Get Smart: Loki gives Hydro-Man intellect enough to defeat the Avengers West Coast. But Loki takes it back, just before his puppet kills them, because he wants to save that...  

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This is just another of Immortus’ many divergent timelines, which up until this point, had been popping up as breaks in the featured stories, as an ongoing subplot. This time, though, since the story deceptively revolved around a close semblance of this series’ usual featured title characters and organizations, the divergent timeline was the featured story. The subplot must be nearing it’s climax. The first clue that this wasn’t “our” Avengers West Coast was the presence of Hawkeye, acting as though he’d never left, and has been there the entire time. Hawkeye’s been away for months, working with the Great Lakes Avengers. Interestingly, though, he will return in the next issue, with a proper reintroduction. Another clue was the mention that things’ve been slow, lately, and that’s not true. There’ve been devastating Earthquakes, the original Human Torch is dead again, Scarlet Witch has lost her mind and teamed up with Magneto, and Wonder Man is frantic to find her, and snap her back to her senses, so he can tell her he loves her. None of that was even mentioned. Faithful readers would’ve noticed something fishy right off the bat, but first-time or half-hearted readers would’ve been reeled right in.