The Silver Surfer, Firelord and Mister Fantastic enter the Negative Zone via the portal in the Baxter Building on Earth, then travel through it to exit via the Crunch into the space controlled by the Proemial Gods. They find the Gods building their Oblivion Engine – a dark energy device the size of Jupiter that they’ve used to trap Galactus within Thanos’ world-killing weapon, and which they plan to use it as part of their plan to rebuild the universe in their image after Annihilus destroys all life.

The heroes examine the Engine, but the Gods ignore them (although Nebula attacks the interlopers); the mortals are just too insignificant for them to notice. However, this changes when they use Mister Fantastic’s space-time deconstructor to damage the device, and they attack. Their power is overwhelming, but the heroes realise that the Gods can be hurt by the anti-energy of the Crunch; they tap this, and the deconstructor, to shut down the Engine and repel the Gods. The barrier around the Crunch dissipates, as does the energy trap around Galactus, allowing him to be released, and the heroes barely escape as the Engine breaks apart.

Meanwhile, in the Milky Way galaxy, United Front forces (led by Quasar, Nova Prime and Beta Ray Bill) track the main Annihilation Wave fleet to the Epsilon Eridani system, only 10 light years from Earth. While their allies draw fire, the three heroes locate and infiltrate Thanos’ ship to free Galactus. The ship is defended by Wave troopers, as well as Ravenous and the enslaved Gladiator, but the heroes manage to overcome them in a titanic battle – only to come face-to-face with Thanos.

However, they manage to persuade the Mad Titan to betray Annihilus by sharing the maniac’s plan to destroy all life in the universe, as that’s something Thanos wants to do himself. Thanos teleports away as the dark energy grids around Galactus fall, and the heroes deactivate Thanos’ tech and free the Devourer. Furious at his imprisonment, Galactus teleports away to battle the Proemial Gods – but not before the heroes persuade him to draw energy from the local planets and uses it to destroy the entire Wave fleet in a huge cosmic explosion!

But the battle is not done – even though the majority of the Annihilation Wave is now dust, Annihilus manages to escape in his damaged flagship and is headed for Earth!

The heroes regroup on Skuttlebutt and cannibalise some of Thanos’ tech to soup up Beta Ray Bill’s ship, then give chase. They manage to intercept Annihilus’ ship close to Earth and force it down on the Moon – but this isn’t enough to stop the Lord of the Negative Zone. The heroes take on Annihilus and his surviving minions in a massive battle in the Blue Area of the Moon – a battle where Beta Ray Bill reclaims Stormbreaker, the Cosmic Control Rod is destroyed and Annihilus is killed once and for all.

The Annihilation Wave invasion is over.

In the aftermath, the empires of the Unified Front establish a new political status quo, one shaped and influenced by the heroes that saved the universe. They must also forge some kind of peace treaty with the surviving forces of the Annihilation Wave, led by Ravenous, who want territory of their own in the Andromeda Galaxy in exchange for ceasing all hostilities.

The Skrulls are more fragmented than ever, and tensions mount between factions headed by Baroness S’Bak, Paibok and the Super-Skrull. The Shi’ar maintain Azimuth Station as an armed redoubt to monitor the Wave remnants in the Andromeda Galaxy, but many suspect they plan to use this as an excuse to claim territory of their own. Ronan remains as regent of the Kree Empire, waiting for the Supreme Intelligence to grow a new host, while the Xandarian Worldmind begins forming Nycos Aristides into the homeworld of a new Nova Corps.

Alliances start to fray; intrigues begin to form; new dangers rear up from the chaos.
But still, the invasion has been stopped. The universe is safe again.
For now.

