Secret Wars (2015 comic book)

"Secret Wars"
Cover of Secret Wars #1 (May 2015). Art by Alex Ross.
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Publication date	May 6, 2015
Genre	Superhero Crossover
Main character(s)	Avengers Cabal Doctor Doom Fantastic Four Guardians of the Galaxy Molecule Man Spider-Man Thor Captain Marvel Howling Commandos Hulk Inhumans X-Men
Creative team
Writer(s)	Jonathan Hickman
Artist(s)	Esad Ribić
Colorist(s)	Ive Svorcina

Secret Wars is a 2015 comic book storyline published by Marvel Comics. It recalls the original, similarly-named 1984–1985 miniseries. Released on May 6, 2015, the storyline includes a core Secret Wars mini-series, written by Jonathan Hickman and drawn by Esad Ribić, which picks up from where the "Time Runs Out" storyline running in Avengers and New Avengers ends.^[1]

The storyline involves the Marvel Universe combining with various other alternate universes (including those seen in the Ultimate Marvel and Marvel 2099 imprints, the "Age of Apocalypse" storyline, the Marvel 1602 universe, and the "House of M" storyline) into Battleworld, a planet whose domains exhibit the aspects of the various universes. The planet itself is divided in many territories that are mostly self-contained and where a "pocket universe" composed of a specific storyline or universe reside and evolve. Various versions of individual Marvel characters can be present multiple times on the Battleworld. For example, there is a Tony Stark present in many of the territories where the Kingdom of Manhattan has both the Earth-1610 and the Earth-616 versions. The stories depicted in the miniseries about each domains where characters have powers and personal histories vastly different than the one portrayed in the main Marvel universe(s).

The core limited series was originally to be eight issues long, but was later decided to extend to a ninth, which ran, due to several delays, for nine months.^[2][3] The mini series are in three categories, which are Battleworld, Warzones, and Last Days. One of the core miniseries is Ultimate End which ends the Ultimate Marvel imprint after 15 years. Ultimate End is written by Brian Michael Bendis and artist Mark Bagley, the team that began the Ultimate Marvel universe with Ultimate Spider-Man.^[4]

Premise

The series was introduced with two issues in May, then ran monthly until December. The series began with a nine issue mini series (plus a Free Comic Day issue #0) and came out of the current Avengers and New Avengers "Time Runs Out" storyline. The basic premise involves the collision of the Marvel 616 Universe with the Ultimate Marvel 1610 Universe which destroys both. Pieces of the two universes are mysteriously saved and combined with other post collision universes creating the "Battleworld."^[5]

Numerous tie-in miniseries and ongoing titles will flesh out the event with many of them revisiting previous Marvel events such as Civil War, Age of Apocalypse, Days of Future Past (renamed, in this 2015 event, to Years of Future Past) and Armor Wars. All of the tie-ins will be aligned into one of three subtitles during the event consisting of Last Days, Battleworld, and Warzones.

Marvel's executive editor Tom Brevoort has revealed that "Last Days" will show several characters from Captain America and Ms. Marvel to Loki and Magneto in their final adventures before the Marvel Universe comes to an end in Secret Wars, "Warzones" will focus on the individual domains, and "Battleworld" will be concerned with the infrastructure of the Battleworld as a whole.^[6]

Plot

Last Days

Ant-Man

Slug reestablished his criminal empire in Miami where he encountered Scott Lang after Mary Morgan of the retirement home Valhalla Villas hired Lang to steal back an Asgardian artifact that Slug had won from Morgan during a game of contract bridge. In the present during the Incursion between Earth-616 and Earth-1610, Ant-Man delivers the goods to Mary Morgan where he learns that she is Miss Patriot. Mary Morgan revealed that Valhalla Villas is a retirement home for Golden Age heroes and villains where they live out their days in blissful remembrance. Mary Morgan then assembles the residents of Valhalla Villas like Golden Girl, Doctor Fear, Thunderer, Leopard Girl, Human Top, Sun Girl, American Ace, Flash Foster, and Wax Master. Using the Asgardian artifact, Mary Morgan rejuvenated the Valhalla Villa residents as Miami sees the unexpected resurgence of characters from the Golden Age. Mary decides to remain elderly since the past was too much to bear the first and only time. Scott then visits his ex-wife Peggy Rae in an attempt to see his daughter Cassandra Lang. Peggy puts Scott in his place due to him making no effort to visit her since she was in the hospital. Peggy also tells Scott that Cassandra is at a school excursion to Atlanta. While drinking at a nightclub, Ant-Man encounters Janice Lincoln where he tries to take her down only to get blasted. Janice states to Ant-Man that he should party like there is no tomorrow since it is the last night on Earth. Ant-Man takes in Janice's suggestions as they both hit the dance floor. He wakes up the next morning with Janice in his bed as the final parts of the Incursion occur.^[7]

Black Widow

As the evacuation of Earth-616 begins in light of the fact that Earth-1610 is about to come crashing down, Black Widow is given a list of people to bring aboard the lifeboat. As she leaves, she remembers an early mission for the Red Room where she was running an operation in Cuba to extract a family of dissidents alongside her already-embedded classmate. When she arrives, things seem to be as they should be, but a few subtle hints and clues begin to crop up to throw the proverbial spanner into the works.^[8]

Captain America and the Mighty Avengers

Steve Rogers tells the Mighty Avengers team that the world is ending and asks them to side with him or the Illuminati. Months later, the entire world knows about the impending cataclysm, each member of the Mighty Avengers approaches the end of the world. Soraya Khorasani, a volunteer member of the team, responds to the Mighty Avengers hotline, fielding calls for suicide prevention. White Tiger tries to reconcile with her family, who are angry at her for choosing a life that has led to so much death. They threaten to kill her if she does not leave. Spectrum devises a plan to destroy the other Earth during the Incursion. Two weeks later, after a fight between the Mighty Avengers and the Illuminati, Spectrum channels her full power in an attempt to destroy the other Earth, but hesitates when she sees Maker (the Mister Fantastic from Earth-1610) and is captured.^[9]

Loki: Agent of Asgard

Odin dreams of the end of all existence in an event greater than Ragnarok as the pantheon of ancient gods tells him that if he “defeats his enemies” he will inherit the reborn world after this latest cataclysm. Odin goes to a council where representatives from all ten realms have met to discuss the situation, and demands that they all submit to his command. They refuse. Meanwhile, Loki is at the apartment of Verity Willis, a human with the ability to tell when someone is lying. Loki houses Verity's soul in a bracelet to protect her from the Incursion. In Asgard, a future version of Loki named King Loki has released Jormungandr, the world-serpent, and attacks the gods. Freyja sacrifices herself to destroy Jormungandr and Odin blows Gjallarhorn, the Horn of Heroes, which resurrects all of the dead gods. Loki joins the dead gods to defend Asgard, which causes King Loki to run away. Loki is praised as a hero, but uncharacteristically shows no interest. As the nine realms fade away due to the Incursion, Loki preserves the story of each god. Loki, King Loki, and Verity survive the Incursion. Loki makes peace with King Loki and, after creating a door labeled "Next", invites Verity to join him in finding out what is on the other side.^[10]

Magneto

As the two planets converge, Magneto and his daughter Polaris are fighting Sentinels that were sent from the other Earth. Magneto focuses on the Sentinels while ignoring collateral damage and innocent bystanders. Polaris, trying to protect the people caught in the middle, is shocked at how much energy her father is using. Magneto reminds her that he had worked with the Sugar Man months before to develop a new method of amplifying his powers. The amount of magnetic energy Magneto is channeling begins to take a deadly toll on his body. Magneto recalls again that when he first used Sugar Man's power amplifiers, they gave him brain aneurysms. As S.H.I.E.L.D. joins the fight, Magneto takes the responsibility of the fight on himself by absorbing Polaris' power. He tells Polaris he cannot let her die alongside him. Magneto's powers reach a new level as the Earth's north and south magnetic poles and all the bio-electric energies of the Earth are channeled through him in his final attack.^[11]

Ms. Marvel

Kamala Khan sees the beginning of the Incursion and realizes that the panic will spread to Jersey City. She organizes an evacuation zone in her high school because it was given a protection spell by Loki. When she returns to her home to evacuate her family, she instead finds Kamran, a fellow Inhuman. He tells her he used the Incursion as a distraction and kidnapped her brother Aamir so he could be exposed to the Terrigen Mists. Kamala returns to the school, but breaks down when she sees everyone looking up to her. Captain Marvel arrives to help. She praises Kamala for her work and calms her down. Carol explains the Incursion to Kamala, and begins to leave to join the fight in Manhattan, but Kamala convinces her to stay and help her find her brother. While they are looking, Carol mentors Kamala and helps her handle several difficult situations. They locate the warehouse where Aamir is being kept and are attacked by several Inhumans. They defeat the Inhumans, but find that Aamir has already been exposed to the Terrigen Mist.^[12]

Punisher

After massacring a supervillain gathering, the Punisher is contacted by the Howling Commandos, who request his aid completing one final mission before the world ends. The Punisher agrees to help, and is airlifted to Tikrit, where he works on "punishing" the Black Dawn, a terrorist group that had been filming themselves executing American hostages, including a former associate of the Punisher's.^[13] The Punisher decimates the Black Dawn, and dies from gunshot wounds as the Earth is destroyed by the Incursions.^[14]

Silver Surfer

Silver Surfer and Dawn decide to visit all the friends they met on their travels. When they visit the Never Queen (who embodies all Possibility), she is all but faded away as the final incursion happens and the universe is destroyed. Silver Surfer avoids the end by surfing back in time. While fleeing, Dawn sees another version of herself and Silver Surfer, and the other Dawn helps them escape through a tear in the fabric of reality. They wind up in an all white area. They meet Glorian and his "lowly" assistant Zee. They explain the Secret Wars to Silver and Dawn. Glorian is planning to rebuild the universe for the heroes to return to, with the help of the Shaper of Worlds. The Shaper is so big that the all white background was just a small spot between his eye and his nose.^[15]

Glorian then greeted Silver Surfer and Dawn with a tantalizing offer: ally with the Shaper of Worlds to rebuild the universe that was lost. Dawn agreed to use her memories to restore Earth while Silver Surfer left to restore the rest of the universe. But Silver Surfer unmade Galactus while Dawn unknowingly created another version of Norrin. The Shaper of Worlds isn't happy with the changes.^[16]

Norrin Radd completes his creation of the new Universe, and so does Dawn Greenwood. Then the Shaper of Worlds says all Dawn has to do is choose the right Surfer from the real or duplicate, but she can't choose. The Shaper is weak now, so Glorian attacks Shaper and becomes him, gaining the ability to shape the universe, but he needs Dawn to choose. She refuses and the real Norrin asks "what shape is the heart of the Never Queen", and Dawn chooses the other side of her front gate. As Glorian is taken by surprise, Silver Surfer rushes Dawn to her house. As she reaches the fence, the Never Queen says "And just like that one possibility is within your reach. Choose". They find themselves back in the all white area where Glorian appears as the synthetic universe they both made. Eternity appears wearing Doctor Doom's mask. Dawn and Silver Surfer have to choose which one must continue to exist. Suddenly, Doctor Doom's influence over Eternity crumbles, and the mask breaks to release Eternity as Earth-616. Still a choice must be made. Dawn asks Eternity if this is the same old universe. Eternity replies that the 616 multiverse no longer exists. Instead it transitioned from the 7th to the 8th Universe. Dawn and Surfer pick Eternity and Glorian's universe fades into nothingness. Surfer and Dawn head inside the new universe.^[17]

Silk

Silk begins her run as Silk and comes across Dragonclaw and defeats him and references Pokémon while defeating him. Later, she finds out Dragonclaw did this because he was in the debt of Black Cat. This was the reason for his misdeeds and the tries to help him out by enlisting the help of Spider-Man to find Black Cat's gang causing a show down between Silk and Black Cat which leads to Silk cutting her hair to escape. While this was going on, it is shown that Silk is still very confused as to what has happened to her family and ex-boyfriend which leads her to take a job under J. Jonah Jameson at the Fact Channel who takes an immediate liking to her as she suggests that they start taking photos of Silk. One day, J. Jonah Jameson looks at Cindy Moon's screen to find out that she was trying to find leads as to where her family is which also leads her to tell him everything about her. A couple of days pass and it is shown to be the final incursion between Earth-616 and Earth-1610 as time is running out. J. Jonah Jameson gives Silk a cade file of a young boy who seems to be Silk's brother as he tells her this. She runs straight out going to that location where she meets her brother now with a 'X' shape scar on the left side of his forehead embraces him. As the world is ending, Silk tells her brother "I'm Sorry."^[18]

Main plot

Issue One

As Doctor Doom, Doctor Strange, and Molecule Man confront the Beyonders in a last-ditch attempt to prevent the end of the Multiverse, the final Incursion of Earth-1610 and Earth-616 begins. Heroes from each universe confront one another. Both Mister Fantastic and Maker (the Mister Fantastic of Earth-1610) realize the situation is futile and make plans to survive the cataclysm with a small group of colleagues; Mister Fantastic selects heroes and important scientists, while Maker intends to preserve himself and the Cabal. Maker sends a doomsday weapon and the Children of Tomorrow to Earth-616. During the battle, Black Bolt, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Black Widow, Spider-Woman, and Beast are killed and Stark Tower is destroyed. Meanwhile, Kingpin hosts a viewing party for the incursion where his guests include Absorbing Man, Bullseye, Norman Osborn, Sandman, and Scorpion. Festivities are interrupted by the arrival of Punisher who reveals that since he can't take them with him, he's going to have to put his large supply of bullets somewhere.

Manifold begins the process of teleporting heroes, including Spider-Man and Star-Lord, to the lifeboat. Cyclops merges with the Phoenix Force and destroys the Children of Tomorrow before being teleported onto the ship. Mister Fantastic and Black Panther pilot the ship to the center of the Incursion. A hull breach occurs, separating the part of the ship carrying Invisible Woman, Thing and most of the young Future Foundation. The Invisible Woman's forcefield protects them for a few moments, but not long enough for Mister Fantastic to rescue them. He watches in horror as they are shredded by the forces of the Incursion. The world fades to white as the two Earths collide. Doctor Doom's mask appears out of the white void, before the white turns to black. Finally, the lifeboat comes to rest on a mysterious planet.^[19]

Issue Two

A new Thor lifts Mjolnir and joins the Thor Corps, a police force composed of different versions of Thor from all over the world. The young Thor from the Battleworld domain of Higher Avalon relates the story of the creation of the world: God Emperor Doom created the Earth and the universe. The young Thor and King Thor of Earth-14412 travel to Bar Sinister to bring the land's baron Mister Sinister to Castle Doom, where Doom holds court from his throne on the World Tree.

In the Kingdom of Utopolis, Minister Alex Power is brought to an object uncovered by an "earthquake". It is the life raft from Earth-1610. Mister Sinister is brought before God Emperor Doom and his Sheriff of Agamatto Doctor Strange. Sinister has been charged with secretly aligning with Baron Hyperion of Utopolis in opposition to Higher Avalon. Sinister chooses to face his accuser in battle. Sinister defeats Brian Braddock but before he can deal the killing blow, Doom intervenes. Doom interrogates Brian to no avail. To save his brother, Baron James Braddock confesses to crimes against Doom. This causes Doom to banish him to the Shield, a massive wall that protects Doom's realm from outside horrors. The Thor Corps members escort Baron James to the Shield where he jumps into the Deadlands and dies fighting zombies.

Valeria tells Sheriff Strange that carbon dating suggests the discovered object is much older than the believed age of the Earth. Strange tasks the young Thor and King Thor to enforce a quarantine around the discovery site. One of the Moloid diggers on site inadvertently opens the craft. King Thor is killed by weapons thrown from within. The young Thor flees to tell Strange what has happened. As he leaves, the Cabal and Maker emerge from the lifeboat. Thanos is informed by a Moloid that they are in Battleworld.^[20]

Issue Three

Strange informs Doom of recent events in the domains of Battleworld. When Doom grows weary, Strange reminds Doom that he is "omnipotent but not omniscient". Before a statue of the Molecule Man, they reminisce about how Doom had battled the Beyonders and managed to salvage various fragments of the Earths that were being destroyed. Strange is summoned to Utopolis by the Thor Corps to examine the Cabal's life raft. A group of Thors are deployed to apprehend the Cabal. Once all the Thors, aside from the young Thor, have left Strange tells the hidden Miles Morales that he may come out of hiding. Miles reveals he sneaked on to the ship just before the Incursion destroyed his planet.

On the Isle of Agamotto, Strange briefly explains Battleworld to Miles, then reveals he has found the other life raft. The young Thor opens the vessel with the survivors of Earth-616 exiting stasis. Strange is unsure that the heroes are from his timeline until he sees his fellow Illuminati Black Panther and Mister Fantastic. Strange reveals they have been in stasis for eight years and that Doom saved them all and others when he created Battleworld. In Utopolis, the Cabal and Maker are discovered by the Thor Corps.^[21]

Issue Four

In Utopolis, the Thor Corps battle Thanos, the Cabal and the Maker. On the Hidden Isle of Agamotto, Sheriff Strange explains to the life rafters that the Beyonders were the ones behind the universes crashing together and that he and Doctor Doom were able to kill them and take their power. A boar version of Thor teleports to Castle Doom to report his findings. Sheriff Strange arrives at the battle with the raft survivors. Doom teleports to the scene of the battle and unleashes his power against the Cabal and the surviving members of the life raft. Cyclops, powered by the Phoenix Force, confronts Doom and temporarily gains the upper hand. Doom recovers, snaps Cyclops' neck, and orders the invaders to surrender. Strange teleports the surviving members to safety. Enraged, Doom kills him with a blast of energy.^[22]

Issue Five

A funeral is held for Sheriff Strange. Doom enters a realm located below Molecule Man's statue and converses with the real Molecule Man, who resides there. It is explained that the Beyonders were the originators of reality but eventually became harbingers of destruction. The Molecule Man was unique across the multiverse as only one version of him existed, a single being whose presence in each unique reality represented a sliver of a single inter-dimensional entity. The Beyonders would initiate the end of a particular reality by detonating that reality's Molecule Man. Doom, Strange and the 616 Molecule Man had gathered Molecule Men from across the multiverse and combined them into a bomb, which they detonated and directed towards the unsuspecting Beyonders. The detonation killed the Beyonders and allowed the 616 Molecule Man to absorb their power and channel it to Doom, who in turn created Battleworld.

Valeria's Justice Division of the Future Foundation prepares to hunt down the escaped 616 heroes. The location of several 616 heroes is shown: Thor appears in Doomgard where the Thor Corps are located, Black Panther and Namor appear in Egyptia, Captain Marvel in Bar Sinister, and Black Swan in Doomstadt. At the end of the issue, Thanos appears at the bottom of The Shield with a grim smile on his face.^[23]

Issue Six

Three weeks later, Battleworld is in disarray, with disorder having escalated into open rebellion in several kingdoms, with somebody called "the Prophet" forming an army against Doom. The upper and lower kingdoms of Egyptia fell to his rebel army as Khonshu and Bast were seen being restrained by the Prophet's army. Their ultimate Fate is unknown. Victor would later order some of his most loyal Barons to deal with the threat of the Prophet. Of the interlopers, only Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive had been captured while Black Swan offered help to Doom. While the Foundation were investigating, they found the source of Doom's power, and informed Valeria, who had become suspicious of her father, of this.

Somewhere in Battleworld, the two Reed Richards teamed up and started trying to find a way to defeat Doctor Doom, with Earth-616's Reed being unwilling to kill him, unlike his Earth-1610 counterpart. The Reeds had also started investigating the source of Doom's power, for which they sent both of the Spider-Men, Peter and Miles, to infiltrate Castle Doom using a device to guide them to said source, located under a statue of the Molecule Man. The Spider-Men encountered Valeria, who choose not to go with them due to her worry that, she would be not be capable of facing what would happen if she found the truth behind her father. In order to make the Spider-Men deserving of Valeria keeping her mouth shut about their presence in the Castle, she demanded to know if any of the people in the raft had killed Strange, and Peter confirmed Valeria's suspicions, that nobody from the raft was responsible. After opening a trapdoor under the statue, the Spider-Men delve into its depths and were confronted by the Molecule Man.

Meanwhile, Namor and Black Panther arrived to Strange's Hidden Isle of Agamotto, using the Key of Agamotto given to them by Strange, they entered, and after identifying themselves as member of the Illuminati to a projection of the deceased Sorcerer Supreme, they were given access to some powerful items Strange had collected over the years, including the Siege Courageous and an Infinity Gauntlet that worked only in Doomstadt.

Thanos, who had been captured by the Hel-Rangers, started talking to the sentient structure that formed the Shield, a giant alternate version of Ben Grimm, and convinced him to reject Doom, and rise, causing the Shield to fall down.^[24]

Issue Seven

The Prophet, who was revealed to be none other than Maximus, marched his troops forward to Castle Doom, where some of the most powerful Barons held the line. But betrayal was present during the assault, and Baron Sinister took the chance to turn against his fellow Baroness the Goblin Queen. Sinister was subsequently struck down by the former Baron Apocalypse. The expected reinforcements in the form of the Thor Corps joined the battle, but fighting against Doom's side, as Jane Foster had managed to convince the fellow Thors to fight against their god. Former Baron Maestro soon joined the battle with his army of Worldbreakers.

The two Reed Richards continued to plot from the distance, who planned to use the fight ensuing in the steps of Castle Doom to infiltrate the building and steal "the most valuable thing that's left from the Multiverse" from Doom. Black Panther and Namor traveled to the Deadlands for reinforcements, and Black Panther used his title as the King of the Dead to convince the zombies to join the forces opposing Doom.^[25]

Issue Eight

Chaos continues to ensue on the outskirts of Castle Doom. Meanwhile, the two Reed Richards with Star-Lord fly to Castle Doom until one of the Hulks crash into one of the engines causing them to fall. Maestro calls out to Doom to face him, until he is face to face with the giant Ben Grimm, destroying everything in his path. Doom, Susan, Valeria and one of the Black Swans see this and worry, save Doom. Ben Grimm continues to destroy until Franklin, while on Galactus, comes face to face with Grimm.

The two Reeds and Star-Lord crash land in Castle Doom to investigate, save Star-Lord. Grimm attacks Galactus with Franklin, much to Susan's shock and terror. Doom does not stop Grimm but waits for the right moment. That moment comes when Thanos arrives on the battlefield. Franklin reveals Doom as his father. Ben stops to realise that Franklin is the son of Susan and gives in letting Franklin control Galactus to destroy him. Susan bursts into tears, until Valeria asks Susan to come with her.

Star-Lord continues to repair his ship until the Black Swan shows up and attacks him. Star-Lord manages to grab his 'toothpick', pricks it on Doom's throne as it is revealed that the throne turns into a giant Groot. Susan and Valeria continues to go to the statues of Molecule Man and Sheriff Strange until they see the two Reeds. 616 Reeds replies to his wife "Hello, Susan."

Doom arrives on the battlefield and confronts Thanos. Doom gives Thanos a chance to be Baron of the outskirts of Castle Doom. Thanos refuses to take the offer as he expresses that he is a god in his own ways, with or without the Infinity Gauntlet and calls Doom a weak God. Suddenly, Doom punches Thanos in the heart and turns him into a skeleton. The battle continues until Captain Marvel spots a portal coming. It is the zombies coming from the remains of the Shield. Doom turns around to see Black Panther (with the Infinity Gauntlet) and Namor saying that Doom's reign is over "...And it ends with us."^[26]

Issue Nine

God Emperor Doom and Black Panther do battle against each other with God Emperor Doom wielding the power of the Beyonders and Black Panther wielding the Infinity Gauntlet. Susan does not recognize Mister Fantastic, but recalls him as one of the "murderers" of Sheriff Strange, a fact Mister Fantastic immediately denies and promptly reveals that it was her "husband" that killed the good Sheriff and reintroduces himself as "the one who fixes everything."

Mister Fantastic and Maker then meet with Molecule Man, after which the Maker betrays Mister Fantastic by trapping him in a temporal bubble that devolves him into an ape. Maker then explains that he was done tolerating what he perceived to be weakness on Mister Fantastic's part. However, Molecule Man rescues Mister Fantastic by splitting Maker into multiple slices. Back on the battlefield, God Emperor Doom realizes that Black Panther's fight against him was a distraction and immediately teleports to Molecule Man's statue, where Susan demands answers from her husband. God Emperor Doom instead leaves her to confront Mister Fantastic.

God Emperor Doom attempts to use his powers to destroy his rival, but finds that Molecule Man had taken most of his abilities away in revenge for not feeding him during all the years of serving as a repository for his powers. Mister Fantastic and God Emperor Doom face off, with God Emperor Doom mocking Mister Fantastic for not succeeding in finding a way to save the Multiverse when he has. However, Mister Fantastic counters by calling God Emperor Doom out for his insecurity. The first thing he did when he obtained the Beyonders' powers was to steal Mister Fantastic's life and family.

It is eventually revealed that God Emperor Doom is afraid of Mister Fantastic, with the latter bluntly telling him that he would've done a much better job at saving the Multiverse than God Emperor Doom ever did. Enraged and his fears revealed, God Emperor Doom confesses that he agrees. Hearing this, Molecule Man transfers the Beyonders' power to Mister Fantastic which destroys Battleworld. In the wake of the destruction, Black Panther uses the Reality Gem to recreate and teleport himself to Wakanda. There, he finds three Wakandan prodigies (echoing New Avengers #1 at the beginning of the Marvel NOW! arc which culminated in this event) who he tasks with granting wisdom to the stars.

On the restored Earth-616, Miles Morales finds himself an inhabitant of the new world as well as his friends and his mother who was brought back to life by Molecule Man in return for the burger. Still shaken by the recent events, Miles goes on patrol with Peter as Spider-Men.

