On Avengers Island, Captain America is overseeing the audition of a quartet of aspiring Avengers—Speedball, Blue Shield, Gladiatrix, and Mechanaut—and he finds them wanting. He is called away by a report of incoming visitors. But the three Soviet Super Soldiers (Darkstar, Vanguard, Ursa Major) land on another part of the island and the wannabe Avengers assume this is a test and do battle with the invaders. Cap arrives to break up the fight and learns the Soviets want to defect to America….
Meanwhile, the Commission on Superhuman Activities learns that John Walker’s body was claimed by his sister, explaining its mysterious disappearance, and Battlestar—Lemar Hoskins—declines a position with the government, choosing to return home to Chicago….
Cap is called away to investigate a mystery in Maine. The Soviet Super Soldiers, givein rooms on the island, are summoned by Captain America to the training facility where their powers are to be tested in combat with Cap, Iron Man, Thor, and the Vision. The melee becomes increasingly brutal and the Russian heroes realize too late that their opponents are not the real Avengers but the villainous Supreme Soviets (Red Guardian, Crimson Dynamo, Fantasia, Sputnik) disguised by Fantasia’s magic; they then escape the island under cloak of invisibility. Cap returns from the wild goose chase to find the defecting heroes in critical condition….