The following contains spoilers for All-Out Avengers #5, on sale now from Marvel Comics.
Throughout the recent All-Out Avengers series, the superhero team has been plagued by an unknown psychic threat that has caused them to have numerous amnesiac experiences during the middle of missions. While attempts had been made by the Avengers to find the root cause of these memory losses, the team would always miraculously end up on another mission that they had no memory of. The narration of this psychic character, aka the Grand Manipulator, claimed that their actions served a benevolent purpose. But this mysterious figure has made their first true act of aggression by manipulating superheroes into fighting one another in All-Out Avengers #5 (by Derek Landy, Greg Land, Jay Leisten, and Frank D'Armata).
In All-Out Avengers #4 (by Derek Landy, Greg Land, Jay Leisten and Frank D'Armata), the Avengers managed to make contact with this new antagonist's follower, a warrior known as Emissary. Iron Man began researching a way to block out the psychic manipulator's powers within Earth. However, while Iron Man had believed he had found a way to shield his friends from the effects of this Grand Manipulator, it would seem that was not the case. As during All-Out Avengers #5, both the Avengers and their close ally Spider-Man are manipulated into fighting one another, both believing the other is being mind-controlled by the same unknown threat.
The Grand Manipulator Psychically Attacked the Avengers
As has been the reoccurring trend of the comic series, the fifth issue begins right in the middle of the action, with Spider-Man trying to explain to the Avengers that they are being mind-controlled by a mysterious device called a Memory Resequencer. As explained by the Wall-Crawler, this device is supposedly used by the Grand Manipulator to shuffle the memories of the Avengers, and the cause of their frequent episodes of amnesia throughout the series. During an unseen fight, Spider-Man claimed he saw the alien device used to take over the minds of several Avengers members.
However, the Avengers remember a different story. While they agreed that they found this device during the aforementioned warehouse fight, they claimed that it was Spider-Man who was being controlled by the Grand Manipulator's psychic machinations. With the superheroes not knowing who was truly under the thrall of their psychic opponent, both sides are forced into a massive game of keep away. With Spider-Man trying to keep the Memory Resequencer out of the Avengers grasp, while the hero team attempts the same.
The Avengers Turned Against Spider-Man
During the Avengers pursuit of Spider-Man throughout New York City, the Webbed Warrior was forced to outwit numerous high-tier superheroes, from the metahuman Captain Marvel, to the Vampire Slayer Blade. Spider-Man's ability to hold his own against such powerful heroes being a testament to decades of experience on his part. However, Spider-Man alone could not deduce the enigma of the Memory Resequencer, and thus had it secretly sent to the scientist Samuel Crassus while he was being chased by She-Hulk.
After a temporary armistice was made between Spider-Man and the Avengers, the group reconvened with Professor Crassus' residence to uncover what he had learned from the device. Through CCTV footage, it was revealed that the accounts made by both the Avengers and Spider-Man were simultaneously correct, and that the Resequencer was not only rewriting memories, but reality itself. This meant that Spider-Man and the Avengers had been mind-controlled at the same time, and neither one of them were right. Unfortunately this revelation was undermined by Professor Crassus revealing that he was the Grand Manipulator, who teleported away with the device before any more questions could be asked about his motives.
Captain America Realized the Avengers Were Being Manipulated
This event lead most of the Avengers to believe that they were no further along in discovering who the Grand Manipulator is, now how and why he was psychically attacking the superhero team. However, while the Avengers left the faux Professor's residence with Spider-Man, Captain America had an epiphany regarding who is the most likely candidate for the identity of the psychic opponent. Despite not having any powers of his own, Captain America knew that he was still being watched by a seemingly omnipresent.
Within the seemingly empty room, Captain America called out to the cosmic entity known as the Beyonder. This all-powerful immortal was primarily responsible for the events of all three Secret Wars. Captain America vowed that he would find the Beyonder and put an end to his schemes, no matter what they are. The ending seemingly confirmed Captain America's theory as the text boxes begin panicking, revealing that the entirety of All-Out Avengers was being narrated by the Beyonder. Readers should find the Beyonder's involvement and true motivations to be an intriguing development.