The Aakonian colony on Nycos Aristides has become the Central Command planet of the United Front, missing from all star-charts (since it’s supposed to be in a different galaxy) and hidden from the Annihilation Wave by cloaking technology. But the promise of unity seems fleeting – the Kree want more forces to push back the Wave in the Greater Magellanic Cloud, the Skrulls threaten to withdraw back to their galaxy to fight the Wave there, the Shi’ar are still reluctant to join the Front and the Rigellians argue for reinforcements in their native Milky Way. Complicating all this are the transmissions recovered from the Daedalus system after the Kree fleet retreated – transmissions of the enslaved Galactus tearing apart Daedalus 5 in a massive explosion of crude cosmic energy that was then collected to supply and power the Wave.

As the delegates from the ‘united’ races yell, bicker and throw punches in the negotiation chambers, FIrelord and the Silver Surfer return from more attempts to learn what has happened to Galactus – fruitless attempts, as something is blocking their cosmic senses. The obvious culprits are the Proemial Gods, but they cannot be confronted – they have altered space-time for light-years around their base in the Crunch, making it impossible for the Heralds to enter or observe. Also at Central Command is Mister Fantastic, who has returned from Earth armed with space/time deconstruction technology, created by the Eternals of Titan, that could turn the tide in the war (or possibly destroy reality) – as well as the human adventurer Star-Lord, who has been fighting in various ragtag groups against the Wave for months.

With hostile negotiations, enslaved gods, vast armies and unknowable plans arrayed against the Unified Front, the mood at Central Command is bleak – and the power system unstable, as Aakonian technicians struggle to keep Eradica prisoner in a quantum cell constructed by Quasar, surrounded by telepathic dampeners to prevent her contacting the Wave hivemind. Firelord creates a new prison of cosmic flame as Eradica vows to destroy all ‘meat-things’, resisting all attempts to get information from her about Annihilus’ movements, tactics or plans.

Meanwhile, Star-Lord and the Surfer confront the warring delegates and tell them that they must unify to stop Annihilus. The delegates, who include Baroness S’Bak and Deathbird, react poorly to being lectured; they tell the heroes that if they don’t get useful intel from Eradica within one standard hour, then the negotiations will be cancelled and their fleets withdraw from the Unified Front.

Star-Lord comes up with a plan – shut down the telepathic dampeners so that the Silver Surfer can read Eradica’s mind. The problem is that the Queen is part of the Wave hivemind, and would instantly reconnect to it, transmitting her location to the enemy. To prevent this, Mister Fantastic uses the Titan tech to create a pseudo-hivemind (based on the design of the Earth mutants’ Cerebro device), that could fool and divert Eradica’s awareness away from the Wave.

The four heroes hook themselves to the jerry-rigged unit, Tana Nile shuts off the dampeners – and Eradica instantly smashes through the false hivemind to reconnect with the Wave! The minds of the four are swept up in her psychic wake and immersed in a terrible, insectile mass consciousness. But before Eradica can reveal Nycos Aristides to the Wave, Star-Lord and Firelord attack her on the astral plane, confusing her long enough for Mr Fantastic to reboot the Cerebro. To make sure Eradica is fooled, the Surfer psychically disguises his thought-form as Annihilus – but the disguise is so powerful it resonates through the hivemind, drawing the attention of the Lord of the Negative Zone himself! For an appalling moment, the heroes psychically connect with the consciousness of Annihilus – and just as Tana Nile re-activates the psychic dampeners, they learn the terrible truth of Annihilus’ ultimate plan.

Star-Lord explains everything to the horrified Front delegates – that Annihilus wants to subvert the Power Cosmic from Galactus, and use it to kill every living thing in the entire universe, and in the Negative Zone to boot, leaving him as the sole, immortal survivor in a barren reality. It seems impossible – but with Galactus, the assistance of Thanos and the Proemial Gods, and the Wave’s unstoppable savage madness, Mister Fantastic theorises that it could be done.

The annihilation of EVERYTHING.

Faced with danger not just to their own races and galaxies, but the entire universe, the delegates agree to rejoin and refocus the United Front. Annihilus’ fleet speeds towards Earth, and the first step must be for Front forces to intercept the ship transporting Galactus – Thanos’ ship – and rescue the Great Devourer. This also means confronting the Proemial Gods to release Galactus from their power – and the only way is for the Heralds to enter the Negative Zone through Mr Fantastic’s portal on Earth, go through the Crunch and then somehow defeat two of the most powerful beings in the universe.

