Having defeated the Liberty Legion,
Iron Cross subdues them with knockout gas before they can rally; he
and his henchmen load the captive heroes (Patriot, Thin Man, Jack Frost,
Miss America, Red Raven, Blue Diamond) aboard a truck, along
with the prisoner Professor Schneider and head for their getaway
sub....
Whizzer, having found the Invaders
(Captain America, Sub-Mariner, Human Torch), accompanies them on the
trail of the villains but they come across the scene of a train
wreck. Against Whizzer's impatience and concern over the fate of Miss
America, the other heroes insist on stopping to deal with the
disaster, rescuing victims and extinguishing fires. The heroes use
Miss America's communicator signal to track her, using Namor's
flagship to follow the sound....
Aboard the enemy sub, Iron Cross
unmasks to reveal himself to Professor Schneider as Helmut Gruler.
The two men were boyhood friends who were divided by the rise of
Hitler and National Socialism, Gruler supporting the new movement and
Schneider fearing it. After WW2 began, Gruler sought to heal the
breach with his former friend only to discover Schneider had fled to
America for refuge; Gruler discovered the prototype armor in
Schneider's lab, intended to be used against the Nazis but Gruler
adopted it to serve his country and now he is pressuring the Prof to
make the improvements referred to in his journal so the Iron Cross
will be invincible. The Professor naturally refuses so Iron Cross
threatens the lives of the captive Liberty Legion....
The Invaders trace Miss America's
signal to a spot beneath the ocean; naturally inferring a submarine,
Namor goes down to investigate. Iron Cross is fired out of a torpedo
tube to face him; the villain overwhelms Namor at first, using
electricity, ink, and other traps to outclass his foe. Namor punches
the baddie so that he crashes into the sub, jarring loose the gas
mechanism that is keeping the Liberty Legion unconscious; within
moments they are able to escape their glass tubes and take on the
sub's crew. Problem: the breach in the hull causes the sub to be
rapidly filling with water; Iron Cross enters, snatches up the
Professor, and takes off, leaving Namor torn between pursuing the
villain and rescuing the other heroes. On the surface, the other
invaders are helpless as Cap doesn't know how to submerge Namor's
flagship....