Appearing in 1st story
Featured Characters:
- Steve Rogers (Main story and recap)
- The Underground (Main story and recap)
- ⏴ Shaun Lucas
- ⏴ Giant-Man (Raz Malhotra) ⏵
- ⏴ Captain America (Sam Wilson) ⏵ (Main story and recap)
- ⏴ Misty Knight (Mercedes Knight) ⏵ (Main story and recap)
- ⏴ Iron Man (Tony Stark A.I.) ⏵ (Hologram) (Main story and recap)
- ⏴ Hawkeye (Clint Barton) ⏵
- ⏴ Mockingbird (Bobbi Morse) ⏵
- Alpha Flight
- Doctor Strange (Stephen Strange) (Main story and flashback)
Supporting Characters:
- Defenders
- Claire Temple
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Dagger (Tandy Bowen)
- Cloak (Ty Johnson)
- Unnamed librarians (Only in flashback)
- Quasar (Avril Kincaid) (Wakes from coma; death)
- Maria Hill
- ⏴ King Namor
- ⏴ Winter Soldier (Bucky Barnes) ⏵
Antagonists:
- Hydra (Main story and recap)
- Hydra Command
- Numerous unnamed agents (Main story and recap)
Other Characters:
- "Goddess by the Lake" (Sharon Carter) (Identity revealed; main story and recap)
- The Underground
- Wonder Man (Simon Williams) (Only in recap)
- Thing (Ben Grimm) (Only in recap)
- Barf (Brian McAllister) (Only in recap)
- Crossbones (Brock Rumlow) (Mentioned)
- Sin (Sinthea Schmidt) (Mentioned)
- Stay Puft Marshmallow Man (Mentioned) (Topical Reference)
- Galactus (Mentioned)
- Annihilus (Mentioned)
- Library ghost (Mentioned) (Topical Reference) (Only in flashback)
- Hyperion (Marcus Milton)
- Dum-Dum Dugan (Voice only)
- Deadpool (Wade Wilson) (Mentioned)
- God (Yahweh) (Invoked)
- "Bob Hofstedder" / Blackout (Marcus Daniels) (Death)
- Kingpin (Wilson Fisk)
- Nova (Sam Alexander)
- ⏴ Black Panther (T'Challa) ⏵
- Kobik (Returns)
Races and Species:
- Humans (Main story and flashback)
- Inhumans (Referenced)
- Human-Inhuman Hybrids (Only in recap)
- Cosmic Cube (Main story and recap)
- Human-Kree Hybrids
- Human-Spartax Hybrids
- Flora colossi
- Halfworlders
- Alien Eternals
- Robots
- Chitauri (Mentioned)
- LMDs (Behind the scenes)
- Atlantean-Human Hybrids
Locations:
- Vanishing Point
- Prime Marvel Universe (Main story and flashback)
- Earth (Main story and flashback)
- Hydra Nation (Main story and flashback)
- Arizona
- New York (Main story and flashback)
- New York City (Main story and flashback)
- Manhattan (Isolated via Darkforce Dimension) (Main story and flashback)
- Midtown (Main story and flashback)
- Mercy General Hospital
- Bryant Park (Only in flashback)
- New York Public Library (Only in flashback)
- Empire State Building
- 38th Street and Fifth Avenue
- Greenwich Village (Mentioned) (Only in flashback)
- Sanctum Sanctorum, Bleecker Street (Mentioned) (Main story and flashback)
- Midtown (Main story and flashback)
- Upper New York Bay (Main story and recap)
- New Attilan Inhuman Holding Center (Only in recap)
- Governors Island
- Brooklyn (Mentioned) (Only in flashback)
- Manhattan (Isolated via Darkforce Dimension) (Main story and flashback)
- New York City (Main story and flashback)
- Michigan
- Sin and Crossbones' Super-Prison
- Montana
- New Tian, California (Mentioned)
- Washington, D.C.
- Earth Orbit
- Alpha Flight Low-Orbit Space Station (Destruction)
- Communications Room (Destruction)
- Command Bridge (Destruction)
- Alpha Flight Low-Orbit Space Station (Destruction)
- Atlantis, Atlantic Ocean (Mentioned)
- Wakanda (Mentioned)
- Hydra Nation (Main story and flashback)
- Hell (Invoked)
- Earth (Main story and flashback)
- Numerous unidentified alternate realities (Mentioned)
Items:
- Giant-Man's Suit
- Giant-Man's Time Capsule
- Captains America's Uniforms
- Sam Wilson's Uniform and Wings
- Steve Rogers' Uniform
- Planetary Defense Shield (Destruction)
- Captain Marvel's Suit
- Iron Man Armor Model 4
- Hawkeye's Suit
- Hawkeye's Bow and Trick Arrows
- Element Gun
- Nullifier Bomb (First appearance; detonation)
- Ultimate Nullifier (Mentioned)
- Cloak's Cloak
- Doctor Strange's Cloak (Main story and flashback)
- Darkforce (Mentioned)
- Arnim Zola's Robotic Body
- Quantum Bands (Destruction)
- Chitauri Eggs (Destruction)
- Star-Lord Armor
- Winter Soldier's Bionic Arm
- Nova Helmet
- Nova Force
- Panther Habit
Vehicles:
- Hydra Helicarrier (Only in recap)
- Mark 1 Astro Carriers
Synopsis for 1st story
As he's slowly sinking into the bottom of the lake, Steve Rogers catches a glimpse of a light above the surface. Having regained his strength, he breaks free from ropes tying his hands and swims back to the surface.
