Domination Factor: Avengers #2.4
Strange Tales
This story continues from Domination Factor: Fantastic Four #2.3…
In order to preserve history from evil forces trying to change it, the Avengers and Fantastic Four have been sent back to different time periods to recover slices of an enchanted Golden Apple. Each member has their spirits cast into their past selves in a different time period.[1]
Iron Man finds himself cast a few years back in time during a period that he was a homeless drunk.[2] Seeking Nick Fury’s aid, Stark got himself arrested instead. After having a nightmare about the apple, Stark wakes up and discovers that he has been strapped to a mental probe. With him is Nick Fury, who is sorry to see Stark in his current state. Given all of the government secrets that Tony has learned over the years, Fury sees him as a security risk and is planning on wiping out parts of his mind.
Tony tries to explain his mission, and hearing about the Golden Apple slices, Fury remembers how SHIELD had recovered such an item when they shutdown the Demon Druid a number of years back.[3] Regardless of how true Tony’s story is, Fury tells Stark that he has his orders and activates the machine. As Nick leaves the room he becomes bothered by something regarding what Stark had said. It’s a memory from back in his days in the military during World War II. It was during Operation: Einfall,[4] where he and the Howling Commandos were sent on a mission to stop the Nazis from digging a tunnel under the English Channel from occupied France. Nick and Rebel Ralston were assisted by Captain America and Bucky. In the ensuing clash with the Nazis, Cap ended up getting rocked by an explosion. While he was dazed, Cap muttered something about needing to find a Golden Apple. When he recovered, he told Fury to forget about it and they soon split up to evacuate the tunnel before bringing it down.
A few years further down the timeline from Tony Stark, the Scarlet Witch has taken possession of her younger self during a period where she and her brother Pietro rejoined the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.[5][6] Due to the fact that she was injured during a clash with the authorities, Wanda’s memories are jumbled and doesn’t remember her mission. Stick with the Toad, he tells her that Magneto has enslaved the X-Men and then tries to show off his treasure chest. More concerned with finding her brother, Wanda goes looking for Magneto, missing a chance to see the Golden Apple slice is among the Toad’s treasure. She finds Magneto in the monitor room and she shows him that Quicksilver has just been defeated by Cyclops. Knowing that this is a trick, Wanda leaves to find her brother. Magneto then takes his anger out on the Toad for opening his fat mouth. After being punished, Toad vows to one day make Magneto pay for his cruelty.
In the present day, at the headquarters of Praxis International, an employee observes the Avengers mission through a crystal ball hidden in his cabinet. When his boss, the elderly Nora, asks what he is doing he assures her its nothing. When she open the cabinet back up so she can see what’s inside, he complies, revealing that there is nothing there but bottles of beer. He then assures her that his mission to grant her immortality is going off without a hitch.[7]
While thousands of years in the past, when Thor was merely 20 years old, the thunder god is sent on a mission by Odin to prevent a war between Asgard and the Mountain Giants.[8] As Thor rides into the domain of the giants, his future self takes possession of his body. This, just as Loki’s cousin Arkin is selling out Asgard to Queen Knorda. Ambushing Thor, the thunder god lures them into a dead end canyon where Odin and his troops have set up an ambush. With Arkin’s treachery revealed and Knorda’s plot foiled, Thor asks Odin if he can leave. Granted permission, the thunder god goes searching for his slice of the Golden Apple. However, as he passes through a forest he ends up getting entangled in branches of a tree that have been animated by Loki himself.
Elsewhen, Tony Stark is still strapped to the mind wipe machine and frantic to get free before his memories are erased. That’s when he noticed that Nick Fury left a pen behind. Disassembling it, Tony uses the spring to pick the locks of the mindwipe device and gets free. As he tries to escape he is stopped by a SHIELD agent who reveals that Fury intentionally left the pen behind in the hopes that Tony would escape. He also has something that Fury recovered from SHIELD’s archives. Escorted outside, Tony opens the pouch and is surprised to see that it is the Golden Apple slice he was looking for. Upon contact with it, Iron Man’s spirit is released from his past self and heads back to the present. Oblivious of everything that went down, Tony happens upon another homeless man in the alley and asks for a swig from his liquor bottle.