Meanwhile, Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Valeria, Franklin, the members of Future Foundation and Molecule Man are working to restore the Multiverse one reality at a time. At Latveria, Doctor Doom removes his mask and finds that his disfigurement has disappeared as he rejoices.^[27]

Secret Wars: Battleworld

Age of Ultron vs. Marvel Zombies

Ultron conquered the domain of Perfection after he murdered his creator Hank Pym. The Avengers were subsequently killed by Ultron's Masters of Evil as this version's Dane Whitman didn't infiltrate this version of the team. Ultron later evolved and combined his different versions together. In fourteen months, he had annihilated any opposition and built perfection. In Battleworld, Perfection is kept separate from the other worlds by the Shield along with the Deadlands of the Marvel Zombies world. Both worlds appear to be inhabited only by the drones and the dead. When a version of Hank Pym from the Valley of Doom is exiled to Perfection for trying to create an artificial human, he is rescued by versions of the Vision, Wonder Man, and the android Human Torch.^[28]

The three heroes take Pym to Salvation, a city they created between the Deadlands and Perfection to protect those exiled beyond the Wall. They explain that Ultron created the Vision by analyzing Hammond and taking Wonder Man's brain patterns only for the three to rebel against him when they concluded Ultron was wrong in his belief that humanity's flaws made them unworth saving. Since Hank Pym's other self-created Ultron despite this one's primitive background, the three hope that this version of Pym will be able to understand his other self's research and work out a way to stop Ultron for good. As Pym begins his research, the heroes are unaware that Ultron has formed an alliance with the zombie Magneto to expand beyond the Wall and conquer all of Battleworld.^[29]

After months studying Ultron's design, Pym develops a plan to destroy him, just as the merged forces of Ultron and the Zombies attack Salvation. In order to work, the three founders of Salvation would have to sacrifice themselves.^[30]

Pym's plan is to use the refuge's force-field to absorb the Ultron-Zombies' hive consciousness, but he needs the mind of the three founders combined in order to control it. After Pym tells them his plan, Vision, Wonder Man, and the Human Torch android say goodbye to their loved ones while Pym converts the ionic energy generator. Pym activates the generator and modifies Iron Cross's cyborg tech so she can replace the Human Torch and stay by Wonder Man's side. Vision, Wonder Man, and Iron Cross merge, becoming the boss brain for Salvation's shield.^[31]

Ghost Racers

On the outskirts of Doomstadt is the Killiseum, an arena built to entertain the masses of Battleworld. The most popular attraction is the Ghost Racers. Everyone who has ever been possessed by the Spirit of Vengeance (including Carter Slade, Johnny Blaze, Danny Ketch, Alejandra Blaze, and Robbie Reyes) are pitted against one another in a violent race around a booby-trapped track. The winner will be given temporary freedom from the Killiseum while the master of ceremonies Arcade tortures the losers. So far, Robbie has been unbeaten in order to take care of his younger brother Gabe.^[32]

It is revealed that Robbie was not on the original roster at first because his powers are derived from a different source than the other Ghost Riders. A series of innocuous pranks brought him to the attention of God Emperor Doom's security forces, who detected his "Ignition Spirit" (which had gone into remission). Robbie is fully aware of what happens to his fellow competitors. With that in mind, he races to avoid losing. Arcade and Zadkiel are planning to throw everything they have at Robbie to ruin his chance of winning again. The next night, even after Zadkiel warned him to be careful with Reyes due to him being able to draw power from a different source from the rest of the other Ghost Racers, Arcade put all the pieces in their places and began the Ghost Race again. To destabilize Reyes emotionally, Arcade put a monster composed of his friends (who had disappeared after they were captured along with him by a Doombot in the day his Igniter Spirit manifested itself) in the circuit, forcing Reyes to kill them. Later, Arcade sent his killer automaton, the Venus Compiler, to finish him off, but before it could get to him, Eli (Reyes' Igniter Spirit) opened a portal and led Reyes out of the Killiseum. As Zadkiel wasn't able to detect Reyes' presence, an enraged Arcade commanded him to send all the other Ghost Racers to hunt him down.^[33]

Thanks to Eli's help, Reyes was able to avoid the Thor Corps, but was found and attacked by the other Ghost Racers. Outnumbered, Reyes was almost defeated, but managed to use one of the racers' attack against them, temporarily breaking Zadkiel's influence over them. As he was the only one who Zadkiel couldn't control, the other racers let him get away, and were punished by Zadkiel for their treachery. Upon returning to his home to take his brother and escape Doomstadt, Reyes discovered he wasn't there anymore. Desperate, he asked his neighbor Lisa if she had seen him, but she said she hadn't. It was then that he saw Arcade announcing a new racer through Lisa's television. The new racer, to Reyes' surprise, was his own brother, Gabe.^[34]

With the race already in progress and his brother at risk of death, Reyes teleported back to the Killiseum, ready to put an end in the Ghost Races. When Arcade unleashed the Venus Compiler to kill his brother, Reyes, who was fighting the Ghost Racers off, used his Penance Stare in Carter Slade to make him release the others from Zadkiel's control, like he did earlier, and they destroyed the robot. Furious with the Spirits' resistance, Zadkiel tried to kill Gabe, but Robbie switched places with him and devoured Zadkiel's soul. Afterwards, Slade used his vengeance-seeking Penance Stare to kill the wicked people present at the Killiseum and escaped along with the other Ghost Racers through another portal opened by Eli, running over an injured Arcade in the process. Freed, the Ghost Racers vowed to punish the wicked and corrupt with their power, and thus was born the Spirits of Vengeance.^[35]

Inhumans: Attilan Rising

A rebellion is brewing on Battleworld and it stretches into every domain. Medusa, ruler of Attilan, is tasked with uncovering the leader of the uprising. When she discovers the leader of this rebellion is Black Bolt, things get complicated. After being captured by the Thor Corps, G-Man is sent to New Attilan by God Emperor Doom to be interrogated by Queen Medusa. G-Man dies during his interrogation by Sterilon, who discovered that the rebels had something to do with The Quiet Room. Medusa sends Auran there to learn more about the insurrection. The Voice Unheard tries to deliver a serum capable of restoring the minds of the raging Hulks to someone in Greenland, but the Thor Corps appear and they have to leave the serum with a Sand Hulk who had his mind restored. He is revealed to be that area's version of Rick Jones.^[36]

Arriving at the club, Auran is approached by Black Bolt, who knows she works for Queen Medusa, and was presented to the place by him. Kamala Khan, disguised as Tony Stark, enters the club and makes her way to the lower levels, where the Voice Unheard maintain their base. Kamala discovers that the Voice Unheard plan to reach the Warzone through New Mars to deliver medical supplies requested by people of the Blue. Kamala is discovered by the Bard and, after telling Auran (who was able to listen to her because of her enhanced hearing) what they were up to, she is stunned and captured by Mega-Rad.^[37]

After they discover Auran has escaped, the rebels evacuate their base through Eldrac the Door and continue their mission. They are surprised by New Attilan's forces, who destroy their access to Eldrac after Black Bolt and half his men use it to get to New Mars. The remaining rebels in the Quiet Room are subdued by Queen Medusa's troops while their leader surrenders to save his allies on New Mars.^[38]

Black Bolt is taken to New Attilan to be interrogated by Sterilon, but as his mental blocks are stronger than G-Man's, Medusa decides to talk with him. Black Bolt reveals to Medusa that he plans to destroy New Attilan as it broadcasts a signal that invades the minds of the population of Manhattan and keeps them under Doom's control. Medusa does not believe him at first, but as the Thors are taking Black Bolt to Doomgard, Medusa decides to help him. Meanwhile, the rebels who were saved by Black Bolt find themselves in Dystopia.^[39]

Having saved Black Bolt, Medusa escapes from New Attilan with the help of Lockjaw and goes to the Quiet Room. There, Medusa orders her soldiers to release the rebels and rescue the ones who ended up in Dystopia in order to invade New Attilan, now under the Thor Corps' control, and destroy it. Medusa orders all inhabitants of New Attilan to evacuate before she destroys the city. Having been tasked to find Sterilon in order to use his powers to keep the populace calm, Auran and the Bard find him in the Interrogation Room and try to convince him. He attacks them instead; they are saved by the believed dead G-Man, who incinerates Sterilon's head. Black Bolt and Medusa try to trigger the destruct sequence in the tower's central core unit. They are attacked by the Thor Corps, and Black Bolt is injured defending Medusa. Medusa takes Black Bolt to the Terrigen Chamber to undergo Terrigenesis, healing his wounds and activating his Inhuman gene. Unaware of his new powers, Black Bolt accidentally kills Medusa and the Thor Corp when he speaks. Furious, Black Bolt screams, destroying New Attilan. He flies off towards Doomstadt, ready to kill God Emperor Doom. Unbeknownst to Black Bolt, God Emperor Doom has been watching him. Doom restores New Attilan, but makes Black Bolt into New Attilan's king and Medusa into the leader of the insurrection.^[40]

Korvac Saga

The domain of The City consist of two sections: The Holy Wood, ruled by Baron Simon Williams; and Forest Hills, ruled by Baron Michael Korvac. Holy Wood is policed by the Avengers and Forest Hills is policed by the Guardians. The two domains are united by economic interests and concerns over infringement onto their domains by the Ultron Swarm. Baron Wonder Man has ambitions of usurping Korvac's position and uniting both domains under his leadership. At some point, Forest Hills is inflicted by an outbreak of an unknown mental ailment known as "The Madness." Those infected began to remember the world as it was before Battleworld, and eventually turned into mindless beasts, blasphemies against God Emperor Doom and the world he created. The Guardians are forced to sanction those infected. After some time without any cases involving "Madness Outbreaks," a new infection occurs some time before the arrival of Baron Williams, which worries Korvac.^[41]

A welcome parade is held in the honor of Baron Williams. While half of the Guardians accompany the Barons, the other half are sent to deal with another monster created by the Madness. Korvac's wife Lady Carina Korvac is infected, turned into a monster, and attacks everyone around her. She is killed by the Avengers' leader Captain Marvel. While Baron Korvac grieves Carina's death, Starhawk of the Guardians and Moondragon of the Avengers worked together to find answers on the Astral Plane. While investigating it, Starhawk begins to see the true nature of Battleworld, but is destroyed when he comes into the presence of an enigmatic and powerful figure.^[42]

Starhawk's destruction is sensed by everyone with psionic powers. Using his vast power which he had retained in order to become the baron of Forest Hills, Korvac resurrects his fallen friend. Captain Mar-Vell is inflicted with the Madness and becomes a monster. The Guardians and the Avengers are unable to stop him. Starhawk awakens and reveals to Moondragon and his assistant Geena Drake that the Madness is a contamination leaking from a massive but suppressed psionic source who is unaware of it. After using his power to subdue Captain Marvel and purge him of the Madness, Korvac realizes he was the one causing it all along and unleashed his full power while turning his attention over his former allies.^[43]

A battle ensues between the barons and their teams, with the Guardians trying to protect their baron while the Avengers tries to contain him by any means necessary. The fight ends when Vance Astro and Yondu Udonta intervene. An almost recovered Starhawk shows up and, with Moondragon's assistance, uses his powers to connect their minds to Korvac's, showing them the memories he saw inside Korvac's mind in the Astral Plane. The memories reveal the existence of a Multiverse before Battleworld and that its destruction was God Emperor Doom's fault. Because of that, Korvac hid his powers from Doom in order to one day overthrow his tyranny, undo his work and remake the universe as it was. God Emperor Doom saw Korvac's power manifest and sent the Thor Corps to purge the City from Forest Hills and Holy Wood. Both the Guardians and the Avengers tried to fight back, but they were all killed and the domains destroyed. Unbeknownst to the Thor Corps and to God Emperor Doom himself, Korvac had used his last reserve of power to resurrect his Guardians in a safe place. With no place to go and believed dead, the Guardians decide to lurk in the shadows to avoid Doom's detection, hoping to one day set things right.^[44]

Marvel Zombies

During her shift on the Shield, Commander Elsa Bloodstone is teleported two hundred miles south of the Shield by a zombified Red Terror. She encounters a young amnesic child and sets out to return to the Shield even though the child has a hunch they should go south. After walking north, Bloodstone discovers an endless horde of zombies trying to get to the Shield decides to go south into the unknown.^[45]

As Elsa and the mysterious child make their way across the Deadlands, Elsa destroys an incapacitated zombie version of MODOC (the Moribund Organism Designed Only for Cannibalism), and is haunted by the memories of her father Ulysses Bloodstone. Elsa and the child are found by Ranger Worthington (a variation of Angel) who is patrolling the area. Elsa forces Ranger Worthington to take the child back to the Shield, while Elsa continues deeper into the Deadlands. Elsa discovers that she was fooled by the Ranger when she discovers the tracker he gave her was fake. She backtracks to where the Ranger headed, and discovers the Ranger is a zombified Mystique, who has already bitten the child. Elsa is surprised by the level of intelligence the zombies have shown, and is conflicted by her attachment to the child. She comes face to face with a captured Deadpool, the apparent reason for the horde to demonstrate such intelligence.^[46]

Deadpool shows Elsa that even after being bitten, the child has not turned into a zombie. As Zombie Mystique is ready to decapitate the girl, Elsa begins to glow with the power of her Bloodstone and saves the girl. She puts Deadpool out of his misery by burning him to death. The next day after reaching the end of the Deadlands, Elsa's stalker shows up: her father Ulysses Bloodstone.^[47]

When Zombie Mystique's horde show up to retrieve the girl and take revenge on her, Elsa decapitates her father's analog and attacks the incoming zombies, but is overwhelmed by them. She is saved by Ulysses who uses the power of the Bloodstones attached to his body to kill them and heal himself. He reveals he had been hunting every duplicate of his line in order to take their Bloodstones. Ulysses then grabs the child and begins to absorb Elsa's stone's power through her. Elsa attacks her father but he bites off her hand. Ulysses then reveals that the child is actually a manifestation created by the Bloodstone gem itself to guide Elsa back to Ulysses, however unlike the others that were lead to him, Ulysses is curious about the form Elsa's Bloodstone choose that knew it would lead her to him. As Elsa's life is drained from her, she realizes who the mysterious girl is—a manifestation of Elsa's own childhood that was stolen from her by her father. As she becomes a zombie, she confronts Ulysses one last time, buying enough time for her child self to attack Ulysses, ripping the Bloodstones off his body. Elsa quickly devours them and uses their power to merge with her child self as well as destroying the remaining zombies of Zombie Mystique's horde. She then uses the Bloodstones' power to heal herself and resurrect her father's analog. Elsa decides to give Ulysses a second chance and sets off with him to explore the world.^[48]

Master of Kung Fu

A drunken Shang-Chi tells the history of K'un-L'un to a stray dog, recalling how war and strife have caused the ruling clans to hold a tournament every thirteen years called "The Thirteen Chambers". The champion of this tournament will be the Emperor of K'un-L'un for the next thirteen years. Currently, Shang-Chi's father, the long-lived Zheng Zu is the current Emperor and has been for the past 100 years. The royal guards (consisting of Razor Fist, Typus and Nightwind) come along and demands that he move. Shang-Chi provokes a fight and a group of the Morlocks (consisting of Kitten, Lock, Callisto and Caliban) join in, causing enough of a distraction for Shang-Chi and the others to escape into a secret underground network of tunnels. A messenger named "Herald" is sent to bring two of the Emperor's top assassins (consisting of Red Sai and Laughing Skull) to hunt Shang-Chi. Emperor Zheng Zu stands in his Citadel with Rand'Kai (a variation of Daniel Rand) telling him they will capture Shang-Chi. Rand-K'ai ignites his Iron Fist and proclaims that he will be the one to kill Shang-Chi to avenge the murder of his master Lord Tuan.^[49]

A legend is told of the Red Hand and why he never gets to sit on the throne. The first Red Sai and Iron Fist were lovers, and to honor the memory of that first Red Sai, the Red Hand unflinchingly does whatever the Emperor demands, even if that means giving his or her life. The current Red Sai (K'un-L'un's version of Elektra) demands to know where Shang-Chi has gone. Lester believes that Rand-K'ai, the Honorable Protector of K’un Lun will not harm him, but Rand has made a promise to avenge his master, and threatens to send his chi straight into Lester's heart if he does not answer. He is little help anyway, as he’d only heard that Shang-Chi was swallowed by K'un-L'un. He’s just a farmer now, but he'd do nearly anything to get back into Emperor Zheng Zhu's good graces. Below the streets, Shang-Chi is training the Morlocks. They complain he’s not giving them proper training, just as everyone else refused to train them. Kitten offers some encouragement to Shang-Chi, telling him that Sarah needs to learn the "Marrow" technique or her bone growths will kill her. She adds that Caliban, though a simpleton, has a nigh eidetic memory and can remember anything that he is taught....even Kung-Fu. Further, Rahne fell in love with Cy, a student from another school. She was kicked out after learning only one of the "wolf-form" techniques and Cy had his right-hand cut-off by her master defending her, so he needs to learn to fight one-handed. As for Kitten, she tried learning a technique that was too advanced for her, and now is always out of phase. Unfortunately, though Shang-Chi is one of the greatest fighters ever, he is not the man he once was and can only think about getting drunk. He tells them of what it would mean for him to teach them as his father would, and he informs them of all the ways that his father would torture each one of them for being so weak, then he goes to find a place to pass out.

Emperor Zheng Zhu has just cut-off Razor-Fists' hands for failing him. A visitor arrives: Callisto. She has come to tell the Emperor where his son is if she is given admittance to join the Ten Rings. Shang-Chi awakens to find the Morlocks face-down and about to be executed by Red Sai and Laughing Skull, only barely being controlled by Rand-K'ai. Laughing Skull stabs Cy right through the chest and is about to kill Caliban when Shang-Chi leaps out and disarms Laughing Skull. He yells for the others to run, calling upon the Nightbringer Technique to summon darkness to cover their escape. They do manage to get away, but everyone is remorseful now at the loss of Cy....specially Rahne. Shang-Chi admits to being his father’s personal assassin and admits to having killed Rand-K'ai's master. He vowed to never use the Ten Rings Techniques again; however he now realizes that he must enter the tournament to defeat his father. The rules say that any master, great or weak, must have a school in order for him or her to enter the Thirteen Chambers tournament, so he asks the Morlocks if he can be their master. They agree and the training begins.^[50]

Some years ago the Iron Fist was the first school which was the first to win the Contest of the 13 Chambers and the first to teach its techniques. The School of the Iron Fist disagreed with the School of the Ten Rings in many things including the killing of students who failed in their training. Lord Tuan was the leader of the School of the Iron Fist and he battled the Immortal Emperor Zheng Zu many times in the 13 Chambers and he humbled the Emperor just as many times. Rand-K'ai plans on winning the tournament and becoming the new Emperor, then Shang Chi will have nowhere to run in the entire kingdom. Emperor Zheng Zu introduces the contestants including Rand-K'ai, Ava of the House of the Jade Tiger, Creed: Leader of the Tooth and Claw, Drew: Weaver of the Spider Cult (a four-armed variation of Jessica Drew), Karnak of the House of the Terrigen Mists, Lady Mandarin: Mistress of the School of Blades (a variation of Psylocke), Namor of the Halls of Atlantis, Spector: Master of the Faces of the Moon, and T'Challa of the Panther Clan. Suddenly, the "Lowest Caste" school walks through the door, consisting of the alternate versions of the Morlocks and led by Shang-Chi. Though calls of "murderer" arise, Shang-Chi declares that he will be entered into the tournament. Since the only requirements are that a master has both a school and students, he cannot be denied. Emperor Zhang Zu summons a gigantic open-mouthed head statue from beneath the arena and Shang-Chi steps inside. He notices that Kitten has followed him in. He chooses not to dismiss her though since she is perpetually incorporeal and cannot interfere. Thus, it makes Kitten a mere observer. Coming down to a chamber that quickly fills with water, Shang-Chi’s first opponent is Namor. This version of Namor claims to hit with the force of the tides and to have trained his lungs to breathe water. Shang-Chi defeats him easily enough by transforming his hands into knives and puncturing Namor's lungs (this technique is called the Mortal Blade technique). Namor is taken away by the magic's of the chamber to be healed. He soon realizes that he will be forced to fight every one of the other contestants. Through the use of his various techniques he manages to defeat them all, claiming that he fights not to rule, but to prevent the further rule of his father and none of the others can defeat Emperor Zheng Zu. Karnak had ruptured something in him earlier, Psylocke's mental trauma made him scream, and Black Panther took everything he had left. Now Shang-Chi has Rand-K'ai to face with Red Sai standing close by.^[51]

Shang-Chi told Rand-K'ai his story that he was born with a heart forged by the Ebony Blade within the Eternal Flame, two Infinity Gems for eyes, and the Cosmic Cube for a brain, Emperor Zheng Zu baptised Shang Chi in the Styx River. He was a still-born but brought to life after his father filled his lungs with the ashes of the Phoenix. In reality, he probably just couldn’t remember which of his concubines Shang’s mother was. Hearing enough of the story, Rand-Kai attacked Shang-Chi where he was shadowed closely by Red Sai. They put up a good fight, but Shang-Chi had only been defending. Red Sai got in a good shot with her blade and revealed that its tip was poisoned. Rand-Kai didn't want vengeance in such a dishonorable way, but demanded that Shang-Chi repent for the murder of Lord Tuan. Red Sai spoke up and told Rand-Kai that she was sent by Emperor Zu to assassinate Lord Tuan. She failed and Shang-Chi was sent by the Emperor to finish the job. Kitty pled with Rand-Kai to understand that the command of Zheng Zu was not just the command of Shi's father, but of the Emperor as well. Rand-Kai didn't know what he would have done in such a situation, but he understood that Shang-Chi was the only warrior who stood a chance of defeating the Emperor, so he used his iron fist technique to heal Shang. After walking through the doors to the 13th Chamber alone, Shang-Chi met Emperor Zu who chastised Shang for not completing his task of assassinating all the great masters. Shang-Chi stood defiantly, fighting back blow-for-blow. Emperor Zu taunted him by reminding him that he’d taught Shang nine on the ten styles of the Ten Rings School. He never taught Shang-Chi the 10th style called the “Spectral Touch”. He then used this style going for the killing blow, but Shang used the technique that Kitty was trapped in. Though she was stuck in her ghost form, Shang-Chi had mastered it and could shift between solid and intangible at will. In this form, Emperor Zu couldn't harm him. Shang-Chi then used all the Ring Techniques that he knew against Emperor Zu: The Mortal Blade, the Nightbringer, the Zero Touch, the Flaming Fist, the Shocking Palm, the Long Breath, the Daemon’s Eye, Remaker’s Gift, and the Lost Hope. These moves brough Emperor Zu to his knees. Shang-Chi demands for Emperor Zu to yield, but he refuses. He attacks his son again, but Shang-Ch channels his energy and touches Emperor Zu's forehead, calling upon a technique he had recently invented called the Gorgon’s Touch. The final moments of Emperor Zu are lived in a mixture of shock and terror as he turns into stone. With the battle over, Shang-Chi greets the welcoming citizens of K’un-Lun as its new emperor.^[52]

Red Skull

With the legend of the survival of the Red Skull, who had unsuccessfully led an uprising against God Emperor Doom and seemingly died when sent over the Shield as his punishment, spreading and wreaking havoc through all Battleworld, God Emperor Doom orders Sheriff Strange to assemble a group of criminals to be sent over the Shield to try and find any proof of Shmidt's death. Gathered by Crossbones (who had escaped the Deadlands alive), the group formed by Electro, Magneto of Earth-11326, Moonstone, Jack O'Lantern, Lady Deathstrike, and Winter Soldier enter the Deadlands through a tunnel in the Shield. As they enter the domain, they are attacked by a zombie horde and Electro is bitten. The remaining members are saved by none other than the Red Skull himself.^[53]

After rescuing Magneto from the zombies which attacked and killed his teammates, Red Skull takes him to his secret hideout and tells him about his plan to destroy the Shield using his powers over magnetism. Magneto is enraged but helpless because of an inhibitor collar placed on him by the Skull. Red Skull takes Magneto to New Xandar where they meet Annihilus. Red Skull explains he will use the Annihilation Wave as a distraction while he and Magneto would take down the Shield. Red Skull removes the collar from Magneto, giving him full control over his powers. Magneto agrees to help the Red Skull.^[54]

Magneto and Red Skull attack the Shield with the Annihilation horde. Red Skull implements a strategy where he attacks from the ground and Magneto attacks the Shield from above. The Shield's guard release their Sentinels. Magneto is shocked to find these Sentinels contain no metal, and that he has been used by the Red Skull as a diversion to free himself. Magneto attacks Red Skull so he can delivering him to Crossbones for his freedom. Red Skull, having also planned for this event, reactivates Magneto's inhibitor collar rendering him vulnerable to the Zombie hordes. Magneto commits suicide rather than become a zombie. Red Skull reveals his ultimate plan to escape through the hidden entrance of the Shield. He believes having survived the Deadlands and returning to Battleworld it will solidify his stature and power. Red Skull succeeds and arrives on the Battleworld side. As he stands looking out on Battleworld, he is shot through the head by Crossbones and decapitated so that his head can be delivered to God Emperor Doom. Crossbones admits he wanted any survivors of the Shield dead so that he would be the only being to escape the Deadlands. Having escaped the Deadlands a second time, he walks into the sunset with his gift for God Emperor Doom.^[55]

Runaways

The Victor von Doom Institute for Gifted Youths in Doomstadt is where Battleworld's brightest children and teenagers learn how they will lead their respective domains, and today is the signup day for the final exams. Unfortunately, several of the students got into a fight in the hallway, prompting them to get detention after being caught by senior student Bucky Barnes. The ones put on detention are Pixie of Mutopia, Jubilee of Limbo, Molly Hayes of the Kingdom of Manhattan, Amadeus Cho of the Warzone, Skaar of Greenland, Delphyne Gorgon of Arcadia, Frostbite of Killville, and Cloak and Dagger of Arachnia. The students protest to the Doombot in charge that they will miss signups, but he has been programmed to keep them there until the allotted time is over. Luckily, Amadeus Cho has an EMP-like device that disables the Doombot and when he reactivates, he is reprogrammed to allow them to leave. The students rush to the exam room where they make it just on time. But as teams are required for the exam, they are all forced to be on a team together. Bucky contacts God Emperor Doom and the school's headmaster Valeria Von Doom telling them what happened. Bucky leaves to dispose of the Doombot while the headmaster tells her father that she doesn't believe they should be allowed to pass their exam.^[56]

After the opening ceremonies, the now named Team Puce entered the simulation room to undergo the annual Final Exam. As soon as they enter, they are outnumbered and almost destroyed. Cho takes them to a glitch in the program of the simulation room where they can be safe. There they discover the truth about the Institute: they aren't fighting and destroying simulations, instead they are fighting and killing other students. Fearing that the truth will get them killed, the members of Team Puce wait in the glitch room until the exam is over and escape from the Institute by aircraft. Jubilee takes Molly Hayes with her while Cloak and Frostbite stay behind.^[57]

Team Puce stops by the Valley of Doom to purchase supplies from the Timely General Store. The appearance of Skaar as well as attempted theft by Jubilee raises suspicions that they are the group featured on a wanted poster. A gunfight breaks out which ends when Molly hurls one of the gunmen at the others allowing the group to escape. They head to Cho's parents house in the Warzone. In route, Cho fixes the head of the Doombot supervision unit he had hacked earlier and asks it why God Emperor Doom is using the exam to kill students. The Doombot explains that the exams are an insurance policy to make sure that only those loyal to Doom would make it to graduation, where the truth will be revealed to them. The plane runs out of gas and they have to land in Weirdworld. They encounter Cloak, who warns them that Headmaster Valeria is sending Bucky and his team after them. They are attacked by a monstrous machine, but are teleported by Cloak to the Warzone before it can attack them. At Cho's parent's house there is nothing there but a hole, implying his parents are probably dead. As the "Runaways" think about bringing Doom down for what he had done, Bucky and his team arrive. Cho and Delphyne are caught by Bucky.^[58] The rest manage to escape through Cloak who teleports them back to Weirdworld. While they devise a plan to invade the school in order to save their friends and stop the school from making its students kill each other, Cho and Delphyne are taken to the Headmaster's room. Valeria gave Cho a chance to return to the school, but he refuses. Cloak and Dagger, who had invaded the school along with the other Runaways, broadcast the truth throughout the school with the help of the disembodied head of the Doombot supervision unit (who now called itself Emily). Meanwhile, Molly and Skaar are fighting Doombots alongside a small group of rebellious students as Jubilee searches for Cho and Delphyne. Taking advantage of the situation, Cho and Delphyne escape from Valeria's room. Jubilee is attacked by a Doombot, but is saved by Frostbite, who reveals her feelings to Jubilee and kisses her. Soon after the group is reunited, they are surrounded by Bucky and Doombots; however, Bucky lets them escape. He is killed by Doombots for betraying God Emperor Doom, despite Valeria's countermands. Sad and angered by her friend's loss, Valeria commanded the Doombots to let the escapees go and to call her father as she wants to go back home. With no place to go to, the Runaways set out to discover their place in the world.^[59]

Secret Wars: Battleworld

In the first story of this anthology series, it is revealed how Doctor Strange's soul has merged with Frank Castle. They are being hunted by Limbo's Infernal Four (consisting of Ghost Rider, Hulk, Spider-Man, and Wolverine) for their act of crossing borders. Castle sacrifices himself in an attempt to take them all out, but Wolverine survives as the new host of Strange, who will use his immortality to keep his fight going forever. The second story features MODOK using an portal to summon MODOKs from all across Battleworld (consisting of the MODOK from King James' England, Limbo's MODOK, the Spider-Man MODOK, MODOK's daughter, and a bunch of unnamed MODOKs) and plans to ally with them to usurp King Doom. However, the MODOKs soon find that they are all in disagreement about what they should do and engage in a free-for-all. The Thor Corps arrives only to discover the army of MODOKs unconscious. The main MODOK asks them to take him in.^[60]

In the first story, Blade arrives in New Quack City where he engages the vampire duck Drákula. Enraged by the injustices perpetrated on his fellow ducks, Howard fights against Blade until he realizes his fellow duck is in fact a vampire. Drákula is killed by a duck version of Blade. Once all the vampires have been exterminated, Blade and Howard the Duck head off to enjoy a meal together. In the second story, Taskmaster grows jealous of the popularity of War Machine (a variation of Thunderbolt Ross) in the Killiseum and demands that Arcade kill him. Arcade says he can't kill him yet, because the mystery behind the death of Ross' daughter Betty Ross has yet to be resolved. Taskmaster issues an ultimatum that Arcade either finish the "story" or he will shut down War Machine himself. Elsewhere, The Captain encourages War Machine to use his notoriety to inspire others, but War Machine tells Steve that is his job. The next day, Arcade reveals to the teeming throng the truth behind who killed Betty Ross... not a Hulk from Greenland, but Taskmaster himself. Taskmaster attempts to talk some sense into a raging War Machine, but he won't listen. In the ensuing fight, Taskmaster slits War Machine's throat. War Machine then blasts Taskmaster back into the grasp of the Killiseum's captive zombies from the Deadlands before falling to a knee and telling the crowd that there are bigger monsters to fight and that they too can be broken, much to the ire of God Emperor Doom.^[61]

The first story focuses on an clandestine broadcast station called Mojo dot Mojo, located somewhere beneath Battleworld. It is run by Mojo who broadcasts a fight between Wolverines taken from various domains. Much to Mojo's dismay and the bewilderment of multiple Wolverines, a Monk Wolverine preaches peace and forgiveness, refusing to fight even when attacked. The second story focuses on the Deadpool of the Valley of Doom who has ventured to the Valley of Flame in search of a steed to replace his current one (Lockjaw). Deadpool's attempts to claim Devil Dinosaur as his new ride fail, but his efforts impress Moon-Boy, who convinces Deadpool and Lockjaw to partner with him and Devil Dinosaur. The third story focuses on different versions of Ant-Man like variations of Hank Pym, Scott Lang, and Eric O'Grady. They fight over who should wear the suit, with the fight coming to a tragic end when Scott Lang accidentally steps on Hank Pym and Eric O'Grady.^[62]

After killing Fin Fang Foom with the help of Juggernaut, Egyptia's Silver Surfer butchers the beast and takes its meat to the Temple City of Zenn-La to give it to his master Galactus the Great Devourer with whom he had struck a deal to serve for survival. Upon returning to his city, Silver Surfer finds all its inhabitants devoured by Galactus, including his love Shalla-Bal. Furious at the loss of his people, Silver Surfer uses his powers to destroy his former master and achieves freedom, but he is now alone in his city.^[63]

Secret Wars Journal

The first tale presented in this anthology series shows the domain of King James’ England, where Lady Kate (the nefarious Arrowhead Bandit) sets out to steal a mysterious glowing orb from under the watchful eyes of the brutal local Sheriff Punisher. Tutored in the ways of Ye Olde Derringe-Do by a mysterious itinerant circus performer and accompanied by her wise-cracking sidekicks Billy and Teddy, Lady Kate ends up sacrificing herself. Though she knows that she will be sent to the Shield, she is pleased that her friends get away with the treasure. The second tale shows the domain of Egyptia where an all-out battle erupt between the worshippers of the moon goddess Khonshu and those mutant slaves who choose not to fall in line. Led by Shadowcat and with the help of the turncoat Moon Knight named Spector, Wolverine, Colossus, and Nightcrawler set out on a dangerous mission to assassinate Khonshu. Unfortunately, Spector turns out to be a werewolf and attacks the mutants his flock. Khonshu appears and stops the fight in order to confront her assassins. Khonshu convinces them there is no difference between slaves and lords to her, and greater is the honor of being allowed to worship her. Wolverine, Colossus, and Shadowcat return to the other mutants and tell their story before revealing they have been turned into werewolves by Khonshu where they attack their fellow mutants.^[64]

