SHIELD Agent Avril Kincaid narrates
part of this story, giving an overview of all the events that wrap up
this adventure:
Baron Zemo is torturing SHIELD captives
who have been wired as living bombs, enslaving them as he was
enslaved by them....
Kobik, the manifestation of the Cosmic
Cube, is drawn to Kraven's birthday party, unaware that he is a bad
guy. He has his compatriots bring out the “present”—and Kobik
is sucked into the containment field and trapped....
The mystery man who came to Avril
Kincaid's help (in CAP: SAM #8) is revealed to be Wendell
Vaughn—Quasar—and he presents Avril with the Quantum Bands....
Steve Rogers—young and powerful
again—addresses the group of Avengers who have arrived in Pleasant
Hill, asking them to put their differences aside and get back to
“what we were called to do...Avengers ASSEMBLE!” As Zemo taunts
the captive Maria Hill, the Avengers invade and the battle is joined.
Soon Zemo calls on Graviton for help and he encases the villains in
an impenetrable bubble that none of the heroes can break, not even
Thor. Then Avril Kincaid enters and unleashes the power of the
Quantum Bands and the force field is shattered...but the blast has
had an unexpected side effect: it has knocked out the containment
unit. In a second, a giant and very angry omnipotent four-year-old
girl towers over the assembly. Winter Soldier aims a gun at her and
is telekinetically tossed through a window. Both Baron Zemo and Erik
Selvig try to appeal to her for their purposes and she tells them to
go away—and they do, slowly fading from sight (and reappearing in
the Himalayas). She then vanishes herself, leaving the rest to resume
their battle. The Avengers quickly rout the villains, who, rushing to
escape, run into SHIELD arriving with heavy weaponry. During the
battle, Steve and Sam talk over the future of Captain America and
decide they can both wield the shield. So the heroes are
united...until, as Kincaid informs us, the war begins....
Maria Hill is called on the carpet by
her superiors and she puts a positive spin on the debacle, arguing
that everything has turned out for the best. The superiors disagree
and announce a tribunal to investigate her actions as director of
SHIELD....
During her defense we are given
glimpses of where various players are now, setting up new comic book
storylines:
Baron Zemo has made Erik Selvig his
slave, intending to bend him to his will....
Steve Rogers has found Rick “Whisperer”
Jones in hiding from SHIELD and offers him a job....
Wendell Vaughn starts training Avril
Kincaid to be the new Quasar....
Kobik apologizes to Winter Soldier and
asks if she can go with him, and she brings her friends (the new
Thunderbolts)....
The Red Skull seizes control of the
revived Hydra....