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From here to maternity
Last issue Thanos interrupted the funeral of his enemy the cosmic being Eon whose body extended throughout his own pocket Eonverse. The Mad Titan then returned to his Infinity Gauntlet business in IG#1, but not without tampering with Eon's still not-quite-dead body in 2 ways.1st we see some of Eon's body-mass flooding through a portal to Wendell Vaughn's office in Four Freedoms Plaza, and from there out into Manhattan. Left unchecked it will bury the surface of the Earth. Wendell is unaware of this because as Quasar he is in  the Eonverse facing 4 beings that Thanos created out of small portions of Eon. They are copies of 4 previous bearers of the Quantum Bands handed out by Eon. But Thanos gave them facsimiles of the Bands with all their powers, and imbued the beings with an overwhelming desire to kill the current bearer Quasar.The 4 are are duplicates of:- The avian being Ree of long-dead Archeopia (presumably the very 1st Band-bearer). The Stygian Starbender, 1st Protector Of The Universe. Tranta the Trill, the 1st non-humanoid bearer of the Bands. Marvel Boy, Quasar's immediate predecessor, the 1st Earthman to wear the Bands.They attack simultaneously with Quantum Energy blasts, but because the energy of their Quantum Bands is identical to his own it is easy for him to absorb it in his Bands and send it back to them, which downs Marvel Boy immediately. Wendell tries to talk the other 3 down but they continue to attack with Quantum-formed weapons.Meanwhile Moondragon's starship Sensia II has found an object floating in space. She telekinetically draws it into the ship and then carefully chips away the substance encasing the man she knows is within. Her care is because a misstep might cause him to explode, and the energy stasis field she's enclosed him in might not be enough to contain the blast. Eventually she has revealed the naked body of a human male, but he's still unconscious. She causes her ship to create a copy of his old protective garment that enabled *him* to control his energies. And then she allows Jack Of Hearts to awaken.Back in the Eonverse Quasar has got tired of barely fending off the foes' weapons and decides to flee, and the other 3 follow him. On the way Vaughn thinks he hears a voice in his head say "Help me. This universe is about to decay.". But then the trio catch up with him and combine forces to trap him in a Quantum vice, which starts to squeeze him to death. And the distracting desperate voice in his head isn't helping.On Earth Her returns to Dr Strange's house where she met Silver Surfer last issue. At that time she sensed that he had been in contact with her counterpart Him (for a long time now called Adam Warlock, who Surfer met in Soul World in his #46-47), who she thought long-dead. Now she returns to see the resurrected being. Adam comes out to meet her, intrigued by this female who looks so similar to him and is clad in a version of 1 of his old outfits. She explains that she was created by the same scientists who created him as the perfect human. Destiny decrees that they should mate and give birth to a wondrous new race. But Warlock says he's too busy for that, and goes back inside. Her thinks to coerce him, but doesn't want to do that. And she's at a loss as to what to do next.In the Eonverse Quasar manages to form a Quantum wedge to force the vice open a bit and zoom out. Then he Quantum Jumps himself into the Quantum Zone, a totally white space which the Quantum Bands draw their energy from. The other 3 follow him but he has a plan. He siphons as much of the infinite energy source as he can through his Quantum Bands and fires it at the trio. They are caught by surprise and try to absorb the energy which causes them to explode into nothingness. Wendell tries to console himself with the thought that they weren't real living beings, just things created by Thanos. Then the mystery voice speaks again and he tries to track its source.But we return to New York where Eon's body is still spreading its tentacles. Various heroes are trying to deal with it:- the Squadron Supreme (Dr Spectrum, Haywire, Hyperion, Moonglow, Power Princess, Shape, Skylark and Whizzer), Darkhawk, Deathlok and Sleepwalker, but with little effect. Her joins them, as does Moon Knight and Quasar's pal Makkari. Moondragon arrives home in her starship and drops JOH off to help.Meanwhile Quasar has noticed a lot of Eon's body spiralling through a hole like water down a drain. But before he can investigate the voice in his head leads him to an egg, and tells him it needs to be freed from its mother's dying body. But before he can do anything about that, Marvel Boy (remember him from the beginning of the issue) hits him with a Quantum baseball bat. However Vaughn just sends him far away with a Quantum fly swat.The egg tells Quasar to take it out of here so he carries it through the hole and finds himself back in his own office, almost full of Eon-stuff. He quickly plugs the hole with a Quantum construction and turns to the egg which hatches a baby Eon who declares herself to be Epoch, Eon's successor. Epoch tells Wendell that there are 17 more portals in other parts of the universe that must be sealed (we have to assume Quasar fixes that because they're not mentioned again). Also the remains of the body, no longer animated by connection to the rest in the Eonverse, must be gathered up and cremated. We see Dr Spectrum using his Power Prism to create a giant bulldozer while Her and Jack Of Hearts incinerate stuff, and Darkhawk and Sleepwalker stand around like spare wheels.Epoch then says that she's not strong enough yet to help against Thanos. She predicts that Quasar will play a role in the conflict, but it will be others who bring the Mad God down. She relays a message from her dead mother Eon asking Wendell to help her grow to omniscience. And she declares herself proud of the greatest of her Protectors Of The Universe.