The first story tells of Jungle World Casino, a casino owned by Kraven the Hunter in Killville's Mann District. The Jungle World Casino contains "The Hunt", a never-ending game Kraven created in which the criminals of Killville try to acquire his coin and deliver it to him in his casino to claim the prize, making whoever holds the coin a target. Kraven's true objective is to keep them all busy so that they wouldn't try to kill him. After getting their hands on Kraven's coin, police officer Misty Knight and her partner Paladin are attacked by Rhino who throws them inside the casino. Losing the coin in the confusion, Misty and Paladin have to deal with Rhino and Toad to recover it, only for Ultron to announce to every criminal in the casino that they were with the coin. They fought their way through the villains to the upper levels of the casino where they fought and killed Mister Sinister (who was Kraven's legal counsel) and Tarantula (who hit Paladin with his poisoned knife paralyzing him temporarily). Misty Knight left Paladin behind and entered the casino's penthouse to claim the prize. Once inside the penthouse, Kraven revealed to her the true nature of The Hunt and offered her the opportunity to run it herself. Misty Knight declined the offer by punching him on the face and leaving the casino with the money and her temporarily-paralyzed Paladin. In the second story, Mister Sinister's cook Matt Murdock was one of the few normal humans inhabiting Bar Sinister. He planned to use the venom of an Atlantean beast to kill Sinsiter and his hive mind. Because the love of his life, Mister Sinister's hunter Collektra was Sinister's food taster. Matt added a small quantity of that venom to the meals he prepared to Collektra in order to let her build immunity for the day he used the venom in Sinister's dinner. When the day came, Collektra died tasting Sinister's food. Mister Sinister subsequently revealed to Murdock that the original Collektra had died the very first time Murdock gave her poison as the smallest quantity of that venom was lethal, but he cloned her every day in order to make Murdock believe his plan was working and accidentally proceed to kill the love of his life every night without knowing it.^[65]

The first story takes place in the domain of Old Town. the Domain of Apocalypse's fugitives Mandarin, Pepper Potts, and Whiplash infiltrate it by killing their counterparts. Potts later killed Tony Stark of Earth-90214 (the only person who could have noticed her facade) with one of the Mandarin's daggers and stole a statue both men fought over to further help the incrimination. Wolverine of Earth-90214 investigated Tony Stark's murder and questioned Mandarin of Earth-925. Mandarin of Earth-295 attacked Wolverine of Earth-90214 after he realized this Mandarin was different, but Wolverine of Earth-90214 was saved by Punisher (the son of Frank Castelione). After being told by Punisher had figured out three of these impostors had escaped into Old Town after he had recently killed the Whiplash of Earth-925 upon discovering that he was not the same, Wolverine concluded that Pepper Potts was the other fugitive. The real Pepper Potts's body was found while the Pepper Potts of Earth-925 runs out of Old Town and escapes on a train with Tony Stark's famed Fin Fang Foom jade statue. The second story takes place in the domain of Greenland, life for Doc Samson as an anger management therapist is hectic. After a marital counseling session with Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne results in her losing her temper and transforming into a towering Hulk, Leonard hopes to enjoy a peaceful lunch. Instead, Doc Samson witnesses a dozen gamma-related incidents including the destruction of a car by an angry jaywalker. Things turn around for Doc Samson when he makes progress with his new patient, an angry young teenager named Peter Parker who understands with the new found powers comes responsibility.^[66]

At some point as part of the first story, the Punisher of Egyptia was sent to the Shield for unknown crimes. Along his fellow Hel-Ranger the Iron Fist of the Domain of Apocalypse, the Punisher discovered an Ultron in the north side of the Shield. Curious about how that Ultron ended up there, Punisher went down from the Shield to investigate. Iron Fist was able to destroy the Ultron easily which led the Punisher to believe it was modified. They decided to inspect a hole next to the Shield and discovered that the Mole Man of Technopolis had been modifying and using Ultrons to build his underground kingdom there. It was then that the Ultrons went rogue and started to attack them, but they were able to destroy them all. The Punisher allowed Mole Man to go back to his kingdom, while he and Iron Fist returned to their post watching over both sides of the Shield should something alike happen again.^[67]

The first story takes place in the Wastelands. Night Nurse has been fighting against trespassers from Limbo. She loses her life against a demon who was spreading a demonic variant of a techno-organic virus throughout the Wastelands. The second story features Mill-E the Model Citizen from Doomstadt. When Mill-E entered the Valley of Flame to preach about Doom's glory, she was chased by New Folk and mauled by Devil Dinosaur. After that incident, Mill-E was rebuilt and was given one more chance to accomplish her mission by the Council of Doombots. However, she failed yet again. Furious, Doombot Prime took control of her body and attacked Westchester's inhabitants. Soon afterwards, Mill-E was sent over the Shield to work in the Deadlands as her punishment.^[68]

Siege

The Shield is a large wall that is 200 ft. high and 16,000 miles long where it isolates the Deadlands, Perfection, and New Xandar from the rest of Battleworld. Those that work there are those who have been sentenced to the Shield for breaking its rules and are under the command of Commander Abigail Brand of Breakland. Among those working there are America Chavez of Arcadia, Kang the Conqueror, Lady Katherine of King James' England, Leah, Major Summers and the Endless Summers Company from Bar Sinister, and Vitruvian Man (a variation of Leonardo da Vinci) while a version of Thing has taken the form of the Shield under the convincing of God Emperor Doom. After another day of work at the Shield upon defending it against an attack of Giant Ant-Men Zombies, Commander Abigail Brand talked one last time with Leah before she went to venture herself through to Shield to try and find her long lost friend Illyana. As Leah left, Kang approached Commander Brand and boasted about his fighting skills and how he would subdue all the south of Battleworld to his will, which angered her. While she was telling him that protecting the Shield wasn't that simple like he thought it was, Kang's wrist began to bleep and his future self suddenly appeared before them. Before fading way, future Kang told them the Shield would fall in twenty days from now and that Thanos would doom them all. Kang asked Commander Brand who was Thanos, but she didn't know him. She did say that she would kill him if they met.^[69]

15 days later, Commander Brand and her men still hadn't found Thanos. Desperate to find him before he could destroy the Shield, Brand resorted to the Unite (a group of robots that betrayed Ultron and allied themselves with the Hel-Rangers of the Shield) to try and find him. But as they spoke, the Unite detected an powerful army of the Ultron Engine, the greatest threat that faced the Shield which married up the technology of the Annihilation Wave with the unrelenting energy of the Undead heading towards the Shield. Brand then alerted everyone so they could prepare themselves to battle. As the Vitruvian Man prepared the Enlightenment Cannon to shoot and Kang tried in vain to call chronoallies, Lady Katherine spotted someone on the front line of the Ultron Engine. It was to Commander Brand's horror of Lady Katherine's discovery that the person on the front line was none other than a monstrous Nick Fury, the presumed dead commander of the Shield.^[70]

Under siege and at risk of failing their duty, the Hel-Rangers of the Shield tried everything they could to stop Nick the Fury as he was the reason why the Ultron Engine was advancing so viciously. With the Endless Summers being reduced to only one hundred men and Kang unable to navigate through the time-stream thanks to chrono-mines, Brand sought the help of the Unite again. One of the Unite tried to use its ability to control robots to make Nick the Fury kill himself, but was killed instead. Using the remaining Unite as a distraction, Kang was able to take the monstrous Nick Fury into the time-stream and pilot it into every chrono-mine he could. Meanwhile, Leah returned with Magik and an undead army to assist Brand in her battle against the remaining enemies of the Ultron Engine. After the battle ended, Leah and Magik (who had planned since the beginning to hold a sub-domain in the Deadlands to rule without submitting to God Emperor Doom) left the Hel-Rangers and returned to the Deadlands. As Brand grieved her army's death, a rift in reality opened above her with Kang coming out of it alive along with the monstrous Nick Fury's corpse. While they hugged, they were approached by Thanos.^[71]

Kang and Commander Brand quickly try to subdue the Mad Titan, but the mischievous Thanos quickly surrenders to them, explaining what force the Shield will have to stand against as he had spent his time organizing the denizens of Perfection, New Xandar, and the Deadlands into an army on its way to destroy the other domains. Thanos is placed in a cell apparently alone, but his capture also came with the truth about what motivates him to want to take down Doom when he asks the Thing (the being that is the Shield) to come forth. Thanos then explains the difference between Earth-616 and Battleworld in terms of the rules of death. Thanos also reveals to the Thing that God Emperor Doom had lied to him and that this world is merely an artificial creation of his. Knowing this, the Thing decides he does not want to protect them anymore and rose up in a gigantic human-shaped form, thus removing a massive tract of the Shield and leaving to confront the God Emperor Doom.^[72]

Thors

Whenever there’s trouble on Battleworld, the Thor Corps answer the call. Gods of Thunder from every universe, united in their quest to uphold the law. Keeping the peace, closing cases, and dispensing judgment with their mighty hammers! But a puzzling murder case on Battleworld has changed the rules as the Thors (composed of Thor of Earth-616, Stormbreaker Ray, Rune Thor, Destroyer Thor, Storm of Earth-904, and Groot Thor) are checking a crime scene containing the murder victim of an unknown woman, which brings about an alarming pattern. After all this was the fifth body they found in a week. An undetected serial killer as been traveling between the various realms of Battleworld and brutally murdering women and leaving their bodies to rot. The Thor of Earth-1610 (who was known here as Thunderer Thorlief) and his partner Beta Ray Bill (who is referred to by his friends as Stormbreaker Ray) are then tasked by their boss Odin to solve this Allthing: a crime so heinous it requires all the Thor Corps members to solve it or risk losing their hammers. Thor of Earth-1610 was known for the arrest of thirteen Hulks in one night and having solved the "Mangog murders." His most recent case was the homicide of five different women in different domains who were revealed all to be different versions of the same person. Beta Ray Bill was fatally injured in the Kingdom of Manhattan by an unknown enemy right after getting a tip on the identity of the woman from Loki, but he managed to tell her name to Thorlief in his death bed: Jane Foster.^[73]

After mourning for their fallen brother, the Thor Corps proceeded to comb through Battleworld for any suspects, any person capable of killing a Thor. Thor of Earth-1610 investigated a Jane Foster from the Kingdom of Manhattan, and found her possessions had been taken by an ex-member of the Thor Corps known as Thor the Unworthy. Thor of Earth-1610 was unable to get information from Thor the Unworthy as he was called by his brother after finding a new victim, a hammer salesman named Donald Blake. Before the investigation could begin, Thor of Earth-1610 pinned down Loki who was found roaming the crime scene.^[74]

During the interrogation, Loki claimed to not have murdered the Jane Fosters or Donald Blakes. Loki stated he has simply moved the bodies so they could be left for the Thor Corps to find. Thor of Earth-1610 later followed Loki's directions to the place where a mass grave for Jane Fosters and Donald Blakes was found....the Deadlands. When he was investigating the corpses, Thor of Earth-1610 was struck from behind by the Rune Thor (one of his least amicable peers) who admitted to have killed Beta Ray Bill. Rune Thor leaves Thor of Earth-1610 to be beaten at the mercy of the zombies of the Deadlands. However, he was unexpectedly saved by Thor the Unworthy.^[75]

Thor of Earth-1610 and Thor the Unworthty race back to Doomgard to confront Rune Thor and Destroyer Thor who were about to get rid of Loki. It was revealed the Rune Thor had murdered the Jane Fosters and Donald Blakes for the sake of God Emperor Doom's doctrine as looking at the Janes made Rune Thor 'sense' how far he had fallen, possibly because most Jane Fosters and Donald Blakes from alternate universes were closely tied to their respective Thors. A furious battle took place in the halls of Doomgard at the same time the Jane Foster of Earth-616 was rallying her fellow Thor Corps members against God Emperor Doom's lies. The Rune Thor and the Destroyer Thor were defeated and the Thor Corps proceeded to raid God Emperor Doom's Castle.^[76]

Ultimate End

In the Kingdom of Manhattan, the Punisher of Earth-1610 is aiming a rifle at the clashing heroes of Earth-616 and Earth-1610. Three weeks earlier, Spider-Man of Earth-616 fights the Serpent Squad of Earth-1610 with the help of the New Ultimates, and is bothered that they know his secret identity. Numerous heroes of the two Manhattans gathered together at the Triskelion where Nick Fury of Earth-1610 holds a meeting to try to solve the problem. Scarlet Witch of Earth-616 suspects that Nick Fury of Earth-1610 is in cahoots with Doctor Doom. Iron Man of Earth-1610 is blamed for causing the situation as he and Amadeus Cho of Earth-1610 are working on a portal that brought the Iron Man of Earth-616 to Earth-1610. It was decided by the heroes of Earth-616 Manhattan and Earth-1610 Manhattan that they must gather a brain trust to try to revert the damage. Soon after the meeting was adjourned, the Thor Corps members Storm of Earth-904, Stormbreaker Ray, Destroyer Thor, Groot Thor, Throg, and some unnammed Thors appeared where they had been informed of the issue at hand.^[77]

The Thor Corps informed the heroes to stop trying to solve the problem as God Emperor Doom worried further intervention could worsen the damage. When Hawkeye of Earth-616 challenged God Emperor Doom's authority, he was struck by a lightning bolt and killed by the Thors. Hours later, the Iron Man of Earth-616 and the Iron Man of Earth-1610 decided to work together to find a solution using analog methods to prevent anybody from tracing their studies. When a battle between Doc Green of Earth-616 and the Hulk of Earth-1610 was taken to the Raft, numerous heroes heeded the call to stop the conflict. Using the damage caused to the Raft as an opportunity, Punisher of Earth-1610 escaped from his prison cell.^[78]

Prior to the incident at the Raft, Doc Green was also doing his own research when his Earth-1610 counterpart interrupted him and demanded him to stop because if he caused further damage, people would try to hunt him down. The discussion between the two Banners escalated up to the point they Hulked-out. Earth-616's Hulk threw his counterpart to the river, in an attempt to prevent the fight from damaging the city. Once the fray was over, Earth-616's Bruce Banner was taken into custody at the Triskelion to the dismay of Earth-616's Tony Stark. Meanwhile, Punisher of Earth-1610 returned to his safehouse in Manhattan without knowing the convergence had caused it to share the same space with the safehouse from his Earth-616's counterpart, who confronted Castle. Punisher of Earth-1610 was startled by the arrival of the Punisher of Earth-616 and threw a knife at his chest killing him. Some time later in Brooklyn, Bombshell of Earth-1610 was confronting the Wrecking Crew members Wrecker, Bulldozer, Piledriver, and Thunderball when the Punisher of Earth-1610 gunned them down. Back at the Triskelion, Banner is being examined by a pair of scientists when a blackout occurs. When the lights came back, Banner had disappeared from containment. Iron Man of Earth-616 had remotely-controlled his armor to retrieve Banner and fly him back to Manhattan.^[79]

The two versions of S.H.I.E.L.D. that were working together sent a team of heroes from both worlds to the Stark Tower, where they believed the Tony Stark of Earth-616 and the Tony Stark of Earth-1610 could be. The heroes' impression that it was a trap were justified when they were confronted by an army of remotely-controlled Iron Man armors. After a brief battle, Iron Man deactivated the suits while confirming Captain America's suspicion that they were merely a distraction. After being saved by the Young Ultimates from Punisher of Earth-1610, Bombshell of Earth-1610 was recruited by the Tony Stark of Earth-1610 alongside her teammates for a mission. Meanwhile, Valeria von Doom of the Foundation informed God Emperor Doom about the progress made by the two Tony Starks on the investigation of the dimensional anomaly. During their investigation, Tony Stark of Earth-616 and Tony Stark of Earth-1610 disagreed on what course of action should they take next. Tony Stark of Earth-1610 wanted to show their findings to the Foundation, but Tony Stark of Earth-616 proposed it was better to keep quiet. This discrepancy escalated to a physical conflict when the two Tony Starks assembled the heroes from their respective worlds to fight the other. Back in Doomstadt, Valeria questions God Emperor Doom's motives for not putting an end to the conflict himself. Specifically questioning what would happen if it gets out of hand and if something unexpected changes everything. At the same time, Miles Morales appears swinging by the Kingdom of Manhattan after being teleported there by Sheriff Strange.^[80]

Before the conflict can escalate further, Miles breaks up the fight. Emma Frost, Teen Jean, and Rachel Summers show everybody what Miles has seen. The heroes from Earth-616 and the heroes from Earth-1610 decide to unite against Doom. It's still ambiguous whether the characters were created from scratch or just plucked from different dimensions. The Thor Corps arrive as Magik transports everybody to a safe house. Punisher of Earth-1610 tries to shoot the Thor Corps but gets fried instead. Spider-Man of Earth-616, Iron Man of Earth-616 and Miles Morales bid farewell to their loved ones before everybody gets teleported to Doomstadt where they engage the Thor Corps. Bit by bit, everyone gets decimated. Spider-Man of Earth-616, Iron Man of Earth-616, and Miles Morales are apparently the last ones standing before everything fades to white. When Miles wakes up and is greeted by Rio, he's surprised that she's alive. Ganke, Judge and Lana wait outside for Miles as they are now living on Earth-616.^[81]

Secret Wars: Warzones

1602: Witch Hunter Angela

In the domain of King James' England, King James (a variation of Wolverine) was its ruler until he was discovered to be a Witchbreed (this domain's version of mutants) who killed various redhaired girls. King James was seemingly killed by Sister Angela of the Holy Order who drowned him. He is succeeded by King Charles the First (who is secretly a Witchbreed leader and a variation of Professor X). With the population of Witchbreed diminished, the Witch Hunters Sister Angela of the Holy Order and her partner Lady Serah Anchorton went on to hunt Faustians, people who made deals with demons, but, before doing so, they went to the Mermaid Tavern to drink with some friends of theirs. There they attacked Captain James Barnes of Clan Buchanan whom they believed was a Witchbreed, but is revealed to be a Faustian after being cut in half by Angela and reanimating its two halves as hideous monsters. Lady Serah killed the upper half. As Angela killed the bottom half, it summoned its "maker" the Enchantress. Angela tried to hit her, but she couldn't do her harm. Then the Enchantress managed to kill Serah before she could kill three more of her Faustians before vanishing in the air, leaving behind a worried Angela.^[82]

After telling Serah about Enchantress' menace, Angela and her fellow Witch Hunter departed from London and found a troupe of players called the "Gardiner's Men" (who are this domain's version of the Guardians of the Galaxy) being attacked by beasts in the woods. They aided the troupe members Madam Gomorrah, Peadar O'Cuill, Arthur Dubhghlas, Goodman Root, and Aroughcun the Raccoon to kill the beasts. As the creatures had traces of Enchantress' magic on them indicating she was somewhere nearby, Angela and Serah traveled with the Gardiner's Men to a pagan village in the outskirts of York where a marriage for the town beauty Anne Weying and the young printer's apprentice Edwin Brocc was going to happen. As the festival proceeded, Angela realized young Edwin had enchanted his bride to marry him when she saw him giving her a potion to drink. Edwin noticed Angela was seeing and panicked, becoming a venomous monster and attacking her. Angela and her companions engaged him in battle and subdued him; afterwards Angela decapitated him. While leaving the town, Serah told Angela she wasn't afraid of her fate as long as Angela was with her.^[83]

Angela and Serah then headed to Castle Caldecote, in Cumberland, as it was the whereabouts of the third Faustian. Her name was Anna Maria, the natural daughter of a bishop that was kept safe by Master Coulson in one of the castle's room, as instructed by her father. However, on the last new moon, she managed to escape the castle and returned somewhat different. Seeing the girl was not mad as Coulson said she was, Serah demanded the girl to be freed from her chains and told Angela to keep an eye on her. As the days passed, Serah, who had been studying about the Faerie, discovered that the Enchantress sends a sliver of herself into each of those with who she strike a deal and that she was using stories, such as that of her victims and Marlowe's play, to expand her power. Upon figuring it out, Serah started to devise a plan to counter that of Enchantress. Meanwhile, Angela struck a deal with Anna Maria: in exchange for a way to free her, she would tell Angela the truth about herself. The girl then told her she was born Witchbreed and that she eventually learned her touch was death. When the path to the Faerie was open, she took the opportunity to become something other than what she was, willingly strucking a deal with the Enchantress and becoming a Faustian. Later that night, Angela heard strange noises coming from Anna Maria's room and went to check if everything was right. There she found the girl crying, frightened by the Enchantress' voice inside her head. The girl asked Angela to tell her a story to calm her down, and so she did, but was in vain as the Enchantress took control of the girl's body and attacked Angela. The girl managed to regain consciousness though and in an attempt to be free again, used Angela's weapon to kill herself. Serah showed up and was able to revive the girl, who was a Faustian no more. As she hasn't died, Serah thought she was safe from the Enchantress' wrath, but she was wrong as the Faerie rose from the blood of her lost Faustian and took Serah's life, fulfilling her menace. With the sun setting, Angela burned her lover's body to the ashes, recovering her skull and singing to it afterwards. Suddenly, to Angela's surprise, the skull became animated and started to talk with her.^[84]

Having cheated death using the same arms as Enchantress, Serah led Angela to the Realm of the Faerie in order to destroy the Faerie Queen. Once in the Realm of the Faerie, Angela was tempted by Enchantress, who showed to her illusions of what would be a better life for her. However, Serah helped Angela to snap out of it and then she confronted Enchantress. Angela managed to overcome and kill the Enchantress, and was cursed with her power for it, becoming the Faustian Queen. With her newfound powers, Angela resurrected Serah and, fearing such power would corrupt her, sent her back to the mortal world. Sad by having lost her lover, Serah went on a quest to recover Angela. Later, Serah approached Kit Marlowe in the Mermaid Tavern and confronted him, revealing to him she discovered he was a Faustian himself and that he was helping the Enchantress expand her power since the beginning, which was acknowledged by him. Afterwards, Serah captured him and trapped him inside an Iron Man, which drained his blood. As it contained the very magic of story, Serah gave Marlowe's blood to her friend William Shakespeare in order to him immortalize Angela through his stories.^[85]

1872

In the Wild West domain of the Valley of Doom, the only town that resides there is the town of Timely. A gold rush was brought to the town when silver and gold were found in its hills. Wilson Fisk pacified the town and became the Mayor and was considered a hero. Governor Roxxon ruled over Timely and diverted the Kirby River for his mining concern, making crossing the desert extremely dangerous. Mayor Fisk eventually became corrupt. One day, an Indian known as Red Wolf tried to destroy the dam blocking the river from the native territories. He was stopped by Mayor Fisk's men who attempted to lynch him. Sheriff Steve Rogers intervened and saved Red Wolf so he could be properly judged. The next afternoon after Mayor Fisk failed to get Rogers to hand over Red Wolf, Mayor Fisk's men got into a conflict with Tony Stark. Sheriff Rogers saved Stark from the men and the duo proceeded to confront them. After finishing them off, Sheriff Rogers discovered one of them had fled the scene and run to the Sheriff's office to kill Red Wolf. Red Wolf disarmed the man and shot him. Sheriff Rogers later hanged the other survivors in front of Mayor Fisk's casino as a message. This caused Governor Roxxon to send various enforcers to Timely.^[86]

The following day, Sheriff Rogers and the Red Wolf were intercepted by Governor Roxxon's enforcers Bullseye, Doctor Octopus, Elektra, and Grizzly on the way to their trial where they tried to kill the Sheriff and his prisoner. While Red Wolf tried to escape and was confronted by Elektra and Grizzly, Sheriff Rogers confronted and subdued Bullseye and Doctor Octopus where Sheriff Rogers killed Doctor Octopus. Sheriff Rogers called out everyone in the town to hear his outcry over Mayor Fisk's abuse of authority and Governor Roxxon's damage to the Red Wolf's people. While he was distracted, Bullseye deployed a secret revolver from his sleeve and shot Sheriff Rogers through the heart. Tony Stark came out of his workshop and tried to avenge Sheriff Rogers' death, but he was stopped by numerous maidens from Timely as his state of drunkenness could have endangered his life. During the turmoil caused by Sheriff Rogers' death, Red Wolf was sheltered by Natasha Barnes. Later that night, Tony Stark proceeded to furiously work in his workshop.^[87]

The following day, Natasha Barnes and Red Wolf started conspiring against Mayor Fisk and they were soon joined by Bruce Banner. While Barnes and Banner took the chemical bomb made by Banner to the Roxxon Dam, the Red Wolf infiltrated Fisk's saloon. When Bruce and Natasha arrived to the dam, they encountered its caretaker Simon Williams. Meanwhile, Red Wolf used the distraction caused by a rally in favor of equal rights for women to get inside Mayor Fisk's saloon and take down his men. He was soon spotted and cornered inside the building while Mayor Fisk and his enforcers went outside. Red Wolf shot Bullseye in the head from a window and jumped out of it using a lantern to burn Grizzly and pistol-whipping Elektra. He was forced to take cover once Mayor Fisk put a bounty on his head. After being found by Grizzly, Red Wolf was rescued by Stark who was wearing an armored suit and he turned the tide of the battle against Mayor Fisk's forces. Back at the Roxxon Dam, Williams had discovered Banner's plans and tortured him forcing him to drink the green fluid contained in the bottles that were going to be used as a chemical bomb.^[88]

Upon subduing her captors, Natasha Barnes rescued Bruce Banner from Simon Williams who she fatally injures. Upon arriving at the dam, Banner told Natasha to leave him so that he can finish his part of the mission. Natasha then rides to Timely as a nuclear explosion in the distance destroys the Roxxon Dam. Meanwhile, in Timely, Mayor Fisk is desperate to try to get people to kill Tony Stark and Red Wolf. When Red Wolf engaged Mayor Fisk, he was outmatched by Mayor Fisk until Red Wolf stabbed him in the eye with Steve Rogers' sheriff star giving Red Wolf the opportunity to grab Mayo Fisk's gun. Red Wolf decides to spare Mayor Fisk so that he can be tried and executed legally only for Mayor Fisk to be shot by Natasha Barnes. Some days later, peace had returned to Timely. Tony Stark stopped drinking and invested his time blacksmithing. Governor Roxxon had Carol Danvers sworn in as the new Mayor of Timely alongside Red Wolf. Banner is revealed to have survived the explosion with the evidence being large footprints near the site of the explosion. A spider that was contaminated by the explosion had set up a nest near the Parker Homestead. The heroes of Timely united together as a force of good called the Avengers of Timely.^[89]

A-Force

The island of Arcadia is a domain where women grew to be in charge of the government and police force rather than men. Its ruler is Baroness She-Hulk and she is in charge of the A-Force, the first all female Avengers team. While on patrol one morning, Arcadia finds itself attacked by a megalodon and America Chavez finishes it off by using her god-like strength to throw it across the world to the Wall where it lands in the Deadlands. However, in tossing it across borders and damaging the Wall, she is in violation of the law's greatest rule and is confronted by Thor Corps members Sam Wilson, Beta Ray Bill, Thunderstrike, and some unnamed Thor Corps members who have been sent by God Emperor Doom and Sheriff Strange. Baroness She-Hulk pleads that America was doing it out of defense, but she is taken away where she is banished to serve the rest of her life as a guard on the Shield. Wanting to know where the megalodon came from, She-Hulk recruits the Sub-Mariners Namor, Namorita, and Namora to investigate. Meanwhile, Nico is at the shore when she sees a mysterious figure fall out of the sky and crash into Bishop's Lighthouse.^[90]

Still grieving over the loss of her best friend, Nico has adopted the star-filled newcomer with no name whom she brings home even at a potential price since anyone like this should be taken to Baroness She-Hulk to figure out what to do. That’s something that the female Loki makes clear when she discovers what’s done, but Nico’s worries and positions are understandable after having just lost Miss America, but eventually they decide to present their new friend to She-Hulk. Meanwhile, underwater, the Sub-Mariners find a strange portal which shows them the domain of Marville in a swirl form. The portal however soon began to start to implode which forced the Sub-Mariners to run. As Nico arrives with this new friend, things spiral out of control as it appears this girl is creating the portals inadvertently with the result being the sudden arrival of a Sentinel from the Sentinel Territories that senses mutants in the mix and seeks to terminate them which rallies the team together for the moment. After destroying the Sentinel and with the portal still open, She-Hulk finds herself going on a little trip.^[91]

Having broken God Emperor Doom's laws by going to another domain without permission, She-Hulk was attacked by three Thor Corps members, but was able to stun them temporarily and got back to the portal. While crossing the portal, She-Hulk recognized the magic used to create it as being from Arcadia meaning there was a traitor among the A-Force. As soon as she returned to Arcadia, she informed it to her teammates. Afterwards, she was confronted by the Thor Corps who had followed her through the portal. Medusa was able to save her by throwing the Thor Corps back to the portal before it closed, but at the cost of her own life. With nightfall, the Thor Corps began to enter Arcadia to track She-Hulk down. Unbeknownst to them, the mysterious girl (who was the living embodiment of a universe) had hidden She-Hulk inside herself.^[92]

With the A-Force seemingly disbanded, the Thor Corps were supportive of Loki becoming the next Baroness of Arcadia. However, the A-Force soon arrived to put an end to her plan as soon as they realized it was her magic that had opened the portals. The A-Force was able to subdue Loki and clean She-Hulk's name. Unwilling to let A-Force win, Loki created a blast that destroyed a portion of the Shield and let the zombies of the Deadlands out.^[93]

