The Tony Stark AI flies his team, consisting of Scott "Ant-Man" Lang, Pietro "Quicksilver" Maximoff, Bobbi "Mockingbird" Morse, Sam Wilson, and Hercules, to Antartica so they can collect another cosmic cube shard which is in the Savage Lands. He tells the others that they won't get into a fight like they did when they went after Hank Pym / Ultron's shard; they'll just talk to the person in charge of the Savage Lands and convince him to turn the shard over. Lang asks if the Savage Land really has dinosaurs in it, and Maximoff says yes (and also calls Lang an idiot). Hercules notes that he's happy that he might get to fight monsters for treasure. Wilson just wants to know who runs the Savage Lands, and Morse and the Stark AI explain that the leader is Karl "Sauron" Lykos, a mad scientist who made himself part-dinosaur and has the power to drain life from others. Morse then tells the Stark AI to return to flying the plane, to which the AI responds that he can both fly and talk to the others at once. However, the plane then shakes violently as it flies into the midst of a battle between pterodactyls and dragonlike monsters.
Morse orders the Stark AI to land the jet before one of the monsters flies into their engine, and the AI does so, referencing Sully in the process. He gets them down and continues to banter, causing Morse to ask if he can be turned off. The AI just responds that most electronics don't work in the Savage Lands, so Morse and the others should feel lucky that they can even hear his presence at all. Morse grouchily leads the team out of the jet, and Maximoff wonders why Lang isn't the leader since he's a thief and the mission will likely involve stealing various cosmic cube shards. Lang says he trusts Morse, so Maximoff asks Wilson why he can't be the leader, calling him Captain America in the process. Wilson says not to use that name with him. Maximoff taunts Wilson for having used the Captain America moniker before Steve Rogers took over the world, to which Wilson responds that he lost more than anyone when Rogers went evil and Maximoff shouldn't pick a fight with him. Enraged, Maximoff says he's happily murder Rogers if that wouldn't leave his sister Wanda at risk of being possessed by Chthon permanently. Before the argument can escalate, though, Lykos flies at them and grabs Morse.
Hercules tries to pursue Lykos, but Lykos hypnotizes him into attacking the other members of his team. Pietro makes a crack about Hercules having a weak mind, but Hercules is able to pummel him despite his super-speed. Lang and Wilson scatter, and Lykos boasts that everybody else is too distracted to stop him from draining Morse's life energy. He exposits that, once he's stronger, he'll attack the servants of Morse who stole his throne. Morse has no idea what he's talking about but is powerless to fight Lykos. Before Lykos can kill her, however, the Stark AI shoots Lykos with guns from the jet. This sends him crashing down and causes him to release Morse, and also disrupts his control of Hercules.
Morse ties Lykos to a tree and demands the cosmic cube shard, bluntly dismissing Lykos' threats and taunts. Lykos asks why they would help the 'New Stewards' to seize his throne and then show up just to mock him, and Morse insists she doesn't know who the New Stewards are. Lykos finally explains that the New Stewards are three mutates who seized his throne by using the power of the cosmic cube shard; he thought Morse's team had provided them with the shard in the first place. Morse says that not only did they not give the shard to the mutates, but they actually need to take it away from them, and Lykos triumphantly proclaims that makes them allies.
Lykos exposits that he returned to the Savage Lands one year prior with advanced weapons. He hypnotized the local mutates into serving him, and with them as his army he was able to conquer the Lands. Later, however, three mutates somehow obtained a cosmic cube shard and turned on him. These were Whiteout, who psionically blinded him, Vertigo, who made him ill, and Lupa, who had formerly only been able to control wolves but now was able to manipulate dinosaurs into driving Lykos away. Lykos offers to help Morse and her team reclaim the shard, if they help reinstall him as ruler of the Savage Lands.
Morse takes his offer to the rest of the team, saying that on the one hand they really need the cube shard, but on the other she doesn't want to help an evil megalomaniac retake power. She says the choice is between dooming the Savage Lands by helping Sauron, and dooming the whole world by leaving behind the cosmic cube shard that could fix Rogers. Maximoff says the cube shard will help save his sister, so they should do whatever is necessary to get it. Lang agrees and says they have no choice, and Hercules says he just wants to punch dinosaurs. Wilson adds that he'll back any choice Mose makes. Morse sighs that she was hoping one of them would talk her out of it, but as it is they're all decided to help Lykos. She goes to him and tells him that if he can take them to his former Citadel (where the shard presumably is), they will help him get inside to retake his throne. Lykos asks for help defeating the New Stewards as well but Morse rebuffs him, so Lykos settles for what she's offering. He extends a hand to shake, and though Morse doesn't want to do so Maximoff yells at her to just do it already. She takes his hand, but he suddenly seizes her hand and draws it to his lips to kiss it. Enraged, Morse yanks her hand away before freeing Lykos to help them.
The group moves through the jungle, with Lykos arrogantly proclaiming he doesn't trust the others, and Morse and Hercules commiserating over how much they want to beat up Rogers and Lykos. Lykos then says they have to pass through a village to get to the citadel and orders Maximoff to scout ahead; Maximoff doesn't want to take his orders but does so when Wilson reminds him that this is for Wanda. He leaves, and Lang notes that, somehow, Lykos is as annoying as the incredibly-annoying Maximoff. Wilson then takes Lang aside and asks if he's still in touch with his daughter Cassie, whom Wilson had previously helped escape from HYDRA territory. Lang says yes, but when Wilson asks if Lang talks about Cassie with the others, Lang says no and asks why Wilson cares. Wilson says Rogers' betrayal has caused him to worry about who he can trust, and while he knows they need to fix the cosmic cube so they can fix Rogers, he's worried that once they have a working cosmic cube someone might misuse it. Before he can explain what this has to do with Cassie, though, they reach the village.
