Avengers/Invaders #4
Hell on the Helicarrier
The Invaders have found themselves trapped in the future and are being held prisoner by the spy agency known as SHIELD. Captain America (Steve Rogers) and Bucky (James Barnes) have managed to escape from their cells. While fighting an army of Life Model Decoys (LMDs), Bucky recovered Cap’s shield from SHIELD Director Tony Stark (aka Iron Man).[1] However, when tossing the weapon to his friend, Bucky’s throw is off and the shield ends up going over the edge of the helicarrier. It plumets to the ground below, imbedding it in the ground outside the Capitol Building in Washington, DC. Steve tells James not to worry about it and to rescue the others.
On the ground, tourists try to pull Captain America’s shield out of the ground but find that it is stuck. They are frightened off when the present day Captain America (James Barnes of the present day) comes to recover it.
Inside the helicarrier, SHIELD scientists have finished their analysis of Toro (Thomas Raymond’s) DNA and have concluded that the young man might be a mutant.[2] Although Toro has been drugged for these exams, he had been biding his time for them to wear off. When the moment comes, Thomas flames on and burns his way to freedom. This is just as Bucky finds the lab and the two go looking for the Human Torch (Jim Hammond), who is also a prisoner. When they find Jim and free him from his cell, they find him mourning the Life Model Decoy that he destroyed. When he learns that Cap is fighting more of them, the Torch is horrified and flies off. Bucky notes that he hasn’t seen such a look of horror in Hammond’s eyes since they made a grisly discovery in Europe.[3] James suddenly hopes that similar horrors are not happening in this era as well.
Meanwhile, Tony Stark gets in touch with Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers) as he rushes to the command center. He tells her to gather the Mighty Avengers together to contain the situation. As he suits up in his Iron Man armor, he reminds Carol that it is important that they contain the situation as quickly as possible as the Invaders presence in this time could have catastrophic consequences to the timeline. Once in his suit, Iron Man decides to confront Steve Rogers directly, and hopes that he doesn’t die this time.[4]
At that same moment, at the undersea wreckage site of the Titanic, the Sub-Mariner (Namor), has just defeated his future self in battle. He then orders the Atlantean soldiers present to join him in attacking SHIELD and rescuing his fellow Invaders. However, just like their ruler, the Atlanteans refuse to go to war against the surface world. In fact, they think he is an impostor and attack. The fight is broken up by a recovered future Sub-Mariner, who tells himself to save his friend while he can as he will find no allies here. As he and his followers swim away, he warns his past self that he hopes that his past self learns to doubt himself to make certain to never become the ruler that he is today.[5]
Back at the helicarrier, Captain America refuses to stand down, forcing Iron Man to use force to put a stop to this fight before it is too late. That’s when the Mighty Avengers arrive on the scene and are ordered to secure the other Invaders who managed to escape while he deals with Cap. However, once inside they witness the New Avengers — Ronin (Clint Barton), Luke Cage, Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Wolverine (Logan), and Iron Fist (Danny Rand) — teleport inside thanks to the magics of Doctor (Stephen) Strange. Even though Strange’s ability to hold back the time wave that will erase their timeline is weakening, the two Avengers teams end up in a massive brawl with one another.
As the battle rages, Strange shows Echo (Maya Lopez) the changes that are already starting to happen in the past.[6] They see a new timeline beginning to form where the Nazis win World War II and conquer England and America. He has been holding these changes from rolling over into the present with his magic, but until they find its source and stop it, this barrier will break. Using his mystic senses, Strange determines that the Cosmic Cube is responsible for this entire mess. Upon making this discovery, a strange alien being suddenly appears in the middle of the Sanctum Sanctorum, who bares a striking resemblance to the Vision![7]
Aboard the helicarrier, Bucky, the Torch, and Toro come across the two Avengers team in the middle of their brawl and decide which side to fight. They decide to help the New Avengers, since they are the ones not being helped by an army of LMDs. The fight spills back outside, where Iron Fist is knocked over the edge of the helicarrier’s landing deck. Thankfully, he is rescued by the arriving Sub-Mariner. That’s when someone throws Captain America’s shield towards Steve. Thinking this was Bucky, he thanks his partner for getting his weapon back. However, James wasn’t the one who threw it, but the Captain America of this era. What James doesn’t know is that this Captain America is actually his future self. The older James tells Bucky to listen very carefully because his future depends on it![8]
Recurring Characters
Mighty Avengers (Iron Man, Ms. Marvel, Wasp, Wonder Man, Black Widow, Ares, Sentry), New Avengers (Ronin, Luke Cage, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Iron Fist, Echo, Doctor Strange) Captain America (Barnes), Invaders (Captain America (Rogers), Bucky, Sub-Mariner, Human Torch, Toro), Sub-Mariner (present day), SHIELD
Continuity Notes
At the time of this story, Iron Man had become Director of SHIELD in New Avengers #25. He will hold this position until Secret Invasion #8.