The stakes have never been so high.

The odds have never been so overwhelming.

The need for heroes has never been so great.

It has been six standard months since a United Front assembled to fight the Annihilation Wave.

The war is not going that well.

Wave forces continue to pour into the Kree Galaxy, destroying civilizations and planets in the non-unified quadrant. Kree forces have maintained the borders of the Empire, preventing the Wave from invading further, but even after allying with the Skrulls and Rigellians they cannot push the Wave back. The Shi’ar could tip the balance if they became involved, but they keep their distance after the loss of Gladiator, and stay back in their annexed territories on the other side of the galaxy, safe from the invaders. A variety of soldiers, scientists and space heroes lend their abilities to the Front, but it’s still not enough.

On the planet Daedalus 5, a United Front military base stands guard over a massive stargate to the Milky Way, where envoys attempt to negotiate with the Badoon and the Church of Universal Truth for military assistance. The system comes under attack by a massive vanguard of the Annihilation Wave, bombarding the planet as the bulk of the fleet passes through the stargate. Kree ships attempt to hold back the bombardment, while ground forces battle hordes of giant bugs.

Among the forces defending the base are Beta Ray Bill, Quasar and Nova Prime. They fight alongside Kree and Skrull units as Nova receives intel from the Worldmind – a squad of Wave soldiers are breaking into the base to steal the Glorian Matrix, which was being experimented on here at the frontier. Quasar and Nova create a energy pulse that scrambles the local hivemind, causing the Wave hordes to become mindless and aimless, while Bill defeats a giant beetle-dinosaur hybrid and its handler.

While Quasar defends the Glorian Matrix (and Korath, who has taken charge of the experiments on the reality-shaping cube), Nova and Bill fight the leader of the Wave horde – Eradica, first concubine of Annihilus, who rockets down from her flagship to investigate the hivemind disruption. She webs up Nova and almost injects him with larvae before the two heroes cut her down – but they take her alive on the Worldmind’s insistence, in the hope she can provide desperately needed intelligence on Annihilus’ plans and Wave forces.

With Eradica unconscious, the remaining Wave fleet loses cohesion, giving Front forces a chance to retreat. And just in time – the Wave’s new planet-destroying weapon is en route to the Daedalus system. As for what has replaced the Harvester of Sorrow, sensors reveal the horrible truth – an emaciated and paralysed Galactus, shackled to the hull of an advanced ship, his limitless hunger turned into a planetary devourer for the Wave!

On the far side of the Andromeda Galaxy, Galactus prepares to devour an uninhabited planet to stem his eternal hunger. Firelord comes to tell Galactus that the Proemial Gods are in league with the Annihilation Wave, only to discover that he has led the enemy right to his former master. Tenebrous and Aegis appear to battle Galactus, and when Firelord attempts to interfere he has to contend with the Gods’ new Herald – Nebula, wielding dark energy powers! While Firelord manages to fend off her attacks, he’s unable to protect Galactus, who falls to the power of the Proemial Gods. The former Herald only just manages to escape the dying planet as the Gods tear open a portal and leave with the Devourer’s unmoving form.

Gladiator, patrolling the space near Azimuth Station, is called back to the Shi’ar fleet’s flagship to witness a data transmission – a live broadcast of Galactus’ fall from the other side of the galaxy! The transmission is orchestrated by Thanos, who teleports onto the Shi’ar ship to demand the Praetor come with him as a hostage – willingly or not. Gladiator is unwilling, and the two fall to destructive battle. Despite Gladiator’s immense power, Thanos defeats him – he tells the watching Shi’ar that they have lost their greatest hero, and that the Empire should avoid conflict with the Wave if they want to survive. He then teleports away with the unconscious Gladiator as the flagship explodes.

