Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Last issue Captain Marvel abandoned getting revenge on Yon-Rogg for the death of his love Una in order to rush back to Earth to save Carol Danvers (and the Cape's latest rocket) from the Man-Slayer android at Cape Canaveral. He succeeded in that but the base soldiers still wanted to arrest him for treason (for stealing the previous rocket in #11).
Now Security Chief Danvers tries to persuade him to surrender and she'll ensure he gets a fair trial and she'll testify on his behalf. And she tells the soldiers they'll have to shoot her if they want to shoot him. Mar-Vell could just teleport away with the new powers given him by Zo (in #11) but he dithers, partly because he has feelings for Carol.
Tony Stark is in a plane heading away from the Caribbean (as he was in Sub-Mariner #14). Below him in a secret base Puppet Master (also last seen in SubM#14) continues with the plan hatched between himself, Egghead and Mad Thinker (as seen in Avengers #63). He has fashioned a puppet of Iron Man from his radioactive clay and now uses it to command the Golden Avenger to head to the Cape. Stark is compelled to nip to the rest room and change into his armour and exit the plane's rear hatch (in a careful way that doesn't cause the plane to decompress).
He flies down and immediately threatens CM. Marvel and Danvers can tell that he's being controlled by someone but CM still has to defend them. IM's repulsor blast knocks them both over, and Carol is injured. Enraged Mar-Vell commences hand-to-hand battle and his Zo-given strength makes it a serious contest. While he keeps Shellhead busy the troops are able to get Danvers to an ambulance. The Kree soldier fires his lasonic disintegrator but it's jammed at a low setting so IM is able to recover and fight back.
Puppet Master is watching via video with no sound. He tells us that he'll get the armoured Avenger to trash the Cape to destroy any capability of reaching Egghead's space-station (which we learned about in SubM#14). (Presumably that's also why Mad Thinker attacked the Cape with his Man-Slayer in the past 2 issues.) But he can't understand why Iron Man suddenly stops fighting and falls to the ground. He angrily grabs his IM puppet again and tries to force the hero to get up and fight. But nothing happens. But *we* learn that Tony Stark is having a heart attack. CM realises something like this and gets the confused soldiers to put Iron Man in an ambulance too. This enrages PM so much he throws his puppet into some machinery, which causes an explosion which destroys his base and seemingly kills him.
Left with only the soldiers Mar-Vell chooses the better part of valour and teleports away. Meanwhile without his 'master' trying to force him to fight Stark is able to recover, and Iron Man exits the ambulance wondering how he'll explain Tony's disappearance from the plane.
Mar-Vell teleports through space plagued by thoughts of Carol Danvers, Una and Yon-Rogg. He lands on an asteroid and wonders what the point of his life is. The voice of the alien 'god' Zo interrupts his maundering to remind him that he promised to do Zo's bidding if he gave him the power to gain revenge on Yon-Rogg. But impatient Zo says he wasted his time on other things so now he must do what Zo commands. Starting with teleporting to the Kree galaxy.