Synopsis / Summary / Plot
The previously page shows a panel from #19 with words from #21 depicting what was effectively the beginning of the Cabal:- Maximus allying with Black Swan and freeing Thanos and friends. Then in the 8-months-later last issue we learned that the powers-that-be gave Wakanda to the Cabal. And Maximus and Proxima Midnight foiled the attempt by both Black Panthers to steal the Cabal's antimatter bombs from the Wakandan Necropolis. Shuri handed the crown back to T'Challa and stayed behind to face the foes. And in Avengers #35 Invisible Woman was part of the SHIELD team of Avengers (including Captain Marvel, Hawkeye and War Machine drones) that captured Amadeus Cho, and wanted to know where the rest of the Illuminati are.
Last issue's cast page listed 7 old regulars as the Illuminati, missing out Sub-Mariner who now is in the Cabal, although we only saw Black Panther. This issue lists Black Bolt, Dr Strange and Iron Man as missing, leaving Beast, Black Panther, Hulk and Mr Fantastic. But it adds Amadeus Cho and Captain Britain, with Yellowjacket as a new-but-also-missing member.
This issue begins with Beast, Hulk (in Doc Green mode) and Mr Fantastic setting up base in a ruined city beneath Rome where Reed's father and Howard Stark once worked for the secret masters of the world. They are joined by Captain Britain with an eyepatch. He claims to be the last of his multiversal Corps (due to the collapsing multiverse), and he's got something that must be kept safe. (He points to his eyepatch here, but whether he indicates what's behind it or what's in his brain I don't know.)
We get the 1st example of the tight continuity between New Avengers and Avengers issues now. We see Mr Fantastic communicating with Cho inside Avengers Tower (now renamed SHIELD Station Golgotha), as we saw in Av#35. As there Amadeus transmits the Tony Stark database he came for, and then gets chased by the Avengers team mentioned above.
Next day the Illuminati set about contacting the captured Amadeus Cho. Over the months SHIELD has gradually negated all their advanced tech. For instance they now travel by slow conventional means because SHIELD can track them if they use translocation. Reed Richards had to give them all implants to mask their brains against psi-scans. And as a side effect they can tune in to Cho's to see what he sees.
The boy genius, 1 of the 10 smartest humans, is sitting in an interrogation room taunting his guard, when Sue Richards enters. After some verbal sparring Sue loses it and smashes him against a wall with her forcefield. And she swears to catch all the Illuminati, especially her husband.
On the 3rd day Beast cracks the encryption on Stark's data, that Cho faced capture to transmit. It contains 653 designs from various sources of contingency plans for dealing with the incursion problem. Mentioned here are the Avengers machine (the expanded Avengers starting in Av#1), the Explorer protocols (AIM's multiverse-exploring Adaptoids from Av#25-28?), Sol's Hammer (the partial Dyson Sphere Tony started building in #4), and something involving Henry Pym.
Before they can investigate further Black Panther translocates in from last issue's fight in Wakanda. The Illuminati will now have to abandon this base before SHIELD get here. Beast leaves a message with an embedded codeword.