Synopsis / Summary / Plot
In San Francisco Spider-Woman saves a female who falls from the Golden Gate Bridge. She realises the woman is unconscious, so someone must have thrown her off the bridge. Her glider wings aren't enough to keep them both aloft, and eventually she has to swim to get them both ashore.
In a hospital the mystery woman is diagnosed as physically great but mentally blank. Police Lt Sabrina Morrel tells SW that her fingerprints match Carol Danvers, missing from New York for 6 months.
Jessica Drew rings the X-Mansion to talk to Prof X, hoping that he can find out what's wrong with Carol's mind. The X-Men are in the middle of repairing the Danger Room damaged during Kitty Pryde's fight with a N'Garai demon in Uncanny X-Men #143.
Storm flies Charles Xavier to California in the X-Men's Blackbird to scan Carol's mind. While he's examining the patient, Lt Morrel tells Spider-Woman that Ms Danvers' parents are on their way. But also that Mrs Danvers suggested they contact the Avengers, and mention Ms Marvel. Prof X mentally tells Jessica that Carol's mind was emptied by an assailant. He has an image and a name - Rogue.
In New York's Central Park that Rogue has just knocked Captain America unconscious, using the powers and knowledge of Ms Marvel. She now kisses him, and we learn that she copies powers by skin contact. But she's careful this time. Last night with Ms Marvel she went too far and permanently transferred the powers and memories (leaving Carol Danvers' mind empty).
In Avengers Mansion Beast, Scarlet Witch, Vision and Wonder Man with permanent guest Jocasta and visiting Hawkeye are being served tea and cake by butler Jarvis when Cap's body is thrown in through a window. Iron Man wasn't expected today but the Avengers send him a priority alert. Tony Stark is upgrading his armour, but he answers the call by vidphone (software supplying the image and tone of the Golden Avenger). Jarvis asks him to contact Dr Donald Blake to minister to the fallen Avenger. Meanwhile Vision searched the grounds but found no-one.
Stark suits up as he calls Blake, and they agree to meet at the Mansion. His secretary Mrs Arbogast calls to say that Janet Pym has come to see him. Iron Man is happy to see Wasp and tells her about Cap's state. He suggests she call in her husband Yellowjacket as well while they head for the Mansion. But 'Wasp' immobilises his armour with an inhibitor field generator. She reveals herself as Mystique, leader of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. (We never learn where the real Wasp is during this issue.)
Storm has flown Spider-Woman to New York. Jessica arrives at the Mansion and doesn't notice Rogue sneaking about. Thor arrives too, and transforms to Don Blake. And that's when Rogue KO's him and prepares to steal his mind. And that's when Spider-Woman stops her.
Rogue can't apply her touch to to SpideyW because Jessica's costume covers most of her skin. Blake recovers and switches back to Thor. He grabs Rogue, but this allows her to touch his face with her bare hand. She now has the power of a god.
Hawkeye, Vision and Wonder Man come out to investigate what's happening. Rogue shrugs off Spider-Woman's venom blast. She uses Thor's body as a shield against Vision's attempt to do his hand-phased-through-the-chest trick, then decks him with 1 punch. Wonder Man does a jet-assisted body slam into the villainess, but she just tries to absorb his powers too. Except that his ionic nature makes her touch ineffective. So Rogue makes a strategic exit, flying by Ms Marvel power.
Thor is still out of it, but Spider-Woman, Hawkeye, Vision and Wonder Man join Scarlet Witch in the Avengers' meeting room. Jessica Drew has deduced that Carol Danvers is Ms Marvel, who both disappeared at the same time. But apparently Carol resurfaced in San Francisco 3 months ago where she's been keeping a low profile.
Wanda tells her the story of #197-200. Carol suffered a mysterious pregnancy which came to term in a few days. Her son rapidly grew up and named himself Marcus, son of Immortus. He was born and lived in Limbo, but planned to escape from there by being reborn on Earth. To that end he abducted Ms Marvel, seduced her and implanted his essence within her. He then returned her to the moment he had taken her, with no memory of Limbo.
Clint Barton takes up the tale. Marcus' presence on Earth caused disruptions in time. He expected this and quickly built a machine to put things right. But the Avengers, especially Hawkeye, didn't trust him and Clint destroyed the machine. This meant Marcus had to return to Limbo but Carol went with him, claiming to have fallen in love with him.
Beast and Jocasta join them. Beast has been looking after Cap and Thor. He's compared their brain scans with 1 Spider-Woman has brought of Carol. The effects on Cap and Thor are much less and should wear off. But Rogue has taken out 2 of the most powerful Avengers, and with Iron Man not responding they fear the worst there too.
Along with Ms Marvel's powers Rogue has taken on her unique Human/Kree energy signature, which Beast is able to track. She's heading towards the supercriminal prison Ryker's Island.
