… And Time, the Rushing River…

This story continues from Avengers #56…

The Avengers had returned from their trip back in time to World War II to discover their aero-car disappeared. Walking back to the mansion, they are puzzled when people look at them with fear and as though they’ve never seen the Avengers before. Inside the mansion, they trip the security system and while in the process of shutting it down they notice that the furniture in the room was tossed out some time ago.

In the Avengers meeting room they are shocked to see the original Avengers: Thor, Iron Man, the Hulk, Giant-Man, and the Wasp. At first, they think they are impostors but when Goliath attacks Giant-Man he unmasks the “impostor” and discovers that he is Hank Pym as well. As the Avengers battle the original team, they try to make sense of this impossible theme. Hawkeye, is confused that Iron Man doesn’t recognize him as he got his start as Iron Man’s foe.[1] They decide to retreat to figure out what’s going on, with Goliath pulling down equipment to put a barrier between them and the original team. After the other Avengers leave, Thor suspects that they are evil and must be destroyed.

Meanwhile, the present Avengers have retreated into an abandoned subway tunnel and try to figure out what’s going on. They conclude something must of happened when they used Doctor Doom’s time machine to go back in time, but have no idea what. At that same moment, the original Avengers contact the Scarlet Centurion, a timeless benefactor from the future who warns them that the other Avengers they fought were the threat he warned them of and that they must be destroyed. Although the original team have no resorted to murder for the Centurion’s other missions, they reluctantly agree to follow his orders. Back in the subway tunnels, Goliath is about to crack up when Captain America orders him to get himself together. Pym then realizes they can find out what happened by using a computer called the Herodotron, as long as it exists in this alternate reality they have found themselves in.[2]

When they arrive at the facility where the Herodotron is kept they find it under armed guard. Goliath and the Wasp shrink down in size and knock out the guards. When they reach the computer, Goliath explains that it can feed a great deal of information into the mind of the user. Captain America then volunteers to be the one subjected to the machine. After he is wired in, he is shown how things are so drastically different in this era. It dates back to when the Avengers defeated the Space Phantom.[3] However, in this reality, just before the Hulk could rage quit the team the Scarlet Centurion appeared before them. He tells the Avengers that they with his knowledge of the future he can help the Avengers achieve an end to all crime, famine, and disease. Although the Avengers were suspicious of this offer, they all agree to wait for him to contact them in 24 hours. A day later, they are contacted by the Centurion who tells him they can bring about a golden age by first taking down all the other super-humans on Earth.[4]

The original Avengers then began a campaign of shutting down every super-human in the world. They start with the Fantastic Four, then Spider-Man, followed by the X-Men and the Sub-Mariner.[5] They then took down Doctor Strange, and prevented Nick Fury and his allies from forming SHIELD.[6] The last hero they took down was the then-novice hero Daredevil.[7] With all the other heroes defeated, the Avengers then focused on the super-villain community including the likes of the Melter, Baron Zemo, the Black Knight, Radioactive Man, the Red Ghost, Mister Hyde, the Mole Man, the Executioner, the Unicorn, the Beetle, the Scarlet Witch, Magneto, Red Skull, Sandman, Quicksilver, and the Enchantress. Doctor Doom would later join forces with Electro, the Mandarin, and Doctor Octopus but they too will fall.[8] The Avengers then addressed the governments of the world ordering an end to all atomic tests and scientific inquiry through threat of violence in order to prevent any other super-humans from being created. The Scarlet Centurion then congratulated the Avengers for this success, but warned them that five more threats will come in the near future that must be stopped before he can help usher in a utopia.

This all makes Captain America audibly scream and after the Herodoton is shut down he fills in the rest of the team on what he learned about their counterparts in this reality. The Avengers briefly consider if they have any right undoing this change to history if it could mean humanity reaching a golden age, but they all agree that there is something fishy about the Scarlet Centurion. In order to do this, the Avengers need to recover the disassembled pieces of Doctor Doom’s time machine and piece it back together.

Hawkeye and the Black Panther track the first component to a construction site where they are ambushed by the Hulk and Iron Man. Although they are overpowered, the pair manage to outsmart their opponents. Iron Man is the first to fall because he never experienced Hawkeye’s armor melting arrows.[9] Then, while the Black Panther distracts the Hulk, Hawkeye fires one of his sonic arrows. Through a stroke of luck, the loud noise causes the Hulk to revert back to Bruce Banner who is knocked out by the powerful sound. Elsewhere, Captain America battles Thor for the second piece of the time machine. Recalling how the Thor of his world was always holding onto his hammer, Captain America separates this Thor from Mjolnir. Sure enough, after over a minute of struggle, Thor changes back into Donald Blake and is easily knocked out by Thor. The last component is sought by Goliath and the Wasp, who battle their counterparts in this reality. While the Wasp wins a battle with her other self, Goliath is able to hold his breath under water longer than Giant-Man.

