Air Force One is flying the President
back to the US from a science conference in Europe. Aboard the plane
are Reed Richards and Tony Stark, admiring a Golden Apple given to
the President by Norway. In flight around the plane are the rest of
the Fantastic Four: Invisible Woman, Thing, and Human Torch,
escorting the plane by request of the Secret Service. Danger comes: a
band of masked crooks wearing jet packs assaults the plane; Torch
tries to hold them off while Sue and Ben do what they can from a
jet-cycle. A villain's blast tears a hole in the plane sucking Tony
Stark and the Golden Apple out. Tony summons his Iron Man armor and
dons it in midair but the villains seize hold of their objective—the
Golden Apple—and retreat....
Atop a Swiss mountain is the hidden
center of Praxis Corporation whose head, Nora Queen, lies dying while
her aide Lester assures her that the Golden Apple is practically in
her hands. Johnny, still fighting the flying marauders, accidentally
immolates the Golden Apple angering Nora Queen. As Sue literally
holds the damaged plane together with a force field, Mr Fantastic
repairs the internal connections, Ben takes the controls and Iron Man
substitutes for the burned-out engine and they land sort of safely at
LaGuardia Airport. Back at Praxis, Lester assures Ms Queen that the
loss of the apple can be remedied....
As the FF fly back to the Baxter
Building, they see a wooden giant in the East River; investigation
shows that the figure is alive—and hostile as it shoots the heroes
with painful eye beams. Reed dashes to headquarters for some
equipment (not noticing that his son Franklin and nanny Alysande Stuart are
strangely immobile) and examining the giant more closely realizes
that time has halted all over the world save for themselves. Dr
Strange appears in his astral form to fill them in: an unidentified
evil force is attempting to travel back in time, releasing the
Harbingers of Everlasting Winter (the wooden giant and his partner
facing the Avengers) and to stop this, the FF must go into their
pasts via astral projection to retrieve the four pieces of the Golden
Apple...and so they go....
Ben find himself back at the FF's first
meeting with Agatha Harkness, delivering little Franklin into her
care. Ben spies the apple slice in a cabinet but he doesn't see the
Wizard and Medusa lurking outside....
Continued in
DOMINATION FACTOR: AVENGERS #1.
2. “Fast Lane Part 1 of 4: Media
Blitz”
Writer: Glenn Herdling. Pencils: Gregg
Schigiel. Inks: Richard Case. Colors: Paul Mounts.
Synopsis: An anti-drug public service
announcement featuring Spider-Man appearing in several Marvel comics
this month.