The Avengers have discovered that the 2 opponents, Kang and Myrddin, in the series-long battle they've got caught up in are actually both Kang (and the same 1, not alternate timeline variants). Kang has now found the Missing Moment and got hold of the Grail in the ruins of the Secret Wars Battleworld. He's triggered it and it will end the current 8th Cosmos and start a new 9th version which will give him fresh fields to conquer. The Avengers have been joined in opposing him by Hyperion and Myrddin's team of heroes, the Twilight Court. And the heroes are opposed by an endless horde of zombies of all the alternate timeline superchars who died on Battleworld.
The Avengers are confused because the last time they met the Court it was as enemies, but they get told a potted version of what we learned last issue. Captain Marvel asks Hyperion and the Court to hold the zombies off while the Avengers try a different tack - pleading their case.
She admits to Kang that he and the Grail are too powerful for the heroes to beat but the Avengers never give up, as they didn't when the Ashen Combine attacked Earth's cities (#3-6). Vision reminds him how the team helped the X-Men against Orchis (Fall Of The House Of X). Iron Man brings up the war against vampires (the Blood Hunt event). Storm tells how they gave suicidal Hyperion new reason to live (#17-18). Black Panther blows his own trumpet when he recounts how he led a revolution within Meridian Diadem (#19-25). Scarlet Witch reminds Kang that he stands alone but the Avengers stand together, and with their friends like the X-Men. The villain counters that their time is running out. But Captain America (Sam Wilson) says that he and Panther beat the clock to stop the Masters Of Evil dropping an asteroid on New York City (#25-28 during the One World Under Doom event).
Kang doesn't know why they think all these stories will defeat him. Carol Danvers points out that with all the power of the Grail he can't use it to attack them, but the foe responds that all he has to do is to delay them until the Grail fully powers up. The team remind him that he needed the help of heroes like them to reach the Missing Moment. Whereas he is only a self-centred villain. And when Reed Richards created the Missing Moment and the Grail he intended them to be only accessible by heroes. And it is the Grail that the heroes have been addressing. And now it chooses them and gives itself to Captain Marvel who immediately uses it to banish the zombies.
But Kang laughs and says it isn't over. The Grail has been set in motion and it can't be stopped. It *will* destroy the universe and create another 1. And only 1 person can survive into that universe. And if it's not to be him, which of *them* will they pick to be the 1?
For the special marvelite in you
Story #2Happy Anniversary, Avengers
Writer:
Brian Michael Bendis.
Penciler:
Mark Bagley.
Colorist:
Frank D'Armata.
Letterer:
Cory Petit.
Synopsis
Captain America (Steve Rogers) is in Madripoor watching Madame Hydra/Viper (Ophelia Sarkissian) talking to her troops. He's put out a call for other Avengers to join him using the old Avengers Identicard to avoid Hydra's monitoring picking it up. Iron Man responds but thought it was because today was an anniversary of the formation of the Avengers. Thor's next and then Viper unveils her new toy, a Super-Adaptoid Mandroid. Tony Stark tries to hack into the Mandroid's system but it sets off an alarm. Hulk joins the gang just as Hydra attack. IM warns him not to touch the Adaptoid but Thor hits it with lightning which it absorbs and sends back to them. Ant-Man and Wasp join them, followed by Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch. Hulk is beating the droid up but it's absorbing his power, but the diversion has let Henry Pym get inside it and grab its brain(?). This causes it to explode as expected, but Wanda Maximoff was primed to magic-extract him. Captain Marvel swoops in to take the still-dangerous body away.
Sarkissian and her Hydra goons are rounded up as Beast joins the gang. There are congratulations all round as SHIELD take the baddies away. Then loads of other sometime Avengers turn up, plus never-Avenger Kitty Pryde who asks Wolverine if this is an Avengers-only party.