Synopsis / Summary / Plot
This issue starts with one of those flashbacks to World War II. This time the Invaders are taking part in the Anzio landing in Italy 22nd January 1944. Red Skull is there with a giant mechanical amphibious octopus (actually I think it has more than 8 tentacles). Sub-Mariner destroys the octopus before it can swat Captain America. (Human Torch and Bucky are on the team. Toro isn't with them this time.)
Steve Rogers remembers how close an ally Namor was in those days, as he waits in the deserted FunTime Inc. building for Sub-Mariner to show up for an Illuminati meeting.
Iron Man arrives, protesting that the Illuminati have stopped having meetings. Cap responds that Tony should never have started the group in the first place (Steve wasn't involved). Rogers doesn't like the idea of a secret group making decisions that will affect the world. Stark snaps back that Steve called this meeting.
Cap is hoping that they can talk Namor out of his course of action in the Phoenix 5, and then he will help them to convince the other X-Men. Iron Man thinks he won't show up. Steve believes his old ally will turn up. Tony says that Cap wouldn't have predicted that Sub-Mariner would one day be using a shared cosmic entity (the Phoenix Force) to rule the world, but that he himself always knew Namor was capable of something like this.
Dr Strange breaks up the squabble. He too thinks Namor won't show, but it's worth a shot.
Next to arrive is Prof X. Iron Man blames him for what his ex-students are doing. Xavier says he's tried to reason with Cyclops, but can't get through to him. Tony suggests that Xavier could use his telepathic powers to switch Cyclops' mind off. Charles counters with the suggestion that they could use their Infinity Gems to get rid of the Phoenix Force.
Cap is horrified by that. As is Mr Fantastic who joins them now. Everyone assures him that they have their Gem well-hidden.
There follows an exchange where Tony Stark points out that everyone one calls Richards and Strange Doctor, but no-one calls him Doctor even though he has 3 PhD's. This is another example of the irritability Stark displays throughout, which he says is due to tiredness (itself due to spending long hours trying to find a way to defeat the Phoenix 5).
Now that the gathering is complete (apart from Namor) it immediately starts to disintegrate. Xavier can tell they all think the Phoenix situation is his fault, and he admits that he blames himself. But everything he ever worked for has fallen apart, and his 'son' Scott Summers has betrayed his beliefs. Charles flees from the room.
The remaining 4 discuss what to do about the X-Men. But Reed Richards suggests that maybe Cyclops and friends are right. He has been monitoring the results of their actions, and the world is a better place, including much-reduced crime. He wonders if the Avengers are not so much worried about the X-Men running the world as they are about their own role becoming irrelevant. Maybe when Stark accidentally spelt the Phoenix Force into 5 pieces, which took over the 5 mutants (all in Avengers vs X-Men #5), it was the best accident since the discovery of penicillin.
Mr Fantastic leaves the meeting with that thought. And Dr Strange goes too, tired of waiting for Sub-Mariner. Iron Man also prepares to leave, but Cap elects to stay. He admits that he thinks the Phoenix 5 are unbeatable. So Namor is his only hope.
When Steve is alone again, Namor does appear. Cap states his case, but Sub-Mariner still believes in what he is doing. However he appreciates the fact that Cap didn't try to trap him, as he expects of his honourable ex-comrade. The same sense of honour is why Namor hasn't told the X-Men about the Illuminati. And why he now lets Steve leave alive and free.