In the wake of these events, resistance groups from across the Skrull and Kree Galaxies come to Hala to ask the aid of Ronan, the new leader of the Kree Empire. Ronan is reluctant to join forces with other races or groups, preferring the Kree to stand alone against the Wave – but Korath persuades him to listen, suggesting that these allies could take the brunt of the Wave’s attacks while leaving the Kree strong. Nova and Beta Ray Bill put forward the case for a unified front to fight the Annihilation Wave, and their argument is backed up by the requests of other groups and heroes. In the end, Ronan agrees to lend the strength of the Kree forces to the battle – just as word comes in of Wave attacks on the outskirts of Kree space.

Giants have fallen. But legions rise up to take their place.

The battle continues.

Nova and Beta Ray Bill warp into the Hala system on board Skuttlebutt, looking for the Glorian Matrix, along with Ronan and Korath, who seek answers from House Fiyero about why they framed Ronan. (Although Korath is perhaps more interested in the Matrix.) They try to bluff their way past the defences of the Kree homeworld, but are quickly discovered, and Bill stays in orbit to distract the Kree (and protect his ship) while Nova opens a miniature stargate to bypass the defences in Ronan’s cruiser.

Pursued by Kree ships and soldiers, the cruiser flies in towards the Hala capitol and the Citadel of the Kree – headquarters of the Accuser Corps and the Supreme Intelligence, now the seat of House Fiyero’s government. Korath senses that the Matrix is somewhere near the top of the building – so rather than dock at the ground and fight their way up, Nova smashes through the side of the Citadel near the top. The cruiser blasts in behind him, dropping Ronan, Korath and their Kree Starforce followers into the massive Hall of Justice. There, in front of the Council Chambers, the invaders fight a squad of Royal Guard defenders, led by Korath’s old ally Captain At-Lass, as well as a massive Sentry robot.

Taking down the Guard, Korath opens the doors to the Chambers to discover who has been meeting with House Fiyero – Annihilus’ lieutenant Ravenous, who carries the Glorian Matrix! The powerful alien sends his Currs to tear apart the Starforce soldiers, but lets his guard down long enough for Korath to grab the Matrix, at which point Nova grabs his comrade and teleports them both back to Nycos Aristides. But Ravenous tears open a hole in space to follow them, so Korath has to tap the power of the Matrix and imprison Ravenous in a giant dodecahedron of energy to stop him. Nova teleports the energy-jail into the local sun, but Ravenous teleports away – defeated, but with the knowledge of where Nycos Aristides can be found.

On Hala, Ronan defeats the Sentry and confronts House Fiyero’s Board of Directors, executing any that dare defy him. Terrified, they confess that they allied with the Rigellians to frame him and get him out of the way so that House Fiyero could more easily control the Empire. Interrogating the prisoners and examining the evidence, Ronan realises that the Annihilation Wave is tearing through the Kree Galaxy, but that House Fiyero has covered this up while trying to bargain with the Wave for safety – and that they lobotomised the Supreme Intelligence, ultimate ruler of the Kree, to prevent it interfering. Enraged by these discoveries – and lionised by the Kree citizens that have watched him tear apart the pretender government – Ronan assumes the throne of the Kree Emperor to lead his race in battle against the Wave.

And back in the Andromeda Galaxy, Annihilus screams with fury over Ravenous’ failure and the loss of both the Matrix and the Harvester of Sorrow. Before he can kill Ravenous or destroy any more of his fleet out of pique, Annihilus is calmed by his erstwhile ally Thanos. The Mad Titan says that the time is nigh to enact his secret plan – a plan that centres around Galactus.

On the edge of the shattered Skrull Empire, the Heralds of Galactus – Firelord, Stardust and the Silver Surfer – stumble across a force of Annihilation Wave ships while searching for signs of the Proemial Gods. They easily defeat the Wave, but find no sign for the Proemial Gods, other than a thin trace of energies in one ship – along with a trace of the reality-warping energies of the Glorian Matrix. Suspecting a connection between the Wave and the Proemial Gods, they begin tracking the movements of the Wave through the Andromeda Galaxy. Meanwhile, Galactus decides to slake his hunger in far-off parts of the galaxy, far from the threat of the Wave or their allies.

