During the period between 2008 and 2010, Ava Starr, who possessed the ability to phase
through reality, was recruited by SHIELD and given a suit to help control her powers, earning
the nickname Ghost.
In Louisiana, the children Tandy Bowen and Tyrone Johnson suffered a near death experience
at the same time, when a roxxon energy platform exploded granting them super powers which
were linked together and allowed them to save each others lives.
Though it was years before they understood their powers, Tandy gained the ability to
channel lightforce while Tyrone used darkforce.
Initiating a secret SHIELD program, Nick Fury and Phil Coulson began Project T.A.H.I.T.I.,
using the preserved corpse of a Kree alien to develop new medicines that might one day
save the life of an Avenger.
Unfortunately, while subjects were physically healed, they also lost their minds and so
it was decided they should have their memories erased and given new identities.
With Stark technology serving as a deterrent and creating a period of relative peace among
the nations of the world, Iron Man was left to deal with smaller scale violence, investigating
the terrorist organization Ten Rings on missions to Africa and the Middle East.
However he soon learned that the palladium core keeping him alive and powering the battle
suit was slowly poisoning him, and so began searching for a cure.
Meanwhile, as Iron Man’s ever growing fame led him to be named Time Magazine’s 2009
Person of the Year, American politicians and military leaders were upset that a private
citizen had such powerful technology and refused to share it with the government and so called
Tony Stark before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
During the meeting, Stark pointed out that no other company or nation in the world was
anywhere near developing something like the Iron Man suit and so this technology was best
left in the hands of its creator, announcing that he’d successfully privatised world
peace.
Back home, Tony’s spent most of his time working on a cure for palladium poisoning
and so was unable to fulfill his duties to Stark Industries, naming his trusted colleague
Pepper Potts as the new CEO.
Believing that Iron Man might be a worthy candidate for the Avengers Initiative, SHIELD
sent Black Widow to spy on him, posing as his new personal assistant Nattalie Rushman.
While working at a soda bottle factory in Brazil, Bruce Banner made anonymous contact
with the scientist Samuel Sterns, sending him a Blood sample to help research his condition.
Training to control his anger, Banner went 190 days without incident until Thaddeus Ross
learned his whereabouts and sent Emil Blonsky with an assault team.
While being hunted, Banner transformed into the hulk and went on a rampage, waking up
some time later in Guatemala, where he set out to reach Culver University in the hopes
of furthering his research with original data from the Bio-Tech Force Enhancement Project.
While driving the Stark Industries race car in the Grand Prix de Monaco, Tony Stark was
attacked by Ivan Vanko who wore a harness that powered electrical whips, creating chaos
all around them.
However Whiplash as he became known, was ultimately defeated by Stark wearing a portable Iron
Man suit brought to him by Happy Hogan and Pepper Potts.
Although Whiplash was taken into custody, he was broken out by Justin Hammer of Hammer
industries, a business rival of Tony Stark who wanted help in developing his own battle
suit technology.
Far to the north in the Arctic, SHIELD director Nick Fury and agent Phil Coulson were at last
making progress in their search for Steve Rogers.
However their work was interrupted when Fury was contacted by the UN Security Council,
and told the funding for the Avengers Initiative was to be redirected towards researching the
Tesseract, as part of Project PEGASUS, seeing it as a possible source of limitless energy.
And so began Fury’s big week, when the SHIELD director, after ignoring the wishes of the
Security Council, oversaw a number of momentous events happening simultaneously across America,
which laid the foundation for the eventual success of the Avengers Initiative.
Miserable because he could not find a cure for palladium poisoning, Stark got drunk at
his birthday party, and fought his friend James Rhodes who stole the Mark II battle
suit, bringing it to the military for study.
Afterwards, Tony met with Nick Fury who revealed that Natalie Rushman was Black Widow, gave
him medicine for his illness and promised they were working on a cure.
Tony was then attacked once more by Ivan Vanko, during Stark Expo in New York, where he hijacked
Hammer Industry drones.
As Iron Man did his best to destroy the drones, he was joined by War Machine, who was James
Rhodes wearing his own battle armor suit, and together they defeated Vanko, saving many
lives, including that of a young Peter Parker who wore an Iron man mask, and valiantly stood
against one of the machines.
