Avengers #1

Issue Details

Synopsis

NEXT AVENGERS PART 1  Immortus is on his knees before five unidentified figures. He pleads before them that he was there when they were born and every moment of their lives and now he will watch them die. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning kills him. The five figures are revealed to be children of the Avengers.   As the Avengers are repairing Soldier Field in Chicago, Captain Steve Rogers states that the world doesn't need H.A.M.M.E.R. or S.H.I.E.L.D., but the Avengers, more than ever. Many answer the call, all except Wonder Man, seeing that the Avengers have caused more harm than good, citing the Superhuman Civil War, the House of M, the Skrull Invasion and Osborn's Dark Reign as proof. Rogers points out that that the Avengers stopped all of that and the Civil War is another story. Wonder Man still refuses and pleads Rogers to not go through with this and if he does not, he will change his decision for him.   In Avengers Tower, Rogers has assembled Bucky, Thor, Hawkeye, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Spider-Woman and Iron Man to be their next group of Avengers, all for their great qualities. As the team begins to socialize on their doubts and insecurities whether can they work together, Iron Man asks Rogers who is going to run the team. The latter answers that it will be Maria Hill, who asks if this is the entire team, as someone is missing. Then suddenly, Kang the Conqueror appears to deliver a dire warning, only for Thor to blast him out of the building.   As the Avengers then go out to confront him on a rooftop, Kang produces out an egg-shaped device that Iron Man recognizes; it is a dark matter accelerator, a doomsday device he hasn't even built yet, capable of inverting the entire city of New York. Kang then cuts to the chase and explains that in the future, Ultron has destroyed the Avengers and conquered the Earth. Only their future children will stop him, only to rule the world themselves, having no morals because their parents were not there to guide them. They need to go to the future and stop them before they can do that. This revelation shocks the Avengers; Hawkeye even asks Kang why can not he stop Ultron.   The reply is that he has tried twenty times. He then leaves through a portal, telling them that they must obtain time travel technology on their own to stop this terrible future from ever occurring. If they succeed, he will never attempt to menace them again. But he promises this: he won't put his destiny into the hands of the Avengers or their children, which will compel him to activate the device the next time they meet. Iron Man tries insisting that they don't have a time machine; Kang responds that they will when their team is complete.   As soon as Kang is gone, Spider-Man asks Iron Man if he even has a time machine. The answer is no, for if he had one, he could've prevented any of their recent, terrible events from ever occurring but become no better than Kang himself. Hawkeye further asserts that Kang shouldn't have told them that they'd even end up having kids. Iron Man then goes into a hypothesis that time and space are actual organisms, which means that past and future is happening now. Even if the future isn't their problem, Thor asserts that they must go to it to save their children. The problem is coming up with a time machine and finding an expert on not only time but interdimensional travel that would not damage reality. The only people they know, such as Doctor Doom, who can't be trusted or Mr. Fantastic, who is not available, have one. However, Wolverine knows the right person for this job.   In the future, Kang arrives to report the success of his mission to an elderly Hulk and a Spider-Girl.