Synopsis
This issue begins where the last 1 left off, with Vision proposing an alliance to Dr Doom. He justifies it by telling the Latverian monarch details of how the Avengers came to attack him. Ie he summarises what he knows of the last 2 issues and Super-Villain Team-Up #9. The Avengers (himself, Captain America, Iron Man, Scarlet Witch, Wasp and Yellowjacket) were captured in #154 by Attuma's warriors including the enhanced Tyrak. Attuma sent them to attack Hydrobase in SVTU#9, expecting to find Sub-Mariner there. But instead they found Dr Doom who captured them too. Last issue Vision escaped and came to see Doom rather than free his comrades.
Vision asks Doom to wonder why, if Tyrak was able to defeat the Avengers, Attuma sent them after Namor rather than Tyrak himself? He theorises that Attuma didn't want Subbie to suspect his involvement, because he has a bigger plan which he isn't ready to expose yet. And Vision makes a deductive leap to guess that Attuma intends to create an army of Tyraks. And even Latveria couldn't stand against that.
Vision's thoughts now reveal that he left his companions in chains because he knew they would instinctively oppose Doom rather than side with him.
Meanwhile another alliance is shaping up. Vision knows that Beast evaded capture in #154. But he doesn't know that Hank McCoy recruited Whizzer and Wonder Man to help him in SVTU#9. And last issue they tracked Attuma to an offshore lab in Maryland where he stole an experimental device. Attuma tricked Sub-Mariner into fighting the Avengers while he slipped away with his prize. But Beast sneaked into Attuma's sub behind him. Finally recognising his WWII ally Whizzer, Namor realised that he was battling the good guys.
Namor, Whizzer and WM now board the Avengers' quinjet to follow Attuma, and get a radio message from Beast. They hope the Atlantean barbarian will lead them to where he holds the Avengers captive.
But of course the Avengers are on Hydrobase, now freed of Doom's restraints and Attuma's slave collars and apparently accepting of Vision's negotiated alliance. Iron Man is getting his armour repaired by the amphibious Hydrobase scientists, damaged by both Tyrak and Dr Doom. Vision continues to act coldly to his injured wife Scarlet Witch. The recent reanimation of Wonder Man, whose brain patterns were the model for Vision's personality, has made the android once again question whether he can truly have emotions.
Doom is tracking Attuma's flagship by the controlling waves emitted to the slave collars. But they must catch up with it before Attuma discovers that the collars are no longer functioning and switches the control device off.
Attuma's ship reaches his base. But Beast is captured before he can tell Namor and friends. However the ever-impatient Sub-Mariner doesn't wait for a signal and dives into the ocean. Wonder Man follows him, leaving Whizzer with his dodgy heart to man the quinjet. Simon Williams sees Namor beaten in hand-to-hand conflict with Tyrak, who is being bathed in a ray from the device Attuma stole. He sees the unconscious Beast too, and hears Attuma boast that the Chloro-Beam cell stimulator will increase Tyrak's power with every dose, eventually making him the mightiest being on Earth.
Wonder Man knows that it's all up to him now to save the day. But his insecurity makes him hesitate.
However Whizzer sees the Avengers and Dr Doom arrive in an Atlantean craft from Hydrobase. It immediately dives to attack the base, protected by Dr Doom's forcefield. Soon the airsub mates with an airlock and the Avengers break in. They scatter the defending barbarians, until the super-sized Tyrak wades into them.
Simon Williams now screws up his courage and joins the Avengers. Everyone piles on Tyrak until Vision and Wonder Man down him with a joint blow.
The Avengers then search the base until they find the limp forms of Beast and Namor. They also find Attuma badly beaten. Vision retrieves his cloak (which Attuma appropriated in #154). And the barbarian tells them Doom has taken the cell-stimulator. The Avengers, including Beast and Wonder Man, join Whizzer in the quinjet and prepare to follow Doom back to Hydrobase.
But down below the humiliated Attuma makes to blast them out of the sky with missiles. Except Sub-Mariner stops him, violently.
Dr Doom reaches Hydrobase, and ignores angry questions from Namorita and Tamara Rahn. He plans to reverse-engineer the captured device and improve it into something that will enable him to rule the world. (Bwa-ha-ha!) But of course the Avengers arrive to stop him.
However all their efforts are of no avail against Doom's protective forcefield, and they have little defence against his weapons. But Vision heads over to the stimulator and reaches a dematerialised hand inside. Turning that hand semi-solid messes with the machine, which then self-destructs.
Doom has no reason to fight now. So swearing vengeance he flies off to Latveria. The Avengers are all happy, except Wanda who is still getting the cold shoulder from her husband. And Captain America nips outside for a short while to investigate something.