Acts of Vengeance
A mysterious man is appearing to randomly selected villains to bring them together to bring down the Avengers
He appears to Doctor Doom and the Wizard in the Vault. Helped by the mysterious man who disappeared as quickly as he appeared, Wizard manages to free all the super-villains including himself
A horde of robots attack Hydrobase on Avengers Island where Quasar is the only member there to defend but is unsuccessful when the robots target the fuel reserve and sink the island
The mystery man offers Red Skull and Namor to join him. Red Skull does not accept initially and Namor outright refuses as he’s put his villainous ways behind him
While Captain America resolves to have the Avengers stay at Four Freedoms plaza but can’t because the FF are not there, Red Skull commands Crossbones to recruit Controller and place a Control Disc on Namor
Namor and Captain America battle at the site of Avengers Island and Cap manages to smash the Control Disc rendering Namor unconscious
Quasar and Stingray salvage as much as they can from Hydrobase
Quasar is alerted by Cap to deal with Absorbing Man. Before he can attack Manhattan, Quasar overloads him with energy and explodes him
The mystery man goads Boomerang into attacking Hawkeye who Hawkeye has trouble with
While Stingray delves into the water again for another salvage round, he checks on the lab where artificial robotic life-forms were kept including Tess-One, Super Adaptoid, Awesome Android, and a Kree sentry and seem to be gone and missing.
The Awesome Android ambushes Stingray and takes on Black Widow, Firebird, Hellcat, and Moondragon- the reserve members of the Avengers on the East Coast in NYC
Simultaneously, this occurs at the same time that Quasar is dealing with Absorbing Man, Thor is battling Juggernaut, Iron Man vs Wrecker of the Wrecking Crew, Captain America vs Namor, and the West Coast Avengers in California against the U-Foes
With the help of Monica Rambeau, they shut Awesome Android down
Shifting to Iron Man’s point of view, Wrecker attacks Stark Prosthetics
After a seemingly even battle, Iron Man uses magnetism and charges Wrecker’s crowbar which attracts a pile of cars which pile right on top of Wrecker
At that moment, Calvin Carr aka Chemistro (formerly Curtis Carr who is Calvin’s brother) arrives and has Iron Man at his mercy
Iron Man manages to escape with Rhodey’s help after Chemistro turns his suit into lead
Iron Man defeats Chemistro after using a different Iron Man suit
While Iron Man is visiting the West Coast Avengers (Hank Pym, Human Torch, Wasp, Wonder Man, Vision, and Scarlet Witch), the U-Foes (Vapor, Ironclad, and X-Ray), attack. Vector, their leader, is absent. The U-Foes think he was killed by the Avengers
After Vector arrives, the U-Foes realize they were tricked by someone into wanting vengeance against the Avengers. They leave, refusing to be anyone’s pawns
Pym, Wasp, Scarlet, and Vision head to NYC while Iron Man and Wonder Man go to find Torch after being incapacitated by X-Ray
Juggernaut is teleported out of a prison in Great Britain to NYC where he immediately begins wreaking havoc
A young man named Richard Rider sees Thor approaching Juggernaut and e-communicates to 5 other young people- Vance Astrovik, Angelica Jones, Robbie Baldwin, Nita Prentiss, and Dwayne Micheal Taylor who band together to form the New Warriors
The debut of the New Warriors
The superhero names for each of the members in the respective order they were mentioned are Nova, Justice, Firestar, Speedball, Namorita, and Night Thrasher
Using Godforce to throw off Juggernaut’s balance, the ground cracks beneath him after which Firestar uses her heat powers to mold steel girders together which Thor holds together by freezing them with a sub-zero wind
The villains that the mystery man gathered all meet officially for the first time and size each other up. They are Doctor Doom, Mandarin, Red Skull, Magneto, Kingpin, and Wizard
Whilst Thor is ¾ of the way into his battle with Juggernaut, Cap had brought the unconscious Namor to Pym who came from California and meet in the original Avengers HQ
At the same time Crossbones recruits Controller and are intercepted by Captain America who manages to get a Control Disc for Pym to study
Red Skull attempts to have Controller place a disc on the mystery man which he does but has no effect. Skull and Controller are in awe
After dealing with Absorbing Man, Quasar next takes care of Living Laser, Ulysses Klaw, and Red Ghost, even taking the battles through the Blue Area of the Moon where the Watcher watches
Magneto and Red Skull form a grudge against each other due to their opposing histories in WWII
3 members of Freedom Force (Blob, Avalanche, Pyro) coax the Avengers into coming out and battling them
Wanda, Vision, Pym, Wasp, plus the addition of Falcon, take them on until Captain America arrives to tell the authorities that Blob, Avalanche, and Pyro are operating of their own free will as opposed to government-authorized agents who are only meant to deal with mutant deviants as Freedom Force is supposed to. Blob is left behind as the other two flee
The next villain attack occurs at a forum where Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor try to manage restless citizens
Jester, a Hulk robot, Hydroman, Rock, and the Von Strucker twins are the instigators
With the combined efforts of Wasp, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, She-Hulk, and Cloak and Dagger, the bout is won
In the Savage Land, an extraterrestrial planet-ravager called Terminus awakes
With the help of Spiderman who is still imbued with the cosmic powers of Captain Universe, he and Quasar lift Terminus and push him into space
Namor awakens from unconsciousness
Magneto attacks Red Skull and leaves him in an underground bunker in the complete dark and with no food but with 10 gallons of water for his atrocities in the Holocaust
Mole Man attacks L.A. and is convinced by the West Coast Avengers they never instigated anything against him
Hawkeye and Mockingbird are impersonated by Angar the Screamer and Screaming Mimi who are dealt with
The mystery man appears to Mad Thinker in a jail cell who deduces who the mystery man is and that he has a brother. The mystery man vanishes in disgust
Eric Masterson visits Doctor Strange to see what ails him and when they peer into his mind, they realize it is Loki
Loki reveals himself as the mystery man
Loki’s band of villains crumble in disunity as each have their own agenda- Kingpin leaves, Skull and Doom contend with each other, Magneto takes Wanda, and Wizard provokes the Avengers out of desperation after omission of all talk and no action and is accompanied by Mandarin
Wizard is taken into custody of the Avengers who believe Doom was the mastermind of everything but Wizard believes it is himself
Loki reveals himself to the group
Wonder Man and U.S Agent go after Magneto who has taken Wanda to the highest part of the atmosphere in her house
The Avengers combat Loki down on Earth who holds his own with his sorcery. Thor manages to bury him underground using Mjolnir
Thor, Cap, and Vision discuss of the events that led up to these ‘Acts of Vengeance’ and how if the major players that Loki recruited had cooperated instead of competed with one another, they might’ve had a chance
While dozens of escaped supervillains are being put back into the Vault, a defiant Klaw and Wizard decide to try and escape and are dealt with swiftly by Iron Man and a guardsman named Frank Ensign