The Swordsman visits the Avengers Mansion with the intention of joining their team so he can obtain the immunity of their membership card. But his attitude only gets him in a fight against Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch who take him down. He comes to moments after and runs away. Through an unexpected action by Hydra agents, the Swordsman learns that Captain America wants to join Nick's Fury organization so he uses the information to lure him into a warehouse where he attacks and captures the Avengers. When Cap's teammates come to rescue him, the villain threatens to push their friend down a building if they don't make him leader of the Avengers, but the hero jumps before they agree. With teamwork, they manage to save him. Then while they fight the Swordsman, their foe suddenly vanishes. Teleported to the Mandarin's lair, the Swordsman learns that he intends to help him get accepted in the team so that he can smash Iron Man from within. To do so, the Mandarin considerably upgrades his sword with new features, then he sends a fake message from Iron Man saying that he vouches for the Swordsman's membership. Some time after they took him in, the Swordsman sets a bomb in their HQ so he can blow Iron Man up when he shows up, but the Mandarin changes his mind and orders his ally to blow it up that night. Refusing to resort to such an assassination, especially with the Scarlet Witch is involved, the Swordsman decides to remove the bomb, but Cap and Hawkeye catch him in the act and he is unable to convince them that he was actually disarming it. As he runs away, the Mandarin detonates the bomb for his betrayal, but the Swordsman threw it away just in time to avoid the blast.