offer a prize to whoever kills Cap, say Canada.
Dreadknight gives aerial chase to Captain America. He's faster but Cap's more agile, and the AI can guide him through the City. They manage to lose their tail and Sam rings DK up to suggest he should be fighting *with* the Avengers against Doom instead of hiding up in the City like a coward. Bram Velsing traces the call and fires a blast from his lance. But Cap continues to run rings around him, and the AI is guiding them to a precise spot at a precise time ... where a large metal object swings down and smashes the Knight off his horse. It seems that the sensor arm in the Comms Tower does this major repositioning every 2 hours. Cap (temporarily) ends the fight by throwing DK down a vent.
But Mr Hyde finds him immediately and starts beating him up and throwing him around. He says he got a taste for hurting Avengers when he put Jarvis (and Black Knight) in hospital during the Under Siege story arc in Av#270-277. Now he's got a Captain America to play with. He's doing very well, but he doesn't see Black Panther leaping on him from above.
EnemiesPlus: Dreadknight, Exterminatrix, Mr. Hyde (
Calvin Zabo), Quasimodo.