1987 - X-Men vs Avengers Revisited (Part 2)

Here are Roger Stern's original plot summaries for the X-Men vs Avengers #2 & 3 from 1987. The Thor vs Magneto battle in issue #3 would have been amazing, especially drawn by a young Marc Silvestri.

Issue #2

An Avengers Quinjet streaks high over the island…aboard are Black Knight, Captain America, Thor and She-Hulk. They confer on their missions, filling in on how Captain Marvel and Doctor Druid slipped into Kampuchea to check out one of the squads of X-Men, looking for Magneto. The decision has been made as to who is checking out what. Thor and the Black Knight (on his atomic steed) take off for a possible location in Australia…Cap and the She-Hulk descend in the Quinjet into the wilderness of Java.

The Crimson Dynamo and Major Ursus are already searching in the area and the Dynamo gets a fix on the Quinjet. The Dynamo relays word of this to Gremlin, who is manning a distant communications center. Gremlin communicates with Vanguard and Darkstar, who have situation under control in Kampuchea with Wolverine and Dazzler as well as Captain Marvel and Doctor Druid their prisoners (or so they think). No sooner has Vanguard broken contact with the Gremlin than there’s a major dust-up with the two Avengers.

Wolverine and Dazzler manage to escape… they finally locate their chunk of Magneto’s asteroid. But no sooner do they find the thing than they and the asteroid fragment vanish! (Actually, they’re spirited away by the Mandarin who is a secret mastermind behind the scenes.)

Meanwhile in the jugles of Java, Cap and She-Hulk get caught up in battle with Storm and Rogue…and with the Crimson Dynamo and Major Ursus…at the second asteroid impact site. Once again, fragment and mutants mysteriously vanish.

Issue #3

On the great sandy desert of Australia, Havok and Magneto are in the process of unearthing the last of the asteroid fragments (a BIG chunk, complete with part of Magneto’s old orbital headquarters when Thor and the Black Knight close in on them. big battle erupts.

Meanwhile the Gremlin knows that something is very wrong. The mutant X-Men have been mysteriously vanishing and he is certain that somone’s been capturing them via some form of teleportation. He communicates his suspicions to his Super-Soldiers and through them to the Avengers.

Back in the desert, Thor goes one-on-one with Magneto in pitched battle…a real knock-down, drag-out fight between Thor and the “World’s Most Powerful Super-Villain!” Much to Thor’s surprise, the Titanium Man shows up …and assists Magneto against Thor. While Thor is temporarily at a disadvantage, Titanium Man suddenly turns on Magneto and knocks him out. Then, Titanium Man, Magneto, and the final asteroid fragment all vanish.

Avengers and Super-Soldiers regroup, discovering through Gremlin’s help that the mandarin is behind all this. And if Mandarin wanted the mutants and Magneto’s stuff that badly, it can’t be for any good purpose…they have to go into China and settle this!