As the Zombies approached the island, She-Hulk assembled A-Force to fend off against its attackers. While the heroes and heroines managed to keep the zombies at bay, the rotters ultimately overpowered them. Singularity seemingly sacrificed herself to take out the zombies. As her body dispersed, stars began appearing on the sky. Two days later after the dust settled, Arcadia is being repaired. She-Hulk convinced a depressed Nico to overcome Singularity's apparent demise and make Arcadia a better place worthy of its people.^[94]

Age of Apocalypse

The Domain of Apocalypse is a Battleworld domain that is ruled by Apocalypse. To escape the tyranny of Apocalypse, many humans and mutants had fled to the Savage Land to build a sanctuary where they could coexist, but they saw that dream die when Holocaust and Baron Nur's Infinite Soldiers invaded it searching for Cypher. Several of the X-Men lost their lives protecting him from Holocaust, who detonated when they took off his armor. Afterwards, Cypher was found alive by Apocalypse's servants on the outskirts of the blast perimeter and was taken to New Cairo, where he was healed and interrogated by Sinister's Prelates, the Summers Brothers. As the interrogation didn't prove to be successful, Cypher was taken to the Human Compound and, listening carefully to the conversation between the Summers Brothers and the humans representatives Dr. Peter Corbeau and Carol Danvers, discovered what the humans were hiding and the mutants were afraid of: a virus that could wipe out all of mutantkind. The Elite Mutant Force were then attacked by Magneto and the rest of his X-Men.^[95]

After rescuing Cypher and capturing Cyclops, Magneto and his X-Men fled from the battle site to their underground hideout. In their hideout, Magneto told Cypher that he needed him to convince the Horsemen to help them stop Apocalypse before he could destroy mutants and humans alike. Meanwhile, as Creed investigated the Friends of Humanity, the other Horsemen were summoned by Apocalypse to prepare to battle the humans before they could use their secret weapon against them.^[96]

As Danvers was interrogated by Apocalypse's men, Magneto told Cypher about how the situation in the Domain of Apocalypse went from bad to worse and that it was all his fault for not having acted sooner. Afterwards, Magneto turned his attention to Cyclops, who hadn't say anything valuable to them. Suddenly, Rogue showed up and said to Magneto that there was something wrong with his wife, Emma Frost. Emma, who had connected her mind with Jean Grey's while Doctor Nemesis tampered with it, discovered the existence of the virus and alerted her fellow X-Men. Then, the X-Men headed to the Human Communal Village to prevent the humans from using the virus, and take it so it couldn't end up in the wrong hands. When the X-Men arrived in the Human Communal Village, it was already being attacked by Apocalypse's forces. They tried to retrieve the virus from Dark Beast, even succeeding in knocking him out, but they were all easily beaten by the newcomer Apocalypse, who revealed his true intentions by releasing the virus in order to see who was fit to survive.^[97]

As some mutants started to die for being infected by the virus and Apocalypse confronted the X-Men, Iceman, the only X-Men who managed to survive Holocaust's explosion, showed up and used his powers to freeze the entire area (as well as Apocalypse) to keep the airborne virus contained. Meanwhile, Weapon X, Burner and Cyclops went to the gene lab of Dark Beast in order to find and rescue Jean Grey, and were confronted by Cyclops' brother, Havok, but managed to convince him to help them in their mission. Back in the Human Communal Village, Apocalypse broke free from his ice imprisonment and the confront began anew. However, Apocalypse's cells began to crumble as the result of being infected by the Legacy Virus. The X-Men and the Horsemen then joined forces to finally kill Apocalypse, and they succeeded. After the battle, Magneto started to feel the effects of the virus in his body and, as the explosion of his powers would shred the magnetic field across the entire planet, was euthanized by his wife. Furious, Emma broke into Corbeau's mind and discovered who was the man responsible for the creation of the Legacy Virus: James Bradley a.k.a. Doctor Nemesis.^[98]

Doctor Nemesis, who had over time genetically absorbed the powers of over three hundred mutants, tried to convince the X-Men and every inhabitant of the domain to aid him in his quest to overthrow God Emperor Doom, but was attacked by them instead. While the X-Men fought him, Frost and Blink went to Dark Beast's lab after his demise to try and find a cure for the virus, and found Weapon X and a lobotomized Jean Grey, as Sinister (at the time terrified by her) removed the portion of her brain which governed her mutant powers. Using her powers Emma discovered that being a powerful mutant, Jean still had the power to fix everything, but by unlocking them could do more harm than good as Jean was very angry for what had happened to her. Eventually Frost decided to transplant part of her own brain to reactivate Jean's power. As Sinister conducted the brain surgery, the rest of the X-Men attacked Nemesis, with Weapon X, Creed and Burner (who was revealed to be Cyclops and Havok's lost brother) losing their lives to the omnipotent madman. After Jean Grey rose as the Phoenix, she destroyed Nemesis and used his liquified matter along with the Phoenix Force to cure everyone, not only from the virus but also from the mutant gene. From that day on, every mutant of the Domain of Apocalypse was now human and had been given a second chance at life.^[99]

Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows

Heroes from all over The Regency are turning up dead or disappearing. Spider-Man goes to Avengers Mansion to see what he can find out. He realizes that superheroes are dying and the X-Men are missing. There he learns that the Avengers suspect a man named Augustus Roman: CEO of Empire Unlimited. Suddenly, Hawkeye warns of a full-scale prison break at Ryker's Island to Captain America. Realizing what that means, Peter Parker rushes home to discover Mary Jane Watson-Parker and their daughter Annie in the clutches of a recently escaped Venom. Seeing his family threatened, Spider-Man attacks Venom with full fury, freeing his wife and daughter and allowing them to flee. Mary Jane attempts to flag down the Avengers' Quinjet for help, but they're too focused on engaging Augustus Roman, who is using the powers of the deceased heroes and the X-Men to transform into Regent. Recalling the symbiote's weaknesses to fire and sonic, Mary Jane hitches a ride on a firetruck responding to the fire with Venom in hot pursuit. Meanwhile, Regent massacres the Avengers, the New Warriors, and other heroes overhead. Mary Jane uses the fire engine's siren to distract Venom long enough for Spider-Man to arrive and force him into the burning building. Believing that Venom will never stop coming after their family, Mary Jane tells Peter that the building has been evacuated and Spider-Man takes the hint bringing the flaming structure down upon Venom, apparently killing both Eddie Brock and the symbiote. With all the other heroes dead, Peter then retires as Spider-Man believing his greatest responsibility is to protect his wife and daughter by simply looking after his own.^[100]

To prevent their powers from being scanned, Peter and Annie used inhibitor bracelets. The night before starting school, Annie's inhibitor bracelet broke down. The next day, she had to keep her powers down in hopes they wouldn't be noticed. After taking photos of Demolition Man (who was protesting against the Regent's regime and being taken down by Boomerang, Shocker, and Rhino), Peter headed to the Daily Bugle where he overheard that the Regent's forces had found super-powered people in the same school. Using his hood as his only disguise, Peter jumped through the city and got to the school where he found the Power Pack fending off the Regent's goons. Spider-Man distracted the villains and forced the kids to escape while Mary Jane retrieved Annie. Back on the Regent's headquarters, he decided to unleash the Sinister Six (consisting of Doctor Octopus, Hobgoblin, Kraven the Hunter, Mysterio, Shocker, and Vulture) to hunt down Spider-Man now that he had been spotted.^[100]

Spider-Man tried to buy power inhibitors from Tinkerer who ended up alerting the Sinister Six of which Doctor Octopus came to get Spider-Man. Spider-Man violently subdued Doctor Octopus before the Sinister Six arrived to the scene and were left only with the information that he had taken inhibitor chips. Kraven the Hunter deduced he was trying to protect somebody by using the chips, for which he most likely had a family specifically a child. Peter returned to his home and reconfigured the inhibitor chips for Annie when the Regent made a TV broadcast announcing a compulsory screening in Annie's school. When Peter, Mary Jane and Annie arrived to the building the following day, they were able to pass the scans. However, another kid resulted having powers forcing Peter to jump into action as Spider-Man to defend him. While he faced the rest of the Sinister Six, the Regent's agents discovered Annie was the other powered kid and took her and her mother.^[101]

Spider-Man finished dealing with the Sinister Six when Sandman (who is secrety working for S.H.I.E.L.D.) tried to convince Spider-Man to follow him. Peter doubted Sandman's word, which cost him allowing enough time for the Regent to personally appear and subdue both of them. Meanwhile, Annie and MJ were introduced to the to S.H.I.E.L.D. and its leader Hawkeye. While Spider-Man and Sandman were brought to the Regent's base, Johnathon Ohnn worked at the resistance's base to reverse engineer Annie's inhibitor bracelet and he created an arrow-head which could neutralize the Regent's powers, but only needed a DNA sample from him. The resistance's base was invaded by the Sinister Six after the Regent read Sandman's mind to learn of its location. While S.H.I.E.L.D. used one of Ohnn's portals to escape, Annie jumped into action helping to hold back the villains. Another portal was opened which had been sown into Sandman. Marko activated it to let S.H.I.E.L.D. get into the Regent's stronghold. Hawkeye, Mockingbird and Prowler entered it, and they were soon followed by Mary Jane and Annie.^[102]

The resistance tries to stop Regent, but Hawkeye fails to shoot him with the neutralizing arrow due to Regent inheriting Peter's spider sense. Arriving at Regent's stronghold, Mary Jane and Annie help the resistance as best they can, as Regent begins to absorb Spider-Man's powers to become much stronger. Mary Jane eventually overpowers Regent's chief scientist Dr. Shannon Stillwell and uses her armor as a weapon. On the brink of death, Peter focuses on his love for his family and the danger they are in to break free of his containment chamber and take the fight to Regent. Annie uses a specialized weapon given to her by the resistance to weaken the Regent, but her life is almost forfeited in the process as Regent takes her prisoner. Peter uses his comedic timing to lower Regent's guard and is able to defeat him without resorting to making a kill, thus redeeming himself for Venom's death several years prior and allowing him to renew his vow to protect his family without compromise. Mary Jane asks Peter if he would have killed Regent if Annie had been harmed, but Peter chooses not to answer. Despite the Regent's claims Peter's actions will condemn them all to the judgement of God Emperor Doom as he is taken away in a special containment cell by S.H.I.E.L.D., Peter and Mary Jane choose not to heed his warnings and resume their peaceful family life with Annie.^[103]

Armor Wars

In the futuristic domain of Technopolis, War Machine (who is the Thor Corps operative of Technopolis) answers a challenge to fight Titanium Man while suspecting that he's being tested. Titanium Man mocks War Machine's position as the Thor of the Domain of Technopolis, but is easily defeated. Iron Man arrives and the two banter about Tony's political position as Baron before talk turns to War Machine's gut feeling over the reasoning behind the duel. Tony suspects Kingpin, but Jim is unsure. They then discuss vigilantes in Technopolis including Spyder-Man and Radar Devil. Iron Man suggests they should be arrested, but informs War Machine that he's off to meet with Spyder-Man anyway. Meanwhile, Iron Man's brother Arno Stark meets with Kingpin at Stark Tower and assesses the valuable data compiled by having paid Titanium Man to fight War Machine. Kingpin assures Arno that Titanium Man's silence has been bought and that failsafes are in place. Elsewhere in the city, Spyder-Man is late for work as he heads to his planned meeting with Iron Man. He reveals himself to be Peter Urich and plans to tell Tony that he had uncovered the truth about the origin of the disease that forced Technopolis' citizens to wear armor just to survive.^[104]

It was revealed that Baron Tony Stark and Arno Stark's father Howard Stark encouraged a friendly rivalry between them to promote affection, but ended up creating a bitter never-ending competition between the two brothers to provide Technopolis with life and mobility. Tony was chosen to become the domain's Baron during Howard's sickness that ultimately took his life. Tony promised Howard to allow Arno free market in the city as long as he didn't break any laws. Even though Arno constantly opposed Tony and even provided technology for criminals, Tony had not been able to prove his brother's illicit activities and opposed the idea to use his power as Baron to get rid of Arno. Also, Stark had tried to acquire Mobairu Yōsai Mechaniks to help Kiri Oshiro (who was the daughter of Rumiko Fujikawa) as well as to protect the company from Arno. Spyder-Man was later killed while escaping Kingpin's men.^[105]

When Spyder-Man's body was found, the autopsy and the analysis of the memory banks in his armor revealed that he had been killed because he had discovered the origin of the disease affecting the residents of the domain. Meanwhile, Arno Stark had sent Stingray to infiltrate the workshop of Kiri Oshiro, the owner of Mobairu Yōsai Mechaniks which is one of the few companies not under Stark's umbrella. Stingray's mission was to discover what technologies was she developing as Stark had recently tried to buy the company. He was defeated by Kiri when he tried to kill her friend Lila Rhodes.^[106]

As Grand Marshal James Rhodes informed Kiri Oshiro of the lead on Spyder-Man's murderer, Tony Stark confronted Arno Stark for Stingray's attack on Kiri. Some of the information decrypted from the memory banks of Spyder-Man's suits made mention of the Kingpin of Crime which was a reason valid enough to make Rhodes pay a visit to Fisk. However, Jim found opposition in the form of Fisk's armored henchmen. Rhodes expected Fisk's opposition and deployed the War Machines from the Hall of Law and Order to assist him.^[107]

After being defeated by War Machine, Kingpin made clear at his deathbed that didn't have anything to do with Peter's death. War Machine returned to the Hall of Law and Order to continue investigating the memory banks when he was confronted by Tony Stark. While Arno dealt with the War Machines, Tony revealed to War Machine the link between Technopolis' disease, his father's supposed hand in its creation, and Spyder-Man's death. Tony ultimately killed War Machine to prevent the domain from learning the truth. However, War Machine had been able to record and transmit Stark's confession sending it to Kiri. Kiri and War Machine's niece Lila Rhodes unleashed Kiri's secret weapon, a giant suit of armor to stop Tony Stark and Arno Stark once and for all.^[108]

As the fight between the Starks and Kira and Lila's giant suits of Armor commences, it's revealed all of Tony Stark's evil machinations. It is revealed that Howard Stark was the creator of the Technopolis Virus and he created it so the city's population would be reliant upon it to survive. The problem was the virus was proven too virulent and hence everyone who caught it instead of the small populace it was intended for became ill including the Starks. As the fight continually rages on. Tony also admits to Kiri why he murdered Spyder-Man, Kiri's parents and Peter's father Ben Urich. Tony Stark had implemented a neural inhibitor in the Armor everyone was fitted for and it made the wearer forget if ever they began to question where the virus started from. Kiri's parents who were programmers were able to bypass the inhibitor as was Peter whose Spyder-Man armor was capable had to be silenced along with Ben Ulrich who was a news reporter approached with the truth by Kira's parents. Tony Stark also decides to tell Kiri believing he has the upper hand that he was playing both sides and the Kingpin was in his employ to keep tracks on her and his brother Arno. Like Arno, he also tried to hack into her files but was surprised he could never get past Kiri and Lila program's defenses hence the reason he wanted to purchase her technology. Kiri had already figured out this point and to her advantage while they are engaged in combat she incorporates a virus into the Stark's Armor weakening them. The Thor Corps members King Thor of Earth-14412, Storm of Earth-904, Stormbreaker Ray, and Thor of Earth-1610 arrive to deal with Tony and Arno. They are led away to be sentenced by Doom's law. It is also revealed Lila Rhodes is made a Thor Corps member (as her uncle previous), Happy Hogan is the new Sheriff, and Kiri is named new Baroness of Technopolis where she creates new and safer tech for its citizens leading them into a new age.^[109]

Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps

During training drills in the Battleworld domain of Hala Field, Captain Marvel and the Banshee Squadron respond to a border incursion from the Hydra Empire. Before they can engage, the Thor Corps destroys the Hydra forces that had crossed into Hala Field. Soon after, Carol speaks with Kit (the Thor Corps operative of their domain) who excitedly tells her that the Mjolnir she wields was forged from a star by God Emperor Doom himself. This troubles Captain Marvel because she has never seen a star in the sky. Next, Baroness Cochran orders the Banshee Squadron to destroy a ship allegedly incoming with malicious intent. When Carol questions how they know the intent, she is told that Doom advised the ship is transporting rogue Ultrons bent on invasion. When they reach the target, the Blaze orders them to fire, only Carol sees not robots, but humans aboard the vessel and rushes in as the missiles strike. Cochran then orders the Banshee Squadron back to Hala Base, saying a search is unnecessary, Captain Marvel will be fine. Later that night, an exhausted and soiled Captain Marvel returns to the Banshee Squadron Barracks, carrying a survivor she pulled from the boat's wreckage. She tells the other members of the Banshee Squadron that they've been lied to and vows to discover what's beyond the sky they can see.^[110]

Carol brought the man to her barrack who identified himself as Jim Rhodes, an inhabitant of Limbo, another domain who escaped from it with his crew after doubting Doom. The following days, Carol and her crew customized their aircraft to allow it to travel beyond Battleworld's sky, but something went wrong with it when one member of the Banshee Squadron went to test it and the aircraft exploded.^[111]

Captain Marvel was able to rescue Helen in time and bring her to the barracks. With their plan now ruined, the entire base would surely be onto them, so Carol ordered the Banshee Squadron to take flight. After recovering Rhodes, Carol caught up with the Banshees and helped them lose the aircracts that were sent to chase them. However, Baroness Cochran had contacted God Emperor Doom and the Thor Corps members Gamora, Kit Renner, Leonard Williams, and some unnamed Thor Corps members pinned down the Banshee Squadron as soon as they had reached land to rest.^[112]

Carol drew the Thor Corps to herself in order to give the Banshee Squadron time to get in the air, Rhodes and Helen remained in the ground to help her evade the Thor Corps through radio. Among the ranks of the Thor Corps was Kit Renner, a close friend of Carol who saw herself forced to fight Captain Marvel. But in a turn of events, she decided to help her friend and strike down the fellow Thors while Captain Marvel and the Banshee Squadron flew higher to find what lied beyond Battleworld.^[113]

Civil War

It began with the unforgettable on an unknown Marvel Universe that would later become the Warzone on Battleworld: the Stamford Incident, It was an explosion that killed hundreds. The following debate with the push for the Superhuman Registration Act blossomed into the unthinkable: an ideological conflict among the super heroes, polarised into two camps, around the anti-registration Captain America and the pro-registration Iron Man. Everyone else hoped it would just end. But it took another incident to incite the unspeakable....Captain America had led his team in a mission to liberate the political prisoners being held in Prison 42 in the Negative Zone. Due to spies, Iron Man had mustered his forces in an ambush, bolstering his super heroes with S.H.I.E.L.D. troops and conscripted villains. Meanwhile, Black Panther was hacking the prison's computers, and discovered that the pro-reg forces had activated a self-destruct system, with Iron Man's group supposed to teleport out at the last minute. However, Iron Man didn't know about the activation of this system and was informed by Maria Hill that Black Panther had been the one who activated the system under Captain America's orders. Deactivating the teleportation device, Black Panther tried to shut down the bomb. Everyone in the prison whether they were Pro-Registration or Anti-Registration rushed to escape through the power of the hero Cloak who dropped them all in midair in St. Louis. Unfortunately, Cloak could not shut off his powers fast enough to block out the explosion which caused a beam of explosive energy to strike the ground in St. Louis, setting off a domino of explosions which toppled buildings, killed superheroes, and left millions dead. In the aftermath, the surviving heroes regrouped with each side blaming the other for the deaths and neither willing to accept their part since they were, after all, good people who fought bad people. Unable to accommodate compromise, they left the nation open to attacks like the Skrull Invasion and the Osborn Insurgency. But no force was able to face un-co-ordinated attacks from two sides at once, and eventually, the two sides were left to settle their differences, eventually splitting the nation down the middle. Everything to the East is now "the Iron" run by Iron Man and everything to the West is "The Blue" run by Captain America. Differences in politics have caused people to pick one side over the other, with the split ossifying every year. The only place in the country that embraces both is a community in the ruins of St. Louis, built on a bridge over a chasm between the two sides. One of its inhabitants Miriam Sharpe, a woman who lost her child at Stamford wants to bring peace. She has arranged a meeting between the two sides, and she is being interviewed. The interviewer points out that she is a polarizing figure having received threats and been compared explicitly to anarchists and terrorists. Miriam responds that her motives are clear and she has hope. From the east comes President Tony Stark where he is backed by She-Hulk. From the west comes General Rogers who is backed by Peter Parker. Greetings are terse, but before going in, Stark offers a goodwill gesture: in his entourage is Mary Jane Parker and her young daughter and they have come to see Peter for as long as the talks go on. In the talks, Miriam is able to get the two men to open up. Tony Stark explains that the Iron (as the internationally recognized government) has wealth and resources from trade with the outside world where the Blue is regarded as a rogue state. However, his citizens are running out of space while the Blue has twice the space but half the population. He proposes that the Blue shrink giving his people more space in exchange for which Stark will make trade concessions. General Rogers dismisses the offer which leads to the start of an old debate between the to men. General Rogers accuses President Stark of grabbing for power while President Stark says that General Rogers is just a general now, defined by his war and reluctant to see it end. As Miriam Sharpe tries to bring peace, she is suddenly shot in the back by a sniper. Reacting first, General Rogers calls Peter Parker to catch the shooter. Leaving his family, Parker finds a remote-controlled sniper rifle. As Miriam dies, General Rogers realizes that from the angle of the shot that the shooter was most likely aiming at him. President Stark denies the shooter is one of his, but it seems that the war is set to reignite once again demanding that people pick a side.^[114]

Using a drone, President Stark spied on the Blue to try to find the assassin's trail. Before it could go further into the Blue, it was intercepted and destroyed by Storm who took it to Steeltown to have its core analysed. The other components of the drone were turned into a lump of metal and thrown to Resilient Alpha as a warning. Back on the Blue, General Rogers and Peter Parker were discussing the next course of action before deciding to see Hank McCoy's progress in "Project Bellcurve." President Stark continued investigating Sharpe's murder when he discovered certain anomalies regarding past events, because these were statiscally improbable considering the landspace of the conflict, leading him to believe that events like Sharpe's murder were caused by a third party. Meanwhile, Hank McCoy showcased Rogers the results of Project Bellcurve, a procedure capable of depowering superhumans such as William Baker. Numerous resources from the Iron were needed to continue the project, for which Rogers sent a team led by Parker (composed of Elektra, Azari, and Venom/Clint Barton) to infiltrate Stark's territory. At the same time, Stark was sending Jen Walters to infliltrate the Blue, to continue investigating Sharpe's murder.^[115]

Spider-Man's team suffered the fist casualty when a Stark Sentinel killed Elektra. After destroying one of the robots, Spider-Man and the rest of the team proceeded to quickly get past them as the Sentinels worked only as an external defense, so they wouldn't attack their own base. Spider-Man's team finished dealing with the robotic defenses of the facility and came across the final obstacle, the reanimated corpse of the Kingpin controlled by Doctor Octopus' tentacles, which spotted and attacked them almost immediately. Venom saved the rest of the team from Kingpin's clutches and they continued the mission, ultimately returning to the Blue with every component needed for "Project Bellcurve." At the same time, She-Hulk had been capable of bypassing the mental scan by an elderly and almost decrepit Professor X and infiltrated the streets of Steeltown. However, Agent Robbie Baldwin of the Punishers recognized her and followed She-Hulk through the city until she had arrived at the end of the assassin's trail. She discovers that the assassin was Bullseye. As Jen was spying on Bullseye from his window, Baldwin caught up with her. Even though She-Hulk was able to easily dispatch him, she was forced to flee as it was only a matter of time before reinforcements arrived. She was leaping across the rooftops of Steeltown when she was soon attacked by an unidentified enemy and disappeared from the scene before the Punishers could get her. She-Hulk awoke in an undisclosed location having been captured by Bullseye's client Black Panther.^[116]

As the Blue prepared to invade the Iron in a last-ditch attempt at ending the war, Iron Man tracked down Jen's position and flew to rescue her. He found her in a secret compound below the Divide, Iron Man was quickly attacked by its defenses and neutralized. After his armor was stripped from him, Tony was brought to Black Panther who revealed himself as the Skrull Queen Veranke. Veranke stated that she is the cause of every single failed attempt at reaching peace in a part of a plan to benefit from the never-ending war. Iron Man used additional weaponry that was not in his armor to free himself from Queen Veranke's guard and reveal her and her subordinates as Skrulls. Iron Man was able to fend off the Skrull guards and break She-Hulk free from her cage who in turn saved Iron Man from the remaining Skrulls. Meanwhile, the Blue kept invading the Iron and engaged in combat against its forces when General America was about to detonate a bomb derived from Project Bellcurve.^[117]

Iron Man managed to escape the Divide and was attacked by Steve, who launched him onto their Hellicarrier. Here, Tony called for Emma and Barnes, telling Emma to invade General America's mind and show him everything that Tony had seen in the Divide. He also killed Barnes (who was revealed to be a Skrull) to further drive his point home. The general ordered his troops to lower their mental shields and Emma projected the images onto both the Iron and Blue troops. General America then ordered Logan to toss the Bellcurve bomb into the Divide. The bomb was damaged by the fall, forcing Tony and Steve to go down there. While President Stark fixed the device, General America held off the Skrulls. All the super-powered heroes went down after the two to help them. President Stark and General America set off the bomb, killing themselves, but de-powering both the Skrulls and their own people. Two months later, relations between the Blue and the Iron had been normalized. The Iron sent over food and lifted the trade embargo allowing the Blue to once again engage in trade with other domains. The Blue allowed settlers from the Iron to settle on their lands. Peter Parker and Jennifer Walters now lead their respective factions as the bridge between the two is rebuilt.^[118]

E is for Extinction

Revisiting the first story arc from Grant Morrison's run on the Marvel Comics title New X-Men, Professor X is holding a gun to his head, ready to shoot himself in order to prevent the twin sister he killed in the womb from making her way to Cerebra (in order to take over his mind). The psychic backlash knocked out Jean Grey and put her in a coma while encasing her inside the Phoenix Egg. 10 years after the death of Professor X, Magneto has his own institute with 90% mutant students, as well as his own team of X-Men consisting of the students who attended Xorn’s Special Class in the original run. A group calling themselves The Patient show up, they’re presumably humans who have genetically given themselves powers and they want to kill off the real mutants. Magneto shows up with his X-Men, all young and with a few familiar faces like Angel Salvadore, Basilisk, Beak, Dust, Glob Herman, Ernst, No-Girl, Redneck, the Stepford Cuckoos, and Tattoo. Another group of middle-age X-Men eventually do show up, albeit late and pathetic. Cyclops pretends like he’s still the guy leading an entire race, but he just makes a fool of himself. Magneto establishes here that Cyclops and Emma Frost are basically a bunch of has-beens since their powers are fading away. Even the rest of Magneto’s team goes out of their way to berate them and not in a very good way. Meanwhile, at a mutant medical center, Beast is helping out a couple of prospective parents. Apparently, they want to make sure their child is a mutant. In a domain where mutants are the majority, just being normal is basically a handicap so they want to make sure their kid has that advantage. Later, Wolverine is approached by Cyclops at a bar saying he has a mission and it involves Jean Grey. As it turns out Magneto has had Jean Grey locked away at the school for quite some time now. Magneto then explains to Esme Cuckoo that Jean Grey fell into a coma after Professor X killed himself. Apparently, their minds were linked during the struggle against Cassandra Nova. Now she’s tuck in this pseudo-Phoenix Egg and he wants to wake her up. Unbeknownst to him, Cyclops had an informant inside his ranks and discovered Jean was in his possession. To try and save Jean, Cyclops assembled the old X-Men Emma Frost and Wolverine and released Xorn from his prison that was run by the U-Men so that he could help them.^[119]

Cyclops' X-Men invaded the Atom Institute and engaged in fight against the new X-Men while Quentin Quire (who was Cyclops' informant) confronted Magneto in the basement. Angry, Magneto used his powers to create a tendril of metal and stabbed Quentin with it, but Quentin had already bonded himself with the egg and started to hatch it. Xorn then emerged in order to destroy it and was attacked by Magneto in response. With his helmet destroyed revealing the miniature star in his head, Xorn battled Magneto ravaging the entire Institute, but vanished when he realized that Jean Grey was not alone inside the egg. Afterwards, the Phoenix Egg went dormant and fell on Magneto seemingly killing him. On account of what happened, Beast was there investigating an unknown viral strain (which killed a human version of himself he found on his doorstep) that was being drawn to the Atom Institute. He said that there were no great power to be derived from the Phoenix Egg and that Magneto was wrong after all. Just then, an army of alternate versions of Beast appeared with one of them saying that Magneto was right.^[120]

The old and new generations of X-Men as well as the Atom Institute students, united forces in order to prevent the Beast army from getting the Phoenix Egg which started to hatch once more while they battled. Emma Forst, who had combined her powers with the Stepford Cuckoos to become the Six-In-One, started to shut the Beasts down one by one before turning her attention to their leader. Reading his mind, Frost discovered that the real threat was Sublime, a sentient bacterial life-form which laid hidden inside the Phoenix Egg until it was discovered and used by Magneto. Tired of being used, Sublime managed to spread his spores all over Battleworld, infecting and assembling all the versions of Beasts (its perfect host) it could find to take control of the Phoenix Force inside the egg. Shortly thereafter, Sublime took control over this domain's Beast and used him to kill Esme, breaking the link between the Six-In-One. Sublime afterwards got the upper hand over the X-Men. As everything seemed lost, the desembodied mind of Professor X possessed Quentin Quire's corpse reanimating it and used his powers to finally destroy Sublime ending his threat once and for all. But the battle wasn't over yet as Cassandra Nova emerged from the Phoenix Egg in possession of Jean Grey's body and the Phoenix Force.^[121]

