Warning: SPOILERS for Avengers Assemble: Alpha #1Three teams of Avengers kick off one of Marvel's most important events - but even three teams are not enough, and the heroes are doomed to fight a battle they cannot possibly win. The three groups have been teased throughout the entire year in Jason Aaron's Avengers run, and finally events are unfolding that will determine the fate of the Marvel Multiverse. Avengers Assemble: Alpha #1 reveals the event that brings together the 616 Avengers, the Prehistoric Avengers and the Multiversal Avengers: the final plan of Mephisto to take over all reality.
The story of the current Avengers run began with 2021's Heroes Reborn storyline, in which Mephisto rewrote reality with the help of President Phil Coulson and a hellish version of the Cosmic Cube. Reality was reset to the regular 616 universe (except for the members of the Squadron Supreme wandering around Earth with their memories scrambled), and Mephisto used the entire story as a proof-of-concept to the other Mephistos: the infinite demons of the multiverse.
In Avengers Assemble: Alpha #1, by Jason Aaron, Bryan Hitch, Andrew Currie & Alex Sinclair, three sets of Earths' Mightiest Heroes assemble for the first time. The 616 Avengers (the modern heroes and the ones readers know best), the Prehistoric Avengers (a team of superheroes from ancient history, including Odin, Agamotto and a caveman Moon Knight) and the Multiversal Avengers (from the Avengers Forever series, including an Ant-Man version of Tony Stark and Robbie Reyes, the All-Rider) band together; it isn't long before the three come to blows over a simple misunderstanding. Unfortunately, even when they decided to work together, they haven't a chance.
Even Three Teams Of Avengers Are Not Enough
The teams possess enormous power: they have multiple Starbrands, two wielders of Mjolnir, the Phoenix Force and one of the most powerful Sorcerers who ever lived on Earth. Unfortunately, their numbers are finite, and they are facing an infinite number of Mephistos from every corner of the Multiverse. There is no easy way to defeat these demons short of convincing them to retreat, a prospect that even the stalwart Captain America may find impossible.
This is one of the inherent problems with stories set around the concept of the Multiverse: infinite realities means infinite variants of characters, and these characters pile up until a story effectively has zero limits. This is a serious impediment to stakes: if heroes are in danger, reasons a reader, why not obtain additional reinforcements from an infinite number of possible realities? The Avengers cannot win a battle against infinity without resorting to infinity themselves, and this may sink a story before it has even begun.
Avengers Assemble: Alpha #1 is available now from Marvel Comics.