Synopsis / Summary / Plot
The current action continues as Tony Stark gets the results of an autopsy on the skeleton found on the throne of ruined Atlantis. DNA suggests that it is Prince Namor.
The rest of the issue is a flashback to 6 days ago. Iron Man and the SHIELD undersea fleet have arrived to blockade Atlantis. Sub-Mariner contacts Stark and asks to be allowed to go to the surface to track down the Atlanteans who blew up Bentonville, Kansas. IM says the US military suspect that he ordered the atrocity himself, so no can do.
Namor leaves Argos in charge of the Atlantean army with orders not to attack unless SHIELD fires 1st - but then to annihilate them. Then he leaves Atlantis to barrel through the blockade. Iron Man comes out to stop him and they clash. But Subby throws 1 SHIELD sub at another. While the Golden Avenger stops the collision, the Avenging Son slips away.
When Stark reports back to the military, his contact General tells him to stay there. They'll sic someone else on Sub-Mariner. The General contacts Norman Osborn, who's running Thunderbolts these days. Osborn loans him the current Venom.
In Seattle a workman comes across the 3-man Atlantean terrorist group in the sewers. They murder him for his pains. We glimpse the Wolverine-like claws attached to their leader's hand, which presumably slashed the 'gills' in the neck of the dead body found near Bentonville last issue.
In their base 1 of them named Arath shows his impatience. But the leader says their next attack must coincide with events in Atlantis.
Namor himself lands in Bentonville. Searching through the rubble he finds a piece of Atlantean jewellery. Then he's attacked by soldiers guarding the place, but he shrugs off their bullets.
Next we see of him he's landing at the Xavier school for mutants looking for Prof X's help. But Wolverine bars the way.