Nebula tumbles through hyperspace, trapped in a sphere of burning cosmic energy that she was bound into by Firelord after her attempt to destroy Azimuth Station. Suddenly the sphere comes to a halt – plucked from hyperspace by the hand of Tenebrous of the Darkness Between. The Proemial Gods examine their captive and wonder what to do with her, while Nebula tells them of her hatred for Firelord, Galactus, her former allies, the galaxy and existence in general. Inspired by her hatred, and the concept of having a mortal agent, the Proemial Gods imbue her with a fraction of their own power, making her their Herald.

On Nycos Aristides, deep within the Kree Galaxy, Nova Prime moves the Xandarian Worldmind from his own consciousness into the information network of the Aarkonian colony, while Beta Ray Bill finally succeeds in mystically conjuring up an Asgardian weapon – Jarnbjorn, the axe Thor wielded in the age before he took up Mjolnir – to replace his stolen hammer Stormbreaker. Perhaps just in time, as a Kree ship approaches the misplaced colony – which turns out to be Ronan the Accuser, accompanied by Korath the Pursuer and his Kree Starforce soldiers. Ronan confronts Tana Nile, demanding the truth of her involvement with his trial for treason and exile from the Empire. Korath is looking for the Glorian Matrix, and his psionic tracking abilities tell him it’s somewhere in the Kree Galaxy. By accessing the Worldmind’s star charts, he realises it’s on Hala, the Kree homeworld. Tana Nile tells Ronan she framed him on the order of her Rigellian masters, as part of an agreement with the Kree mercantile group House Fiyero, who now govern the broken empire from Hala. The two Kree warriors depart for their homeworld to finally get answers – accompanied by Nova Prime and Beta Ray Bill, both keen to take the fight back to the Annihilation Wave.

Concerned by the fragility of Azimuth Station, and the continued danger posed by travel through the local stargate to Shi’ar controlled space in the Kree Galaxy, Gladiator decides the best course is to annex the station, throwing out all its inhabitants and turning away all refugees, and converting it to a military outpost. Quasar and Spirit attempt to talk him out of it, and note that the station is actually Rigellian property. When pressed about the ownership of the station, Recorder 808 drops his ‘bumbling butler’ routine to reveal that the Rigellians have been continually monitoring all activity on Azimuth, and that there are hidden defences and weapons that can be activated if required. Spirit and Quasar broker a deal in which the station is sold to the Shi’ar, while all refugees and inhabitants are moved to the nearby supply planet, which will be made fully inhabitable and accessible with Shi’ar assistance. Quasar joins the terraforming effort, while Spirit joins Praxagora and the crew of the UX-73, which sets off to find and battle the Annihilation Wave.

After nearly a year in the Negative Zone, building a viral weapon to combat the Harvester of Sorrows, Mr Fantastic and his allies – Iron Man, Ms Marvel, the Super-Skrull and Praxagora – emerge through the Crunch back in the positive matter universe, where only a month of local time has elapsed. They quickly gather data on the state of the galaxy and the war against the Annihilation Wave, then set out to intercept the Harvester in their ship – the UX-73 Prison Planetoid, now fitted with hyperspace engines and outfitted as a mobile battle platform.

The Harvester, and its accompanying fleet, are attacking the Yaruan system – home to Azimuth Station and the burgeoning resistance against the Wave. For days the station’s defenders have fought against the invaders, but the Harvester is immune to all attacks and pushes through the system, primed to destroy Azimuth’s planetary base. Gladiator and Devos are among those fighting back, while Quasar attempts to coordinate the Skrulls, Shi’ar and other defenders – but it’s not until UX-73 enters the system that they see any hope of victory.

Conferring with Mr Fantastic, Quasar sends most of the defending ships away from the Harvester to attack the rest of the Wave fleet, opening up a path for UX-73 to launch the virus missile; the Super-Skrull pilots it rather than let it fly unguided. Devos, Gladiator, Praxagora and Ms Marvel help defend the missile from the remaining Wave forces – it impacts the Harvester, riddling the organic superweapon with poison and weakening its defences!

