As you can see from the cover, this is a “big” story. So big it spreads across two annuals.
It starts with the two teams playing baseball.
Tigra tries to bring in the East Coast/West Coast beef.
And Hawkeye is a poor sport.
Superheroes playing sports always fun.
I mean, it’s fun until Mystique’s Freedom Force shows up and ruins the game.
They’re there to arrest The Avengers for crimes against the U.S.
Cap doesn’t put up much of a fight.
He trusts his government too much. Some other members resist arrest. Hercules finds he is not effective against Blob.
The Avengers are captured (too easily), and the heroes are imprisoned in the new “Vault” supermax.
Wasp convinces Cap they have to bust out.
Henry Peter Gyrich turns out to the be the source of the problem, having testified against The Avengers.
Gyrich is consistently a dick.
I don’t like how over-simplified this is, and how easy it is for the US Government to be manipulated by Gyrich into going against someone like Captain America.
Thor, Beast, Black Widow, and other former Avengers who were not captured join together and save their teammates. Quicksilver ends up being a part of the villainy too, but it’s a weird character arc that never really matters after this so I’m not getting into it.
Like I said, it’s weird.
And a big joke at the end.
Unfortunately, I’ve had days, and years, like this. The inmates take over the asylum, the “good” people are locked up/silenced/overruled, etc., you try to appeal to a higher authority, and the higher authorities just don’t give a shit, and/or tell you to shut up. It is just astonishing that the White House, presided over by no less than Ronald Reagan himself, condoned this near-tragedy. I could easily believe this under a Carter, or Clinton, or even an Obama administration, ( Barack Obama has always been a big Marvel Super-Hero booster ) but, Reagan-??? Really-??? I just can’t believe it. Of course, this is a comic-book story, and most comic-book writers are liberals and Leftists, so, of course, the Reagan administration is going to be painted as the villains of the piece. Henry Peter Gyrich’s vendetta against the super-set is as legendary as it is psychotic, which should not have failed to escape the President’s notice. How could President Ronald Reagan- the ol’ Gipper himself-have allowed this to happen to the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes-?? Henry Gyrich would have GLEEFULLY turned these wonderful heroes over to the Masters of Evil, or Dr. Doom, or anybody else who would have wanted to buy them, for ANY nefarious, and/or sinister purpose! It sickens me! Thank Odin Thor and the Black Widow, and the other “inactives” were not asleep at the switch!! Well, they say every dog has it’s day, and I am looking forward to when that day comes for one Mr. Henry Peter Gyrich!! Word!!