[1] Written by Rick Remender, the story involves an initial team-up between the Avengers, X-Men, and a group of villains against Red Skull, who managed to harness the powers of Onslaught and the recently deceased Professor Xavier.

After being freed by Scarlet Witch, Rogue, and Havok, he bites down on a vial of Mutant Growth Hormone beneath his skin, giving himself enough power to fight.

Iron Man manages to deploy a telepathic disrupter and rescues the team, and the Avengers attempt to locate the source of the broadcast.

A team of Avengers and X-Men (Captain America, Hawkeye, Iron Man, Thor, Vision, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Storm) finally arrives shortly to rally the heroes and fight Red Onslaught.

Iron Man uses a telepathic dampener to stop the Red Skull's influence, and more heroes arrived to help (Angel, Beast, Cannonball, Doctor Strange, Hulk, Hyperion, Iceman, Invisible Woman, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Medusa, Nova, Shadowcat, Sunspot) Red Onslaught reveals that he influenced Stark to create a model of Sentinels, based on the knowledge of different super heroes he acquired after the Civil War before erasing the latter's memories of constructing them.

Red Onslaught gloats, telling Stark that he had seen into his mind, and that he was a sociopath fueled by competition, but this boast is interrupted by the return of Magneto, accompanied by a group of villains (Absorbing Man, Carnage, Deadpool, Doctor Doom, Enchantress, Hobgoblin, Jack O'Lantern V, Loki, Mystique, and Sabretooth).

Before Red Skull could wake and reveal whose mind was in control as the X-Men wanted, Steve Rogers and the Avengers decide to be cautious and take him back to Stark Tower.

This triggers a new persona to surface in the Hulk called "Kluh," who proceeds to attack the Avengers and flee the Tower, planning to cause destruction.

After deciding that Kluh is not their problem as long as he stays out of their way, the Avengers arrive at Red Skull's cell, only to find it empty.

After informing the guests about the Red Skull's disappearance, Captain America reveals that only somebody with Avengers clearance would be able to free him, meaning that everyone in the room is a suspect.

Spider-Man senses something is wrong, so he quickly escapes through the window along with Nova right before Captain America releases Pym Particles to imprison the gathered heroes.

Magneto takes Spider-Man and Nova to the Avengers Mansion, where Steve Rogers informs them about the effects of the inversion, including Kluh's rampage across Arizona.

When they find that he was gone, the X-Men brutally beat Captain America and proclaim their intent to conquer New York, issuing an ultimatum that all humans be evacuated from Manhattan within three hours or perish.

[14] After broadcasting a warning for humankind, the X-Men (who had created a gene bomb designed to kill those without the X-Gene in their body) are confronted by Mystique, who attempts to make them see the errors of their ways.

In Las Vegas, Loki tried to unsuccessfully make his brother Thor listen to reason, but he has to be saved by Steve Rogers, Nomad, and Spider-Man in the Quinjet.

[16] With the gene bomb's countdown nearly completed, Spider-Man attempts to stop it by smothering the device with his webbing, but Carnage interrupts, informing him that his efforts will fail.

Determined to recover Red Skull from Avengers Tower, Steve Rogers dons a new exoskeleton armor to confront his successor as Captain America, Sam Wilson, demanding that he stand down.

Iron Man is incapacitated, and Doom, Daniel Drumm possessing Scarlet Witch, and Red Skull began another inversion spell.

It is a success with every person reverted to their original state, except for Iron Man deploying a last-minute telepathic shield that protects himself, Havok, and Sabretooth.

He saves a prostitute from a man, seriously injures him and starting a chain reaction that leads to the woman attacking Carnage, who responds by gently knocking her unconscious and declaring her to be a criminal.

Among those who answer are Lily Hollister (who was rendered amnesiac after a botched rescue from the police by Goblin King) and an underemployed teenager named John Myers.

He sets a three phase program including a book and various articles with his brand and underground speeches named after Ned Leeds for people to make their own franchises in exchange for a share of their profits, Hobgoblin debuts his Hob-Heroes which consisted of Lily Hollister as Queen Cat, John Myers as Missile Mate, Flower Girl, Leatherboy, Rocket Head, and Water Wizard.

After excusing himself from the authorities, Hobgoblin is approached by Steve Rogers to become part of a team of Avengers with the objective to stop the inverted X-Men from detonating a gene bomb which would killed everyone on the Earth who is not a mutant.

In order to combat a now-evil Scarlet Witch when she invades Latveria, with the help of Valeria, Doom forms his own team of Avengers consisting of 3D Man, Elsa Bloodstone, Stingray, Valkyrie, and U.S.

[29] Gathered on the battlefield, Red Onslaught has unleashed chaos on the city: the inversion spell has flipped personalities and psychic attacks are controlling beings for his cause.

Amidst battle, Magneto has the idea to bring Professor X's conscious to the forefront of Red Onslaught, using Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch.

[18] Iron Man was present in the Red Onslaught's concentration camp when the Scarlet Witch cast the inversion spell that finally defeated him.

Flying over San Francisco, he delivers a mobile device app that gives the user free access to Extremis 3.0, along with instructions on how to use it to change your body into whatever you want.

People around the city do the same as Tony explains to Pepper the second part of his strategy to leverage Extremis to provide Stark Industries (as he still calls it) with a large amount of money.

And while the overall pacing does benefit slightly in this collected format, the hardcover's lack of extras and poor paper quality make the high cover price a hard pill to swallow.