Cyclops tried to reach Jean, but failed and Nova killed him. She then took control of most of the mutants present there. Professor X managed to protect a few of them to help him defeat her, but many of them had already lost the will to fight and were easily defeated. However, Wolverine devised a plan to defeat Nova which Professor X learned about by reading his mind. Having no other option, Professor X possessed Logan's body and with his help, managed to reach Jean and defeat Nova as Logan and Jean killed themselves. The Phoenix's death caused a huge explosion that destroyed everything and everyone in its range. Later as the dust had settled, Xorn is now the new host of the Phoenix Force. He contemplates about the balance which was restored.^[122]

Future Imperfect

In the domain of Dystopia, Maestro rules with an iron fist. His only opposition being a band of rebels led by Thing who have taken in those rejected by the Maestro. Disguised as Odin, Maestro convinced Ruby Summers (a rebel whom he had been watching for quite some time) that he was indeed the Asgardian god and she took him to the rebels' underground hideaway. Once there, Maestro sheds his disguise and attacks them drawing Thing's attention.^[123]

As Maestro and the Thing clash, it's revealed that this version of the Thing is actually General Thunderbolt Ross (Hulk’s longest running foe). Maestro eventually takes the upper hand over the Thing who gets himself captured. In the end however, it's revealed this is all a prelude to Maestro making a move on God Emperor Doom.^[124]

With Layla's help, Ruby, Janis, Skooter and some other rebels invaded Maestro's castle to rescue their leader and take Maestro down. They discover he has made a deal with the tyrant that he would help him get the only weapon in the world capable of destroying God Emperor Doom: the Destroyer.^[125]

After the rebels agreed to help him in his quest, Maestro and his newfound temporary allies travel to Norseheim where according to the book he stole from God Emperor Doom, they would find Ulik who would guide them to the Destroyer Armor. To get information about Ulik's whereabouts, the group entered a local pub and found Hoder who revealed to them that Ulik was in Nornheim and told them where they would find its entrance. As soon as they entered Nornheim, Maestro and the rebels were attacked by Ulik and his Trolls and they battled. The battle ended when Ulik (after being heavily beaten by Maestro) surrendered and commanded the other Trolls to do the same. He then guided Maestro and the remaining rebels to the Ancient One who to Maestro's surprise was none other than Rick Jones.^[126]

Rick Jones led them without delay to the Destroyer and said to Maestro to take the armor. Distrustful, Maestro grabbed Rick by the collar and said that wouldn't be that simple, Jones replied saying it wasn't as he had already summoned Doom as that was his place of power, a wish central to which all wishing wells were connected. Maestro then approached the armor. As God Emperor Doom showed up, Maestro merged with it. A battle ensued between God Emperor Doom and Maestro while the rebels and Rick fled. Without much effort, Maestro was able to overpower God Emperor Doom and finally kill him and seize control over Battleworld as its new God Emperor, or so he thought. In reality, Maestro never merged with the armor. Actually he was standing before it, boasting about his imaginary new position as Battleworld's new God Emperor. Rick revealed to the rebels that as he had said earlier, that place was a wishing well. It granted wishes, so it granted his and there he would stay until his death. As they left, Rick stayed behind with Maestro until the end of time as God Emperor Doom had assigned him to.^[127]

Giant-Size Little Marvel: AvX

Throughout Battleworld, all the heroes and villains are dealing with their own set of problems. The child-themed land of Marville is no different as Magik uses her powers to summon creatures to fight the Avengers on the corner of Avengers Street and X-Men Way. Iron Man tries to apologize to Magik, but she does not accept it because he used her Pony Pal toy as target practice. Captain America tells Iron Man that Magik has a point. Iron Man tells Magik that if he really wanted to break her doll he would’ve done it in front of her face. Magik gets pissed that Iron Man called her action figures “dolls” and attacks the Iron Avenger. Suddenly, Magik’s mom yells out that dinner is ready. Magik decides to head home and recalls her creatures. The next day Toad and Blob look for something to eat. Iceman tries to sell them something from his ice cream cart but they decide to get something from Captain America’s food cart. They are disappointed that Cap only sells hot dogs. Suddenly they smell the food that Wolverine is cooking up on the grill extension Iceman set-up on his cart. Thor helps his teammate out by cooking some ribs. Not to be one upped, Gambit arrives with his famous gumbo. Toad and Blob rush to get Gambit’s gumbo. Not long after Iron Man arrives and takes everyone business with the food truck he just built. Cyclops tells Storm to make it rain and she does just that only on Iron Man’s food truck. The child forms of the Marvel heroes and villains line-up to buy food from the X-Men’s various food carts. As business continues to pick up, Beast realizes they somehow ran out food already. Rogue points out that the Hulk ate their remaining inventory much to the X-Men’s anger. Over at his food truck, Iron Man tries to get Spider-Gwen to go on a date with him. Spider-Gwen rejects Iron Man because she finds a goatee on a kid’s face creepy. Magneto suddenly uses his powers to disassemble Iron Man’s food truck and armor, leaving Iron Man with only his helmet on. Iron Man tells Thor it is “hammer time” and Thor smashes all of the X-Men’s food carts. The Avengers and X-Men begin fighting it out all over the street into the late night. As Captain America and Cyclops battle it out one-on-one, a MU Haul drives right over them into one of the nearby house. The Avengers and X-Men wonder who their new neighbors are. Cyclops and Captain America notice twins outside the house as they both yell out “Dibs”.^[128]

The next day as the citizens of Battleworld continue to deal with their own problems, the Little Marvels decide to split into teams for a game of dodgeball. Captain America and Cyclops decide to be the two captains. They each pick members for their teams and in the end the teams are basically the Avengers and X-Men. Captain America tries to go over the rules but is smacked on the head by a dodgeball that Cyclops throws. Iron Man retaliates by throwing a dodgeball at Cyclops, but Cyclops destroys it with an optic blast. Hawkeye comes from the side and hits Cyclops with a dodgeball so hard it breaks his visor. As Hawkeye tries to avoid being hit by Cyclops’ uncontrollable optic blasts, Iceman creates his own dodgeball and blast Hawkeye straight through a wall with it. Black Widow has enough of the X-Men and tells the Avengers to assemble. The Avengers and X-Men go on to have an epic dodgeball game with each person using their skills in unique ways. Recess is soon over and Spider-Man asks Daredevil if he saw who won. The Avengers and X-Men go back to their class being taught by Professor X who introduces the new kids as Zachary and Zoe to the class and asks the students for questions. Bruce Banner asks if he can go to the bathroom but is denied until he turns into the Hulk. The Avengers and X-Men go on to ask he kids various questions about their origins only to find out that they are normal kids. School comes to an end and all the students leave for the day. Captain America and Cyclops catch up to the new kids and they try to get them to join their respective teams. They both end up inviting Zachary and Zoe to their respective clubhouses. The kids of Marville make it back home with Ghost Rider, Beast, Namor, and Uatu the Watcher each spending time with their families and working on their own things. The next day, Cyclops has Storm and Rogue hang a welcome banner below their clubhouse. Iron Man and Black Widow come over and makes fun of the banner because it looks like it was made during a pre-school arts and craft class. Colossus bringing over art supplies only makes things worse for Cyclops. Iron Man then unveils his high-tech welcome sign. While Beast is wowed by it Cyclops is unimpressed. Cyclops accuses Iron Man of using his dad’s money to buy the sign. Iron Man takes offense to Cyclops talking about his dad. As the new kids arrive at the clubhouses location they see a giant explosion. The new kids decide to sit by a nearby hill to watch the clash between the Avengers and X-Men. While eating some popcorn the new kids spot Scarlet Witch and Cable going one-on-one and wonder who will win. They soon get their answer as Scarlet Witch completely decimates Cable.^[129]

Zachary and Zoe were eventually invited to the X-Men and Avengers secret clubhouses with each team trying to convince them to join their crews, but one thing they didn't expect happened: they found new rivals for Zachary and Zoe's attention in the form of children versions of the Guardians of the Galaxy.^[130]

However, the Guardians of the Galaxy were far from being their last rivals. Eventually, the children versions of the Inhumans also showed up to fight for the twins' friendship, but none of them were successful in their goal. While they battled, the Brotherhood of Mutants (consisting of Magneto, Blob, Doctor Octopus, Juggernaut, Loki, Mystique, Quicksilver, Rhino, Sabretooth, Toad, Ultron, and Venom) were able to convince Zachary and Zoe to join their ranks.^[131]

Guardians of Knowhere

The issue begins with the story of how the head of a dead Celestial floats high above Battleworld, how the Celestial came to Battleworld to literally to take it as his own, only to be killed by God Emperor Doom himself. Now orbiting the strange, patchwork planet as its solitary moon, Knowhere is now a glorious reminder of Doom's omnipotent power and survives as a colony brimming with convicts and criminals. Yet amid this vile hive of killers, thieves and thugs, there are the Guardians of Knowhere: peacekeepers who have sworn to protect the denizens of the floating Celestial head. Angela comes to Knowhere to collect Gamora's head for crossing zones for many times, which she knows is expressly forbidden by God Emperor Doom. Angela violently interrogates Drax as Gamora shows up and asks her if she knows what Gamora is. There is a fight, and the Guardians of Knowhere are forced to flee from Angela who returns to Battleworld. They go to a market and meet Mantis. In a conversation at her house, its learnt that Gamora (due to her enhanced cosmic abilities from the Black Vortex) seems to retain some memory of the life before Battleworld. The house then suddenly blows up, blasted by Yotat the Destroyer who claims Knowhere as his.^[132]

Months ago, Yotat was confronted by Drax after he had killed a mob boss named Giogo. Drax's motive of this is that Giogo tried to kill him a year earlier.^[133]

The moment before Drax was going to be executed by Yotat, Angela arrived and saved him by striking the villain with a lightning. Her intervention allowed Drax to recover and beat Yotat, weakening him enough a second attack from Angela finally defeated him. The Nova Corps appeared on the scene to take Yotat into custody, as they had previously failed to subdue him during his first encounter with Drax. After Yotat was handed over the Nova Corps, Angela resumed her business with Gamora. Angela demanded Gamora an explanation for heresy, as she did not see in Doom as a supreme ruler. Gamora's failure to properly explain the reason behind her belief to Angela resulted in a confrontation, which was interrupted by the arrival of a mysterious woman (actually Hala from the Kree race) through a portal.^[134]

At first astonished by the woman's appearance, Angela and Gamora tried to communicate with her, but they didn't recognize her language. Despite Gamora saying to Angela to disarm herself in order to calm the warrior down, Angela didn't listen and they were attacked and defeated by her. The Nova Corps showed up soon afterwards and tried to take her down, but she overcame them by killing many of them in the process before recognizing the Kree symbol on Captain Marvel's chest. With the mysterious warrior distracted, Angela and Gamora backstabbed her with their swords, seemingly killing her. Later, Angela tried to convince Gamora to stay in Knowhere and obey the laws created by God Emperor Doom, but Gamora couldn't do it. As Gamora tried to explain her reasons to trespass to other domains, the believed dead mysterious woman backstabbed Angela and killed her. Furious, Gamora attacked her and was almost killed, but was saved by her teammates. Together, the Guardians managed to finally defeat the warrior. While Gamora grieved Angela's death and tried to remember what was lost, Peter Quill appeared to enlist the Guardians to take God Emperor Doom down.^[135]

Hail Hydra

Trapped in a Hydra base with Baron Zemo, Nomad (Ian Rogers), the Man Without a Country was able to escape using Hydra's experimental Infinite Elevator. Landing in New York, Nomad remembers an incident from his childhood when he pulled a gun on Captain America. Captain America talked him down, getting him to choose the name of Ian Rogers over his birth name of Leopold Zola. Looking around, Nomad sees large amounts of Hydra iconography, marked by the vast beaming face of Arnim Zola on half the screens on the street. Realizing that something is up, Nomad asks a teenage graffiti artist when Hydra took control. Confused, the young man says the city was founded by Hydra. A roving squad of Hydra guards with jetpacks sees them, and the duo run. Nomad is able to outpace the guards and the other man, but goes back when the guards start brutalizing the other man. Beating up the squad, he knocks out almost everyone but is unable to stop the guards from putting the man into a lock-up vehicle. Running back into the shadows, Nomad realizes that Hydra's control is too ingrained to be a thing of weeks or even years, but would have to be generational. Nomad is about to back to the Infinite Elevator, to try to find a way home, but he realizes that he got the kid caught. And so, he stays to free him. Elsewhere, the graffiti artist is processed before a large screen by Arnim Zola himself. He is taken away, but Zola wants to know more about the other man. When he discovers there is no information, he deputizes Grant Ward: Agent of Hydra to find it. The graffiti artist is brought to a bio-factory, to be burned alive and used for parts. However, he is saved at the last minute by Nomad, who swiftly frees him and everyone else who was about to die. Everyone runs. Pausing for breath on a rooftop, the graffiti-ist introduces himself as Chris Miller, a citizen of the United Confederaton of Hydra. Arnim Zola rules the land and pays fealty to God Emperor Doom. Everyone in the nation pays fealty to Zola in turn, or they are eventually sent to a bio-factory, where their mass is used to construct soldier mutates that keep everyone safe from the "outlying zones". Chris claims that he will help Nomad get in contact with the underground....mere seconds before he is decapitated by a thrown round shield. The owner of the shield, wearing a cross between a Hydra guard uniform and the Captain America costume, announces that the escapees are being rounded up as he speaks. Enraged, Nomad attacks the newcomer where he is angry that he is perverting the legacy of Captain America. The newcomer pauses when he sees Nomad's face, but the reason why isn't clear until Nomad manages to knock his helmet...revealing the man to be his body double who angrily exclaims that whatever his father has cooked up, there is only one Leopold Zola.^[136]

Nomad was outmatched by his analog and had his spine broken, but managed to escape to the sewers when Leopold thought him dead. He was found by a woman named Ellie who is the daughter of the Hydra Empire's Steve Rogers and Sharon Carter. Nomad is taken to the underground base of the resistance. At first, he was believed to be part of a plan of Zola to take the resistance down, but convinced them otherwise by revealing his origins to the resistance leader Steve Rogers (who was the former Captain Hydra). Rogers then decided to include Nomad in their plan to destroy Zola and was explaining it to him when Venom and his Vipers attacked. All the members of the resistance were killed with the exception of Nomad and Ellie who managed to escape. However, Venom had infected her with a symbiote moments before she escaped and it was a matter of time until she became a new Viper.^[137]

With the resistance dead, Ellie lost her faith in defeating Hydra and building a better world for the Hydra Empire citizens as her father dreamed, but Ian convinced her to not give up as her father wouldn't if he were in their place. Even because they still had a chance to destroy Zola as Ian was in possession of the device Tony Stark designed to trap Zola's consciousness into one body preventing him from escaping death. Later, Nomad and Ellie headed undercover towards the Temple of Hydra, but were easily discovered. However, Zola commanded his men to not attack them and guide them to him. Once they entered his tower, Zola revealed to them he needed the substance inside Nomad's armor to grant regeneration to his son Leopold and tried to convince them to surrender it in exchange for a place in his nation. He even used the corpse of Steve Rogers to try and dissuade them, but it only made them angrier and they attacked him. Despite Zola gaining the upper hand and defeating them both, Ian managed to use the device created by Tony on Zola trapping him inside Steve Rogers' body. It was then that Ellie started to scream in pain infuriating Ian. He launched himself on Zola, both breaking through a window to the outside of the tower. As he was about to kill Zola, Ian was attacked and almost fell from the tower, but managed to hold on a gargoyle. He then saw his attacker Leopold Zola who was accompanied by Hydra's deadly Avengers.^[138]

House of M

In the domain of the Monarchy of M, King Erik Magnus wakes up on his royal bed. He is warm and safe, but he remembers a few times that he’d woken up cold and in danger like the times he’d fought against Namor or the Sentinels. He recalls how the events of this reality led all the mutants to rally under the banner of House M when he called himself Magneto. He’s just happy that he’d lived long enough to see it. With the permission of God Emperor Doom, Magnus is now the ruler here. The people feel safe though some of the elders still remember when the Sentinels who now patrol the streets to protect mutants, used to hunt them. With Agent Wolverine of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Red Guard piloting the sole sentinel flying overhead and a retinue of mutant agents with him, onlookers below gawk at the sight. In Josie’s Bar, several humans gather to discuss helping Luke Cage take over King Magnus’ throne. Just as he’s getting to the plan, he is interrupted by Wolverine’s Sentinel stepping on him, hurting him badly. The Red Guard agents Magma, Marrow, Mystique, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Sasquatch, and Toad leap out and attack the humans. Wolverine kills Iron Fist and slices off Misty Knight’s cybernetic arm. Still, Misty Knight, Black Cat, and Hawkeye escape. They are chased through the streets until they are rescued by Deathlocket (Deathlok's daughter). They destroy the Sentinel that was chasing them. Back in the Royal Palace, Pietro is acting strangely. He is late for his meeting at the trade agreements with the Atlanteans and his sister Lorna Dane notices that he is acting out of character. Quicksilver's other sister Wanda has her own problems as her children Billy and Tommy are fighting for human rights, embarrassing their mother. Lorna goes to tell King Magnus about Quicksilver, but Magnus shrugs her off. Meanwhile, Quicksilver swims down to Atlantis to meet with King Namor. Apparently, he is in collusion with the Submariner to take over the surface world.^[139]

King Magnus sits in his study playing chess by himself. He is not alone though as someone or something is chained-up behind his throne. It threatens to kill him and his family, but Magnus is not concerned. In another part of the Monarchy of M, Deathlocket, Hawkeye, Misty Knight, and Black Cat are hiding in the underground base where Deathlocket’s father built hundreds of Deathlok cyborgs. They have limited functionality, but the rebels have a plan. Wiccan and Speed are causing havoc when Wolverine and his S.H.I.E.L.D. team show up. Princess Wanda arrives and tells Wolverine to go away as he’s trying to arrest her children. She breaks him down using her reality manipulation powers and reforms him away from her. Princess Wanda grabs Wiccan and Speed and then departs. The Deathloks attack the base, but they are only a distraction as Hawkeye and his team sneak into King Magnus's chamber. They battle and Hawkeye fires an arrow that hits Magnus. No ordinary arrow, the device on the arrowhead disrupts King Magnus’ mutant power over magnetism, causing the chains that were holding the other being to slacken. Out from behind the thrown comes Fin Fang Foom and he throws Magneto into a stone pillar. Princess Lorna comes in to rescue King Magnus and they escape, but not before a huge tidal wave engulfs the entire castle. It is King Namor and Prince Pietro as they are here to dispose of King Magnus.^[140]

Princess Lorna saved her father and incidentally the human attackers, from drowning. Before King Magnus could kill any of them himself, Lorna stopped him, claiming it would be valuable to keep them alive if they wanted to find a way to restore his powers. Lorna also convinced her father to escape from the Castle so they could figure out what happened. Meanwhile, Prince Pietro took over the reins of the Monarchy of M from the allegedly deceased King Magnus, proclaiming himself as the new King to the nation, also claiming the Atlanteans had helped repel the attack from the humans that supposedly had costed Magnus' life. Princess Wanda furiously confronted Pietro for the recent events, having been able to see past his lies, but her brother convinced her the course of action he took was for the best. Meanwhile, the still-depowered King Magnus made a temporary alliance with his would-be assassins in order to achieve a common goal....to overthrow Prince Pietro whose anti-human stance made him an even worse ruler for the humans than King Magnus was.^[141]

As King Magnus and Princess Lorna teamed up with the human resistance to take the throne from Prince Pietro, King Magnus realizes that his ordinary minimum wage guards and even his Red Guard ignore him as if he was any baseline human without his powers. With help from Billy and Tommy's allies in the Young Avengers, King Magnus confronts Prince Pietro which quickly leads to a confrontation between Princess Lorna and Princess Pietro, but King Namor steps into the fray and takes Princess Lorna and King Magnus out and decides to kill Prince Pietro and take the throne for himself. King Magnus defends his son. Billy managed to give his grandfather his power back which King Magnus uses to kill King Namor. Magneto is in a happy mood for clemency and decides to pardon his son and the human resistance and leaves to find a solution to wake Princess Wanda, but Lorna declares she won't be so charitable to Prince Pietro. While Billy and Tommy believed their grandfather to have changed his views on humans and mutants, King Magnus rebuffed their claims stating he merely paid a debt owned. Later on his own chambers, Magneto declares "It's good to be King".^[142]

Howard the Human

In the Battleworld domain of New Quack City, a variation of Howard the Duck is a private investigator who is the only known human living there. Upon being approached by the criminal Adrian Toomes (here an actual vulture) of the Vulture Robbers in Connors' Pub which is owned by a lizard version of Curt Connors, Howard started to tell them the tale of what had happened to him earlier that day. Howard had been hired by the Cat Lady (a cat version of Black Cat) to find the informant inside her organization, but someone was able to find him before Howard and killed him. As Cat Lady gave him twelve hours to find the assassin or otherwise she would kill him, Howard sought the help of Mouse Murdock (a mouse version of Matt Murdock). Murdock figured out that the informant was playing possum on order from a gorilla version of Wilson Fisk who wanted to take his main rival Cat Lady down. As he didn't want anyone messing up with his plan, Fisk ordered his Hand monkey ninjas to kill them. Howard was knocked out, but Murdock managed to defeat them all alone. After regaining consciousness, Howard was given a paper with the information he needed to end the case by Murdock who told him he himself would deal with Fisk afterwards. With the police arriving, Howard (who was running out of time on the Cat Lady's deadline) took his car and fled from them, going to Connors' Pub afterwards. Back in the present, Cat Lady entered the bar with her men to kill him for not completing his mission. In the nick of time, the police dogs arrived arresting both Felicia and Toomes as well as their gangs. With the informant showing up as Howard called him out, Felicia asked Howard why he had done that if he could have turned the informant over to her and walked away with a lot of money instead. He replied that Toomes would take his money if he had done it, so he decided to turn the informant over to the police, take the reward offered for finding him, and allow him to testify against Cat Lady.^[143]

Inferno

Five years ago in a variation of Manhattan, a bunch of demons rose up from the depths of Limbo and ravaged it. Since then, Limbo has been separated into two different areas: the area that is policed by the X-Men and the area around the Empire State Building that is surrounded by demons with a captured Illyana Rasputina inside as well. Illyana's brother Colossus is determined to rescue her at all cost. Colossus eventually agrees to work for Cyclops for 364 days a year. But on the anniversary of Magik’s capture, Peter gets to lead a team of volunteers to try a rescue attempt. In their fourth attempt, Cyclops gets clawed in the back in a way that angers Jean Grey and causes her to effectively end the fight in a draw. In an effort to make Cyclops' and Jean Grey's sacrifice meaningful, Colossus manages to make it to his sister. It starts off as an emotional reunion, but Colossus finds out the hard way that his sister is already lost. She reveals that she became Darkchild, ruler of Inferno after she was able to overthrow Baroness Madelyne Pryor. She even corrupts one of his arms to reinforce her point. In the fifth anniversary/fifth rescue attempt, Colossus leads a team including Domino, Boom-Boom, and Nightcrawler into battle against the numerous demons. Despite Cyclops' clear and understandable warnings, Colossus leads the team right into the demon hordes, but eventually his lack of strategy catches up with him. Nightcrawler gets himself captured by Darkchild and Boom-Boom apparently gets killed by N'astirh. Colossus is prevailing against the demons for a while, but even he gets roughed up by the Goblin Queen and her minions Goblin Prince and S'ym who had subdued Domino.^[144]

As Madelyne Pryor holds Colossus over an army of demons, she gives a speech to the demons saying that Colossus thinks he can stop his sister. She then questions whether he’s tough enough to do so and hints that if he is tough enough, then they would gladly follow him in this battle. Madelyne throws him into a horde of demons to test his toughness. A quick, but brutal battle unfolds with Colossus failing miserably and his arm that Darkchild corrupted turns against him. Madelyne makes an unexpected contribution and surprisingly throws the Soul Sword down into the arena for Colossus to wield with his demon arm. With it, Colossus has a new power at his disposal and his demon arm allows him to wield it. Meanwhile, a barely alive Boom-Boom is found and dragged by a demon to someplace while Domino (who was placed in a fiery prison cell) works her charm on a familiar looking kid to exploit an opportunity to escape. At the same time, Darkchild is using her powers to corrupt Nightcrawler and turn him into a massive and immensely powerful demon, that only she can control. After showing his skills with the Soul Sword, the Goblin Queen invites him up to her throne room and explains that not just anyone can wield the Soul Sword and his ability to do so with his demonic arm actually gives them a fighting chance against his sister. She then says outright that she wants to help him get Illyana Rasputin off the throne. She’ll even lend him her demon hordes to give him a better chance than just a handful of X-Men.^[145]

With Colossus leading the charge, they make it to Darkchild’s central lair in Limbo. The thing is she’s not there. Colossus is understandably confused while Madelyne Pryor is pleasantly surprised. She didn’t want to save Magik. She just wanted the throne and she just happened to arrive to find it vacant. There’s some tense moments with Colossus and Domino, but they quickly find out that Magik has a very good reason for not being there. Armed with a demon-infused Nightcrawler, the laws of Limbo can't be apply to her anymore so she just teleports her army right to the front door of the X-Men’s headquarters, catching the mutants completely off-guard. What makes this attack all the more devious is that it took Colossus, Domino, and Madelyne Pryor out of the equation. By invading Limbo with their forces, they’ve essentially trapped themselves there. Now they can’t aid the X-Men in any capacity. Madelyne is okay with it, she wanted Darkchild’s throne. Well, now she has it. While outside Limbo the battle unfolds as Darkchild tries to break the force field that’s keeping the rest of Limbo from spreading around the domain. The mutant heroes can’t be kind anymore so Cyclops rallies the X-Men to him and urges them to fight the demon army. However, by doing this some ended up abandoning their posts, leaving parts of their base vulnerable. They thought Darkchild couldn’t get there because of the shielding and to an extent they’re right. They just didn’t account for her having a giant teleporting Nighcrawler monster to help get her through. Armed with Nightcrawler’s teleportation powers, Darkchild teleports inside the building and confronts Beast and Dr. Strange while back at Limbo, Madelyne Pryor drops by Colossus and Domino to inform them that the situation with the X-Men has entered a new level. The force field that held Darkchild’s demonic forces back is down, thanks to her sneak attack against Beast and Dr. Strange. Now the full force of her army can invade and crush the X-Men. Cyclops, still tries to return to the base and stop her. Even without his legs, he’s still determined to fight. Darkchild makes clear that she’s won and his neck is ripe for snapping. As the attack continues to unfold, its revealed that there are actually other forces involved, in the form of Mr. Sinister who hints that he’s been pulling a few strings through this demon-powered storm.^[146]

As the X-Men retreated to the underground, Darkchild is approached by Sheriff Strange and the Thor Corps, with Sheriff Strange appointing Darkchild as the new baron of the entire domain. Meanwhile, the X-Men are eventually found by Nightcrawler, who took N'Astirh and other demons there to kill them. However, they were saved by Colossus, Domino, Pryor and her Goblins and a very much alive, while slightly different, Boom-Boom. Madelyne even saves Jean Grey from the demon Nightcrawler. Once they get a breather from fighting demons, Cyclops goes out of his way to blast and yell at Colossus for basically doing the exact opposite of what he told him to do. He rightly points out that Colossus' endless efforts to save his sister were doing more harm than good. He's harsh, but Colossus doesn't argue with him as Mister Sinister makes his presence known, arriving just in time exploit to the X-Men's desperation and vulnerability. His appearance definitely surprises everybody, especially Madelyne who looks genuinely shocked. Then Boom-Boom vouches for him revealing that it was because of Sinister that she was alive. Sinister had created an army of mutant/demon hybrids from her and even claims that he also tinkered with her genetics to make her more subservient. He's there to help them but the X-Men are suspicious.^[147]

Unwilling to work with Sinister, Pryor controlled Boom-Boom's mind and made her kill him, infuriating the succubi army, which started to attack them. It was then that Darkchild appeared and commanded her demons to kill all the X-Men. Only Colossus, Domino and Boom-Boom managed to escape alive. Believing his sister was lost, Colossus confronted Darkchild in order to kill her, but she used his compassion to weaken and almost kill him if not for Domino, who put herself in danger to finally push Colossus into killing Darkchild. With his sister apparently dead and his domain burning, Colossus used his newfound demonic powers to teleport himself, Domino and Boom-Boom out of the domain. Later, Pryor showed up with her son and the Bamf Dragon now in her possession and absorbed the Hellfire coming out of Darkchild's corpse, getting more powerful than before.^[148]

Infinity Gauntlet

The Bakian Clan (a group of humans who survived the attacks of the Annihilation Wave) are shadowed by an unknown figure as they scrounge for food in the ruins of New Xandar, but their dog Zigzag is only able to find canned dog food for them to eat. Later that night, Menzin tells his youngest daughter Fayne about how her mother left to reinforce the Nova Corps and will someday return. The elder daughter Anwen believes their mother to be dead as evidenced by the arrival of the Annihilation Wave. An argument between their father and the girls' maternal grandfather ensues which attracts the attention of the bugs forcing the Bakian Clan to flee for their lives. During the resulting chase, Anwen falls into a bug nest. As she fights for her life, she discovers the Mind Infinity Gem. Hearing explosions on the surface, she climbs out and comes face to face with a Nova who removes her helmet, revealing herself to be Anwen's mother as the two then embrace. Anwen's mother says "everything will be alright". Meanwhile, Thanos watching from the shadows in a building disagrees with what he overheard and it is revealed he has the Time Gem.^[149]

