At Avengers tower, the wounded are patched up as Mr. Fantastic operates on Thor’s head, who is revealed to be a clone of the original. Spider-Man speaks with Yellowjacket, who is lamenting the death of one of his oldest friends. Spider-Man questions whether he’s picked the right side. At the Secret Avengers headquarters, Cap’s team also gets patched up, as new members begin arriving in the aftermath of the battle. However, several members, including Nighthawk, Stature and Cable, decide to leave rather than be forced to continue fighting other heroes. As they exit, a figure wearing a ski-mask looks upon them from the shadows.

In New Jersey, Goliath is buried in the equivalent space of 38 burial plots, because he was unable to be shrunk back to normal size. Tony Stark watches sadly, but is reaffirmed by a mother of the Stamford incident, who hands him her son’s favorite toy – an Iron Man figure. In the background, Peter Parker is privately speaking to Aunt May and Mary Jane, which catches the attention of Reed Richards. That night, after Reed goes to bed, Sue Richards and Johnny Storm leave to join Captain America’s team, with a sad Thing watching from a window. She leaves her husband a note, asking him to please fix what’s been done.

In Avengers tower, Wasp speaks with Mr. Fantastic and Tony Stark about the amount of heroes their side has lost since Goliath’s death. They agree that their only course of action left is to use a new iteration of the Thunderbolts, who have been chipped and tagged to be kept under control. They open a cell to reveal numerous villains, including Venom, Bullseye, Taskmaster, Lady Deathstrike, Jester, Songbird and Jack O’ Lantern standing by.

Review: “I’m sure that by the end of the series one side will become drastically wrong…” Hmmm…who said this…wait, I did, back in my review of issue #2! Go me. The ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’ have now been clearly defined here, as Cap’s team becomes the victims of excessive force on the part of a cloned Thor, and now seemingly controlled super-villains. While the morale judgment still remains – whether the heroes should be forced to register their identities – based on this and the events of Frontline, Iron Man’s side is clearly in the wrong. But this shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. Remember when I called it?

The issue itself is very good. It was common knowledge that a death would occur (having been solicited, then confirmed in an earlier issue of Cable & Deadpool), and no one’s really going to miss Goliath in the long run, but his death scene was made to be a major event. Here is a death in a battle between heroes and heroes. Heroes aren’t supposed to kill villains, let alone other heroes. I don’t see much of a future for this cloned Thor. Show up, kill someone, leave. It’s kind of disappointing, but what else would have given the same effect? Having the villains this early probably wouldn’t have worked.

But that leads to my major problem with this story. The whole point of the Hero Registration is to rebuild trust with the public, following the Stamford incident. That’s why Spider-Man and Iron Man unmasked. That’s why heroes are making it known that they’ve registered. It’s all trust. How much trust is going to be brought about by killing another hero, then immediately unleashing a team of villains? Even in the worst of times, that doesn’t sound like an idea people like Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic or most of the other registered heroes would resort to. It just feels wrong, and it takes away from the greater story presented here. Let’s see where they go with this one, I guess.