Avengers (vol. 3) #48
War Plan “A”
A mysterious pyramid shaped alien craft has appeared in the solar system and is speeding to Earth.[1] Picked up by the Avengers monitoring station, its crew — Quasar and the Living Lightning — attempt to contact the Avengers on Earth. Unfortunately, nobody is available because the entire team is fending off an invasion of Earth by the time traveler known as Kang the Conqueror.[2] With no response, Quasar feeds the data back to Earth. The pair then leave the space station to investigate the ship themselves.
Meanwhile, in Earth orbit, a team of Avengers consisting of Captain America, the Scarlet Witch, Photon, and Jack of Hearts are piloting a ship to Kang’s sword-shaped Damocles base. Having gotten a scan of the force field protecting the ship, the Avengers attack it in the hopes of finally breaching the barrier. While Photon and Jack attack directly, Captain America uses the ship’s onboard weapons. To assist her teammates, the Scarlet Witch attempts to use her hex powers to destabilize the force field, but is having little luck in that regard.
On the ground, both the Wasp and military officials at the Pentagon monitor the situation nervously. If the Avengers fail to breach the barrier, Kang promised that a direct assault would be met with reprocussions.
At the Arctic Circle, another team of Avengers — Yellowjacket, Quicksilver, Warbird, and Silverclaw — have infiltrated the alien ship owned by the Master of the World. Having erected massive defensive walls around major cities across North America, the Master offered to defend them from Kang if he were put in charge. This team was soon dispatched to try and take the ship from the Master. As they crawl through a ventilation system, the Avengers are surprised that the Master hasn’t tried attacking them again. Little do they know that their presence is being masked by the Scarlet Centurion, Kang’s son, who is observing them from Damocles. He is helping the team out because he has developed an infatuation with Warbird, even though she has rejected his advances so far.[3]
In France, Kang’s invasion of Europe presses onward. Helping UN forces fend off the invaders are Thor and Firebird. Witnessing the countless death of brave soldiers continues to reinforce Thor’s belief that he should start dealing with humanity at arm’s length and not form an attachments. Seeing that he is bothered by this, Firebird tries to convince the thunder god not to write off his connections with humanity. Unfortunately, her words are not getting through to him.[4]
While at the Triune Understanding headquarters in Texas, the Vision and Triathlon have come to investigate the construction of a space ship powered by the minds of Triune followers. Jonathan Tremont sees through their plot and reveals that he knows that Firestar and Justice were sent to spy on his religious order, but allowed them to do so as he has nothing to hide.[5] With the Triple Evil on its way to ravage the Earth, Tremont insists that they can launch their ship without harming his followers. The four Avengers decide that they don’t have much choice in the matter and board the ship with Tremont. As soon as the ship lifts off, some of the Triune followers begin to scream in agony from the strain on their minds and begin collapsing to the ground. Unfortunately, it is too late to stop now and the ship heads out into space.
In orbit, the Avengers continue pounding on the shields to no effect. That’s when Tony Stark contacts them to report that he has come up with a series of counter-modulations that can get them through. At that moment, Kang goes to check on his son and finds him more focused on watching Warbird on Earth than watching the sensors. He scolds his son for being so easily distracted because the Avengers have just punched through their defenses. Luckily, Kang has the proper defenses and begins opening fire on the heroes. Fearing the worst, the brass at the Pentagon believe they have no choice but to unleash the army of Sentinel robots they rushed into production when Kang announced his plans to invade. Soon, 75 of the robots are sent into space with one directive: Destroy Kang at all costs.
Back in the Arctic Circle, the Avengers ambush the Master of the Earth in his main chambers. While the other Avengers deal with his Plodex warriors, Warbird focuses on the Master himself. Arming himself with a sword, the Master gloats that he will achieve victory because he knows of the Avengers code of conduct that forbids killing an opponent. Grabbing a jagged piece of scrap metal, Carol reminds the Master that they are in the middle of a war, and that changes the rules. She then plunges the metal into the Master’s heart, killing him instantly.[6] His death is so sudden and unexpected that both the Plodex and the other Avengers are in disbelief.
Meanwhile, the Avengers in orbit have been caught in a tractor beam and cannot move. As the Sentinels make their approach, a massive holographic project of Kang appears to address his foes. He finds it laughable that they are using Sentinels against them because he had long since prepared himself against such a threat. He explains that he set himself up as inventor Victor Timely in the 20th century to infiltrate Earth’s technological evolution over the next 100 years by planting his own fail safes against it being used against him.[7] As the Avengers broke his one rule — no direct attacks — Kang decides that it is now time to punish the Earth for this infraction. Seizing control of the Sentinels, Kang’s holographic form then begins escorting them back to Earth. The conqueror only stops briefly enough to blow up the Avengers ship, leaving Cap and the others to die in the void of space.
Recurring Characters
Avengers (Captain America, Firebird, Firestar, Iron Man, Jack of Hearts, Justice, Living Laser, Photon, Quasar, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Silverclaw, Thor, Triathlon, Vision, Warbird, Wasp, Yellowjacket), Kang, Scarlet Centurion, Master of the World, Jonathan Tremont, Edwin Jarvis, Sentinels
Continuity Notes
This ship belongs to the so-called Triple Evil, alien creatures that the Triune Understanding were formed to destroy. See Avengers (vol. 3) #50 for the full story.
Kang the Conqueror announced his intentions of invading present day Earth in Avengers (vol. 3) #42. He began his invasion in issue #46, starting with a full assault on the continent of Europe.
Marcus Kang fell in love with Carol at first sight in Avengers (vol. 3) #41. He first approached her last issue. The reason why Carol rejected him is that he reminds her of Marcus Immortus, a man who previously gaslit and raped her. See Avengers #200 for that cringe story.
Thor was reminded of how fleeting mortal lives were when Captain America was briefly transformed into a radioactive zombie by the Presence in Avengers (vol. 3) #44. Although he was restored to normal, the incident convinced the thunder god to reconsider his connections to humanity. Believing his connection to humans is important, Firebird has made it a point to try and change his mind since issue #45.
The Avengers have had issues with the Triunes between issues #14 and 27. Tremont manipulated events to ruin the team’s public image by making it appear they were persecuting the religious group. This was to gain sympathy and boost their followers. They relented when Triathlon was reluctantly accepted onto the team, partially to prove they weren’t prejudiced against the Triunes. Firestar and Justice went under cover after claiming to leave on reserve status in issue #27, as revealed in Avengers Annual 2001.
The Master of the World is for sure dead here. He will appear again as one of the many villains summoned to fight the Avengers and the JLA in JLA/Avengers #4, however he would have been plucked from a different point in time. At any rate, the Master will be one of the many previously deceased character resurrected following the Chaos War even and he’ll resurface in Alpha Flight (vol. 4) #0.1-8.
You’d be aware of this little nugget too if you had read the Citizen Kang event. See Captain America Annual #11, Thor Annual #17, Fantastic Four Annual #25, and Avengers Annual #21. TL;DR, rest reason why the Marvel version of Earth is slightly more technologically advanced than the real world is thanks to Kang peppering future tech into every invention since the early 20th century.
Publication Notes
This comic was part of Marvel’s 100 Page Monster run of books. On top of a brand new monthly tale, it also included a number of reprints. In this case, it features reprints of Avengers #98-100.
