Synopsis
World War Hulk: Aftersmash #1 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
This 1-shot tracks several characters from World War Hulk and its tie-ins.
Tony Stark is recuperating from his injuries in the arena, but is back running SHIELD. He lets Damage Control use Avengers Mansion and its facilities as their field HQ.
Biophysicist Tom Foster is the nephew of Goliath who was killed by the Thor clone during Civil War. He publicly blamed Iron Man and Mr Fantastic for it in WWH#4. He gets in to the Mansion's basement labs as part of Damage Control, and uses the facilities to activate his uncle's growth serum so he can become the new Goliath.
Amadeus Cho breaks in to SHIELD communications to let Stark know that a crevice Hulk created is about to split Manhattan Island in 2. Stark goes into action as Iron Man because he detects that Hulk's Death's Head robots are acting on their own and are responsible for Manhattan splitting. Hercules is holding the halves together.
Misty Knight was part of the current version of Heroes For Hire, but the team fell apart in its last issue #15 because of its actions during WWH. She is attacked by insectoids angry that her team killed 1 of the Brood hivelings. The Golden Avenger rescues her, but they are hit by giant Tom Foster. IM hits back then takes Misty away. Meanwhile the insectoids are set upon by humanoid refugees from Sakaar, angry at the revelation that the insectoid Warbound Miek destroyed their world. (Actually he just knew about it and didn't stop it.)
The surviving Warbound (Brood Queen No-Name, Elloe, Hiroim and Korg) are captives of SHIELD, but they break free to help solve the problems. Unfortunately Luke Cage, Spider-Man and Thing don't trust them and a fight ensues:- Cage vs Hiroim, Brood Queen vs Spider-Man and Stone Man Korg vs rocky Grimm. But Elloe slips through to force a truce between the Sakaar factions.
Shellhead takes Misty to where the Death's Head droids are planting bombs in the fissure. Since he used Extremis to take some of them over in the arena they have upgraded their software to be proof against his attack. But Misty's bionic arm is based on an out-of-date operating system they won't be familiar with. Stark has transferred some programs to it that will shut the 'bots down. Now she just has to deliver the payload.
Misty takes out the robots 1 by 1 while Iron Man disarms their bombs. But the last robot is about to throw the last bomb into the fissure. Misty actually takes over 1 of the droids and uses it to grab the bomb and throw it to IM. But the last droid falls into the crevice himself, and self-destructs.
That explosion initiates the breakup of Manhattan. Hiroim uses his stone magic to stop the fissure widening, but isn't strong enough to close it. Korg and Thing lend him their stoneness and the fissure is totally healed.
Afterwards the Warbound slip away, as do Amadeus Cho and Hercules (and the rest of their Renegades). Misty Knight and her Death's Head robot lead some Sakaar humanoids away. Contrite Goliath gathers up dead Sakaarian warriors as SHIELD corrals living ones. Later Goliath helps Damage Control with repairing the city.