In the middle of the desert in Arizona, Shaun Lucas helps Giant-Man bury his time capsule, which contains a message recorded by Sam Wilson meant to reach Manhattan and the A.F.S.S. in the past, so it can be broadcast now in the present. When Shaun wonders why don't they simply send a message further back in time warning about Captain America's allegiance, Raz explains that altering history in such a way would actually create a divergent timeline instead of alter their own.
Now both New York and Alpha Flight are receiving Cap's message, in which he explains the current situation in the Hydra-controlled United States regarding the Cosmic Cube fragments. Sam recounts that while liberating an Inhuman interment camp, the Underground managed to recover one fragment. Even though the fragment is not as powerful as the entire Cube, it can still tweak reality. He hopes the heroes can line up their efforts to destroy both the Darkforce bubble and the Planetary Defense Shield.
Some time later, on a rooftop, Sam is getting ready to take off and fly to the midpoint between the dome and the shield, while Iron Man and Hawkeye break into Crossbones and Sin's super-prison to free their friends.
Aboard Alpha Flight's station, Star-Lord and Rocket Raccoon approaches Captain Marvel with stolen plans for a Nullifier Bomb, hoping to use the space station as a delivery system for the charges.
Meanwhile, in Manhattan, while the Defenders are wondering how can they be of assistance, Doctor Strange reveals he has recently acquired a spell that could possibly of help. When he visited the New York Public Library earlier, he managed to learn a new spell in exchange for his Sanctum Sanctorum. Hopefully, the spell will amplify Cloak and Dagger's powers in unison.
Miles above Upper New York Bay, Captain America finds himself dodging heavy fire from three Hydra jets trying to take him down. Even though Sam manages to get one of the planes to accidentally shoot another one down, a Hydra agent shoots Sam through the chest with a rifle, and the winged hero plummets into the water below, to the shock of Misty Knight, who was on comms with him.
In Manhattan, the spell being conjured by Doctor Strange on top of the Empire State Building appears to have no effect. Sam continues sinking into the bay. In orbit, the A.F.S.S. has been evacuated and loaded with explosive charges. Alpha Flight's personnel, the Ultimates, and the Guardians of the Galaxy observe from the Mark 1 Astro Carriers. At the Planetary Defense Shield Base Station in Michigan, Arnim Zola also braces for the impact. The space station crashes into the shield, triggering a massive explosion, but the shield holds, much to Captain Marvel's distress and anger. As Sam becomes invisible in the depths of the bay, a light glimmers. As Sam holds onto the Cosmic Cube fragment, Quasar walks up to Carol, revealing she has just woken up from her coma; meanwhile, Sam emerges from the water. Quasar flies to the shield and blasts it until it is breached and destroyed. Captain Marvel proceeds to fly to the coordinates where the Chitauri Eggs are cloistered away in Montana.
Inside Hydra's super-prison, as Iron Man and Hawkeye make their way through Hydra troops, Maria Hill slips past all the noise into the cell where Blackout is being kept brainwashed in the form of his Pleasant Hill-self, the mild-mannered Bob Hofstedder. While Captain Marvel reaches the Chitauri eggs and destroys them, terminating the threat from the Chitauri Wave, Hill reluctantly shoots Blackout in the head, causing the Darkforce dome to dissipate, bringing sunlight back to Manhattan.
With the Cosmic Cube shard in hand, Captain America meets up with the Underground at the Triskelion. They are soon joined by Captain Marvel and her allies, as well as some of the heroes that were inside the Darkforce dome. Namor arrives as the heroes being to think about their next course of action, revealing a bubble from where the Winter Soldier steps up, surprising the heroes, and informing them that he has a plan. The heroes then proceed to jump into action; however, the tide is still in Hydra's favor. Black Panther has been captured and Steve Rogers holds most of the fragments, even if it's not the entirety.
Walking away through the mysterious forest, Steve Rogers finds the glowing woman peeking out from the trees. He runs up to her and a memory of the two spending time together causes him to utter the name "Sharon." As they're about to touch, her spectre fades away, striking Steve with grief. Kobik then appears to tell Steve that she's gone, that they're all gone, and that she and Steve are all alone now, as Steve recognizes the young girl.
Solicit Synopsis
Notes
- The obtainment of the Cosmic Cube fragment by the Underground, the fall of New Tian and Wakanda, the survival of the Winter Soldier, and other important plot points happened in Captain America (Vol. 8) #25. The recap page of this issue alerts readers to first read Captain America Vol 8 25 before this comic.
- When breaking into Blackout's cell, Maria Hill comments she got the intel from Deadpool. Deadpool previously located Blackout with the help of the Trapster in Deadpool (Vol. 6) #34, and told Maria Hill about it in Deadpool (Vol. 6) #35.