Man and Machine, Part One

Can the Autobots prevent the humans from killing each other?

Writer: Stuart Moore
Penciler: Tyler Kirkham
Inker: Sal Regla
Colorist: Anne Kwok
Letterer: Todd Klein
Cover Artists:
Jim Cheung, Mark Morales, and Justin Ponsor

• Release date: July 5, 2007
• Characters (in order of appearance): Captain America, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Luke Cage, Director Hill, Runabout, Optimus Prime, Wheeljack, Megatron, Falcon, Ms. Marvel, Bumblebee, Jazz, Ratchet, Prowl.
• Followed by: Man and Machine, Part Two

Detailed Synopsis

In Latveria, Captain American leads a team of Avengers sent by S.H.I.E.L.D. investigate the Latverian countryside to see why Doom is uncharacteristically attacking his neighboring countries with strange jets of indeterminate design. But all the team finds is a metal dome of equally indeterminate design surrounded by the ruined bodies of Dr. Doom's robot underlings. The team breaks their way inside of the dome, but Luke and Logan's taking the initiative on the assault angers the Cap.

Inside, the tension between Cap and Wolverine grows. In a hall of digital mirrors, the team members dodge lasers fired by an unknown audience member who scans their unique physical attributes. While Wolverine disables the dangerous room, Spidey is kidnapped by his old nemesis... a car! The three remaining avengers try to escape, but discover themselves locked inside an energy field. Captain America calls for reinforcements in the jerkiest manner he can.

Inside the poorly lit Autobot base, the Autobots conclude that Megatron is using an aggression wave to make all humans in the area irritable jerkfaces, they move out to assist before the humans can kill each other.

Inside of the dome-not-made-by-Doom, Megatron prepares to disect the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

Captain America, Wolverine, and Luke Cage greet their reinforcements - Falcon and Ms Marvel. The Autobots also arrive, to tell the five Avengers to leave and let the experts handle the situation, but as soon as the giant robots finish explaining themselves, Captain America orders his forces to attack.

Items of Note

• As far as the New Avengers go, this issue doesn't take place when it was published (as Captain America hasn't been killed by The Red Skull yet). It takes place after the "Breakout" storyline and before "The Sentry"

• Sam Wilson's code name is given as "Falcon", but (almost) everywhere else in Marvel comics, he's "The Falcon", including the next issue.

• It should be noted that although The Falcon wasn't active with The New Avenger for most of the team's activities, the New Avengers didn't have a rigidly defined roster like the Planeteers.

• A similar aggression-wave was used by Shockwave in War and Peace.

• After Spidey is captured, it appears the energy barrier was keeping the Avengers trapped inside with the dome. But they meet up with Falcon fine, so either they were able to break through the dome or the art should have depicted the energy barrier keeping the Avengers locked out of the dome soon as they exited.