Eve reunited Anwen with the rest of the Bakian clan and gave each of them Nova suits. After escaping from a horde of bugs by using the Mind Gem Anwen had found, they tried to retreat to the Nova HQ, but found the place wrecked with the Novas stationed there killed and the gem in their possession missing. At the other side of New Xandar, Star-Lord returns to Gamora who is revealed to be the possessor of the gem (the Space Gem) that was on the Nova HQ, having scavenged the HQ and found it between the attack and the Bakians' arrival.^[150]

As he had gone back in time to before the Bakian clan reunited with Eve, Thanos posed as an ally, to the point of giving them the Time Gem to earn their trust, and accompanied them in their journey, which remained the same as originally. After finding the ravaged Nova HQ, the Bakian clan and Thanos confronted Star-Lord and Gamora, forcing them to stop fighting by using the Mind Stone. In exchange for three Nova Stars, they acquired the Space Gem. Because they wanted to achieve a common goal, the destruction of the Annihilation Wave, Star-Lord and Gamora joined the Bakian clan and Thanos in their mission. The next gem, the Power Stone, was found being protected by Groot, who gave it to them and joined their party.^[151]

Through a vision, Eve was guided by the Stones to Magus City, a sanctuary under the protection of Adam Warlock (wielder of the Soul Stone) who used it to keep the Annihilation Wave at bay. Unbeknown to the Balkian and their allies, Adam also fed on the souls of the inhabitants of the city to power himself and keep the monsters away. When the Balkian were received by Warlock and his Knights of Xandar, Eve went straight to the point and demanded to take the Soul Stone to complete the Infinity Gauntlet and destroy the Annihilation Wave. Warlock opposed Eve leading to a fight for the ownership of the Stone, while the rest of the Balkian Clan and their allies confronted the Knights. Drax the Destroyer (a being bent on hunting down Thanos) interrupted the battle and demanded the presence of Thanos. The Balkians attacked him, initially believing him to be an enemy. When Warlock used the Soul Stone on Eve to control her, she discovered the full use he gave to the Stone. Thanos tackled Warlock and saved Eve before her soul was consumed and took the Soul Stone for himself. Thanos turned to Eve and seemingly killed her before taking the other four Stones from her and unleashing their power.^[152]

Thanos released a behemoth bug to deal with his former allies while he teleported away to find the remaining gem, the Reality Stone. He was subsequently attacked by his future self who had come to the past to acquire the Infinity Gauntlet and knew the location of the final part. Back in Magus City, the Bakian Clan used their dog Zigzag's smell enhanced by the Nova Star to track down the Reality Stone from the scent of Eve's gauntlet. Star-Lord, Gamora and Groot remained in Magus City where they used Nova Stars to empower themselves and keep the behemoth bug at bay. After killing his future self, Thanos headed to Mount Terizi, but the Balkian Clan had already obtained the final gem. With the ability to alter reality, the Balkians were match for the power of Thanos and his five stones. Awen created a giant mecha out of thin air to battle Thanos, but it proved ineffective. Menzin tried to push Thanos out of reality, causing an explosion that knocked both parties down. In the ruins of Mount Terizi, Awen found the Infinity Gauntlet with the Reality Stone and Thanos confronted her. Awen suspiciously gave Thanos the Reality Stone without a fight and Thanos boasted about the completed Infinity Gauntlet. However, the Infinity Gauntlet started acting strangely. The gem that Awen had given Thanos wasn't the Reality Stone, it was a newly created "Death Stone." Thanos quickly succumbed to the Death Stone and turned into dust.^[153]

MODOK Assassin

After having stolen a Nimrod CPU of the Sentinel Territories from A.I.M.'s possession, Otto Octavius was tracked down by MODOK in order to find his paymasters. After preventing Bullseye from killing Octavius, MODOK killed Otto himself and decided to retrieve the piece of Nimord tech after concluding the presence of it in the market would incriminate him. The Sentinels from the Sentinel Territories accidentally trespassed to their neighbor domain Killville when they were trying to capture Gambit of Monarchy of M. In retaliation, MODOK destroyed the Sentinels that had trespassed and threatened the rest to find and reprogram their Master Mold to love mutants instead of hate them should his territory ever be trespassed again, he subsequently discovered an unidentified object crashing into his land. When he approached the crater left by it, MODOK discovered it to be a Thor from the Thor Corps.^[154]

The Thor Corps member Angela awoke. Upon seeing MODOK, Angela attacked him thinking he was responsible for what happened to her. Angela fought him fiercely, but he didn't fight back as he was amazed by her. She tried to use her Mjolnir called the Devilslayer against him, but it didn't answer her which made her furious. She attacked MODOK with no mercy and he did what he could to not be hit, but Angela still struck him with her spear and used his chainsaw to damage his chair, releasing the Null Bomb (a weapon designed by MODOK) to kill Graviton. As the bomb exploded, MODOK used his powers to protect her and then fainted. Angela tried to kill him with her axe when he regained consciousness, but couldn't do this as she finally realized he wasn't the one who attacked her earlier. Afterwards, MODOK offered his help to discover who had attacked her. In the meanwhile, the lords of the Assassins Guild sent their best agents to kill MODOK.^[155]

Together, MODOK and Angela worked together to dispose of their would-be assassins Boomerang, Bullseye, Bushwacker, Elektra, Ghost, Grim Reaper, Hit-Monkey, Jack O'Lantern, Punisher, Scarlet Spider, Screaming Mimi, Typhoid Mary, and Wolverine. The two of them even succeeded by slaying their would-be assassins even when being overwhelmed. After the three lords of the Assassins Guild consisting of Kingpin, Viper, and Shroud appeared to confront MODOK, the Mindless Ones descended on the scene.^[156]

MODOK and Angela were able to evade the endless waves of Mindless Ones, at the cost of the lives of the remaining members of the Assassins Guild, who had become MODOK's temporary allies. After reaching a safe zone, MODOK started putting together the different occurrences that happened to Angela and concluded that the attack that struck her down, the force field that prevented her from reaching her hammer, and her cloaking against technology had been the work of Baron Mordo. The Mindless Ones caught up to MODOK and his companion, ultimately swarming him while Angela tried to go through the force field surrounding her hammer to recover it. The effort to disrupt the field knocked her out, allowing MODOK a chance to try to lift the hammer, but he wasn't worthy. With Angela unconscious and the Mindless Ones surrounding him, MODOK predicament took a turn for the worse with the arrival of Baron Mordo and Clea.^[157]

MODOK stalled Baron Mordo by making him reveal his plan. Mordo planned for MODOK to kill the Thor when they first met, what would've brought the attention of Battleworld's Sheriff Strange, MODOK would then have killed Strange when he confronted him for the Thor's death, and Mordo would kill MODOK to prove himself and gain the position of Sheriff of Battleworld, as he considered himself superior to Strange. MODOK bought enough time to manipulate and command an army of Sentinels from the Sentinel Territories to do his bidding and attack Mordo's Mindless Ones. While the Sentinels helped MODOK turn the tide of the battle, Mordo found himself with the upper hand again, until Angela regained consciousness and killed Clea, subsequently dealing with the rest of the Mindless Ones while MODOK defeated Mordo. The Thor Corps arrived soon after Baron Mordo's defeat. In a fit of rage, Baron Mordo tried to attack the Thor Corps, but he was killed by MODOK. Angela defended MODOK's actions against her fellow Thor Corps members, acknowledging MODOK's help in saving her. Before leaving, MODOK tried to kiss Angela, but she rejected him. Nevertheless, she informed Sheriff Strange about MODOK's actions and he was made the new Baron of Killville.^[158]

Mrs. Deadpool and the Howling Commandos

Deep under Earth-616's Manhattan in the Kingdom of Manhattan is the Monster Metropolis, a domain inhabited by an assortment of monsters and supernatural creatures such as its governor Dracula and his Howling Commandos (consisting of Frankenstein's Monster, Man-Thing, Marcus the Centaur, N'Kantu, the Living Mummy, and Werewolf by Night). In the world that this version of Monster Metropolis consists of, Deadpool was defeated and killed by Governor Dracula in his battle for Shiklah's hand in matrimony as Dracula cheated by using his powers. After discovering a traitor in their ranks in the form of the Invisible Man, the Howling Commandos under Governor Dracula's orders executed him and were sent to guard the bodies of Shiklah's bothers who were killed by Governor Dracula. To see her brothers one last time before their bodies are cremated, Shiklah used Medusa's head to petrify the Howling Commandos and proceeded to see their bodies. While mourning her brothers, Shiklah reached to their vestiments and found the Scepter of the Manticore and a map with the location of the headpiece of the scepter. As the scepter was useless without its headpiece, Shiklah decided to go to search for it so she could use it against Governor Dracula to avenge her brothers' death. Shiklah told Governor Dracula she must deliver her brothers ashes to the River Styx so their souls wouldn't haunt and curse them. Governor Dracula then gave her seven days to do it and return to Monster Metropolis in time for their wedding. In the Trail to Hell, Governor Dracula sent his Howling Commandos to escort Shiklah and gave Werewolf by Night a mission....to get rid of Shikla.^[159]

During their journey in the Trail to Hell, the Howling Commandos came clean and revealed Governor Dracula's orders, but also that they were working against him as well. The Invisible Man wasn't truly dead and was now spying on Governor Dracula while the rest of the Commandos accompanied Shiklah.^[160]

The ghost of Earth-616's Deadpool joined Shiklah's journey who had been watching the events that transpired in this domain for a while. Only Frankenstein's Monster could detect his presence. Shiklah and the Howling Commandos proceeded to cross a portal that took them to Weirdworld, the most dangerous place on Battleworld where the Temple of the Manticore was located. After hours trying to find a way to the Temple of the Manticore, Shiklah and the Howling Commandos finally made it to the Temple of the Manticore and acquired the headpiece of the scepter called The Totem of the Manticore. Afterwards, N'Kantu the Living Mummy teleported them back to Monster Metropolis where Governor Dracula (who was driven mad by the Invisible Man) was attacking anyone he considered a betrayer.^[161]

The Howling Commandos helped Shiklah confront Dracula and his subordinates. At the same time fought for the control of the Sceptre of the Manticore. After most of the Howling Commandos were killed, Governor Dracula's forces were able to subdue both Shiklah and the Sceptre of the Manticore. Deadpool used the abilities of his ghostly form to possess the body of Governor Dracula's servant and throw the Sceptre at Shiklah which she used to kill Governor Dracula. Shiklah proceeded to convince the inhabitants of Monster Metropolis to invade the world from above and conquer the world. Shiklah also finally noticed Deadpool's ghost who warned her not to confront the upper world. Shiklah dismissed his claims. As Shiklah prepared to attack the upper world, the Thor Corps arrived having taken notice of Governor Dracula and Shiklah's showdown, and quickly killed her and the army of monsters.^[162]

Old Man Logan

Somewhere in the Wastelands, a poker game is being played. A guy in a Daredevil costume is given some face time. He has news to deliver: the Hulks seem to have vanished off world. The head honcho is named Gladiator. He sports an Iron Man helmet and has that code name tattooed all across his chest. He is doubtful of this piece of news. The wannabe Daredevil begins to tell him of "this guy." That is interrupted by the appearance of said guy. A shadowy figure who wants to take down the falsely-named straw boss for the abduction and murder of children. This mystery man is so bold that when he is threatened with the count of three, he pours cola over DD’s head and does the countdown himself. Gladiator is enraged, pulls out his guns, and orders his execution. After Logan defeats Gladiator, a bullet grazes Logan’s face. A chubby, bald boy pulled the trigger where he is upset that Logan killed his father who happened to be that town’s tyrant. Logan tells the kid that he did him an enormous service and that he’ll be grateful in the near future. The boy vows vengeance. Logan will indulge him if/when that day comes. The townsfolk gather round. Logan encourages them all to relish their freedom. His encouraging words are met with silence. Trotting along atop his alabaster equine, Logan travels at a slow, undetermined pace. After a minor dust storm, Logan spots an Ultron helmet. In a Hamlet-esque pose, he speaks to it expecting a response. He is a bit baffled by this. Logan makes a pit stop at home. Danielle Cage is waiting for him along with a baby Hulk. Danielle wonders about Logan’s well-being and asks of his mission. Both A-OK. When Dani espies the Adamantium-laced cranium, she is at a loss. Logan informs her that it comes from a malevolent AI and that her dad busted a few back in his day. He is leaving immediately where he must investigate the waylaid relic. When Logan asks her how she is getting along with little Bruce Banner Jr., she enjoys the company and mentions the infant’s voracious appetite. Logan has to abandon her once again. With a tinge of sadness, he states that she takes after both parents in terms of her looks. Danielle cuts him short since they are deceased. Logan drops enough cash for her to get food and supplies. As he walks out, a family photo shows Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Dani as an infant. Logan makes his way to Hammer Falls, Nevada. This is the reinterpretation of Sin City. As he approaches a seedy hotel, Logan encounters Emma Frost who uses her abilities to make Logan see her as Jean Grey. Logan is disappointed at the ramshackle where Emma now resides. She flat out blames him. After he took out the Kingpin, the Hulk Clan, and Banner himself, a vacuum was created. The Punishers vied for the power that granted them the open territories. Emma came to the city and witnessed the massacre. She tried to overtake them, but her elderly status has weakened her powers. Logan is seeking Ultron-8 so that he can examine the head. It belonged to an Ultron-5. Emma tells him to cease and desist and live the idyllic existence. Emma points out that Logan already has the answer to his question. Number Five’s helmet came from over the Shield. He shouldn’t bother playing the hero anymore. He retorts that King Doom is supposed to be the absolute saviour. Logan tries to convince Emma that she can still make a life for herself. Just then, the Punishers arrive and kill Emma Frost. They were so quick in their attacks that she couldn’t turn into her diamond form. Emma Frost's telepathic assaults exacerbated the situation rather than subdue the gun-crazed men. She’s bleeding out, but assures Logan she feels no pain. He commends her on her lifelong contributions. She mentions how much she misses teaching which Logan agrees with. Her last words are the fact that she was awaiting the angel of death and assumed it to be Logan. Logan then reaches the Shield and starts to climb it.^[163]

Logan finally makes it to the top of the wall and sees a cityscape in the distance. Before he can climb down the other side, he is met by a member of the Thor Corps that tells what he has done is forbidden, something Logan is oblivious to. Logan says that Thor looks like a half dead man, which earns him a lightning bolt that fries his body and falls to the other side of the wall. Thor goes down to look for Logan, but only finds wild animals. As Thor flies away, a naked Logan appears. While trying to get rehydrated at a nearby pond, Logan is attacked by a tiger. Logan quickly kills the tiger only to come face to face with Sabretooth, who has some soldiers as his back-up. Unbeknownst to him, Logan had actually reached the Domain of Apocalypse. The soldiers open fire on Logan, who can barely defend himself until a lightning bolt suddenly strikes down and takes out all of Sabretooth’s soldiers. Logan looks up to see who it is thinking at first to be Thor coming back to finish him off. It turns out to be Storm and the X-Men. Before he can say a word to them, Logan passes out from all the pain he has endured. Sometime later, Logan wakes up in a Japanese-styled house where he finds a picture of one of the first X-Men teams he was a part of hanging on the wall. A young Emma Frost walks into the house who reveals that they are actually in his mind. Emma brings up the fact that she found it difficult to find a happy memory in Logan’s mind. As soon as Emma brings up Logan’s deceased family, Logan threatens to kill her if she doesn’t return him to the real world. Emma is not intimidated by Logan’s threats. Instead, she brings up the fact that she does not know who he really is because if he was the Logan she knew than he has created the most elaborate 50 year character history she has ever seen. Logan orders Emma to get him back to reality and Emma finally decides to oblige his request. Logan wakes up to see a confused X-Men group talking amongst themselves about how they already have a Logan. Magneto believes that this Logan was made to infiltrate their ranks. Logan is confused by the entire situation but before he can get any answers a bomb destroys part of the build Logan and the X-Men are in. Sabertooth, Mister Sinister, and Abyss appear and immediately attack the X-Men. Believing him to be a traitor, Magneto throws Logan out the building. While getting up from Magneto’s attack, Logan is still trying to piece together what exactly is going on. Before he can think of his situation any further, Logan is confronted by Apocalypse.^[164]

As Apocalypse is understandably confused by Old Man Logan's presence, one of the Thor Corps members shows up and tells Apocalypse to stand down. There's a tense conversation between Apocalypse and the Thor Corps. He's understandably curious about where Old Man Logan came from and why he ended up in this apocalyptic wasteland among the many apocalyptic wastelands that make up Battleworld. Even the other X-Men are curious. When Apocalypse actually tries to be respectful, it shows just what Old Man Logan is up against. Eventually, Apocalypse gets too angry to respect God Emperor Doom’s divine authority and he opts to attack the Thor Corps rather than cooperate with the emissary of Doom. It's not a fair fight though as while Apocalypse is in his own domain, he still can’t measure up to God Emperor Doom's power. While the fight rages on, it gives Old Man Logan the chance he needs to slip away. He even manages to get some help from a familiar face in Tabitha Smith. It adds another nice personal moment as these are still versions of the friends and family that Old Man Logan slaughtered in his world so it definitely affects him. As Apocalypse falls down, Old Man Logan attacked the Thor Corps and even guides the X-Men to Tabitha so they can help her. While this isn’t the first time Old Man Logan dared to take on a Thor, this time he actually gets a shot in, which makes for a pretty satisfying moment nevertheless it doesn’t change the outcome of the fight, which is entirely expected. Once again, Old Man Logan gets knocked so hard that he gets thrown into yet another domain of Battleworld. As soon as he wakes up in Technopolis, he’s met with yet another Thor (who is this domain's version of War Machine). As Tony Stark wants to study Old Man Logan’s healing and find out how someone survives a Thor blast, War Machine reminds him that Old Man Logan’s still needs to answer to God Emperor Doom because he's outside his own domain. A tense exchange follows. There’s more insight into Old Man Logan's torment. It shows that being around the people he killed is really taking a toll out of him but War Machine doesn't care, he had broken Doom’s divine decree and that he needs to be punished. Logan is defeated by War Machine and is to be banished to the Deadlands.^[165]

Thanks to his healing factor, Logan managed to fight through the hordes of zombies of the Deadlands and take shelter inside a cave. Once inside the cave, he found an uninfected She-Hulk, who had been there for a long time. Logan was trying to convince her to throw him out of the Deadlands when the zombies who were pursuing Logan found them. In a desperate attempt to save Logan's life, She-Hulk caught him and jumped as high as she could to throw him out of the Deadlands as he had suggested, ultimately sacrificing her own life to do so. Afterwards, Logan found himself in the Kingdom of Manhattan.^[166]

Believing that he had returned to his own domain, Logan wandered the city he hadn't seen in years. He eventually met this domain's Jean Grey and Emma Frost and was taken by them to met the rest of the X-Men as well as the son of one of the Wolverines of the domain Jimmy Hudson. Later, after leading the superhero population of the Kingdom of Manhattan in a rebellion against the God Emperor of Battleworld, Doom, Logan found himself on Earth-616.^[167]

Planet Hulk

In an alternate Marvel Universe, Dr. Bruce Banner (who has no alter ego) owns a large technology business known as Bannertech. The headquarters is a city of the future where Amadeus Cho (who works at Bannertech), performs unauthorized gamma experiments on animals. Dr. Banner and Amadeus are alerted by S.H.I.E.L.D. that the Gamma Bomb in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s possession has been stolen and launched by A.I.M. Bruce attempts to evacuate the city of the future whilst Amadeus tries to hijack the bomb. The bomb ultimately crashes into the Bannertech tower, destroying it and catching evacuating employees in its blast radius. Dr. Banner and his employees are turned green, but they are relieved that they are alive. Amadeus is not seen again. The employees and Dr. Banner suddenly mutate into various Hulk creatures. When the various Marvel universes collide, a section of this Earth including the inhabiting Hulks become the region of Battleworld known as Greenland. Sometime after the creation of Battleworld, Doctor Doom has his Thor Corps perform a mission for him. As they fly over the Mud Kingdom in Greenland, they are attacked by the Hulks who live there. The Hulks' primitive weapons anger the Thor Corps who stop the attack by destroying the Hulks' homes. The Thor Corps then leave as they were told to contain battles, but not to interfere. Meanwhile, in God Emperor Doom's Killiseum in Doomstadt, Steve Rogers and Devil Dinosaur win their twelfth fight. Whilst being congratulated by Arcade, they attempt to interrogate him to find where Bucky Barnes currently is. Their attempt fails and Steve is summoned by God Emperor Doom. Sheriff Strange offers Steve a chance to live on behalf of God Emperor Doom. Steve must travel to Greenland, kill the Red King, and rescue Bucky from him. Steve takes Devil Dinosaur with him and they are teleported by Doctor Strange to Greenland. Upon arrival, they are meant to meet with an operative. However, they are attacked by gamma-irradiated bugs. Steve and Devil Dinosaur are saved by a Hulk named Doc Green who fires a powerful laser cannon killing the bugs.^[168]

Upon getting acquainted with the Captain and the Devil after they woke up, Doc Green agrees to become their guide in Greenland to help them navigate it and rescue Bucky from the Red King. During a flashback in an unknown kingdom, the Captain and Bucky are racing through the rubble in the streets of a war-torn city. A missile blows up the ground in front of Bucky. Steve digs Bucky out of the rubble. Steve picks up Bucky and starts to carry him to safety. Bucky says that they need to get underground. Bucky then suggests that he and Steve enlist to fight. Steve comments that they are both beanpoles and have no business fighting. Bucky points to a picture of The Falcon as Captain America in a propaganda poster for the Super Soldier program. Steve says it is nothing but a pipe dream. On their way to the Mud Kingdom, Doc Green saves the Captain and Devil from a Hulk-Eating Plant. The Captain and Doc Green were then attacked by Bull Hulks and separated from Devil. Upon ending up in the Gamma Lake after escaping into the river and going over the waterfall, the Captain and Doc Green were attacked by a giant aquatic creature called a Sea Hulk that grabs the Captain with its tentacle. Doc Green then quotes "There you are. Come out and play."^[169]

As Doc Green tried to get to the Captain, the Devil showed up and attacked the Sea Hulk, killing it by biting off part of its neck during the fight. The incident put them off course, leaving them with two choices: circle back around the Fang Mountains which would take three days or cut straight to the Mud Kingdom by going through the Barrens of the Tribal Hulks where the Tribal Hulks dwell. The Captain decided to go through the Barrens of the Tribal Hulk as it was the faster route. In their way through the Barrens, they saw a wall made of the skulls of the people who died in the civil war between the Mud Kingdom and the Tribal Hulks. Doc Green said that the gamma only revealed what's already within each living being: an obsession with war and violence. It was the reality everyone denied. He then began to mock the Captain by saying it would be no different with him if he got corrupted by gamma as he was already doing God Emperor Doom's dirty work. But Captain said he wouldn't as he planned to find and free Bucky without killing the Red King. As a storm approached them, they took shelter inside a cave and were attacked and captured by the Tribal Hulks.^[170]

The Captain was taken by the Tribal Hulks to the Mud Kingdom to be sold as an slave, but was rescued by Doc Green before the Tribal Hulks could do so. After they got to the top of a structure, Doc Green pointed at the Red King's castle where Bucky was being held. Doc Green warned the Captain that it was not like the time when he and Bucky stole pies from grandma Hubbard. Surprised, the Captain asked him how he did know about that and who he was before he turned into a Hulk. Before Doc Green could answer, the Devil returned to help the Captain. With his help, the Captain invaded the castle and confronted the Red King. The Captain told him about his mission, but said that if he resealed Bucky, he would them spare his life. The Red King revealed that God Emperor Doom had lied to him and that he had sent Bucky's head to Doomsgard a month ago. He then grabbed the severed bionic arm of Bucky and said that Bucky wasn't his prisoner, but his trophy.^[171]

The Red King then tried to convince Rogers to join his army to take God Emperor Doom down, as he was the one responsible for Bucky's death, however, he was attacked and killed by Rogers instead. Doc Green showed up afterwards, congratulating the Captain for the completion of his mission. With the Red King dead, Doc Green would take his place and rule the Mud Kingdom as God Emperor Doom had planned. The Captain started to argue with him as he knew that Bucky was already dead and manipulated him into thinking otherwise in order to get the mission done, while Doc Green mocked him by having succumbed to the Hulk inside himself just like him. Rogers said he wasn't anything like Doc Green. In order to prove him wrong, Doc Green returns to his human form of a Steve Rogers from a domain similar to the one the Captain came from where his Bucky died and he became a Hulk. Doc Green taunted a confused Captain about how Bucky made him weak and because of his loyalty to him he would leave him to rule the Greenland. The Captain responded that Bucky had made him brave enough to do what must be done and killed Doc Green. The Captain then threw the severed head of the Red King in front of the Tribal Hulks which ended the battle between them and Devil. After grieving their companion's death, the Captain and the Devil left the Mud Kingdom behind.^[172]

Secret Wars 2099

In the domain of 2099, the date of Tania (this domain's version of Black Widow) is interrupted when she is called upon to assist Alchemax's Avengers in recovering gems stolen by the Chain Gang. Captain America offers the crooks a chance to surrender, but a drunken Hercules chooses to attack rather than wait for their response. A blast sends him careening into a flying car startling the woman within. The Chain Gang begin to flee, Iron Man and Captain America give pursuit with Captain America being carried by a winged Hawkeye. During the chase, Hawkeye is struck by a laser and accidentally drops Captain America, but she is able to halt her descent with holographic wings of her own. The fallen Hawkeye is about to be killed when Black Widow arrives. Captain America has to convince her to not kill the criminal, merely to apprehend him. Meanwhile, the inebriated Hercules is putting unwanted advances upon the driver of the car he damaged. Captain America intervenes here as well telling Hercules his father would not approve. Hercules goes off to be alone and the rest of the Avengers return to Alchemax Tower to be report in. Captain America discusses the mission with Miguel Stone (depicted as the legitimate son of Tyler Stone) and explains her concerns about Hercules' drinking. Miguel assures her he will handle it. After tracking him down, Miguel discovers the reason for the sudden change in behavior from Hercules is because it is the anniversary of his wife Megara's death. Elsewhere, Iron Man goes to speak with Vision who warns him that enemies who will present themselves as friends are coming.^[173]

Roberta Mendez and Harry Mendez awake to an assassin in their Nueva York bedroom. Roberta catches the samurai sword blade in her bare fist disarming her assailant. She then interrogates him and he reveals himself to be the Specialist. But before she can find out who hired him, he falls upon his sword. The next day at Alchemax Tower, Miguel Stone tells Captain America that the Specialist worked for Stark-Fujikawa. Meanwhile, Tania and Max are playing chess until Max becomes so upset over losing that he tosses the board. Miguel then enters and after Max leaves the room, he tells Tania that a man suspected of killing his wife named Francis Novak was found deceased in 2099 where his body is half-eaten. Miguel tells her she needs to either cease or get better at hiding her kills before the Public Eye catches on. Elsewhere, Hercules is training. When he becomes too violent with his sparring partner, Sonny Frisco has to step in and stop him. Miguel then assembles the Avengers and tells them that the Specialist had a business card for a local gunrunner on his body. The Avengers take an Alchemax Quinjet to a restaurant called Latverian Cuisine where the gunrunner Martin Hargood is in an argument with a man named John Eisenhart. Captain America tells John to put him down, but instead he transforms into the Hulk where he smashes Hercules through the wall. Iron Man attempts to subdue him with an optical uni-beam, but that doesn't work. The fight soon spills into the streets where Captain America is thrown into the air. Her descent is halted by a levitation spell from Strange as she introduces herself, Hulk, and Silver Surfer as the Defenders.^[174]

As the Avengers and the Defenders confronted each other, Martin Hargood tried to slip away, but he was subdued by the Roman the Sub-Mariner and Valkyrie of the Defenders. The Avengers and the Defenders settled the differences and the latter agreed to let Alchemax take Hargood for interrogation. Back to Alchemax Tower while the Avengers and the Defenders mingled, Hargood was being interrogated and he announced the upcoming arrival of the "Dwellers." Before the Defenders parted their own way, Miguel Stone offered them a place in Alchemax. After rejecting the offer, the Defenders discovering it was more than an act of good faith as any super-human who was not working for Alchemax was automatically considered a criminal. The Avengers subdued the Defenders and only Strange and Valkyrie escaped. Miguel Stone orders the entire Nueva City to be locked down to find them as Strange and Valkyrie are now enemies of the state.^[175]

Captain America rebelled against Miguel's orders, claiming that treating heroes like villains this way was unfair, and they should support their principles, freedom and ideologies. With the help of Hercules, she managed to rescue the Defenders who had been kept prisoners while fighting against her teammates. After the Defenders had escaped, Captain America's husband triggered a fail-safe to turn her back to her alter ego of Roberta Mendez. Almost immediately, Strange used a portal to rescue Captain America. However, they were left with the civilian who had no idea of her super heroic alter-ego.^[176]

During the incident, Martin Hargood's holding device broke down, allowing him to escape and use Alchemax's virtual unreality laboratory to summon the Dweller-in-Darkness. Meanwhile, Miguel called in the Avengers to defend the city from the Dweller-in-Darkness allowing the Defenders to intervene without being arrested. Roberta's situation was fixed when Miguel used the code-word for her transformation back to Captain America through her ear device. While Iron Man, Silver Surfer, Roman the Sub-Mariner, and Hulk confronted the Dweller, the rest of both teams confronted Hargood. While Miguel was taking his father Tyler to a safe room, he revealed to have hired the assassin to kill Roberta. This revelation enraged Miguel, who threw Tyler out of a window in a fit of rage. After Hargood was knocked out, Strange was able to reverse the effects of the portal that brought the Dweller-in-Darkness and brought it back to where it came from. When the dust settled, Miguel allowed the Defenders to continue operating as an act of gratitude.^[177]

