Writer: Roy Thomas
Pencillers: Don Heck & Werner Roth
Inker: Vince Colletta
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Featured Issue: Avengers Annual #2
Plot Summary
As the Avengers return home, they can’t help but feel that something is just a little off. On arriving at the mansion, the team is surprised to find the defenses armed and yet more things out of place. But most shocking of all is that when they barge into the meeting room, there is another team of Avengers staring back at them. After beating a hasty retreat into the subway, the Avengers begin to regroup and realize that whatever is happening must be a result of Doom’s time machine. Meanwhile, the counterpart Avengers contact their benefactor, the Scarlet Centurion. And although the counterpart Avengers don’t like what Scarlet Centurion has to say, they agree to do as he instructs and destroy the Avengers.
In order to figure out what is going on, the Avengers travel to a nearby university to use the Herodotron to fill in the gaps in their knowledge. After defeating the guards protecting the device, the Avengers find the device and Captain America is strapped in. What Cap discovers is utterly horrifying. After the Avengers faced off against the Space Phantom, the team was approached by the Scarlet Centurion who says that irreparable damage will be done if the counterpart Avengers don’t take this chance to correct the imbalance in superpowered individuals. Begrudgingly the counterpart Avengers agree and proceed to eliminate every supervillain and superhero they can find. Even that is not enough and the counterpart Avengers eventually force their will on the rest of humanity.
The Avengers, now determined to fix what has been set askew, must venture out and retrieve the part of Doom’s time machine which the Scarlet Centurion has hidden. Of course the counterpart Avengers are prepared for such an eventuality and ambush the Avengers at each of the locations. With quick action by each of the Avengers teams, the counterpart Avengers are quickly foiled and the Avengers are able to reassemble the time machine. But even as they prepare to restore the timeline, the Scarlet Centurion attacks, beating the Avengers back once again. Only a last ditch effort by Goliath manages to send the Scarlet Centurion back to his own timeline. As the timeline resets itself, Uatu the Watcher explains that Scarlet Centurion is in fact another version of Kang the Conqueror. Finally, back in the restored timeline, the Avengers return from their mission to the past like nothing ever happened, with only the most vague notion that something has happened.
Avengers
Black Panther
Captain America
Goliath
Hawkeye
Wasp
Some Assembly Required 