At a hospital in the
Netherlands, a suffering man enters and then quickly morphs into a deformed
bleeding giant attacking a doctor and a nurse before being shot down by police.
The bitten doctor and nurse then morph into monsters and need to be killed as well….
Steve Rogers tells Maria Hill to call in the Avengers but he is stopped by
Aarkus, the original Vision, who has the Invaders with him….
The issue goes into flashback mode as we learn what has brought the heroic team
together:
On a busy Manhattan street, Bucky Barnes, the new Captain America and Thomas
“Toro” Raymond are comparing notes on having been “dead” for decades when they
see the villain Atom Smasher terrorizing downtown. Bucky and Toro don their
heroic identities and swiftly jam the villain into an armored car and seal it
shut when Aarkus calls on them to join him….
On Utopia Island, Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner and the Human Torch are
reinforcing a cliff for added protection. Two young X-Men, Anole and Rockslide
ask Torch if it is true he killed Hitler. Torch answers in the affirmative and
they run off, frightened. Namor and Torch then corral a huge sea monster when
Aarkus (with Bucky and Toro) summons them….
At Stonehenge, Spitfire and the current Union Jack are fighting the demonic
N’Garai when Aarkus arrives with the others and calls on them, even Union Jack
who is not the same man that was in the Invaders….
Now the old team being regathered, Steve show them the photos from the
Netherlands and they all (except Union Jack) recognize the malady from the war,
the darkest chapter in the team’s history: when the Invaders murdered a town
full of innocent people….