While in Wanda’s era, the Avengers have arrived and are battling it out with the mind controlled X-Men. While Magneto watches the battle, he fails to notice when the Angel arrives and damages his mind control device. This frees the X-Men from his control, prompting the Master of Magnatism to order a full retreat. However, as the other members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants flee in a ship, Toad strands Magneto on the island as revenge for his past cruelty. As they make their escape, Wanda notices the apple slice in Toad’s treasure chest and remembers her mission. Upon grabbing the slice, her future self is also returned to the future.
In 1942, Captain America and Bucky head to a detonation device that will collapse the Nazi tunnel. As they go, Captain America recalls how Bucky is fated to die on the same day in 1945 that saw him trapped in suspended animation for decades.[9] However, he resists the urge to tell his young partner this, heeding Doctor Strange’s warning not to alter the timeline. Fighting their way through Nazi soldiers, the pair reach the detonator only to be stopped by the android Human Torch. Thinking that the Torch is under Nazi control, Captain America vows to fight him in order to set off the explosives.[10]
… This story continues in Domination Factor: Fantastic Four #3.5.
Recurring Characters
Avengers (Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Scarlet Witch, Vision), Nick Fury, Rebel Ralston, Bucky, Nazis, Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (Magneto, Toad, Quicksilver), X-Men (Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Iceman, Angel), Avengers (Goliath, Wasp, Hawkeye, Black Panther), Norda, Odin, Loki, Human Torch
Continuity Notes
This story runs parallel with Domination Factor: Fantastic Four. Ultimately this series ends with history diverging Earth-616 with Earth-8921. From the perspective of the Fantastic Four the divergent point in history is at the moment where Tony Stark asks Reed to observe the golden statue on the plane as seen in Domination Factor: Fantastic Four #1.1 and Domination Factor: Avengers #4.8.
In this time period, Tony Stark had fallen off the wagon in Iron Man #167. His drinking got so bad that he lost Stark International in issue #173 and he will end up living on the street. Tony will eventually sober up after a near death experience in Iron Man #182. Tony is appearing here between the events of Iron Man #176 and 177. Per the Sliding Timescale, Tony had gone back in time about 4 years into the past from the present day.
SHIELD shut down the Demon Druid back in Strange Tales #145. That took place about 5 years prior to this point and time and 9 years before the present day.
Operation: Einfall was first depicted in Sgt. Fury #13. These events took place in 1942. The number of years between that story and any Modern Age time periods will always be subject to change due to the Sliding Timescale.
The time period which Wanda finds herself in was when Magneto had returned to Earth after an extended period on the Stranger’s prison world. He then attempted to recruit Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch back into the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Quicksilver, having faced anti-mutant bigotry while an Avenger, as an easy mark. These events all transpired in Avengers #47-49. Wanda is currently reliving the events of X-Men #45 and Avengers #53. This incident happened 8 years from the present day.
Lester and Nora are not who they seem. Lester is Loki in disguise, while Nora is Knorda, former queen of the Mountain Giants in Asgard. This is all revealed in Domination Factor: Avengers #3.6.
Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch are stated here as being mutants, and that they are the children of Magneto. Both of these facts were later revealed to be false:
Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4-5 reveal that Wanda and Pietro were kidnapped as infants and experimented upon by the High Evolutionary. In order to cover up his work he made it so the pair would register as mutants.
Since Vision and the Scarlet Witch #4, Wanda and Pietro were led to believe they were Magneto’s children. This is later revealed to be false. Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #3 reveals that their biological mother is Natalya Maximoff, while the identity of their biological father is still unrevealed time of this writing in January, 2023.
The conflict between Asgard and the Mountain Giants was originally told in Journey into Mystery #109.
Captain America’s stint in suspended animation and the alleged death of Bucky were first chronicled in Avengers #4. At this time, Cap doesn’t know that Bucky actually survived. His body was recovered by the Russians who transformed him into the Winter Soldier, something Steve won’t learn until Captain America (vol. 5) #14.
As we’ll discover next issue, the Torch isn’t under Nazi control, but possessed by the Vision.
