A broadcast disrupts the world's communications systems, filling televisions and computer monitors with images of death and destruction that cause thousands of people to commit suicide. The broadcast ripples across the psychic plane, and attracts the attention of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Charles Xavier, with both tracing the source to the Tunguska wasteland in Russia, the site of a massive comet crash over a century ago. S.H.I.E.L.D. Commander Nick Fury leads a team of heroes - Captain America, Black Widow and Sam "Falcon" Wilson - on a reconnaissance mission, while Professor X sends the X-Men Jean Grey, Wolverine and Colossus to investigate. Neither team is aware of the other's involvement.