Secret Empire #0 (2017)

Japan, 1945. Captain America is fighting his way through a blizzard in the mountains when he encounters the Kraken in the opening to a cave. They make their way down a staircase while going over Steve's accomplishments as a Hydra spy within the Allied forces. The Kraken reveals they have reached the source of Hydra's power. Together with a man identified as Hydra's Father, Kraken reveals Captain America the Allies are going to use a Cosmic Cube to rewrite reality itself and win the war. A chained up old man casts in a pond images of the future, explaining that the Red Skull will recover the cube and will use it to restore Steve back to his reality before the Allies interfered, and he must do all that is necessary to restore the world that was once that happens. The Earth suddenly rumbles and Kraken orders Steve to jump into the pond to protect himself explaining once he awakes, he will find himself in the altered version of reality. Kraken encourages Steve as reality begins to fade away. In the present, Captain America is on the Helicarrier's bridge and Commander Sharon Carter approaches him, giving a sitrep on three critical situations that have arisen. The Chitauri Wave, consisting of trillions of these aliens, is approaching the Earth while the Planetary Defense Shield has been taken down by a Hydra bomber. Alpha Flight, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and other heroes hold the line while the Tony Stark A.I. in the Iron Man armor and Ironheart are trying to fix the Shield's damage. Meanwhile, New York is being attacked by the Army of Evil, a group of supervillain ex-prisoners of Pleasant Hill swearing revenge as well as other supervillains that weren't imprisoned at Pleasant Hill. The Defenders and several other vigilantes confront the villains. At the same time in Sokovia, six Helicarriers are approaching the war-torn nation's airspace after the base in the area, Helicarrier Crescent, fell off the radar. In all fronts, the heroes are dealt critical blows. Alpha Flight finds itself being slowly overpowered, with numerous heroes being taken down, including Quasar and Hyperion; the Shield's repair takes a turn for the worse; and Nitro causes an explosion in Manhattan which levels an entire block as well as it defeating the Defenders. Once the United States designates a full state of emergency, thus putting Steve in immediate command of national security, Cap rallies the heroes one more time. Almost suddenly, the Shield's systems auxiliary lines go back operational, enabling the armor-clad heroes to activate the Shield. Due to their mindless nature, the Chitauri continue to advance, plowing into the Shield to their demise, ensuring control of the situation to Alpha Flight. In New York, the villains appear to retreat after the Avengers Unity Division arrive to help out. Furthermore, the other Helicarriers make contact with Crescent. However, the airship turns out to be in a collision course, and crashes into Helicarrier Illiad, with the systems not responding to employ evasive actions. After the impact, Illiad is boarded by Hydra footsoldiers. It's also discovered all crew aboard the Crescent is under the control of Doctor Faustus. Captain America steps in the line of fire and utters a sign that identifies himself as Hydra's Supreme Leader. Sharon is perplexed by the situation, and is then taken away under Rogers' orders. Before communicating with Captain Marvel, Cap orders his subordinates to use Iliad's comms deck to broadcast Faustus' brainwashing message to the rest of the fleet to take over the Helicarriers. Alpha Flight continues to fight the Chitauri fleet while back down on Earth, Iron Man and Ironheart discover the Shield is no longer responding. Iron Man theorizes that the Hydra bombing simply caused superficial damage to hide the fact the Shield's systems were being tampered with and failing on purpose. As they continue to figure out the situation, they are surrounded by Hydra agents. Back in the other side of the Shield, Carol alerts Steve the Shield isn't responding to her attempts to open a portal back to Earth. He soon reveals his intention to leave her and Alpha Flight trapped between the upcoming Chitauri waves and the Shield. Iron Man and Ironheart escape from Hydra, having figured out the plan of whoever was in control of the Shield, to use the Chitauri forces as a bait to lure a lineup of first responders heavy hitters while the Shield was down, and then lock them out. When Iron Man suggests to get out a distress call, he realizes the next place to be hit, where anybody of the people attending the crisis was if it wasn't in space, New York. In the coast of Manhattan, Baron Zemo uses the Darkhold to boost Blackout's powers and have him isolate half the island in a Darkforce dome. Once Iron Man and Ironheart get the reports of what occurred in the Big Apple, Iron Man calls any hero available to where he believes will be the next target, Washington, D.C.. His hunch turns out to be correct as all of the Helicarriers taken over by Hydra are now hovering above the White House.