Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Hulk, Iron Man, Spider-Woman and Thor came to the Russian Camp Vostok in the Antarctic to investigate why it had gone silent. After being attacked by monsters they found the Russian scientists dead.
They take the dead outside to bury them. Leaving Thor with Spider-Woman to say a few words over the grave, Iron Man and Hulk go back inside to find out what happened and Hulk reverts to scientist Bruce Banner, more useful in this situation.
The Russians had been pumping samples of water out of the 20 million year-old lake buried under the ice. And their bodies suggest that they died when something burst out of them, like in the Alien movie - maybe the monsters the Avengers fought last issue. Tony Stark discovers something in the lake water. But also that someone has connected the lake pump to the camp's water supply. He turns to warn Bruce not to drink the water. But too late.
Stark updates Captain Marvel who was monitoring progress from Avengers Tower. But now she is airborne in a quinjet with Captain America. They've tracked down Sergei Sorokin, a scientist who went missing from the base with some of the water samples. They think he's onboard an unauthorised flight from Australia.
Sorokin is indeed on board that plane, owned by would-be master villain Yun Guang Han who's pleased to have attracted the Avengers' attentions on his 1st operation - this will establish his reputation. Han tells Sorokin about connecting the pump to the water supply. But we learn that a catalyst is needed to activate whatever's in the water. However Han added that catalyst to some crackers at the base. All as a scientific experiment.
The plane refuses to surrender to the Avengers. Then a hatch opens and a horde of men tumble onto the quinjet. Cap climbs out onto the top of the quinjet and starts to fight them. But they are super-strong and in a berserker fury. And they don't care about falling to their deaths. With a warning to Steve Rogers to hang on, Carol Danvers flips the jet over to try to shake the enemy off. But Cap chooses to drop onto the plane they're chasing.
Back in Camp Vostok Spider-Woman is feeding Bruce some crackers she found, to help with his stomach ache. But strangely this only seems to make things worse. Banner manages to ask to be taken to the SHIELD helicarrier. Stark reasons that Bruce wants to turn into the Hulk to stop the parasite from bursting out of his body. But he needs a safe place to do it.
Meanwhile Captain Marvel has righted the quinjet again, and lots of the baddies are still attached. They're starting to damage the craft, and she tells Steve she's going to land it while it still works, and then fly back under her own steam to help him. But she's apparently over a populated area so it might take her a little while to find somewhere safe to set down.
Captain America invades the enemy plane and finds even more of the hopped-up enemy troops. But Han quickly interrupts the fight to tell Cap to leave his aircraft. Sorokin is holding a bottle of the lake water with its billions of monster-making bacteria. Han has plenty more bottles, so he won't mind scattering 1 over Queensland. Noble Steve dives out of the plane.
He calls Carol for help, but CM is only just (crash-)landing the quinjet in the desert. But of course she gets back (just) in time to stop him from splattering all over the landscape.
Iron Man, Spider-Woman and Thor have Hulk safe in a cell in the helicarrier. But the bacteria are still building a monster inside him. Tony Stark brings in an industrial-strength hypodermic loaded with a humongous amount of antibiotic. And Jessica Drew takes it into Hulk's cell, hoping her pheromones will be enough to keep him from killing her.