Appearing in "Into the Depths!"
Featured Characters:
- Heroes for Hire
- Black Knight (Dane Whitman)
- White Tiger (Evolved Tiger) (Revealed as a tiger)
- Iron Fist (Daniel Rand)
- Luke Cage
Supporting Characters:
- Jane Foster
- Jim Hammond
- Sersi (Main story and flashback)
Antagonists:
- Ghaur (Main story and flashback)
Other Characters:
- Crystal (Vision or hallucination)
- Vision (Vision or hallucination)
- Hercules (Vision or hallucination)
- Exodus (Bennet du Paris) (Vision or hallucination)
- Ant-Man (Shadow only)
- Master of the World
- Ikaris (Only in flashback)
- Thena (Only in flashback)
- Ajak (Only in flashback)
- Donald and Deborah Ritter (Only in flashback)
- Kro (Only in flashback)
- Karkas (Main story and flashback)
- Ransak (Main story and flashback)
- Avengers (Mentioned)
- Fantastic Four (Mentioned)
- Thunderbolts (Mentioned)
- CEO of Oracle, Inc. (Referenced)
- Atlantean submarine pilot (Unnamed)
- Mistress of Atlantis (Referenced)
- Strider
- Lady of Avalon (Mentioned)
Races and Species:
- Humans
- Eternals (Main story and flashback)
- White Tigers
- Androids
- Celestials (Mentioned)
- Deviants (Main story and flashback)
- Eternal/Deviant Hybrids (Only in flashback)
- Deviant Mutates (Main story and flashback)
- Atlanteans
- Winged Horses
Locations:
- Oracle Inc. Headquarters
- Heroes for Hire offices
- Lemuria (Main story and flashback)
Items:
- Serpent Crown (Mentioned)
- Sword of Light
- Shield of Night
Vehicles:
- Atlantean submarine
Synopsis for "Into the Depths!"
Dane is visiting Sersi in Oracle's medical wing, where he contemplates their relationship and is comforted by Jane Foster, the staff nurse.
White Tiger is training with the practice droids when she is distracted by Danny and gets hit by a droid. She becomes angry and trashes the robot, partially turning into her tiger form. Danny apologizes, and apologizes again, for their last practice session when she transformed into a tiger at his provocation. Tiger reveals her embarrassment comes from her losing control and that she is not a woman who becomes a tiger, but a tiger who can become a woman.
Jim Hammond seems to be talking to a pop machine when Luke walks by. Hammond dismisses it as talking out loud and resumes his conversation when Luke leaves. Luke then contacts the Master through a holographic communication device. Luke updates the Master on recent events (Sersi's arrival) until Danny walks in on them. Danny is about to reveal the true reason he formed the Heroes for Hire when they are called to the infirmary.
Sersi has awoken and tells of how she was flung from the time steam into Lemuria and confronted (the believed dead) Ghaur who held Thena captive. Ghaur revealed he was now considered the god of the Deviants and sought to create an Anti-Mind, a variations of the Eternals' Uni-Mind, to take over a Celestial and use it to destroy the other Celestials. Thena's children were being held hostage, forcing her to work for Ghaur. However, they needed Sersi's power to form the Anti-Mind. They were beginning when Kro's forces attacked, freeing Sersi who sought out Dane. The Heroes agree to battle the Deviants (for a small fee).
Using their Atlantean connections, they arrange for a sub to transport them to Lemuria, with the exception of Dane who will ride Strider. Dane, himself, is slightly surprised when Strider is actually able to "fly" underwater and he does not drown.
They soon arrive at Lemuria and Sersi teleports them inside where they are greeted by Ghaur's force of both voluntary and controlled Deviants. They are overwhelmed.
Notes
- While this issue references Avengers #375 and Eternals: The Herod Factor #1, it completely ignores the events of Avengers #370 and 371 which featured several of the key characters here, and also serves as the previous appearance for Ghaur, Donald and Deborah Ritter, Thena, Kro, Karkas, and Ransak. As such, Ghaur is said to have last been seen grasping for the Serpent Crown, and the Ritters appear as children.
- The latter is odd because the twins were already 18 years old in their first appearance.
- In Sersi's flashback, there are several Eternals (aside from Thena) who are depicted as being bound prisoners in Lemuria and two of them are wearing the distinctive costumes of Ikaris and Ajak. However, Ajak cannot be there since he killed himself by dispersing his atoms in the same issue that introduced Thena's twin children.