The Betrayal Of The Avengers!

Dissension In The Ranks

When resentments and disagreements boil over,

even allies can turn against each other in fierce battle that can bring the house down.

(And often does!)

FEATURING:

The Avengers

When the Masters of Evil were without the services of the Melter and the Black Knight, and its core group numbered only three--Zemo, the Executioner, and the Enchantress--the time was right for Immortus, in his first appearance, to insinuate himself into their group as its newest member, an offer Zemo took him up on after seeing a demonstration of the mysterious applicant's abilities. Still, Zemo was savvy enough to insist on a test: that Immortus destroy one of the Avengers. To Zemo's astonishment, Immortus offered to destroy all of them.

To that end, he lures Captain America to his lair by kidnapping Rick Jones, in a scheme to ensnare all of the other Avengers with Cap's unwitting assistance. As you'd imagine, Cap's mood is dark when he arrives to confront Immortus.

In these early days back in circulation, Cap suffered from PTSD in terms of his guilt over the death of his young former partner, Bucky Barnes, while also morose at feeling like a man out of time. So the thought of Rick's life being put in danger due to his association with him would have a profound effect on Cap's usually collected demeanor that would normally have him sizing up this foe and deciding on the best way to handle his threat.

Instead, Cap basically loses it--storming into Avengers H.Q. and, of all things, demanding to face the Avenger who delivered Rick to Immortus, an assumption springing in part from a bogus ad found in Rick's room that promised super-powers to those who responded, in tandem with an earlier motion by Iron Man to grant Rick formal Avengers membership as well as a uniform (both of which Cap rejected). In Cap's crazed state of mind, however, his reasoning is completely twisted around, as he appears to fall for the bill of goods Immortus has sold him regarding the other Avengers.

To see the Avengers respond to Cap's all-out attack against them almost gives the impression that, even pared down to three, the Masters might have no trouble in a well-planned assault against them. To be charitable, we could chalk up the Avengers' disarray to their concern not to harm this one man scattering them like amateurs. (Yes, that's it.) Though since Immortus is no doubt monitoring the brawl, it might seem to him that the other Avengers would probably be easy pickings if he'd only captured Cap instead of Rick.

As it is, it's certainly not a stretch to think that Cap is capable of taking the Avengers all by his lonesome--a skilled tactician who can exploit his teammates' weaknesses and keep them from ganging up on him by using a hit-and-run approach with each of them.

With everyone on the same page vis-à-vis Immortus, Cap returns to him with the Avengers in tow. But Immortus finds that the other Avengers are more formidable than he realized, and so settles for capturing Cap and traveling with him to the past where Rick is being held. Cap, of course, fights his way to Rick's side, despite the hordes of fighters that Immortus sends against him; meanwhile, the Masters have decided to launch an all-out attack against the other Avengers now that Immortus has left them vulnerable. Indeed, the Avengers, demoralized by Cap's uncertain fate, appear overwhelmed by their foes and on the verge of defeat.

But with Cap prevailing against his opposition in the past and freeing Rick, Immortus holds to his pledge to return Cap to the present--and it's a whole new ball game.

As we can see, the Enchantress, like Immortus, can also make use of time to serve her ends--in this case, to save herself and the others by effectively making sure that this entire debacle never begins in the first place. Thus, the Avengers now have no memory of events that occurred after their meeting adjourned, to the detriment of a certain teenage sidekick whose hopes must be dashed once more.

Too bad, Rick--you were THIS close.