I just got the issue at my shop and have read it twice.
Crazy issue
Ok, so Widow is the traitor. Kudos to everyone who said her and stuck by it. I think we all figured it would come out being her, she was the most likely candidate, some of us were just hoping for a crazier twist. Anyways, on to the details. For anyone who didn't look at the pencils, I'll describe the whole issue.
We open with the pages of Hawkeye being interrogated, then we cut to the scene of Tony and Natasha. Tony and Jarvis are snapping at each other and he says Widow is feeling upset. She says she wants to duck the meeting with Fury at the Triskelion and she and Tony begin making out.
Interesting fact here, I'll mention it right off the bat. This ENTIRE issue, Tony's eyes are BROWN. Don't know if this means anything at this point, if it's just constant goofing or what, but I thought I'd mention it.
Anyways, we cut to the Triskelion where Quicksilver is saying the entire affair with Cap and Thor doesn't sit right with him and suddenly the power cuts and everyone goes oh my god. We look out and all the helicarriers are being shoved towards the Triskelion and Betty Ross and Nick hold hands as the Triskelion goes down. We see a bunch of supersuits flying away and someone says "Move to Manhattan for Phase Two"
We cut back and see the Widow turn, she puts a gun to Tony's head and a bullet through Jarvis's.
We're in Manhattan and the city is under attack from a bunch of giant robots. At the Triskelion, it's revealed Quicksilver managed to save the first three floors of people but couldn't get the rest. He then takes off to Manhattan to fight the robots and leaves Wanda and the others at the Triskelion to deal with the flying supergoons. Wanda manages to unleash a crazy *** blast that seems to hold off an incoming wave and all the SHIELD reserves and giant men get deployed and TROUNCED by enemy supergoons. I mean, human bullets coming through the head. Good stuff.
Thor says someone has stolen the lightning and the faux Thor takes out Quicksilver and Wanda loses control and seems to collapse. Oh, Fury got an arm punched off during the fight, forgot that.
We cut what appears to be the top of the Triskelion, and LOKI is standing there talking with The Red Skull (who appears to be super-suited and wearing an all red Cap-style helmet, no chinstrap. He also carries a staff with two glowing red ends. Loki asks him if all this carnage is sastisfying after what America did to his nation and RS responds he's not here for revenge, he's here as a volunteer leading an international collective because The New Roman Empire needed to be restrained. We then do jump cuts and find that LA, Chicago and Washington have all been subdued, the invaders control all military and nuclear facilities and have the go codes, and the Fantastic Four and X-Men have been subdued. Skull then orders someone to call in Pym for the containment procedures (Ultrons I presume)
Loki gloats on how it only took then an hour to subdue America and how meticulously planned it was. CRIMSON DYNAMO asks him why Loki is there. Apparently the consortium is made up of Russians, Chinese, Arabs and North Koreans, and Widow betrayed the team for free out of fear of America's power. Loki says he's there because he's the god of mischief and World War Three is the biggest mischief you can have. He also says since the Ultimates had a Norse God on their side, it was only fair the invaders have one on theirs (confirmation of Godhood?)
Red Skull then records a bunch of the robots and flying goons toppling the Statue of Liberty and the last page is a full panel of the presumed Anti-Ultimates standing victorious with the Red Skull raising his staff and saying The Great Satan has been liberated.
Whew.
Ok, now on too thoughts. I enjoyed the issue. The colored art was great, and the way America was taken out so easily was crazy. Oh, and Ultimate Quicksilver is a major bad-*** and actually good guy it seems. I enjoyed that. Onwards. Widow was the traitor, as I said before. Not much else revealed, have to see where it's going but we finally got that out of the way.
Loki is involved. Yay. Ok, so what's his role going to be? Pym apparently is involved in containment procedures for superhumans, so I can only presume that means an army of Ultrons. What if if the real twist coming is that Loki is going to double cross his allies and turn the Ultrons on everyone? Could be fun.
The Anti-Ultimates (or Masters of Evil) are revealed on the last page. We know Red Skull. Same with Crimson Dynamo. Ant-Thor actually looks ALOT like Hawkeye. Bald, earring and sunglasses. Same outfit and harness as Thor, different hammer and the sickle. Loki is down there, standing with an all gree chcik with claws and downturned ram horns and a black girl wearing a white costume and helmet that is long and kinda conical with a plume of hair coming off it (Black Knight?) Above her is a guy with blonde longish hair, dressed in an outfit that looks like a Union suit. His outfit is dark green with light green bands on his legs and a light green x striping his chest and a black diamond in the middle. At the top, we see a giant guy, who looks like a cross between Hulk and Godzilla. He had claws, pointy ears and sharp teeth, scales and a tail. Add in all the flying supergoons, giant robots and the crazy blimp things (their version of helicarriers I presume) and this is the invading force.
Ok, so who wants to start guessing on who these people are? What's going on? I'm looking forward to #10 now. Who else has read it?