Cause and Effect

Clint Barton has been plucked out of the recent past to be part of a jury for the murder trial of Charles Czarkowski, who was widely publicized of shooting a man in cold blood in what he claims a case of self-defense against a time traveler from the future. As the jury is being sequestered by enforcers of the Time Variance Authority, Clint manages to sneak out of his hotel room. Then sneaking to one of his safe houses he dresses as Hawkeye and goes about righting wrongs across New York City. Since Hawkeye is dead in this time, the people he assists are surprised to see him alive and well, but are too shocked to say anything until well after the hero has departed. While at her apartment She-Hulk is going to bed with her boyfriend John Jameson. Jameson hopes that she will change back into Jennifer Walters, but she insists that he needs to get used to this side of her.

At dawn, while most of the residents of the Excelsior apartments are sleeping, Awesome Andy is trying to sneak out when he is caught by Arthur Zix's secretary, Dottie, when she asks what he is up to so early in the morning, he explains that it is a secret mission. In the apartment shared by Jennifer and Augustus Pugliese, everyone is waking up for breakfast. Pug is secretly annoyed that Jennifer had John Jameson overnight since he is still secretly in love with her. When they are sitting down to breakfast, Pug informs Jennifer that he found the note she is going to try and slip Clint Barton, warning him of his impending death, among their trial notes and advises her against it, reminding her of the agreement they signed with the TVA to not alter the timeline. She insists that regardless of the consequences if she doesn't warn Clint about the future she will regret it for the rest of her life.

Later that morning, Clint sneaks back into his hotel before the jury is taken back to the courthouse. When Jennifer arrives at the courthouse she gets a call from the Avengers butler Jarvis who tells her about the Hawkeye sightings across the city from the night before. She can't comment on her trial, but she expresses annoyance when she walks past Clint on the way to the courtroom. Soon the trail begins and opening statements for the defense and the prosecution are heard. While the prosecution insists that Charles Czarkowski shot a man in cold blood, Jennifer explains to the court that Mr. Czarkowski acted in self-defense because the John Doe in question is a time traveler from the future who was trying to kill Charles. The first witness is a police officer who processed the crime scene. He explains that they have not been able to identify the John Doe as there are no records of his existence. To prove the time travel theory, Jen calls up the TVA's Justice Peace to the stand. She has him explain that some time travelers use a scrambler to alter themselves so that they are not discovered in their own past, a method that the TVA also employs. Holding up a photo, Jennifer points out that without his helmet on, Justice Peace resembles the photo of the John Doe.

While she continues her questioning, she tries to communicate with Hawkeye via sign language in the hopes he will see her message about his future. Pug notices this and hopes nobody else does as it will jeopardize her career. He happens to glance down at the morning paper and notices a newspaper story commemorating the anniversary of a fallen police officer and recognizes the officer as a man in their jury. Pug then interrupts the proceedings so he can confer with Jennifer. He then quietly points out to her that everyone in the jury is someone who died around the same time as Hawkeye, and any attempt to tip him off to his impending death could be seen by the other jurors and have an even greater effect on history. Realizing the futility of the situation, Jennifer isn't sure if she can continue the trial, but Pug encourages her to continue. She next calls Dr. Vic Vachman to the stand, a researcher for Baintronics who is an expert on time travel. She points out that Vachman had a vendetta against Czarkowski because he used time travel technology to amass his wealth by manipulating the stock market and attempted to murder him when Baintronics was in a financial upswing.

Next, Jennifer summons Charles Czarkowski to the stand and he testifies that he got a warning from the future on his Chrono-Phone. They playback a garbled video from the future by the John Doe in question, threatening to come back and kill Charles. When asked why the killer wouldn't eliminate Charles earlier in history, he points out that if they kill someone before time travel is invented, they eliminate time travel creating a time paradox. The John Doe came back a day after Charles made his invention to prevent such and he shot him in self-defense, putting his supposed attacker on life support at the nearby hospital. Suddenly, the TVA agents begin picking up illegal chronal energies building up and a massive robot suddenly appears in the middle of the courtroom and tries to eliminate Mr. Czarkowski. As the robot attacks, Jennifer turns into the She-Hulk, and Clint slips away to change into Hawkeye. As the pair fight off the robot, Charles knocks out Justice Love and uses the carnage to escape the courtroom. During the fight, Jennifer tries to pass Hawkeye the note she wrote for him when the judge declares a mistrial. As a result, Justice Love sends all the members of the jury back to their proper times. This happens just as She-Hulk is passing the message to Hawkeye, sending only half of the envelope back with him.

Meanwhile, Charles Czarkowski gets back to his lab intending to go back in time and preventing his attempted assassination. In order to hide in the past he uses a scrambler to change his appearance. He then records a message warning his past self when he notices his reflection and realizes that he was the John Doe the whole time. However, he is caught by Justice Peace who forces him to go into the time machine and go back to the moment when his past self-shoots the John Doe in order to prevent a time paradox from being created. Learning the truth, She-Hulk and Pug go to the hospital to figure out what to do next with their client, arguing with the defense lawyers. Suddenly, Jennifer is pulled aside by the TVA officers who have learned that she attempted to tamper with the timestream and arrest her. When she asks what might happen, they inform her that if she is found guilty, she will be erased from history and teleport away.

Recurring Characters

She-Hulk, Hawkeye, Augustus Pugliese, Awesome Andy, Dottie, John Jameson, Time Variance Authority (Justice Peace, Justice Love), Whirlwind, Charles Czarkwski

Continuity Notes

• All reference to this story taking place in the year 2005 should be considered a topical reference per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616. This story also states that Hawkeye died a year prior to this story. This is also a topical reference relevant to the date of publication and is subject to the time compression rules of the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616. Both Avengers #502 and this story fall under "Year 11" of the Modern Age. As such the event would have happened a few months prior as opposed to a full year.

• At the time of this story, Hawkeye had recently died in Avengers #502. However, he is resurrected sometime later as seen in New Avengers #26.