The idea that Toro might be a mutant was first suggested in Invaders #22. However, All-New Invaders #8 reveals that his powers derive from the Inhuman DNA he inherited from his parents. There are some factual errors here that are mostly because revelations that are made after this comic was originally published. See below for more on this….
The horror that Bucky is talking about here is unspecified here, but if you know anything about World War II you can pretty much figure it out. For the remedial class, they’re talking about the Holocaust. Next issue we’ll discover that the specific incident that James is talking about is when the Human Torch discovered one of the Nazi concentration camps and the Jews that were exterminated there. The revelation that the Life Model Decoy might be sentient life is later revealed to be a ploy by Ultron, as revealed in Avengers/Invaders #7. Ultron’s code managed to infiltrate SHIELD’s computers back in Mighty Avengers #6.
The situation between Captain America and Iron Man in this story is pretty complicated, so lets break it down:
Prior to these events, the government passed the Super Human Registration Act (SHRA), which required superheroes to register with the government. This new law split the community in half and sparked a civil war. Iron Man was on the pro-registration side while Captain America was against the new law. Ultimately, Cap surrendered when he discovered that the American people mostly support the new law, as seen in Civil War #1-7. This law will remain on the books until Siege #4.
After his surrender, Steve Rogers was seemingly killed by an assassin’s bullet when he was being brought to trial in Captain America (vol. 5) #25. What nobody knows is that Cap was shot with a chronal bullet and is currently reliving his life in a time loop. He will remain trapped like this until he is rescued in Captain America: Reborn #1-6.
Iron Man blames himself for Cap’s “death”, as we saw in Civil War: The Confession #1.
The Sub-Mariner is kind of a person non grata on the surface world at the time of this story. This stemmed from the fact that he reacted poorly when his niece, Namorita, was killed during the incident that kicked off the civil war and activated an army of sleeper agents to fight the pro-registration side. See Civil War #1-7 and Civil War: Front Line #1-11.
This timeline, where the Nazi’s win World War II, is so disruptive that it will temporarily overwrite reality-616 until the end of this series. Per Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z Update #1, this timeline has been indexed as Reality-93198.
This character is also called the Vision, but is no related to the android who first appeared in Avengers #57. This Vision is also known as Aarkus, an other-dimensional being that fought crime in the 1940s. He was first seen in Marvel Mystery Comics #13. In Avengers/Invaders #8, this Vision will claim that his race are caretakers for nascent Cosmic Cubes before they become sentient. But we’ll cover that in more detail when we get there.
This is because, Bucky is seriously injured in a drone plane explosion in 1945 and ended up MIA and presumed dead, per Avengers #4. However, in reality, his body was recovered by the Russians who turned him into an assassin called the Winter Soldier, as explained in Captain America (vol. 5) #11. He later had his mind restored in issue #14 of that series. Following the “death” of Steve Rogers in issue #25, Winter Soldier succeeded him as the new Captain America in Captain America (vol. 5) #33-34.
Topical References
The present day is stated as taking place in the year 2008. This date, and the number of years between World War II and the present should be considered topical as they are relative to the date of publication. Due to the Sliding Timescale, the Modern Age of the Marvel Universe is slowly pushed forward in time. As a result, the number of years between the war and the present will continue to grow over time.
Toro being the “First Mutant”
In this story, Toro is examined by SHIELD scientists who determine that he is a mutant and suggests that he might be the first one. As mentioned above, Toro is later identified as being Inhuman. One could assume that, at the time that Toro was being examined by SHIELD, the scientists couldn’t tell the difference between mutant and Inhuman DNA. This is entirely possible given that the Inhumans have been a secretive society that have kept their secrets from baseline humanity for centuries. It’s reasonable enough to assume that SHIELD wouldn’t have detailed files on Inhuman DNA. Continuity wise, understandings of Inhuman DNA wouldn’t become common knowledge until the Inhumanity event where people with dormant Inhuman DNA suddenly have it activated by a cloud of Terrigen Mist.
That said, the assertion that Toro is the “first mutant” in this story would be incorrect at the time this story was published. Firstly, because the Sub-Mariner is widely considered Marvel’s first mutant, at least in terms of publication history as he appeared in Marvel Comics #1. Namor’s status as a mutant stems from the fact that he is the offspring of a human and Atlantean. Namor’s status as a mutant has been known since X-Men #6. Furthermore, the earliest recorded mutant at the time of this story was Apocalypse who was known to have been alive since the time of a Pharaohs, per Rise of Apocalypse #1.Since the publication of this story, it has since been revealed in Avengers (vol. 8) #1 that the earliest recorded mutant dates back to 1 million BC.
With all of this known information, the assessment made by the SHIELD agent in this story is absolutely incorrect. The assumption that can be made here is that the scientist is making this proclamation without having done the necessary research, or that SHIELD’s files on mutants is incomplete or incorrect. The leading experts on mutant history would be the X-Men, who are known to keeping things like this close to the vest.
