Marvel's Avengers: Twilight Reveals the New Hawkeye

[Spoiler alert for Avengers: Twilight #3.] Avengers... assemble. Decades after "Hero Day" — a battle against Ultron that resulted in the deaths of many of Earth's mightiest heroes — the Avengers disassembled. Their replacements are the new "Avengers" working with the totalitarian government manipulated by Kyle Jarvis — secretly a disguised Red Skull conspiring with an A.I. Ultron — and James Stark, the CEO son of the original Iron Man and the Wasp. In this future without heroes, Luke Cage recruited an elderly Steve Rogers to his underground resistance, the Defenders, and had his freedom fighters replicate the Super-Soldier Serum that transformed Steve into Captain America.

After "Jarvis" had the U.S. military engage the Thunderbolts to quell Captain America's Defender rebellion, Ramona Jones — a Marine sniper nicknamed "Bullseye" — disobeyed a direct order to fire on an unarmed Cap, who then escaped. Cap and Cage's Defenders sought help from the "world's smartest man": the visionary Tony Stark, whose disembodied head is kept prisoner in the Raft.

This week's Avengers: Twilight #3 sees Captain America infiltrate the prison on the East River, which the government converted into a monstrous research facility with relics from past supervillains: Doctor Octopus' tentacle-like arms, the Vulture's wings, the Green Goblin's glider, the Venom symbiote. After techie Tyler manages to transmit a distress signal that Cap calls his "Hail Mary," he flies an old Avengers quinjet to the prison surrounded by miles of icy water. Tyler accompanies the rescue mission to help Cap override the Raft's security.

At the Raft, James tells his father that he created his own Iron Man armor — without using Tony Stark's brain. James believes he's smarter than his father and "actually saving the world," unlike his superhero parents who "just flew around punching baddies." Cap sneaks into the high-security prison turned research facility to find and free Tony, but he's caught by Bullseye: "The soldier who didn't shoot me." A soldier who has been ordered to shoot the "terrorist" Captain America on sight.

James confronts "old man" Cap and threatens to call the Avengers. As he rants about locking up dissidents and the countless rights violations under this totalitarian regime, Bullseye strikes James with an arrow — a flesh wound to his shoulder. Before Bullseye can explain why she's suddenly switched sides, the new Iron Man calls in a security breach as the two soldiers escape with Tony's head.

Bullseye trades in her sniper rifle for a bow on "quiet missions," but alarms turn Cap's stealth rescue mission into a prison break. "You call yourself 'Bullseye'... but I know a Hawkeye when I see one," Cap tells the Thunderbolt he's just christened an Avenger. The new Hawkeye abides by Cap's no-kill rule and leads him to a room where he'll be "made whole."

"I thought it was age that made me feel incomplete," Cap thinks. "With the serum, I can lead armies. With you... I can do anything." For the first time in what feels like a lifetime, Captain America is reunited with his star-spangled shield. The Sentinel of Liberty lives again. Cap and Hawkeye make a run for the quinjet, but James — suited up in a brawny Iron Man armor — impedes their escape with a repulsor blast. Iron Man shoots down the aircraft and nearly kills Tyler... but as Cap says: "Nobody dies today. Nobody. Not while Captain America lives."

Hawkeye covers Cap as he rescues Tyler from the crashing quinjet, but the trio are surrounded by S.H.I.E.L.D.'s armored Iron Cops. Iron Man trades blows with the Super Soldier, telling the old man he's "the past, fighting the future." Old-fashioned as he may be, Cap reminds the young man: "No. I fight for the future." James is intoxicated on the power granted to him by his Iron Man armor. Hawkeye embraces Cap's no-kill rule as she tries to save the Raft soldiers who are collateral damage from Iron Man's recklessness.

"You want to save people? All our rules that you hate do just that," the Authoritarian Avenger tells Cap as he tries to beat him into submission. "A few examples made. A few dreamers put to sleep." Cap resists and questions what gives James Stark the right to decide who lives or dies: His money? His father's brilliant mind? James throws Tony's head into the East River and declares he no longer needs his father's brain. Hawkeye dives into the water to save the Iron Cops... and is fished out by the giant hand of Kamala Khan, Ms. Marvel, who lifts them to safety with Tony's head in hand.

Captain America's shield trades blows with Iron Man's armor, but he's outmatched. "I'm James Stark," the iron war monger says, "and I run the world." But Cap has met men like him. "You won't run it for long. The power resides in the people." As Iron Man fires up a repulsor blast to kill the dream, he's struck by a thunderbolt from the heavens. But it's not Cap's prayers that are answered: it's his distress signal. It's the mighty Thor, the God of Thunder, wielding his enchanted hammer Mjolnir as the skies rage with righteous fury. "It's been a wolf's age, Captain," Thor proclaims. "Shall we assemble?"

Avengers: Twilight #3 is on sale now from Marvel Comics.