The Avengers reconvene at Doctor Doom’s castle, where they also bring the defeated original team to keep an eye on them. They finish putting the time machine back together, but before they can activate it, the Scarlet Centurion appears to stop them. The Centurion explains how he manipulated events to make the Wasp fall asleep during the Avengers trip back into World War II in order to create this divergent reality. He then manipulated this reality’s Avengers into defeating all of Earth’s super-humans and then have the time-displaced team defeat his thralls. While the Scarlet Centurion is busy with the other Avengers, Goliath shrinks down to ant-size and uses it to manipulate the time platform’s controls without being seen. Before the Centurion can stop him, Goliath succeeds in activating the device, resetting the timeline and restoring everything to normal.

Soon, everyone begins fading from existence. The last is Captain America, who admits aloud that this will make an interesting case for their files. That’s when the Watcher appears and tells Captain America that nobody will remember what happened here, and because of this reveals that the Scarlet Centurion is actually their foe Kang the Conquerer from earlier in his history, apparently between being Rama-Tut and Kang, he became the Scarlet Centurion.[10]

Appearing in their proper reality, the Avengers have no memory of their adventure in an alternate reality. The Avengers offer their condolences to Captain America who has just confirmed the death of his partner Bucky.[11] He thanks then, but figures that it is for the best as he can try to move on with his life.

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Captain America, Goliath, Wasp, Hawkeye, Black Panther), Scarlet Centurion, the Watcher

Continuity Notes

1. When Hawkeye first appeared in Tales of Suspense #57 he was Iron Man’s antagonist. He later reformed when he joined the Avengers in Avengers #16.

2. This alternate reality has been designated as Earth-689 per Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005.

3. Just like on Earth-616, these Avengers fought the Space Phantom early on in their careers. See Avengers #2.

4. Iron Man’s armor changes between scenes in this story. A note states that this Iron Man changed his armor just like his Earth-616 counterpart. Iron Man changed his all gold armor with the first version of his trademark red-and-gold armor in Tales of Suspense #48, which took place between Avengers #2 and 3.

5. The Hulk mentions here he feels like he should be allies with Namor. This is a nod to when they teamed up on Earth-616 in Avengers #3.

6. A public version of SHIELD was formed in Strange Tales #135. They per-existed this but that’s a complicated matter. See this.

7. Daredevil is depicted here wearing his original yellow and red costume he wore from Daredevil #1-6.

8. Doctor Doom mentions his time machine. That would be the one that was used in Fantastic Four #5.

9. Hawkeye developed these weapons to use against Iron Man in Tales of Suspense #64.

10. The whole Rama-Tut/Scarlet Centurion/Kang the Conqueror thing is quite complicated.

    • They are all Nathaniel Richards a resident of the year 3000 in a reality known as Other-Earth. It was designated Earth-6311 in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005.

    • Traveling back in time to ancient Egypt, Richards reinvented himself as Rama-Tut and ruled for a time before being ousted by the Fantastic Four in Fantastic Four #19.

    • As pointed out by the Watcher here, Rama-Tut decided to reinvent himself again after encountering Doctor Doom. That happened in Fantastic Four Annual #2, when Rama-Tut was trying to return to his home era and got caught in a time-storm. Avengers #269 reveals that this time storm was caused by Immortus, yet another incarnation of Nathaniel Richards.

    • Following this defeat, the Scarlet Centurion will return to the year 4000 and become Kang only to go back in time to attack the Avengers at an earlier point in time, as we saw in Avengers #8.

11. Everyone believes that Bucky died in 1945 trying to stop a booby-trapped drone plane which then blew up in his face, as seen in Avengers #4 and more recently in Avengers #56. However, they’ll learn years later that Bucky survived and was transformed by the Russians into an assassin known as the Winter Solider. See Captain America (vol. 5) #14.

Topical References

• The formation of the Avengers is stated as happening in 1963 and that they team has been in existence for a number of years. This should be could be considered topical relative to the date of publication, which predates the establishment of the Sliding Timescale. However, when the Avengers state they got rid of a record cabinet two years prior, that’s almost accurate according to the Sliding Timescale, as it was almost 2 years into the Modern Age.

• It is also stated here that World War II took place 20 years prior to this story and that many of the Avengers were infants during the War. Per the Sliding Timescale, the length of time between the Modern Age and World War II continues growing longer with each year. This makes it impossible for any of the present day Avengers being alive during World War II and those references should be ignored.