While attending a chess match, the Avengers witness the poisoning of a chess master. Thor secretly turns into Don Blake and examines the comatose victim. The Vision and Captain America encounter the culprit, Leonard Tippitt, an ordinary man who glows with power and disappears upon defeat. The Avengers learn in a vision that the Watcher told Tippett that he must kill five innocents to prevent a future nuclear holocaust. Learning the identities of Tippitt’s other four intended victims, the Avengers split up and travel to other parts of the world to save them. The heroes fail to help Tippitt’s targets, but the Scarlet Witch subdues Tippitt and Iron Man uses a device to strip his power. The Watcher appears and explains that he orchestrated events to ensure that the Avengers stop Tippitt, who himself is the true threat to the future. Tippitt selflessly pleads with the Avengers to let the Watcher take him away to save Earth, and the heroes reluctantly agree.