In the weeks since the destruction of the Kyln, Reed Richards has attempted to convince his fellow Earth heroes of the danger of the Annihilation Wave, but they remain focused on their own issues – the so-called ‘Civil War’ around registration and monitoring of superhumans. To assist with this, Reed has been working with Tony Stark on a plan to create a prison in the Negative Zone, and the two of them (plus pro-registration ally Ms Marvel) are about to activate the portal – when word comes from orbit that a damaged spaceship has entered Earth’s atmosphere and is headed straight for the Fantastic Four’s headquarters, the Baxter Building!

The spaceship is piloted by Star-Lord, who seeks Reed’s help in reaching the Negative Zone and finding a way to stop the Harvester of Sorrow. Ms Marvel is suspicious and sees through the deception – the visitor is actually the Super-Skrull! Despite his ruse, the Skrull is sincere in his desire to reach the Negative Zone, and the heroes decide to assist him in finding the source of the super-weapon. They repair the ship and launch it through the portal into the bizarre Negative Zone, then begin scanning and searching the pocket universe – not realising that Mister Fantastic has closed the portal behind them to protect Earth from further incursion.

After three days of awkward travel in a small space, Reed’s scanning instruments lead them to an vast field of mined asteroids and broken spaceships – a shipyard for creating and mobilising the superweapons of the Annihilation Wave. At its heart is a prison planetoid where slaves mine and labour under guard, protected by a force field that destroys organic matter. The heroes manage to shut down the field momentarily, but it comes back up as they fly through, damaging the ship and leading to a crash landing.

The Super-Skrull immediately abandons his allies in order to attack the prison and find his quarry, leaving the Earthlings to fight off a wave of Annihilus’ drone soldiers. They manage to collapse the mine and kill the mindless drones, but Ms Marvel is badly injured in the fight, their spaceship is destroyed, and they have no way of getting home…

In the wake of Glorian’s reality machinations, the frontier town of Abyss on Godthab Omega is largely ruined. Gamora and Cerise have returned to Mount Virago, and Ronan pulls back to the Spaceport to attempt to fix a working ship, leaving Korath and Stellaris to clean up the mess – and to observe the floating red-and-gold energy matrix that Glorian has become. The Glorian Matrix is also of interest to Nebula, who seeks a way off this planet and to regain her fearsome reputation.

But Moondragon has other concerns – she returns to Godthab Omega to warn her occasional allies, the Graces, that the Annihilation Wave is coming. Sadly she is too late – Wave forces, led by a 15km long flagship, land nearby and disgorge a vast swarm of uncontrollable insectoids that advance on Abyss and Mount Virago! Led by Eradica, one of Annihilus’ monstrous Queens, the swarm seeks the Matrix’s power for the Wave.

Gamora prepares to defend Mount Virago and sends Moondragon to Abyss to collect the Matrix. She arrives just as Nebula attempts to steal it, and as Korath creates a trans-dimensional stasis cell to sageguard and transport it. Along with Stellaris, the group agree to put aside their differences in an effort to escape – but as the swarm attacks Abyss, Korath is forced to abandon the Kree soldiers he has led to this point.

The four return to Mount VIrago, stasis cell in hand, to find it overrun with giant mutant bugs – including flying bugs, who force Nebula to crash their transport into the side of Gamora’s headquarters. The four fight against the swarm, but they are too badly outnumbered. After injuring Nebula even more than before, Eradica overpowers Korath and Moondragon and makes off with the Matrix. Faced with overwhelming odds, the Graces (and Korath) evacuate in Moondragon’s ship, and watch the mindless swarm destroy everything left on Godthab Omega.

In the aftermath, the Graces pick up Ronan (who made it to orbit in an evacuation pod), Moondragon sets a course to meet up with her lover Phylla-Vell and other resistance forces, Gamora disbands the Graces – and Korath reveals that he set a psychic tracer on the Matrix, allowing him to follow it anywhere.

While Nycos Aristides has been dragged into Dimension 11 by Tana Nile, Beta Ray Bill and the Xandarian Worldmind (in the body of RIchard Rider), the Aakonian colony is far from safe – Annihilus’ flagship, 20km long and bristling with weapons, is raining destruction down upon the alien city and its inhabitants!

Bill attempts to summon a storm to repel the ship, but the local atmosphere – indeed, all of local space-time – has been disrupted by the dimensional shift, and he is unable to take control of the weather. Instead, for his trouble, the Wave invaders identify his hammer Stormbreaker as a powerful energy source, and the ship’s batteries open fire upon him. As he evades their fire, Tana Nile reroutes the power generated by the colony’s geothermal tap into the Nova Force, and the Worldmind uses the energy of fire a massive gravimetric blast at the ship, smashing through its shield – and attracting the personal wrath of Annihilus, who flies from the ship to launch an attack!

Battling on two fronts, the defenders find themselves outmatched – Annihilus’ physical power is incredibly enhanced by his Cosmic Control Rod, a device containing a naked singularity that he uses to drain away almost all of the Worldmind’s energy (and Richard’s vitality). Meanwhile, Bill takes the fight to the flagship, smashing his way onto the bridge and laying about with Stormbreaker, but is pinned down by battalions of Wave marines onboard.

A desperate Tana Nile hatches a new and even bolder plan – she channels the strange energy at the heart of Nycos Aristedes into the Worldmind, hoping to cause a dimensional shockwave that will throw everyone back to their native universes. The shockwave erupts through the Worldmind, and Annihilus falls back to his ship – where he engages Beta Ray Bill in savage combat. The power of the Cosmic Control Rod is too strong, and the alien warlord not only overwhelms Bill but wrests away control of Stormbreaker – moments before he and the flagship are shunted back to the Negative Zone, leaving Bill to fall back to the ground (and be rescued by the Worldmind).

Nycos Aristedes and its inhabitants are restored to their own universe, but not their own galaxy – the planet now orbits a star in the Greater Magellanic Cloud, far away (for now) from the predations of the Wave. In this place of relative safety, Beta Ray Bill begins enacting ancient magic rites, trying to find an Asgardian weapon that will help him regain Stormbreaker; the Worldmind returns control of its vessel to Richard RIder; Drax the Destroyer and Cammi look for a way to get off-planet; and Tana Nile decides to stay and assist the Aakonian colony and find a new path – and a new love – among its people.

And in the depths of the Negative Zone, Annihilus’s flagship sets a course for the breach back through the Crunch into the positive matter universe. The Annihilation Wave’s master may not be present for the moment, but his forces continue to swarm and destroy in his absence – and he will not be gone for long.

This war is far from over.

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.

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 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.