In the end, Ivan Vanko was killed while Justin Hammer was arrested for his part in the attack
and with the battle won, Tony Stark expressed his feelings for Pepper Potts, beginning a
relationship.
On Asgard, King Odin, impressed by his son Thor’s accomplishments as a warrior, felt
ready to pass down the crown so he might enter Odinsleep.
However the coronation was interrupted when a small group of Frost Giants infiltrated
Odin’s Vault trying to steal a powerful weapon known as the Casket of Ancient Winters.
But the Vault was protected by an Asgardian Destroyer, who killed the intruders before
they could escape.
Disobeying his father’s orders, Thor led his companions through the bifrost to Jotunheim
where he confronted King Laufey of the Frost Giants fought a battle that ended only because
of the arrival of Odin, who hoped to preserve the peace with Jotunheim.
However King Laufey informed Odin that was no longer possible and so the Asgardians returned
home to prepare for war.
Furious with the unrepentant foolishness of his son, Odin realized Thor was not ready
to be King, and so stripped him of his powers and banished him to Earth.
Odin also sent the hammer Mjølnir, but enchanted it so it could only be wielded by one who
was worthy.
Arriving in New Mexico Thor struggled with the loss of his powers, but even so proved
a formidable warrior able to defeat a number of trained SHIELD agents at a compound where
they studied the Hammer which fell from the sky.
Yet when Thor realized he could no longer lift Mjolnir, he lost all hope, and allowed
himself to be arrested.
Loki then visited and told him their father died meaning he was the new King of Asgard,
and that peace with Frost Giants was now dependant on Thor’s continued exile to Earth.
Devastated, Thor thanked his brother for the information, and resigned himself to his fate.
Wanting to learn more about the mysterious man, Phil Coulson released him and tracked
his movements, finding that he reconnected with Dr. Jane Foster and Dr. Erik Selvig,
who originally found him when he first arrived on the planet.
They were then joined by Lady Sif and the Warrior’s Three, loyal friends of Thor who
learned that Loki was behind the entire ordeal with the Frost Giants, having shown them how
to enter Asgard undetected.
Further, Loki lied about Odin’s death, and instead seized the throne while their father
was in Odinsleep, and their mother was grief stricken by his side.
Wanting to eliminate the enemies of his rule, Loki sent the Destroyer to Earth to and attacked
Thor who refused to fight back, instead offering himself as a sacrifice in the hopes he might
save the others.
Though he was then badly injured, his selflessness and humility were sensed by Mjolnir, which
flew back and restored his powers, allowing Thor to defeat the Destroyer, return to Asgard
and depose his usurper brother.
Loki meanwhile worked with King Laufey to help the Frost Giants kill Odin and recover
the Casket of Ancient Winters.
But it was yet another deception, and Loki instead killed Laufey before using the bifrost
and Casket to destroy Jotunheim once and for all.
To stop him, Thor broke apart the bifrost bridge with his hammer, and as a result Loki
fell into the abyss.
Thor would have fallen as well, if not for Odin who awoke from his slumber in time to
recuse his son.
Back on Earth at Culver University, Bruce Banner reunited with his former girlfriend
Betty Ross, but was soon tracked down by Emil Blonsky, who injected himself with another
version of the Bio tech enhancement serum, greatly increasing his physical capabilities.
However he was still no match for the Hulk and was defeated, leading Blonsky to work
with Samuel Sterns and take even more of the enhancement formula, turning him into a hulk
like beast known as Abomination.
Trashing the laboratory before escaping, Abomination and Hulk finally met in the Duel of Harlem,
where Blonsky was again defeated and taken into SHIELD custody.
The scientist, Samuel Sterns was also arrested, taken in by Black Widow after a drop of Bruce
Banner’s blood landed on an open wound, causing in his head to grow large, greatly
increasing his already impressive intellect.
With enhanced beings causing so much conflict around the world, Tony Stark realized he could
no longer handle world security on his own and so joined SHIELD, as did Dr. Erik Selvig
who came on to study the Tesseract.
Having made it through the chaos of Fury’s big Week, the SHIELD director appeared once
more before the World Security Council, where he explained the magnitude of everything that
just occurred and as a result was approved for an increase in funding.