Thor is off on his own business somewhere.
Captain America turns up, and the Avengers greet him warmly. They have seen news reports of how he cleared his name of murder and exposed the
Secret Empire, culminating in
CA#175. He won't tell them everything that happened, but says it is making him rethink his role as
Cap.
So it is Cap,
Black Panther,
Iron Man,
Scarlet Witch and
Vision who are there to greet
Lou-Ann Savannah when she staggers to
Avengers Mansion with
Rick Jones' Avengers ID. We then get a capsule summary from the Avengers point of view of
Captain Marvel #27-28, and
#31 with Mantis, Swordsman and Thor rejoining the gang, in battle with
Thanos. (It fails to mention the crucial point here that Thanos now has the
Cosmic Cube.)
In
CM #31 Iron Man was abducted by Thanos with
Mar-Vell,
Moondragon and
Drax the Destroyer. We now see a scene shown in
CM #32 where the remaining Avengers are warned by the
Starcore space station of the approach of Thanos' spacefleet. Black Panther takes to the skies in Zodiac's
Star-Cruiser, and the rest follow in a
quinjet, made space-worthy since the
Kree/Skrull War.
The 2 ships engage the enemy. Thor goes his own way. The
Thanos-Thralls are soon contacting their master for help, only to see that he has achieved godhood in
CM #31. Thor invades the flagship and lays about him with his hammer amongst the crew of mixed aliens. Meanwhile the 2 Avengers ships are shooting down enemy craft left, right and centre (1 of which crashes in New York).
Panther suddenly notices a patch of black obscuring part of the star field. Attempting to fire into it he discovers it is a force field. He alerts the quinjet, and Vision decides to take Mantis, Scarlet Witch and Swordsman out into space to investigate, leaving Cap to fly the ship.
But Swordsman's festering suspicions boil over, and he accuses Vision of desiring his woman Mantis. Vision had only praised Mantis' skills to Swordsman in
#121, but when Mantis blurts out that he had said the same to
her last issue, Scarlet Witch is not happy. Android Vision's inexperienced logical mind is totally oblivious to the soap-opera unfolding around him..
They suit up in transparent spacesuits (so we can still tell who's who) and exit the quinjet. Wanda uses her hex to make a hole in the force field (with a sarky comment about her ability only being something she was born with, not a skill she trained for like Mantis). They jet through and find a large spaceship hidden inside the black barrier.
Vision dematerialises his arm and reaches inside to unlock a hatch, and they're in, facing a horde of various aliens. All 4 Avengers acquit themselves well taking out their foes.
Vision wonders why all the aliens spoke English, and the signs in the ship are written in that language too. But Mantis says she heard and sees Vietnamese. Then they notice something labelled
Universal Language Equalizer. And they realise that this hidden spaceship is allowing all the different aliens in the fleet to understand each other.
Vision finds the control labelled 'force field' and switches that off. They exit the ship and call in the 2 Avengers craft, which swiftly blow the spaceship up. And all over the space around Earth the aliens can no longer communicate to control their craft. Spaceships crash into one another, and ships fire on ships as old enmities resurface.
Their job done the Avengers return home. But Mantis senses something is wrong. And we see Thanos gloating in the shadows.
To find out what's happening with Thanos, and how it all turns out, go to
CM#33.
Excelsioring your collection