Secret Wars: Agents of Atlas

In the oppressive sprawling mega-city domain of Metropolitia, the citizens live in constant fear as they are enslaved to forge the weapons of Battleworld. The citizens of Metropolitia are always under the constant surveillance of its ruler Baron Heinrich Zemo and his Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Those who underperform in their duties are taken way by the S.H.I.E.L.D. to be experimented on by Baron Zemo who sees his citizens as playthings and himself a god. No one stands against his tyrannical rule. Despite S.H.I.E.L.D. policing the city under Director Phil Coulson, no one stands for the people except the Agents of Atlas (a team composed by Namora, Venus, Marvel Boy, Gorilla-Man, M-11/the Human Robot and Jimmy Woo) who have managed to stay completely hidden from the cameras of the all-reaching, all-seeing Baron Zemo. Jimmy Woo and his team have been very effective. That is until Jimmy goes missing. In order to find what happened to him, Director Coulson meets Gorilla-Man, revealing that he and Jimmy were working together to depose Heirich Zemo and reveals knowledge about who the Agents of Atlas are and that they weren't already captured because as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Coulson had used the resources at his disposal to keep them hidden. As Gorilla-Man recalls the last mission of the Agents of Atlas, he and Coulson reach the same conclusion, Jimmy was somehow captured by Zemo. Gorilla-Man than reveals that he wasn't alone in the room with Coulson, actually the rest of the team was also there and Coulson could not see them because Marvel Boy was messing with his head. As the team leave to face Zemo directly, Coulson asks to go too as Jimmy was his friend and he doesn't have many. As they enter the castle of Baron Zemo, Gorilla-Man eventually finds what appears to be a child prisoner and Jimmy restrained. As Gorilla-Man attempts to free them, Jimmy tries to reveal that the boy wasn't a prisoner at all but the Baron's son Helmut Zemo who immediately kills Gorilla-Man. Helmut then releases his father's army to face the rebels and tries to kill Jimmy. As a side-effect of killing Gorilla-Man, Helmut gets cursed and is turned into the new Gorilla-Man. As the rest of the Agents of Atlas reach the chamber where Jimmy is held, they knock the Gorilla-Man/Helmut Zemo out and free Jimmy. Jimmy then reveals what Zemo really wanted from him, the location of former member Venus because after seeing her in action, he thinks Venus is the perfect woman to continue his family and therefore he wishes to make her his baroness. After a brief fight with Zemo's monstrosities, the Agents of Atlas came face to face with Baron Heinrich Zemo himself who kills Director Coulson in retaliation for his betrayal. Suddenly, Venus arrives after being found by Marvel Boy. As she uses her powers, she manages to convince Heinrich Zemo to stop the attack and them make him fall to his death. Gorilla-Man/Helmut Zemo is then declared the new Baron of Metropolitia. Jimmy Woo then had Marvel Boy use his powers on Helmut who began to see the Agents of Atlas disappearing. Jimmy warns the Gorilla-Man/Helmut Zemo not to piss them off and declares they will keep an eye on him.^[178]

Spider-Island

In an alternate Marvel Universe that became the Battleworld domain of Spider-Island, the Spider Queen successfully controlled Manhattan after infecting almost every citizen with a spider-virus before a cure could be developed. During the final fight against the Spider-Queen and spider-powered Avengers, Spider-Man died in battle. A small portion of citizens formed an underground resistance including Agent Venom, Vision and Spider-Woman. Using Werewolf by Night as an inspiration because his monstrous persona overthrew his spider-controlled alter ego, Venom gathered different types of artifacts and serums that could modify a person's DNA, thus breaking its bond with the Spider-Queen. The three heroes from the resistance fell into a trap set by the spider-powered Avengers on purpose in order to transform them into different monsters: Using Man-Wolf's gemstone, Spider King (a Man-Spider version of Captain America) was turned into a werewolf. Using Morbius, the Living Vampire's serum, Captain Marvel was turned into a vampire. Using the Lizard serum, Spider-Hulk was turned into a lizard-like creature. Before being able to prove if the transformations could change the heroes' alignment, Iron Man, Iron Fist, and the other Man-Spiders arrived to the scene.^[179]

The battle seemed in favor of the infected until the monstrous heroes were able to assist and join the resistance, proving Flash's plan to have worked. As they were fleeing the scene, Iron Man gave chase, but he was subdued and sprayed with the Goblin Formula successfully neutralizing the Spider-Queen's control. As he fixed his armor transforming himself into the "Iron Goblin," Tony Stark informed Flash on the location of the Queen's Brain Trust where it's membership consists of Beast, Black Panther, and Giant-Man. The heroes immediately assaulted the old A.I.M. base in the Meatpacking District which is being used by the Brain Trust. Meanwhile, Agent Venom infiltrated the base and located Vincent Stegron who had been used by the Spider-Queen as her expert in genetic mutations transforming him back to his reptilian form to free him from the Spider-Queen's control. Before leaving the base, Vision discovered the body of Spider-Man in stasis being secretly kept by the Spider-Queen.^[180]

The resistance returned to their underground base after retreating where Peter Parker was welcomed back. Soon after, Iron Goblin and Stregon started working on a retro-generation ray, the resistance found themselves with a dilemma. The Spider Queen allowed the resistance to sight some of their members' loved ones making them decide whether they should use the serums designed to counter the Spider Queen's influence on them, or in more strategically reasonable targets. Spider-Man and Agent Venom were convinced by Iron Goblin to go after their loved ones, even if that was what the Queen wanted, because not doing so would mean to reject their human side. After a successful operation, Sharon Carter, Betty Brant, Mary Jane Watson and Carlie Cooper were turned into Lizard-like creatures and brought to the base. However, the Spider Queen had inserted tracking devices into them allowing an army of Man-Spiders to come for them. The Iron Goblin sacrificed himself and confronted the army alone to give the resistance time to escape.^[181]

The resistance fled to the ruins of the Avengers Mansion, where they remained as long as they needed to get combat ready. As part of a plan to defeat the Spider-Queen, Stregon used his retro-generation ray on the dinosaur bones at the Museum of National History, bringing them back to life, and forcing the Spider-Queen to send forces to contain that threat. This course of action was simply a distraction, allowing Agent Venom and the rest of the powered members of the resistance to attack the Queen. After Agent Venom and Captain America knocked her down, the different members of the resistance started arguing whether to kill her or not. Before they could take any course of action, the Spider-Queen evolved into a giant spider.^[182]

With the tide of the battle having quickly turned against their favor, Agent Venom elaborated a final plan to deal with the Queen. After getting close enough to her, he convinced the Venom Symbiote to let go of him and merge with the Spider-Queen, ultimately forcing her to jump out of the Avengers Tower. The symbiote died in the process due to the Spider-Queen's use of sonic attacks to try to repel it, and the Spider-Queen barely survived. However, Stregon commanded his dinosaurs to eat her. The Spider-Queen was finally defeated, but Flash's internal injuries were too severe and cost him his life. He spent his final moments surrounded by his allies and died shortly after Peter reciprocated Flash's claims that he was a hero while highlighting that Flash managed to keep on fighting all this time and his efforts ultimately saved Spider-Island. A few days later, the inhabitants of Spider-Island regained composure no longer being under the Spider-Queen's control and the heroes helped rebuild the city. A Dino-Thor arrived and met with the heroes to determine the future of the domain after the Spider-Queen's death and he bestowed upon Spider-Man the title of Baron. Spider-Man suggested that the domain be renamed to either Flash City or Thompsonville in memory of Flash Thompson. With the inhabitants of the domain now being given their own choice, some of them remained as spider-creatures, and others changed through different means into vampires, lizard people, and bird-people. Everyone in the domain knew peace.^[183]

Spider-Verse

Months before the Secret Wars, the spider-based people of the multiverse came together as a team to stop the Inheritors from wiping them out. After the Secret Wars began however, some of them found themselves in New York with only faint glimpses of their lives before Battleworld. One of these people is Spider-Gwen (the Earth-65 version of Gwen Stacy) who is wandering around New York aimlessly as a superhero while trying to remember her life. Meanwhile, Spider-Man: India (Pavitr Prabhakar of Earth-50101), Spider-Girl, and Spider-UK (Billy Braddock of Earth-833) all come together realizing that they are all in a similar predicament of slight memory loss. Spider-Gwen begins investigating discovering that she was apparently murdered by Mayor Norman Osborn, Spider-Man's arch enemy before Spider-Man disappeared years ago. Gwen sneaks into Oscorp to discover a file in one of their tablets titled "Sinister Six", which contains pictures of Gwen, Anya, Pavitr, Billy, and two more spider-people Spider-Ham and Spider-Man Noir (from Earth-90214). Snooping around some more, Gwen finds Spider-Ham hooked up to several machines until she is caught by Mayor Norman Osborn.^[184]

While trying to find out about her counterpart's life and death, Gwen Stacy snuck into Oscorp's Special Projets division and discovered Peter Porker. She escaped of the building after being discovered by Mayor Norman Osborn and was later found by the Spider-Man of India, Spider-Girl, and Spider-UK. The India Spider-Man brought them to his hideout in Chinatown where he had devised a machine to track the exotic resonances of the spider-heroes in this dimension, the device subsequently picked up another Spider. The signal brought the spider-heroes to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Once there, they stopped the criminals Carnage and Tombstone, and discovered the origin of the signal in the form of the Noir Spider-Man of Earth-90214. The spiders were soon interrupted by the arrival of the Sinister Six (consisting of Doctor Octopus, Electro, Kraven the Hunter, Sandman, Scorpion, and Vulture).^[185]

The Sinister Six defeated the Spider-Men and brought them to Mayor Norman Osborn who stated he wanted to help the, and showed no ulterior motives. Using a similar procedure to Paviitr, Mayor Osborn had developed lenses that could focus in fifth-dimensional space and created the mapping of a tattered web that appeared to be the structure of the universe using the resonances of the heroes. All of the Spider-Heroes decided to stay at the Ozcorp Tower except for Gwen. When she went to the Mount Olivet Cemetery to visit the gravestone of her deceased counterpart, she was startled by the arrival of this domain's native Peter Parker who stated that he used to be Spider-Man.^[186]

Gwen and Peter were soon attacked by Venom who was sent by Mayor Osborn to follow Gwen at a discreet distance and Peter (who had lost his powers a long time ago) was captured by him, but Gwen was able to save him and defeat Venom. Afterwards, Gwen devised a plan to defeat Mayor Osborn and put it into motion. Peter sent a photo of himself to Osborn, proving he was still alive and well, for them to meet at the George Washington Bridge which destabilized him. As he prepared himself and his Sinister Six to go after Parker, Anya Corazon took the other Spider-Men to see Norman's "Caesar's Palace" which Spider-Ham mentioned to her when they were having lunch. Inside the room was the Siege Perilous, the chair reserved for the man who finds the Holy Grail, and hanging above it was a helmet linked to the chamber where the energies of the web were being directed. According to Spider-Ham whenever Osborn started to get really mad and complaining about how he was going to overthrow God Emperor Doom, he went to this room to sit in its chair. Suddenly, the room started to be filled by lightning bolts and a Thor appeared before them to reclaim the chair.^[187]

Peter confronted Osborn in order to expose him as a mad man, and distract him long enough to help Spider-Woman, who had returned to Ozcorp Tower. The other Spiders were busy trying to prove the Thor they were not a threat, and Spider-Woman convinced Electro to help them by destroying the Siege Perilous to show the Thor they were on her side. The chair surged into a feedback loop that caused an explosion which destroyed the entire floor. Osborn returned shortly after, and took the advantage of all of the spiders being unconscious in the same place to tap into the chair's power. After being rescued by Spider-Ham, Peter disrupted the chair, knocking Osborn unconscious. The Sinister Six appeared immediately after the spiders had recovered, ready to destroy them now that Osborn was out of the picture. Paviitr threatened the Sinister Six with using the chair to boost their powers, and the villains called his bluff, prompting them to surrender. With Osborn defeated, the heroes concluded that the domain would go through dire times due to the lack of authority, but they were ready to help it.^[187]

Squadron Sinister

In the final battle of the annexation of Supremia Province by Utopolis, the Squadron Supreme (consisting of Hyperion, Nighthawk, and their comrades) of Supremia Province faced off against the Squadron Sinister (consisting of Hyperion, Nighthawk, and their comrades) from Utopolis. The Squadron Sinister was victorious, slaying all of their opponents except for one who would act as a puppet ruler. The Squadron Sinister's Nighthawk selects his Supremia Province counterpart to be spared and Warrior Woman agrees. She and Hyperion kiss, and the group returns to its headquarters. Twelve hours later, a trio of superhumans are assessing the damage. Realising that there is no safety for them from the Squadron Sinister, they vow to reach out to "Hazzard". To save Nutopia, they will need to take drastic steps. In Utopolis, Hyperion flies to a council meeting. He stops briefly to arbitrate in the case of a man who is accused of stealing rations. Hyperion gets him to confess, then congratulates him on the audacity of his crime and then punishes the man for being captured by ripping his arms off. He reiterates his creed to the watching crowd, in Utopolis, weakness is a capital offense. At the council meeting, the Squadron Sinister assess events. The Frightful Four, a rival group of criminals from another part of Battleworld, are building up a collection of weaponry made from repurposed S.W.O.R.D. technology. However, Nighthawk wants then to attack Shadow Province, a minor fiefdom near the Regency. Its ruler Doctor Zero has a fortress where he is trying to build a weapon with argonite (Hyperion's one weakness). To prevent him from using it on Hyperion, Nighthawk thinks they should attack the fortress and secure the weapon, by any means necessary. This is of great interest to Iron Thor, a Thor Corps representative who has come to ask them about their recent annexation spree. The Squadron are vaguely troubled by this, but argue that their neighbors are also expansionist. Iron Thor remarks that they should have nothing to fear from him if this is true, and leaves, saying he can show himself around. The meeting having broken up, Whizzer asks Hyperion if they should hold off on attacking Doctor Zero, but Hyperion says he thinks they should go ahead, and leave Iron Thor for him to worry about. At the skyscraper headquarters of Nighthawk, Doctor Spectrum arrives and argues that the Power Prism from Supremia's Doctor Spectrum should go to him. Nighthawk at first argues that he had no reason to take it, but then says he can't remove it from the dead body. Doctor Spectrum remarks that Nighthawk can probably find a way, and leaves. Roughly eight hours after the departure of Iron Thor, Hyperion and Warrior Woman are passionately kissing in the ceiling of the council meeting chamber when they discover the corpse of Iron Thor. Gathering the entire team, Nighthawk is tasked with autopsying the body and finding the killer, then dumping the body in an unfindable location. They don't have much time before the rest of the Thor Corps or possibly God Emperor Doom himself come looking for them. However, Hyperion insists they follow through on the mission to get the argonite weapon from Shadow Province. That night in Shadow Province, the Squadron Sinister start their plan. While Whizzer, Doctor Spectrum, and Warrior Woman fight the guards, Nighthawk breaks into the facility to secure the weapon while Hyperion hangs back and prepares to fight Doctor Zero. Warrior Woman questions the sense in trusting Nighthawk to relinquish control of a weapon that can kill Hyperion, but Doctor Zero arrives and Hyperion hangs up on her. As Doctor Zero accuses the Squadron Sinister of being cowards, Nighthawk secures the weapon. Hyperion grabs Doctor Zero by the neck and proceeds to burn him to ash. The group retreats including Whizzer (who vanished in the middle of the fight and claimed to have been perusing a wine list in Mutopia). The following day, Nighthawk hands over the argonite weapon. Hyperion admits that Warrior Woman didn't trust him and Nighthawk goes back to his stronghold saying that if he planned to use it, he probably wouldn't have told the team about it in the first place. In his cavernous laboratory, Nighthawk talks with a disembodied voice. Handing over the argonite weapon was supposed to build trust, but it hasn't. Hyperion suspects that Nighthawk will seize power, but Nighthawk has no such plan. He merely wants to kill Hyperion. On a street in Utopolis, Warrior Woman is accosted by a voice in an alley. She recognizes it immediately as her handler Mark Hazzard and the only one who knows that she is working for the Nutopians.^[188]

The Frightful Four from Wittland attacked the World War II-themed domain of Europix where they had competition from the Squadron Sinister from Utopolis. The Frightful Four fought against Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos, Simon Savage's Leatherneck Raiders, and Michael Kelly's Deadly Dozen where they managed to outmatch them. After the Frightful Four was defeated by the Squadron Sinister, Europix surrendered itself to Utopolis' rule where Jay Little Bear became Europix' puppet ruler.^[189]

Soon after the Iron Thor of Utopolis domain was killed, an Argonite weapon confiscated from the Shadow Province was stolen by the Frightful Four's Sandman, secretly on behalf of Nighthawk. This was the beginning of his plan to defeat Hyperion. Nighthawk tortured Trapster of Wittland, forcing him to pin Sandman's crime on the Whizzer leading Hyperion to kill him. Doctor Prism was convinced by Nighthawk that the Thor had been killed by Warrior Woman who proceeded to blame Prism for the murder, forcing him to flee the domain. Finally, after the forces of Nutopia had been neutralized, Nighthawk suggested Warrior Woman to leave or her alliance with the Nutopians was going to be revealed, leaving him and Hyperion alone.^[190]

Nighthawk used the Argonite weapon to weaken Hyperion and the Power Prism to fight him with Nighthawk ultimately beating his former teammate and killing him by snapping his neck. The remaining Star Brands of Nutopia who had been notified of Nighthawk and Hyperion's fight by Wittland's Sandman, took advantage of the outcome of the fight and attacked Nighthawk. However, their confrontation reached an end when the Thor Corps appeared to summon Nighthawk to Doomstadt. While he managed to avoid being declared guilty for the death of the Iron Thor, Nighthawk was sentenced to exile to the Shield due to causing discord in his domain as Warrior Woman had testified against him. The forces of Nutopia tried to annex Utopolis to their domain only for them to be repulsed by its inhabitants who rather preferred the Squadron Sinister's regime than that of Nutopia's reign.^[191]

Weirdworld

After many failed attempts to find his kingdom Polemachus, Arkon has had finally arrived at the end of the Weirdworld and discovered it was a floating island. He was ready to step off the cliff to meet his fate on the ground below when an uncontrolled dragon appeared from nowhere. Seeing this as his opportunity to finally find his kingdom, Arkon stole the beast from the ogres that tried to control it and rode it through Weirdworld's sky only to be caught by apes who used a strange fish and a line to fish the dragon out of the sky to the bottom of the sea. Meanwhile, Morgan le Fay prepares her Lava Men to find and attack Polemachus in retaliation for her dragon being stolen.^[192]

Imprisoned alone in a cell with his hands bound, Arkon resorts to brute force running headfirst into the walls to escape his captivity in Apelantis. While it doesn’t result in his escape, Arkon’s actions attract the attention of a crystalline being named Warbow. Warbow explains to Arkon that while he has been able to escape the prison on his own, he is always recaptured by the underwater apes before he could reach the surface of the lagoon. Warbow offers to assist Arkon in escaping in the hopes that they both can manage it together and rescue Crystar (the crown prince of Crystallium). As Arkon fights off the underwater apes, he dreams of the home he seeks to return to. As he describes the world, he comes to the sad realization that he is losing his memory of his home.^[193]

After reaching a safe place, Warbow gave Arkon his map as he had promised as Warbow now has the bag that contains the pieces of Crystar. But to Arkon's surprise, it had many places he hadn't ever seen in his journey through Weirdworld. Enraged, Arkon left Warbow behind and continued his quest for Polemachus. Lost, Arkon ended up in the "Swayin' Saloon" where Skull the Slayer was waiting for him. While drinking, the Slayer revealed to Arkon that he was sent by le Fay to kill him and both started to fight. In a failed attempt of killing himself as well as his enemy, Arkon cut the ropes that kept the saloon suspended and they fell into the swamp below. When Arkon regained consciousness after the fall, he found himself trapped in vines and surrounded by the Man-Things.^[194]

Arkon began to hallucinate about seeing Polemachus upside down when Skull freed him from the vines by attacking him fiercely. Arkon managed to get one of his Battle-Bolts and overcame his enemy. Before he could kill him, he was immobilized by the burning touch of one of the Man-Things. This time, Arkon hallucinated about his worst fear....Polemachus burning in front of his eyes. The hallucination ended with the arrival of the Swamp Queen of the Man-Things, a version of Jennifer Kale who is behind the rebellion against Morgan le Fay. After a brief conversation with the two warriors, the Swamp Queen forced them to face their fears in order to survive it and become her allies against le Fay. However, only Skull accepted the offer to become her ally. Arkon fled from the Forest of the Man-Things having remembered the path which led to Polemachus. Upon reaching the rock that was supposed to be the entrance to his kingdom, Arkon found himself yet again in front of a cliff at the end of Weirdworld. Filled with sadness and rage, Arkon pointed one of his Battle-Bolts towards his own belly ready to kill himself, unknowing that Polemachus was in fact in Weirdworld, suspended upside down as the underside of the floating island.^[195]

At the last minute, Arkon gave up on killing himself preferring to use his rage to conquer Weirdworld in order to turn it into his new kingdom instead. He was confronted by the Witch Queen le Fay and her army of ogres. Having been hit by a missile launched by the ogres, Arkon fell from Weirdworld and finally saw his kingdom under it before being saved from certain death by the Swamp Queen and her Man-Things who were accompanied by an army composed of the other inhabitants of Weirdworld including Skull the Slayer, Warbow, an army of Elves, an army of Eyemazons, an army of Man-Wolves, and the resurrected Crystar. A fierce battle ensued between the Swamp Queen's forces and le Fay's forces for the fate of Weirdworld. However, none of them emerged victorious as Battleworld collapsed after God Emperor Doom was defeated during the Secret War. With Weirdworld now a part of Earth-616, Arkon resumed his journey to find Polemachus.^[196]

Where Monsters Dwell

Enter the domain of Far East, where pilot Karl Kaufmann, the high-flying aerial ace known as the Phantom Eagle, runs swiftly from the princess of an arboreal tribe who had dreamed of a future together. As she continues to describe her dream life, Kaufmann takes off in his plane leaving her behind. It becomes instantly clear that Kaufmann is a man of questionable character and deftly avoids the matters of paying his repairman Winch....especially when the beautiful Clemmie Franklin-Cox approaches him for information on the next train to port. Never skipping a beat, Kaufmann offers to fly Clemmie to her location and his wry smile displays his true motivation for doing so. However, the flight doesn’t go quite as planned. Kaufmann flies into a thunderstorm that throws the small plane off-course. But while Kaufmann is terrified, his passenger is calm and assertive. It takes some time, but eventually it dawns on Kaufmann that Clemmie isn’t quite who she seems to be as she begins barking orders at him and instructs him on how to fly his plane. And Clemmie isn’t the only one with surprises. As soon as they are through the storm, Kaufmann finds his plane in a dogfight with leathery-winged Pteranodons which forced Kaufmann to crash land into the domain known as Valley of Flame, Battleworld’s home to prehistoric monstrosities and many other deadly creatures.^[197]

After being chased by a Tyrannosaurus, Kaufmann and Clemmie stole a canoe from a tribe of pygmies, intending to use it to search for aid, though their plan was foiled when they were caught up in a battle between a Megalodon and a gigantic crocodile. Losing their boat, the two swam ashore and were confronted by a group of women from an Amazonian Tribe.^[198]

Captured by a clan of statuesque women, Karl Kaufmann and Clemmie Franklin-Cox find themselves in a paradise of sorts with each of them having plans for their new surroundings. Kaufmann becomes obsessed with the idea that he could rule the place simply because he is the only man. Clemmie rightly laughs at the idea and the power dynamic between the two which was already leaning in Clemmie’s favor fully tips as Kaufmann’s attitudes put him in bad favor with the women who live there. Clemmie, on the other hand, finds herself enjoying the change of pace, and learns a great deal about the women and their culture. It turns out that these women are descendants of the Ancient Greeks and so not nearly as primitive as one might assume. Unimpressed, Kaufmann is trying to figure out a way to escape when Clemmie delivers the bad news: escape from this land may be impossible. The stories from the tribe are all the same where visitors from far away lands encounter a violent storm and are unable to return.^[199]

As Karl loudly begged for his life, Clemmie convinced the Amazons to banish him instead, noting that Karl's idiocy and pathetic display has saved him. While being escorted to the fortress' exit, Karl figured out that Clemmie had something to do with Lord Franklin, the man who tormented him in the past which infuriated him. Karl returned all the way back to where his airplane crash-landed and ended up being captured by the Pygmy tribe he stole the canoe from. As they prepared to cook him, Velociraptors attacked the Pygmy Tribe, but Karl managed to drive them off using his airplane's gun. Afterwards, Karl convinced them to help him take revenge on the Amazons and Clemmie by drawing the Amazons' attention to them while he sneaked into their fortress and stole the parts he needed from the old F.E.2 in their possession to fix his airplane.^[200]

Karl is about to hop in his plane and escape when he suddenly finds himself held at gunpoint by Clemmie. She is going to kill him. As Clemmie tells him her backstory, she realizes he is not even worth the bullet. She allows him to fly off, but does not wish to leave with him. Clemmie is content hiding from the law (she is apparently wanted in the death of her husband who accidentally fell off a boat) so she is all set to stay on the island of Amazons. Karl flies away and returns to the Far East. He crashes in the ocean and swims to the nearest shore. It turns out it is the Island of Dung. Not only that, the arboreal princess from which Karl had run swiftly has been exiled to this island for getting pregnant out of wedlock. The book ends with the look on Karl's face when he realizes that he has to actually take care of his baby now and live on the Island of Dung.^[201]

X-Men '92

During the conflict known as the Westchester War in the domain of Westchester, Magneto and his Brotherhood of Mutants (consisting of Avalanche, Blob, Juggernaut, Mesmero, Mystique, Pyro, Sabretooth, Toad, and White Queen) declared war on humanity. The X-Men stopped them and helped humanity realize not every mutant was a threat. Magneto died after years of fighting, leaving an abundance of violent and uncontrolled mutants. The Westchester Treaty led to the creation of the Bureau of Super-Powers. After an attack on New Salem Mall by the renegade Free Range Sentinels, the X-Men found out about the Clear Mountain Project, a rehab facility designed to help evil mutants re-enter society. With his hopes for finally leaving the X-Men raised, Cyclops agreed to take a team to investigate, and when they arrived, the X-Men were met by Clear Mountain's director, the mysterious head of the Bureau of Super-Powers named Dr. Cassandra Nova. Dr. Cassandra Nova gives the X-Men a tour of the facilities where they learn that many mutants they are familiar with reside there now. Though there is no commentary on any of the inhabitants that aren’t villains, they are surprised at the results of Cassandra’s techniques, especially with Sabretooth, who is now quite docile as are many other residents of Clear Mountain. Meanwhile, at the X-Mansion, Professor X is unsurprisingly flustered with the fact that he cannot read the minds of his X-Men with the aid of Cerebro and decides to go over to the Astral Plane to find out why. In the Astral Plane, Professor X finds Cassandra Nova waiting and the Astral Plane completely redecorated and renamed the Mind Field by her. Cassandra Nova reveals that she's a clone of Professor X created by Apocalypse during war times. The bodies of the clones, presumably of other X-Men, were left in tubes in Egyptian ruins only to be found by scavengers (one of which is possessed by Shadow King). Upon finding the body and immediately recognizing it as a clone of Charles Xavier, Shadow King goes into the new body. Adding his telepathic abilities to the clone, Shadow King becomes “Shadow Queen” with a dominatrix getup. Shadow Queen trounces Astral Professor X rendering him in what seems a catatonic state while simultaneously convincing all the X-Men, except Jubilee, to go into the 4th stage of her behavior reassignment process. Cassandra then activates the so-called Xavier Protocols on the trapped X-Men.^[202]

Cassandra begins the process on the X-Men starting with Wolverine with tremendous success. However, when she moves to Storm, the result is not the same. As she did with Wolverine, Cassandra tries to deconstruct Storm, however Storm's will is so strong that she soon realizes who Cassandra Nova really is. As they begin to struggle, Cassandra is forced to complete the process declaring Storm as rejected. Meanwhile, Jubilee, who is oblivious to what's happening to her teammates, is contacted by the projected image of a young boy who makes her follow him into a place where she stumbles upon a handful of those who Cassandra Nova has considered rejected which includes Artie Maddicks, Caliban, Callisto, Chamber, Feral, Gorgeous George, Leech, and Maggott. Cassandra continues the deconstruction of the X-Men, now focusing in on Gambit and Rogue (she deplores their sexual chemistry, arguing they’re setting a bad example) and on Beast. Because of his blue-and-furry appearance, Hank gets thrown in with Jubilee as a reject just as the X-Force arrives at the X-Mansion only to find the comatose body of Professor X.^[203]

Having heed a telephatic call for help sent by Xavier before being attacked by Nova, and found his body, Psylocke discovered the Professor wasn't dead, and stayed at the Mansion, purifying his mind from Nova's infection while the rest of the team teleported to Clear Mountain Institute and attacked the building. Cassandra Nova has the X-Men at her mercy, she's still using the Mind Field to test the X-Men and is now attempting to make her mark on Cyclops and Jean Grey, but hadn’t anticipated the arrival of X-Force. Psylocke follows the psychic breadcrumb trail of Cassandra’s attack on Professor X leading her straight into her mind field, where she rescued Cyclops and Jean Grey, whom Nova forced to tap into her Phoenix form. Professor X was finally able to regain consciousness, and informed Betsy that during Nova's attack in the Astral Plane, he was able to see into her plan and its next step, to assassinate Baron Kelly. Psylocke and Professor X infiltrated the X-Museum to alert Kelly soon after the inauguration of a new exhibit. However, the Bureau of Super-Powers used news of the assault of the X-Force on Clear Mountain to make the X-Men appear to be the villains. Meanwhile, Storm was able to reach to her powers beyond the Mind Field and free herself, Scott and Jean from its grasp, joining the confrontation against Cassandra Nova and her brainwashed X-Men, composed of Gambit, Rogue and Wolverine. Back to the X-Museum, Professor X and Psylocke are being taken into custody when the Ten-Sentinel created to kill Kelly was unleashed to fulfill its purpose.^[204]

