In a manufactured reality patterned after medieval England and ruled by Morgan Le Fey, a pair of lecherous drunkards are hurled into a horse cart by Jade Giantess and Lady Marvel of the Queen’s Vengeance. In her castle, Morgan gleefully watches as the Queen’s Vengeance, in reality the ensorcelled Avengers, carry out her will. The thunder god Donar visits Morgan to tell her of a strange feeling he experiences. Morgan’s words of comfort do not stem Donar’s confusion, and he leaves in search of answers. In Morgan’s dungeon, the Scarlet Witch strains against her mystic bonds. Captain America, who has broken Morgan’s spell, finds Hawkeye and helps him to do the same. Together they free Wasp and Photon, but Cap fails to free Iron Man, and their former comrades swiftly surround the freed Avengers. Cap still tries to convince them of the truth, and Quasar and Justice regain their senses, but the rest of the brainwashed Avengers attack the “traitors.” Thor arrives during the battle, having regained his senses, and he and Photon cover Cap’s team’s escape, while, in the dungeon, ionic energies pour from Wanda’s eyes and coalesce into the form of Wonder Man.
Morgan engineers the recreation of the Avengers, then uses the Twilight Sword in concert with the Scarlet Witch’s magic to remake reality in her image (Av #1, ’98).
Morgan’s rewritten reality is Earth-398. Only a portion of the names the Avengers use as members of the Queen’s Vengeance are spoken in dialogue; the Earth-398 names for Black Panther, Black Widow, Darkhawk, Demolition Man, Hercules, Machine Man, Quicksilver, Rage, Sandman, Spider-Woman, Swordsman, Stingray and USAgent are revealed in Av #5, ’98’s letters column, where Vision is named “Manikin” despite introducing himself as the Ghost of Stone. Morgan did not change Black Knight’s name. Spider-Woman will again begin using Arachne as her codename in MsM #6, ’06. This issue features the first appearance of Wonder Man’s ionic energy form. First lettercol of the series appears and is named “Avengers Assemble!”
