Black Widow is a prisoner of Hydra and
is being interrogated by Viper. She freely reveals her plan to
assassinate Captain America. She also reveals that she is telling
Viper all of this because the latter is running a drug ring that
Steve Rogers would not approve of, suggesting that Viper should join
their plot with the opportunity to seize control once Rogers is dead.
With Viper's cooperation, Natasha's teen follower rescue a sick old
man from custody....
The other Steve Rogers and his
companions (Sam and Bucky?) have formed a friendship on their
journey. Suddenly they are captured by someone who claims to be their
salvation: the Red Skull....
The Underground team goes to Wakanda,
where Tony Stark AI requests the next Cosmic Cube fragment from Black
Panther. T'Challa refuses, not trusting the heroes' judgment in how
to use it. So Wakanda shall defend its own territory. The team then
heads to the locations of the next fragments and fights enemies only
to come up empty every time. Finally Hercules is seriously injured
fighting Gorgon and they rescue his prisoner Shang-Chi only to find
his shard has already been taken from him (by Emma Frost, but he doesn't say
that). The others, discouraged by their lack of success, insist on
giving up and going home with the two fragments they have; the Stark
AI demurs but goes along....
Captain America meets with Beast,
ambassador of the mutant population in New Tian, at the site of
Thor's fallen hammer. He's chosen the place to darkly threaten New
Tian with godlike retribution should they fail to cooperate with
Hydra. Rogers gets and update from Madame Hydra on their team:
Scarlet Witch still possessed by a demon, the Vision still infected
by a virus, and Thor Odinson—well, Thor joined up because Steve
Rogers was worthy but now he is questioning Rogers' actions and is in
a difficult quandary....
The heroes searching for the Cosmic
Cube fragments return to their Las Vegas base and reveal the failure
of the mission. Giant-Man (Raz Malhotra) shows the Tony AI what he
has been working on: a time capsule that could contact future
Avengers so that they could go back and prevent Hydra's victory. It
is also revealed that Stark's tracking device for the Cube fragments
was a hoax, designed to give them hope when they were just following
the late Rick Jones' leads. And then their base is attacked by
Hydra Helicarriers, tipped off by the traitor (who seems to be) Mockingbird. Aboard the
lead ship, Captain America goes to check on their secret
weapon...Bruce Banner....
RobFJ's tie-ins added here because #5 doesn't have any of its own:-
SE: Brave New World #4 (Emma Frost story)
Emma discovers the existence of the youthful underground resistance to New Tian featured in X-Men Blue #7.
X-Men Blue #7-9
Magneto sends the young original X-Men to rescue imprisoned rebels in New Tian. But the team are captured and taken to Emma Frost. Some are temporarily captured and EF tries to turn young Cyclops into her dead lover older Cyclops. Her control of King Xorn is slipping, and we learn that she and Havok are in league with Miss Sinister and Bastion.
SE: Brave New World #5 (Blade story)
Under the Darkforce Dome Blade tracks a vampire to a school where she is the Principal. He's losing the fight when a schoolboy stakes her. He too is a vampire but he survives on blood from blood banks and Blade lets him live.