Cable's X-Force took Kelly to safety while the X-Men and some of the mutants from Clear Mountain, who had been freed from Nova's control, tackle the Ten-Sentinel. While Kelly was being transported to the Blackbird, Cassandra Nova intercepted him. Jean Grey tried to defeat her by channeling the Phoenix Force, but failed. Professor X appeared on the scene, where he unleashed the Onslaught for a final confrontation against the Shadow King. While the Shadow King proved to be a strong opponent, Jean Grey, Cable, and Psylocke shared their power with Professor X. Meanwhile, Cassandra Nova, now freed from the Shadow King's possession, revealed a way to shut down the Ten-Sentinel, to use a laser beam to deliver shutdown codes to the giant machine. Gambit provided Jubilee with an opening to use a laser gun and shoot the Ten-Sentinel, successfully overriding its previous protocols and shutting it down. In the Astral Plane, Professor X was able to subdue the Shadow King and send him far away. A few days after the events at the X-Museum, the Xavier school re-opened, with an ever-increasing number of new students, most of them who had been patients at the Clear Mountain Institute. Cyclops and Jean Grey left for a vacation, leaving Storm the reins of the team. Cassandra Nova, who had fled from the battle against the Sentinel, was under the radar and encountered Joseph in a cafe. And somewhere else, Baron Kelly met with his secret allies, Apocalypse and his Horsemen of Apocalypse who were willing to share their evil plans for Westchester.^[205]

X-Tinction Agenda

It has been ten years since the Summers brothers took out Cameron Hodge and end his fascist regime in Genosha, since then Havok and Wolfsbane have toiled and labored to rebuild the island into the proud mutant homeland it once was. But a decade removed from Hodge and his iron rule, their work may all be for naught. A plague has spread across the nation, infecting mutants and threatening the domain known as X-Topia. Faced with an extinction problem, Baroness Rachel Grey had no other solution than to quarantine the island from the rest of the domain, leaving Havok in charge. With the country quarantined and seemingly abandoned by their God and the rest of their fellows X-Men, Havok and Wolfsbane will stop at nothing to save those who are currently trapped on Genosha.^[206]

While walking around X-City, Rachel Grey is discussing with Beast about the experiment he is currently developing, more precisely where Beast had time-transplanted some X-Men. In this case, Banshee, Thunderbird and Wolverine just to prove the concept that its possible to bring the dead back to live by taking them from the time before they died. Just then, they are attacked by Havok and his Press Gang in an attempt to capture the mutant healer Triage, the last ray of hope for the mutants of Genosha. The battle is fast and fierce, pitting mutant against mutant, and showing that Havok is taking no chances in reaching his end goal. When Triage is found, Havok pulls the team back to Genosha taking former friends as prisoners along the way. Tests are set up to ensure that Triage's powers will work against the virus. Seeing this as an act of treachery, Rachel Grey prepared to wage war on Genosha.^[207]

Baroness Grey gathered a small group of mutants to invade Genosha in order to save the kidnapped X-Men and punish Havok and his allies for their attack. Unbeknownst to them, Dr. Aldus Kluge (known as the Genegineer) didn't want Triage's power to stop the virus, but to resurrect Cameron Hodge so he could continue his mission to eradicate mutantkind. Upon Hodge's resurrection, Kluge revealed to him that he was the one responsible for creating and spreading the Extinction Virus and that his ultimate goal was to resurrect Hodge and merge him with an Adamantium Exoskeleton and the Transmode Virus (which he acquired from the remains of Warlock) so he could purge Genosha from its mutant population. As Triage and Rogue were curing the mutant population of Genosha from the virus, Baroness Rachel Grey launched an attack on the island nation. During the battle, Wolfsbane was launched in the air by Storm and Bulletproof was forced to flee from his battle against Thunderbird to save her, ending up crashing into Kluge's lab and discovering what he had done and what he was up to. Afterwards, Bulletproof was attacked by Ink and accidentally merged with part of the Transmode Virus, then proceeding to kill Kluge for his betrayal. With Kluge dead, the X-Men had a new problem at hand....a fully resurrected Cameron Hodge merged with what remained of the Transmode Virus.^[208]

With the threat of Hodge growing as he learned how to use his newfound powers, both the X-Men of Genosha and X-City called a truce and allied themselves to fight him. However, Hodge was too powerful to be defeated by their combined effort. Wolfsbane then devised a plan to stop him and used Mystique as a distraction to buy her enough time to get to their airplane along with Havok and Bombshell. With their powers combined, Havok and Bombshell exploded Genosha as Wolfsbane crashlanded into Hodge, leaving no trace of them behind. Having survived the explosion along with the X-Men of Genosha and X-City which she protected using her powers, Baroness Grey vowed to rebuild Genosha in honor to the mutants who died defending it and to unite it with X-City, as it was meant to be from the beginning. Meanwhile, what little remained of Warlock rose from the island's ruins and brought Warlock back to life.^[209]

Years of Future Past

Christina "Chrissie" Pryde is the youngest mutant in existence, fifteen years ago, the Baron of the United Doomstates, President Kelly, created the Mutant Control Act, which put all mutants in internment camps, locking mutants away, creating collars to disable their abilities, and sterilized them. Chrissie goes looking for a chemical, which will disable their collars. Taking the chemical back to her mother, and reuniting with her father, Uncle Erik, and Aunt Rachel, they break out of their camp, and Chrissie uses her newly awakened powers to change into liquid metal and destroy an attacking Sentinel. Meanwhile, President Kelly has hired a team to document footage of mutants killing each other, as soon the American people will vote on whether or not to reform the control act. However, the group of mutants have discovered a virus in the Sentinels to kill the president, and they want Chrissie and Logan's son, Cameron, to save him, believing the image of mutants saving the president will stop the control act once and for all. After a fight against Blob and Mystique, they are attacked by a new form of the Sentinels.^[210]

The X-Men and Mystique escaped underground after Cameron killed Blob, They subsequently traveled to Centrum, an underground refuge for mutants. Using a downed Sentinel, it was discovered that President Kelly was fabricating an attack on himself so he could blame mutants. A few moments after this discovery, Sentinels pierced through the ceiling having found Centrum. To counter the assault, Kitty Pryde reached out Centrum's final defense....a giant-sized Lockheed.^[211]

After waking up Lockheed, Kate, Cameron and Chrissie helped the rest of the X-Men evacuate Cerebrum. During the evacuation, Kate accidentally slipped out a revelation regarding Cameron's parentage, he wasn't the son of Wolverine, but the son of Kate and Colossus, who Wolverine had taken under his wing as a baby after Kate and Piotr had been captured by Sentinels. Kate took her two children to the Doom Cathedral in Coney Island, a sacred place run by Nightcrawler they could use as a refuge. After Kate and Cameron assimilated the recent reveal, Kurt and Kate showed them a mutant camp in front of the church, revealing that they could free its inhabitants and protect them with the laws of the sanctuary. Cameron showed disapproval of freeing them at that moment, but he was forced to act when Chrissie jumped into action. When the four mutants finally broke in they found it was a trap, as Pyro, Avalanche and Destiny were waiting for them.^[212]

While the rest of the X-Men escaped from the ruins of Centrum, Chrissie was able to convince the mutants at the mutant camp to fight with them. After Avalanche was killed and Pyro was subdued, Destiny and Kelly's forces were finally defeated when the X-Men arrived with Magneto controlling the Sentinel from Centrum as a weapon. Cameron discovered the old Sentinel from Centrum had three DNA sequences programmed into it. While one was Kelly's, the other two were Chrissie's and Cameron's. It was revealed Magneto had actually reprogrammed the Sentinel with Rachel Summers to attack Chrissie and Cameron to become martyrs, and they had used the rest of the X-Men for their plan. When he was being confronted, Magneto captured Chrissie and flew away with the Sentinel. Cameron snuck into the robot, and killed Magneto, causing the Sentinel to fall to the ground. Chrissie confronted Cameron for killing Magneto, and he revealed he believed mutants didn't deserve to exist, as they had caused the dystopia they now lived in. Cameron would then try to kill President Kelly and cause him to destroy mutants, so the Sentinel Territories could be peaceful without them. Chrissie opposed him, and the two siblings started fighting.^[213]

After a hard-fought battle, Cameron escaped, challenging Chrissie to meet him at the National Plaza, where the X-Men forced the Air Force One to land. Cameron arrived brief moments later, and broke into the Air Force One, taking President hostage. Chrissie arrived soon after, riding Lockheed with Logan and Kate. While the X-Men fended off Sentinels and President Kelly's troops, Chrissie got to President Kelly and helped get him to safety with Lockheed. Chrissie then asked him to reconsider the mutant reform act. Using the dragon's fire, Chrissie heated up her metal blades and confronted her brother for the last time because she saw herself forced to kill him. After the dust settled, the X-Men fled the scene and returned to Nightcrawler's church. President Kelly's forces asked for permission to fire at them, but he ordered them to stand down. Once the mutants arrived at the church, they heard helicopters and sirens coming at them. The mutants were unsure whether the arriving group were ally or enemy forces.^[214]

Bonus stories

Secret Wars Too

An anthology of seven humorous stories by various creative teams.^[215]

• Sraw Terces, ("Secret Wars" spelled backward) by Jonathan Hickman, Brian Churilla and Tamra Bonvillain - At Marvel Comics, an hour three of a twenty-minute presentation begins for the upcoming event of summer known as Secret Wars. The presentation is greeted with great pleasure by the company as Jonathan thinks to himself about the one problem that might appear, he didn't came up with an ending yet. As the presentation ends, Jonathan goes to the bathroom to puke and is greeted by none other than Doctor Doom himself. Jonathan quickly tried to reason with the soon God Emperor claiming that the event will be a disaster but it wasn't too late to replace Doctor Doom with some other character which angers Doom as he considers himself irreplaceable. Jonathan then goes eat a hot dog, but Doctor Doom declines the offer to join him as according to him the hot dog doesn't fit his mask's mouth hole. Jonathan then ask for Doctor Doom's opinion promising that whatever happens, Secret Wars will skip on time. Eventually, Doom requests Jonathan to tell his bosses about the fact that he doesn't have an ending while he goes annihilate a man that's dressed as Spider-Man. At Marvel Comics, Jonathan does what Doctor Doom said to him and was given, in case of failure, two options: one was that the artists would distance themselves from him and probably would shame him in public by doing a parody book about the event and the other was that he would probably be fired. Meanwhile, at Times Square, Doctor Doom stands triumphant after defeating the man dressed as Spider-Man.
• Great Incomprehensibility by Al Ewing, Jacopo Camagni and Jesus Aburtov - Makes fun of Spider-Man's origin story.
• Pizza Quest by Kate Leth, Brittany L. Williams and Megan M. Wilson - At the Shield, two lawbreakers (Miss America Chavez from Arcadia and Lady Kate Bishop from King James' England), sentenced to defend Battleworld from the evil forces that lurks on the other side, are standing at the front line of battle. After having a feeling for pizza, even though she doesn't known what pizza is, Lady Kate made Miss America use her powers to teleport them to their destination, however they are teleported to the Valley of Flame domain where both girls meet Deedpool of the Valley of Doom and his new steed the Devil Dinosaur, yet when they see that Deadpool as no pizza they teleported away reaching the domain "Some Kinda Jungle?" (actually the jungle part of the Domain of Apocalypse) where Old Man Logan from Wastelands was facing of a tiger. The girls quickly teleported yet again, travelling between the domains of Egyptia, Rule 63, Killvile, and Doomgard, still they couldn't find the pizza. It was then settled that their final effort would be the Kingdom of Manhattan where they found a pizza delivering dog. Yet after befriending the dog and seeing what pizza really was, Lady Kate feeling disgustful request Miss America to go search intead for "Barton".
• Last Days of D-Man by Kyle Starks, Ramon Villalobos and Tamra Bonvillain - Demolition Man was revived by a boy wishing to summon a demon (and instead had D-Man resurrected) during the "Last Days." After visiting the Avengers Mansion, meeting with Edwin Jarvis and Rage, he had the best day of his life just before being killed by the incursion between Earth-616 and Earth-1610. After the creation of Battleworld at Castle Doom, God Emperor Doom and Sheriff Strange are waiting for the tribute from Baron Dunphy of Demolition House. However, Baron Dunphy is nowhere to be seen. Actually, Baron Dunphy left the Castle and is seen somewhere at Doomstadt buying some pies.
• #GalHackedtus by Rob Guillory - It is a series of IT jokes loosely wrapped into a scenario in which Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Spider-Man are Galactus' minions in the domain of Hell's Kitchen's Kitchen.
• The Bear Without Fear by Ryan Browne - At Domain XXX, three alternate versions of Cyclops (one wearing the standard training uniform when the original team of X-Men was formed, other wearing the uniform when the original X-Factor rejoined the X-Men, and another using the leather outfits that almost look like street clothes) are fighting with Wolverine over the fact that Jean Grey won't go out on a date with them even after they "follow all the rules and complain all the time". The fight is interrupted by the arrival of Beardevil: The Bear Without Fear who crushes Wolverine under his 700 lbs of bear as the three Cyclopes rejoices. Clearly, Beardevil is on the Cyclopes side and quickly subdue Wolverine. But as the three Cyclopes stand aside, they look horrified when they noticed Beardevil is actually eating Wolverine even when one version of Cyclops begs him to stop. In a matter of seconds only Wolverine's adamantium bones are left with Beardevil claiming that now all Cyclopes can date with Jean and he could be their best friend. As he looks to the three horrified Cyclopes, Beardevil introduces himself. He came from Marvel All-Bear Domain and he is actually the bear version of their friend Daredevil. Still, he couldn't convince the Cyclopes as they didn't had heard about that domain and thought that he just wanted to eat them as he did to Wolverine. Suddenly, Beardevil's super senses felt something prompting all Cyclopes to play dead as they thought that he was going to attack. What Beardevil had sensed was actually Foggy Nelson who shot him with a tranquilized dart, yet Foggy Nelson was himself shot by his alternate bear version called Foggy Bearson. Suddenly. Jean Grey appears asking why is Logan a half-hour late for their meeting, and all three Cyclopes try again have a date with her. As she sees Foggy Bearson, she once again refuses and goes with Foggy Bearson instead leaving two Cyclopes furious and one considering going to Marvel All-Bear Domain to find the Bear Jean Grey and see if she allow him to buy her a drink.
• Doom: Behind The Tyranny by Eric Powell - Shows God Emperor Doom as a reality show star/diva. While Doom's narcissistic chatter is amusing, Hulk and Black Panther's appearance in the "Marvel Comics Cafeteria" makes it all the funnier.

Battleworld

External images

High-resolution map of Battleworld Newsarama. Retrieved May 19, 2015.

Following numerous incursions across the multiverse, the remains of various realities have been fused together to create a new Battleworld. Each domain is the incursion point from that reality's destruction, as this is all that remains from each one. All of these realities are known as domains and have the ability to interact with each other, except for three: the Deadlands, Perfection and New Xandar. These domains are separated from the rest by a giant wall called the Shield because they contain threats that, if set loose, would destroy all the others: zombies, Ultron drones, creatures that make up the Annihilation Wave, and an alternate reality version of Thanos trying to reconstruct the Infinity Gauntlet.

Each domain has an appointed leader called a Baron who runs their domain with permission from God Emperor Doom, the Lord and Messiah of Battleworld. To ensure all domains remain separate from each other, the Thor Corps have been formed (containing all alternate versions of Thor) and they act as a police force for Battleworld under the leadership of Sheriff Strange. Those who transgress the borders are sent to the Shield to work there whilst those who spectacularly break this rule are sent into exile over the Shield into one of the three dangerous domains.

Battleworld is one of the three only celestial bodies in its universe. The second celestial body and Battleworld's source of light is revealed to be the Human Torch himself who acts as the "sun" after being lifted into the sky during the early days of Battleworld's creation and where he still remains trapped as punishment for acting against Doom orbiting Battleworld instead of the other way around.^[21] The third celestial body is Knowhere which is also orbiting Battleworld as its "moon".^[132] Apart from these celestial bodies, there were no other stars,^[110] until Singularity, a mysterious young girl who actually represents a pocket universe that gained sentience during the multiversal collapse, appeared to give her life to save the citizens of Arcadia from a horde of Zombies, which returned the stars to its universe.^[94] The reality where Battleworld was fashioned as since been dubbed as Earth-BW00.^[216]

Aftermath

Following the "Secret Wars" storyline, a new universe will be established by combining the 616 universe and the Ultimate Universe resulting in the All-New, All-Different Marvel imprint.^[217]

Titles involved

Title	Issue(s)	Creative Team	Citation(s)
Prologues/Time Runs Out
Avengers	#35–44	Jonathan Hickman (W), Various (A)
Avengers World	#17–21	Frank Barbiere (W), Marco Checchetto (A)	[218]
Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man	#12	Brian Michael Bendis (W), David Marquez (A)
New Avengers	#24–33	Jonathan Hickman (W), Various (A)
Main Series
Secret Wars	#0–9	Jonathan Hickman (W), Esad Ribić (A)	[219]
Secret Wars: Battleworld
Age of Ultron vs. Marvel Zombies	#1–4	James Robinson (W), Steve Pugh (A)	[220]
Ghost Racers	#1–4	Felipe Smith (W), Juan Gedeon (A)	[221]
Inhumans: Attilan Rising	#1–5	Charles Soule (W), John Timms (A)	[222]
Marvel Zombies	#1–4	Si Spurrier (W), Kev Walker (A)	[223]
Master of Kung Fu	#1–4	Haden Blackman (W), Dalibor Talajic (A)	[224]
Red Skull	#1–3	Joshua Williamson (W), Luca Pizzari (A)	[225]
Runaways	#1–4	Noelle Stevenson (W), Sanford Greene (A)	[226]
Secret Wars Journal	#1–5	Various (W/A)	[227]
Secret Wars: Battleworld	#1–4	Various (W/A)	[228]
Secret Wars: Secret Love	#1	Various (W/A)	[229]
Siege	#1–4	Kieron Gillen (W), Filipe Andrade (A)	[230]
Star-Lord and Kitty Pryde	#1–3	Sam Humphries (W), Alti Firmansyah (A)	[231]
Thors	#1–4	Jason Aaron (W), Chris Sprouse (A)	[232]
Ultimate End	#1–5	Brian Michael Bendis (W), Mark Bagley (A)	[233]
Secret Wars: Last Days
Ant-Man: Last Days	#1	Nick Spencer (W), Ramon Rosanos (A)	[229]
Black Widow	#19–20	Nathan Edmondson (W), Phil Noto (A)	[234][235]
Captain America and the Mighty Avengers	#8–9	Al Ewing (W), Luke Ross (A)	[236]
Loki: Agent of Asgard	#14–17	Al Ewing (W), Lee Garbett (A)	[237]
Magneto	#18–21	Cullen Bunn (W), Javi Fernandez (A)	[238]
Ms. Marvel	#16–19	G. Willow Wilson (W), Adrian Alphona (A)	[239]
The Punisher	#19–20	Nathan Edmondson (W), Mitch Gerads (A)	[234][240]
Silk	#7	Robbie Thompson (W), Tania Ford (A)
Silver Surfer	#13–15	Dan Slott (W), Michael Allred (A)	[241]
Spider-Woman	#10	Dennis Hopeless (W), Natacha Bustos (A)
Secret Wars: Warzones
1602: Witch Hunter Angela	#1–4	Kieron Gillen (W), Marguerite Bennett and Stephanie Hans (A)	[242]
1872	#1–4	Gerry Duggan (W), Nik Virella (A)	[243]
A-Force	#1–5	G. Willow Wilson and Marguerite Bennett (W), Jorge Molina (A)	[244]
The Age of Apocalypse	#1–5	Fabian Nicieza (W) Gerardo Sandoval (A)	[245]
Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows	#1–5	Dan Slott (W) Adam Kubert (A)	[246]
Armor Wars	#½–5	James Robinson (W) Marcio Takara and Mark Bagley (A)	[247][248]
Captain Britain and the Mighty Defenders	#1–2	Al Ewing (W) Alan Davis (A)	[249]
Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps	#1–4	Kelly Sue DeConnick, Kelly Thompson & David Lopez
Civil War	#1–5	Charles Soule (W) Leinil Yu (A)	[250]
Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars	#1–4	Cullen Bunn (W), Matteo Lolli (A)	[251]
E Is for Extinction	#1–4	Chris Burnham (W), Ramon Villalobos (A)	[252]
Future Imperfect	#1–5	Peter David (W), Greg Land (A)	[253]
Giant-Size Little Marvel: AvX	#1–4	Skottie Young
Guardians of Knowhere	#1–4	Brian Michael Bendis (W), Mike Deodato (A)	[254]
Hail Hydra	#1–4	Rick Remender (W) Roland Boschi (A)
Hank Johnson, Agent of Hydra	#1	David Mandel (W) Michael Walsh (A)	[229]
House of M	#1–4	Dennis Hopeless (W) Marco Failla (A)
Howard the Human	#1	Skottie Young (W)
Inferno	#1–5	Dennis Hopeless (W), Javier Garron (A)	[255]
Infinity Gauntlet	#1–5	Gerry Duggan and Dustin Weaver (W), Dustin Weaver (A)	[256]
Korvac Saga	#1–4	Dan Abnett (W), Otto Schmidt (A)	[257]
M.O.D.O.K. Assassin	#1–5	Chris Yost (W), Amilcar Pinna (A)	[258]
Mrs. Deadpool and the Howling Commandos	#1–4	Gerry Duggan
Old Man Logan	#1–5	Brian Michael Bendis (W), Andrea Sorrentino (A)	[259]
Planet Hulk	#1–5	Sam Humphries (W), Marc Laming (A)	[260]
Secret Wars 2099	#1–5	Peter David (W), Will Sliney (A)	[261]
Secret Wars Agents of Atlas	#1	Tom Taylor (W), Steve Pugh (A)
Spider-Island	#1–5	Tom DeFalco and Christos Gage (W), Paco Diaz (A)
Spider-Verse	#1–5	Mike Costa (W), Andre Aruajo (A)	[262]
Squadron Sinister	#1–4	Marc Guggenheim (W), Carlos Pacheco (A)
Weirdworld	#1–5	Jason Aaron (W), Mike del Mundo (A)	[263]
Where Monsters Dwell	#1–5	Garth Ennis (W), Russ Braun (A)	[264]
X-Men '92[lower-alpha 1]	#1–4	Chris Sims, Chad Bowers and Scott Koblish
X-Tinction Agenda	#1–4	Marc Guggenheim (W), Carmine Di Giandomenico (A)	[265]
Years of Future Past	#1–5	Marguerite Bennett (W) Mike Norton (A)
Bonus Stories
Secret Wars: Official Guide to the Marvel Multiverse	#1
Secret Wars Too	#1	Various (W/A)

Collected editions

There is a licensed Exclusive Collectors Variant by Khoi Pham though Superherostuff^[266]

• Secret Wars (Pages Hardcover,

In other media

Video games

• The Secret Wars version of various Marvel characters appear as playable or non-playable in the mobile game Marvel: Future Fight.^[267]
• Characters based from the Spider-Island story both of the Secret Wars and the Spider-Island versions appear in the mobile game Spider-Man Unlimited.
• The Secret Wars storyline is featured in Marvel: Mighty Heroes.^[268]

See also

• Convergence

References

External links

• Secret Wars 2015 at Marvel.com

X-Men comic books Team titles All-New X-Men Extraordinary X-Men Uncanny X-Men Past team titles A+X All-New X-Factor Alpha Flight Amazing X-Men Astonishing X-Men The Brotherhood Cable and X-Force Classic X-Men District X Excalibur/New Excalibur Generation Hope Generation X New Mutants New X-Men Professor Xavier and the X-Men Spider-Man and the X-Men Uncanny X-Force Weapon X Wolverine and the X-Men Wolverines X-Factor X-Force X-Men X-Men: First Class X-Men: Legacy (vol. 1) X-Men: The Hidden Years X-Men Unlimited X-Statix X-Treme X-Men (vol. 1) Young X-Men Solo titles All-New Wolverine Deadpool Old Man Logan Spider-Man/Deadpool Past solo titles Agent X Cable Cable & Deadpool Cyclops Daken: Dark Wolverine Dazzler Emma Frost Gambit Magneto Mystique Namor: The First Mutant Nightcrawler Rogue Savage Wolverine Storm Warlock Wolverine Wolverine: Origins Wolverine: The Best There Is Wolverine: Weapon X X-23 X-Man X-Men: Legacy (vol. 2) Past alternate universe titles Age of Apocalypse Bishop: The Last X-Man Exiles/New Exiles Mutant X Ultimate Comics: X-Men Ultimate X-Men Wild Thing Wolverine: MAX X-Men 2099 X-Men Forever X-Nation 2099 X-Treme X-Men (vol. 2) Limited series titles List of X-Men limited series and one-shots Storylines "Second Genesis" "The Dark Phoenix Saga" "Days of Future Past" "God Loves, Man Kills" "Mutant Massacre" "Fall of the Mutants" "Inferno" "Days of Future Present" "X-Tinction Agenda" "Muir Island Saga" "X-Cutioner's Song" "Fatal Attractions" "Bloodties" "Child's Play" "Phalanx Covenant" "Legion Quest" "Age of Apocalypse" "Onslaught" "Operation: Zero Tolerance" "The Hunt for Xavier" "The Twelve" "Eve of Destruction" "E Is for Extinction" "Assault on Weapon Plus" "Planet X" "Here Comes Tomorrow" "House of M" "Decimation" "Deadly Genesis" "End of Greys" "Endangered Species" "Messiah Complex" "Divided We Stand" "Manifest Destiny" "X-Infernus" "Messiah War" "Utopia" "Nation X" "Necrosha" "Second Coming" "Curse of the Mutants" "Age of X" "Schism" "Regenesis" "Avengers vs. X-Men" "Battle of the Atom" "Death of Wolverine" "AXIS" "The Black Vortex" See also X-Men X-Men in other media

Marvel Comics crossover event publication history 1980s Contest of Champions (June 1982) Secret Wars (May 1984) Secret Wars II (July 1985) Mutant Massacre (October 1986) Fall of the Mutants (January 1988) The Evolutionary War (1988) Inferno (October 1988) Atlantis Attacks (1989) Acts of Vengeance (December 1989) 1990s The Infinity Gauntlet (July 1991) Operation: Galactic Storm (March 1992) Infinity War (June 1992) Infinity Crusade (June 1993) Age of Apocalypse (January 1995) DC vs. Marvel (April 1996) Onslaught (May 1996) Heroes Reborn (1996) Contest of Champions II (September 1999) 2000s Maximum Security (December 2000) Secret War (February 2004) Avengers Disassembled (August 2004) House of M (August 2005) Annihilation (March 2006) Civil War (July 2006) World War Hulk (July 2007) Annihilation: Conquest (August 2007) Secret Invasion (June 2008) Dark Reign (December 2008) Ultimatum (January 2009) War of Kings (March 2009) Fall of the Hulks (March 2009) 2010s Realm of Kings (January 2010) Siege (January 2010) World War Hulks (February 2010) The Thanos Imperative (July 2010) Shadowland (September 2010) Chaos War (October 2010) Age of X (January 2011) Fear Itself (March 2011) Spider-Island (June 2011) Ultimate Fallout (July 2011) Avengers vs. X-Men (April 2012) Age of Ultron (March 2013) Infinity (August 2013) Inhumanity (December 2013) Original Sin (May 2014) Avengers & X-Men: AXIS (October 2014) Spider-Verse (November 2014) The Black Vortex (February 2015) Secret Wars (May 2015) Avengers: Standoff! (March 2016) Civil War II (June 2016)

Marvel Comics Multiverse Main universes Earth-616 Marvel Universe Ultimate 2099 Adventures MC2 Mangaverse Cinematic Alternate universes "Real Time" "Crooked World" Forever Yesterday "Age of Apocalypse" 1602 Not Brand Echh {{Earth 691}} Femizonia Earth-A "Days of Future Past" Mutant X Crusader X Marvel Zombies Knights 2099 The End Askani Noir Apes Larval Nth Man Last Avengers Ruins Earth X Marvel Nemesis Spider-Man: India House of M Bullet Points Spider-Man: Reign Old Man Logan "Age of X" Zombies Return Age of Ultron "Onslaught" Spider-Verse Secret Wars Parallel universes Earth-S/Squadron Supreme Supreme Power Paradise X Hyperion Pocket universes Asgard Avalon Counter-Earth Darkforce Dimension Heliopolis K'ai K'un-L'un Limbo Microverse Mojoverse Negative Zone Olympus Otherplace Therea Megaverse universes Amalgam New Universe newuniversal Razorline Shadowline The Transformers Transformers (UK) Ultraverse Genesis Star Comics CrossGen Alternate versions of characters Beast Black Widow Captain America Colossus Cyclops Daredevil Dr Doom Dr Strange Gambit Green Goblin Hawkeye Hulk Human Torch Iron Man Magneto Mr. Fantastic Nightcrawler Phoenix Psylocke Punisher Rogue Shadowcat Spider-Man Storm Thing Thor Venom Mary Jane Watson Wolverine Professor Xavier Related articles Captain Britain Corps Exiles Illuminati Infinity Gems M'Kraan Crystal Siege Perilous What If...? Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions Edge of Time Marvel: Avengers Alliance Spider-Man Unlimited Marvel: Contest of Champions Marvel: Future Fight