Captain America (vol. 2) #13
World War III Part IV: War Without End
This story continues from Iron Man (vol. 2) #13…
Two universes have been merged together and now the Earth has been dominated by the combined forces of Doctor Doom, the Negative Zone, the Skrulls, and the Daemonites.[1] The only way to save the world is destroying a pair of dimensional locks, one located in Latveria and the other in the Negative Zone. This will separate the two universes and return everything to normal.
Leading the Latverian invasion force is Captain America who is deploying with soldiers Rick Jones and Grunge, as well as the surviving members of the Fantastic Four, Avengers, WildCATs, and Stormwatch. As their bombers take to the air, the crew starts making peace with their situation. Void and Gorgon intend to avenge dead allies,[2] while Maul is commended by the Thing for filling in for him on the Fantastic Four while he was trapped in the Negative Zone.[3] Meanwhile, Deathblow — one of the only ones to remember his true reality — assures Mister Majestic that he has always been a hero.[4] Once they arrive in Latveria, they all parachute down to the ground under a hail of gunfire.
In the Negative Zone, Mister Fantastic is leading another team of surviving heroes to destroy the dimensional lock there, leading to a clash with Doctor Doom. Both battles are intense and there are many casualties in the conflict, the most notable one being Triton of the Inhumans.
Observing the battle are Helspont the leader of the Deamonties and the Skrull leader observe the battle in Latveria from the sidelines. The pair bicker over who was instrumental in conquering the Earth. However, Helspont reminds the Skrull that the only reason why they were successful was thanks to the genius of Doctor Doom. Annoyed, the Skrull commander orders his men to unleash the Elementrons. This includes an army of heroes that have been transformed by the combined sciences of Earth’s conquerors into loyal soldiers. They include the Hulk, Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, and Rainmaker.
In the Elementron’s opening salvo both Gorgon and Warblade are killed. While Rainmaker is fatally stabbed by Grunge, but she manages to summon a bolt of lightning that finished them both off. Maul goes up against the Hulk and grows large enough to bite off the gamma spawned monster’s head. The Sub-Mariner knocks the Thing into a nearby lake and attempts to drown him. Lastly, the Human Torch clashes with Zealot until the Invisible Woman steps up and impales her own brother with an invisible spear in order to put him out of his misery. Rushing by her brother’s side, Sue comforts Johnny until the end.
The Negative Zone isn’t without their casualties as well. As they fight their way to the dimensional lock, Doctor Doom kills Winter. Spartan manages to get to the dimensional lock and after telling the Scarlet Witch that he’ll always love her, sacrifices his life to try and destroy the lock.
On the other side, Deathblow and Captain America break into Doom’s castle where the other dimensional lock is being kept. There they are confronted by Helspont who has come to stop them. Deathblow lunges at the Daemonite, pushing both men through the dimensional portal. Before Cap can destroy the second gate he is ambushed by the Skrull commander who had disguised himself as the Invisible Woman just long enough to fatally shoot him. Tossing his shield, Cap lands a killing blow to the alien invader. He is so joined by Rick Jones, the young soldier he met earlier before the battle began. With both men fatally injured, they make a last ditch effort to destroy the gate by tossing a grenade at it. Luckliy, it destroys the gate.
This causes the two realities to begin separating in a bright flash of light that will consumed the amalgamated reality. Fighting with his old foe, Mister Fantastic points out to Doom that he has lost. Although none of them will remember this battle, Doctor Doom vows that he will try to conquer the world again and again until he is finally victorious. Reed vows to that whenever he will try he and the rest of the Fantastic Four will be there to stop him. That’s when everything goes white.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Rick Jones, Grunge, Avengers (Thor, Scarlet Witch, Spartan), WildCATS (Gorgon, Zealot, Giant-Man, Grifter, Warblade, Void), StormWatch (Triton, Weatherman, Winter, Jenny Sparks), Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Thing, Maul), Doctor Doom, Helspont, Human Torch, Hulk, Sub-Mariner
Continuity Notes
There is kind of a lot going on all at once, so lets get into it:
The Heroes Reborn and Wildstorm universes were merged together in Fantastic Four (vol. 2) #13. Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #4 indexes this merged universe as Earth-13031.
The version of the Wildstorm universe that is depicted here is the one that was separated from the Image Comics shared universe in Shattered Image #1-4 and before it was merged with the DC Multiverse to Infinite Crisis #1-7.
Void mentions a “Jacob”, she is referring to Jacob Marlow, aka Lord Emp. He was the man who the WildCATs to fight the Deamonites on their world, as seen in WildCATS #1. Both he and Karnak died in Avengers (vol. 2) #13. They and everyone else who was killed in this storyline will be restored once the two universes are split up again.
When the Thing ended up trapped in the Negative Zone with Deathblow in Fantastic Four (vol. 2) #13, Maul joined up with the Fantastic Four to fill the void. Thing and Deathblow just got free from their prison in Iron Man (vol. 2) #13.
Mister Majestic is basically Wildstorm’s answer to Superman since WildCATS #11. His face was horribly burned during the destruction of the Stormwatch satellite in Avengers (vol. 2) #13.