But the battle is far from over, as the Harvester moves into position to unleash its anti-energy core upon the planet. Devos exhausts his armour’s power and Gladiator is struck down by the Harvester’s weapons, so Quasar joins the fray; he and Ms Marvel fly into the Harvester to attack the core while Praxagora unleashes her fusion powers to take down the ship’s communications. Faced with the weapon that defeated him once before, Quasar taps into the Quantum Zone to destabilise space-time within the core before the ship’s internal weapons can re-activate and stop him; the core collapses and the Harvester explodes in a massive ball of energy!

In the aftermath, Ms Marvel and Quasar are critically injured, and are taken to recover on Azimuth. Iron Man and Mr Fantastic return to Earth to continue dealing with the superhero civil war. The remaining Wave forces scatter to nearby systems or through the stargate to the Kree Galaxy, while the resistance forces regroup after their victory.

And Annihilus, furious beyond measure at the loss of his planet-destroying weapon, is mollified by Thanos – who has a plan for an alternative…

In the penumbra of the Crunch, the freed Proemial Gods – Aegis, Lady of All Sorrows, and Tenebrous of the Darkness Between – build incomprehensible machines and make plans to remake the universe in their own image. They are approached by Thanos, the Mad Titan, who bargains with them for a temporary alliance, and the release of the Fallen One (his ‘herald’, who they captured), in return for him weakening their great enemy Galactus.

The current and former Heralds of Galactus – Stardust, Firelord and the Silver Surfer – scour the Andromeda Galaxy for more information on the Seekers and the Annihilation Wave’s quest for sources of cosmic power. They detect a trace of the Power Cosmic reminiscent of Morg, a rebel Herald who they once fought together to defeat, and follow it back to a system where Skrull and Wave forces fought each other to a standstill, and where the remains of a world destroyed by the Harvester of Sorrow still tumble through space.

On a planetoid bearing the remains of the Skrull spaceport, the Heralds find a Kree ship, its systems and life support almost completely depleted, and the remains of a Wave ship, within which the partially-devoured remains of Morg are splayed upon an altar of red-and-gold material. Before they can reclaim the body or rescue the Kree, the Seekers – led by their leader Ravenous, the right hand of Annihilus – spring their trap. They attempt to capture the Heralds and drain their power, aided by the reality-warping energies of the Glorian Matrix (the altar).

Their plan is an abject failure, though – the Heralds easily defeat the Seekers, and Ravenous is only just able to escape along with the Matrix. The Heralds re-energise the Kree ship’s system and find it is manned by Kree soldiers led by Korath the Pursuer, who has been following his psychic trace on the Glorian Matrix; they follow the Matrix across the galaxy to learn that Ravenous has rendezvoused with Annihilus, who has finally returned from his recent exile back to the Negative Zone.

No sooner has Annihilus emerged from the Crunch than his flagship is invaded by a visitor – Thanos! Fighting off the warlord’s minions and repelling the power of the Cosmic Control Rod, Thanos makes his case for an alliance with Annihilus and aiding him in his genocidal plans. The two tyrants come together to hatch a new and terrible scheme – one that involves the fall of Galactus…

Due to its location near a stargate to the Greater Magellenic Cloud, Azimuth Station has become a major waystation for thousands of refugee ships seeking to flee the Andromeda Galaxy and escape the Annihilation Wave. It’s also a stopover for those who have encountered the Wave and lived to tell the tale, such as Gamora and her Graces. After another argument about who should lead the Graces, Nebula breaks off from the group once and for all and begins looking for a ship and a crew, hoping to re-start her piratical career and search for the Infinity Gauntlet. She falls in with Paibok the Power Skrull, who commands a small band of Skrull opportunists, and they begin constructing a plan.