Lang asks if they should just sneak around the village, but Lykos proclaims that he is the rightful ruler of the land and will not cower. He will march through the town, he says, and if anyone objects he will burn it to ash. He walks towards it and Morse leads the others after him, saying they'll need to stop him if he actually tries to burn anything. When one of the villagers proclaims that the New Stewards are great, however, Lykos loses his temper and begins setting things on fire. Morse attacks him but Lykos points out that he has them over a barrel; he knows they need him to get the cube shard and save their world. At that moment, two warriors serving the New Stewards arrive riding gigantic tyrannosaurus rexes and demand the surrender of Sauron and his team.
An overjoyed Hercules leaps at one of the dinosaurs to fight it, but is immediately devoured by it instead. Morse yells for Wilson to give her a lift and calls him 'Falcon' in the process. He objects to being called Falcon, but she tells him to shut up and just airlift her onto one of the dinosaurs. He does and she slams into the warrior riding the dinosaur, knocking him down. Meanwhile, Lang grows to a huge size and seizes the other warrior, though he can't stop the dinosaur from biting him. Morse battles the warrior she had hit and he declares he won't let them help Lykos enslave them again. Morse says that she thought the warriors and New Stewards had helped Lykos take over, and the warriors admits this but notes that Lykos then went crazy and enslaved or imprisoned all possible threats to his rule. The only reason he didn't enslave or remove Lupa, Whiteout, and Vertigo was because they were beautiful and Lykos liked to look at them; Morse rolls her eyes at this. At that moment, the other dinosaur slams into theirs and sends Morse flying, though Wilson catches her before she falls to the ground. The stumbling dinosaur then trips over the other dinosaur and crashes to the ground, taking them both out. Moments later, Hercules carves his way out of the stumbling dinosaur's belly, overjoyed at having won the fight.
Lykos complains that they took too long to win the fight. At that moment, Maximoff returns and Morse asks where he was. He says he was scouting for enemies. Wilson calls Maximoff 'Speedball' and says that he missed a few, to which Maximoff calls him 'Captain Falcon' and responds that he found a secret passage which can take them directly into the citadel.
The group enters the passage, with Morse asking Lykos to take the lead because he knows the general layout. They shut the door behind them, leaving the room in total darkness, and head forwards. Morse asks Lykos to pull his wings in so as not to knock her around, then requests to hold his hand so he can lead her through the darkness. Lykos concludes that Morse has fallen for his sexual magnetism and allows her to do so; however, as soon as they reach the end of the passage, she immediately beats him up, hogties him, and kicks him into the next room. Her mask has night vision, she explains, and she knew Lykos would betray them as soon as it was convenient so she has no problem with betraying him first. She then looks around and notes that Lupa, Whiteout, and Vertigo are in the room along with some of Lupa's wolves, and offers to trade them Lykos.
The New Stewards are polite and say they have no desire to fight Morse or her team. They offer her anything they have in exchange for Lykos, but when Morse asks for the cosmic cube shard, they demur and say they need that because it's what made them strong enough to stop Lykos and bring peace to the Savage Lands. Morse says they can't leave without it, and so the two groups break into a large fight.
Morse duels Lupa's wolves while Wilson tries to fly away with Vertigo, but she makes him dizzy and then slams him into a wall while he's disoriented. Maximoff uses his super-speed to beat some of the wolves down but is then hit by Whiteout's psionic blindness and drops to his knees. Whiteout in turn is knocked down when Hercules throws a gigantic wolf into her body. He charges Lupa and they spar, complimenting each other's strength, until Lupa decides to end it and bites him with her long fangs.
Meanwhile, Vertigo approaches Lykos. He expects her to fall in love with him and free him, but she says she found a bunch of cloning tanks and realized that Lykos has been cloning her and using her as a disposable warrior for years. She begins to strangle him, but he breaks free of his bonds and slashes her down. Meanwhile, Morse sees the shard on Lupa's person and throws one of her batons at her. Lang, having shrunk down and straddling the baton, grabs the shard as he passes Lupa. Lupa immediately knocks the shard from his fingers, though, and everyone jumps for it, with Lykos finally grabbing it. Before he can actually use it, though, Vertigo, Whiteout, and Morse attack him and knock him out, sending the shard spinning away.
Later, the Stark AI asks if the New Stewards really just gave up the shard after all that. Morse clarifies that Maximoff got his sight back when Whiteout attacked Lykos, enabling him to grab the shard and run away with it. Once the New Stewards realized they would never get it back, they gave up. They also let Morse lock Lykos away in a dungeon. The Stark AI asks what happens next and Morse says they need to heal for a while; Hercules is badly burned, Lang was bitten by a dinosaur, and Maximoff has several cracked ribs from when Hercules was hypnotized into attacking him. Lang jokes that, thanks to bites he and Hercules took from a dinosaur and Lupa's wolves respectively, in a month he'll be a were-dinosaur and Hercules will be a werewolf so they can have wacky adventures. Morse, amused, says she'd watch that show.
Hercules falls unconscious and Morse orders them to go home and heal up. Maximoff says he agrees and is starting to see why Morse is the leader. She jokes that she loves him too, and he tells her not to push it.
Tropes:
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Lykos is a misogynistic jerk.