Mystique and Rogue are in a hoverplane over the prison, and they drop Iron Man like a bomb onto its power generator. The captive members' of the Brotherhood are ready, and the disruption in service allows Avalanche, Blob, Destiny and Pyro to escape. They meet up with their comrades, but they are attacked by the assembled heroes from the Mansion.
Vision recognises them as the latest incarnation of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (from the Days Of Future Past story in Uncanny X-Men #141-142). Only Rogue is new.
Avalanche and Pyro send rock and flame against the good guys. Spider-Woman heads inside to find Iron Man. Destiny uses her precog ability to warn her friend Raven Darkholme to stop this, and Mystique grabs a gun and follows disguised as Nick Fury. Irene Adler then directs the others' tactics, and a 1-2 from Pyro and Blob has Wonder Man lierally out of the picture. Scarlet Witch is semi-conscious too.
Pyro disperses the smoke from Hawkeye's arrow that was supposed to mask Beast's attack on Blob. But Hank McCoy just bounces off Fred Dukes to KO Pyro. However Destiny had foreseen this and knew that Beast would land where a guard tower would fall on him (weakened by Wonder Man's exit trajectory). Vision's hand-in-chest tactic only mildly irritates Blob, until Rogue knocks him down.
Only Hawkeye and Jocasta are still standing. Destiny warns Avalanche to stop Clint firing his next arrow, but Barton is too quick for him. The screamer arrow temporarily blinds and deafens Blob, but Rogue shakes it off even as Hawkeye is buried by an eruption of ground. Irene is still worried about Iron Man, and sends Rogue to backup Mystique.
Spider-Woman has found Shellhead. Only his armour is paralaysed, and he tells her to remove the inhibitor from his back. But 'Nick Fury' arrives to warn them it might be booby-trapped. However Tony Stark knows Fury is in London at a Nato security conference, so he suspects this is Mystique again. SW's senses also warned her something wasn't right, and she attacks dodging Mystique's machine gun bullets.
Jessica takes time during the fight to notice that the real Mystique looks a lot like the X-Man Nightcrawler. She fires a close-range venom blast, but her target disappears. She then figures getting Iron Man back in action is the priority. She removes the inhibitor and kickstarts the Golden Avenger's suit system with her bio-electric blast.
Rogue flies in as Mystique runs out, only to be met by IM's fist. She gives as good as she gets, but feels Cap and Thor's powers fading leaving her with only Ms Marvel's permanent ones. As a recovered Scarlet Witch casts a hex at Avalanche, Destiny and a recovering Pyro exploding a gas main, Rogue tries to strangle the other SW in mid-air. Jessic Drew breaks free to give IM a clear shot with his repulsor rays. But he chooses to save her from falling. Mystique is back in the hoverplane and picks Rogue up, leaving the others behind.
Tony Stark recognises the converti-plane as a top-secret design, and the inhibitor was a recent SHIELD invention. How is Mystique getting her hands on such things?
Pyro turned the burning gas into a giant creature. But another hex from Wanda turns flame to stone, which Iron Man demolishes with his repulsors. Hawkeye knocks Pyro out again with a suitable arrow. So Simon Williams is a bit late when he return carrying a water tower.
Beast is still trapped in the ruins of the watchtower. Avalanche threatens to bury him even further, but the Witch hexes Hank free and he lands on Avalanche's head. Blob is about to stomp on Vision but the android makes himself intangible, and then gives the villain temporary blindness again with his eye blasts. He and Jocasta join eye-beams to dig a pit to sink him in. Then Wanda hexes rubble into dust and Spider-Woman breaks the water tower, burying Blob in quicksand. He surrenders to avoid drowning.
Weeks later this cast of Avengers (without Jocasta and still missing Wasp) visits the X-Men's school. Jessica Drew is already there, as is the much-recovered Carol Danvers. Jess and the X-Men leave Carol to talk with the Avengers alone. Prof X has helped her to regain much of her memory, but her powers are completely gone.
Hawkeye asks after Marcus. Carol says he's dead, and Iron Man and Thor commiserate with her loss. But now her facade cracks and she shouts at them that she never loved him. Marcus himself told them that he used Immortus' machines to help woo her. Her feelings were never real.
She relates that Marcus' now-human form was his downfall. In Limbo he aged rapidly and died within a week. No longer under his mind control Carol realised what he'd done. She mastered Immortus' technology enough to get back to Earth, where she hid in SanFran.
Her friends Simon and Wanda ask why she didn't come to them. Carol says she hated the Avengers for their betrayal. She had been a woman who wanted a career rather than children, and was obviously distressed by her mysterious pregnancy. But they just accepted it and went along with her 'decision' to go to Limbo with Marcus. None of them did anything to save her.
Carol says she's going to build a new life away from the Avengers. The team wish her well and leave in their quinjet. Wanda is the most affected, but her husband Vision ends the issue with the platitude that they'll learn from this experience.