In the darkness between stars, in a vast and radioactive cathedral-cube, the Silver Surfer meets with two other Heralds of Galactus, Firelord and Stardust, to discuss the threat posed by the Seekers. Still loyal to her master, Stardust summons Galactus to the meeting, and the Devourer of Worlds tells the Heralds that the destruction of the Kyln has freed two of the Proemial Gods, vastly powerful entities that Galactus battled and imprisoned during the first moments of the universe’s birth. If they recover their strength, or if the Seekers manage to capture one of the Heralds and subvert the Power Cosmic, reality itself could be threatened.

Devos the Devastator has also made his way to Azimuth, but only just – his high-tech armour is almost completely drained of power. Searching for a way to regain his strength and self-respect, and to fight back against the Wave, he meets with Recorder 808, adjunct to internal security leader Spirit, to ask how he can assist resistance efforts. At the same time, Gamora and Moondragon meet with Spirit to discuss what they can do. All receive the same answer – there are no resistance efforts against the Wave.

Meanwhile, Quasar – Azimuth’s external security leader – flies out to meet a Shi’ar battle cruiser that has come through the local stargate. Commanded by Gladiator, the cruiser demands Azimuth’s surrender, and that it acts to stop the flow of refugee ships – as the ships are flooding into space now controlled by the Shi’ar Empire. Quasar does his best to persuade Gladiator that working with the station’s Rigellian masters to help the refugees is the best way forward, but his argument is halted by a sudden alert – the station is powering up its weapon systems to attack the cruiser!

In truth, Nebula has engineered a massive energy spike to cause a distraction so that her crew can steal a ship. Devos defeats one of Paibok’s agents in the security centre and flies across the station, exhausting his armour’s reserves, to stop the spike from destroying Azimuth – and by draining the excess power, recharges his own systems. Moondragon races through the powered-down station to intercept Nebula, who has abandoned her allies in order to escape alone, and captures her with her mind-control abilities. With the power spike quelled, the Shi’ar no longer think the station is on the attack, and Quasar is able to negotiate an agreement with Gladiator, who will stay on Azimuth as the Empire’s liaison – and perhaps to help the resistance efforts taking shape on the station.

In the aftermath, Firelord arrives at Azimuth to check on his friend Air-Walker; he uses the Power Cosmic to imprison Nebula in a impenetrable sphere of fire and launches it into space. And the Silver Surfer and Stardust arrive at the Crunch to find that the Proemial Gods are building something from the remains of the Kyln, some kind of gigantic energy storage and conversion system. They watch the immortals at work and wonder how to proceed – unaware that their every move is being observed by Thanos, the Mad Titan…

As the dust of the collapsed mine settles over the UX-73 Prison Planetoid, Iron Man tries to salvage what he can of their ruined spaceship while Mr Fantastic and a wounded Ms Marvel strike out for the centre of the complex, where escaping prisoners clash with armed and merciless guards.

Meanwhile, the Super-Skrull rampages through the prison complex as the sadistic Commandant Hawal rallies its defences – pausing only to taunt the captive Praxagora, whose fusion core heart has been powering the prison for years. But the Skrull damages the containment facility, and Praxagora is finally able to break free – and to contemplate revenge.

As Ms Marvel brings down guard towers to stop the fighting, Mr Fantastic stretches to the heart of the prison and gains control of its fading power systems. Praxagora chases Hawal to the stardock at the rear of the planetoid; she captures him and clashes with the Super-Skrull, who wishes to torture the Athrosian for the secret of how to destroy the Harvester of Sorrow.

Praxagora persuades Hawal to cooperate, and the scientist-warden reveals that the Harvester is a vast cyber-biological organism; the only way to defeat it is to infect it with a virus, delivered by a missile – but such a weapon will take months to create. The heroes realise that their best bet for assembling the missile is to remain in the Negative Zone, where time passes some 10-12x faster than in the positive matter universe. So long as they can defend themselves against Annihilus’ forces, and rally allies in local space, they may just have a chance to build their weapon, pass through the Crunch and cripple the Annihilation Wave…