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To Be or Not To Be
Thanos has given to the Earth heroes the Ultimate Nullifier to battle the threat of the Magus. Quasar volunteers to risk his life to use it. He creates a containment dome around himself and contacts his cosmic goddaughter Epoch to help him understand how to use the Nullifier. Epoch refrs him to the Repository of Knowledge on the planet Rus. They teleport to Rus and are just beginning their research when Quasar is attacked by the Deathurge. Meanwhile Kismet and Makkari are on the Mourners’ space ship, heading toward the doomed Scadam. When Kismet learns that Scadam has not yet been destroyed and that the Mourners have no intention to trying to rescue the world, she takes action by going into battle against the Black Fleet. Deathurge defeats Quasar but is not there to kill him: his mission is to visit everyone who plans to use the Ultimate Nullifier to ensure they understand the consequences of “dispensing the void.” Quasar determines to use the Nullifier without perishing in the process. He returns to the containment dome, ready to activate the weapon.


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The Incredible Hulk!
The rulers of a peaceful planet watch in dismay as a fleet of alien conquerors approaches their world. Durgan the Philosopher advises his co-rulers to abandon their pacifist ideals and prepare to fight back but is denounced as a heretic. Realizing that their age of heroes is long past, Durgan conceives a plan to draw on the powers of super-beings of other worlds. On Earth, Hulk is battling against the Colorado National Guard, who are trying to stop the Green Giant from endangering the Grand Canyon. A mysterious figure called the Chief Examiner follows the Hulk who, wishing to be left alone, takes refuge in a remote cave. In the cave, Hulk sees floating over two pedestals, a Natter Energy-Egg and a blood-red Bio-Gem. As he watches, the Energy-Egg explodes, destroying itself and the Bio-Gem. A confused Hulk goes to sleep and transforms into Bruce Banner. The Chief Examiner reveals himself and requests Bruce to pass through his glowing star portal. Bruce, understandably, balks and flees the cave, plunging off the edge of a cliff. The stress triggers the Hulk transformation and he hits the ground unharmed. The enraged Hulk fights back against the Chief Examiner, with boulders and waterspouts, then he dives underwater to uproot the edge of a cliff and topple it on the alien. The falling rock traps the Examiner but also capsizes a raft full of campers on the river. When Hulk sees that one of the rafters is a woman he breaks off his attack on the Examiner to rescue them. He saves the men easily but the woman is trapped in a whirlpool. The Examiner seizes the opportunity to place his portal where the Hulk must pass through it to rescue the woman; as the Hulk enters the portal, his energy is scanned and recorded and he emerges instantly on the other side to save the woman. Having obtained what he came for, the Chief Examiner departs, and the Hulk bounds off as well.


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The Monster Or The Man?
General "Thunderbolt" Ross and Major Glenn Talbot are showing a history of the Hulk to a group of military leaders and receive a call that Bruce Banner is working as a janitor at the Brand Corporation in Chicago. That company has a Gamma Accelerator that Bruce hopes to use to cure him of the Hulk. He thinks of his tortured past and becomes agitated and must calm himself so he does not become the Hulk. At the same time, Major Talbot is saying good-bye to his wife Betty Ross. General Ross arrives and he and Talbot leave to go “Hulkbusting”.Bruce uses the Gamma Accelerator to adverse affect. As Ross and Talbot arrive, a further mutated Gamma-altered Banner attacks them. Banner is caught between Hulk and Banner transformations.  The Banner/Hulk is subdued by a group of soldiers and imprisoned beneath Gamma Base. While caged, the duel personas continue to vie for control of Banner’s body and mind. The Hulk eventually emerges victorious after much struggle and breaks free from the prison, escaping by leaping through the desert. Ross and Talbot prepare to counter attack as the Hulk escapes.


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The Mountain
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Ravage!
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Hulk Smashed
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Monsters In Our Midst
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(No title given)
Captain America—Steve Rogers—is storming the Normandy beachhead on D-Day and the new Cap—Bucky Barnes—and the Black Widow have infiltrated the HAMMER Helicarrier. Meanwhile, Sharon Carter, the Falcon and the Vision are bringing Hank Pym (now the Wasp) up to date on the real story behind Steve’s death. Sharon reveals that she shot Steve while under the Red Skull’s control and that the Skull and Arnim Zola were attempting to bring him back with the use of Dr. Doom’s modified time platform. She describes how she was used as "the constant" in their mad scheme which failed, thanks to Sharon’s rebellion. She shows Pym the unusual gun which she shot Cap with and he recognizes it as Doom-tech. The time platform is on the HAMMER Helicarrier and new Cap and the Widow have been sent to recover it. Those two have run into a severe setback: it was a trap and they now face two of Norman Osborn’s Dark Avengers –Ares and Venom….
Elsewhere, Osborn is questioning Arnim Zola about the scheme, learning that the tachyon gun sent Captain America into a limbo from which the Red Skull attempted to pluck him—until Sharon’s interference caused Cap to come unstuck in time….
Meanwhile, Captain America surveys the Normandy battlefield and is shocked when he is approached by Bucky Barnes…then he finds himself by his mother’s deathbed…then to another European battle site where Bucky has to push him to cover from a bombing. And he has no idea what is happening to him….


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[Red Skull] Incarnate Chapter 5
Munich,
1934: Johann Shmidt encounters his old commander from the Brownshirts who once beat
him up as a troublemaker (issue #4). The Commander is drinking heavily because
his dreams of Ernst Rohm seizing power have come to naught, as Rohm has become
Hitler’s servant. He confides that Hitler is coming tomorrow, likely to fire
Rohm. Shmidt takes this all in then stabs the man to death for the beating he
gave him. Shmidt and Dieter go to Rohm’s hotel and make their plans. Dieter
will act as a bellboy and see where Hitler is sitting at the meeting and then Shmidt
will go in and kill him and they will escape by boat….
The
Nazis arrive, Rohm and his aide Edmund Heines are arrested on Hitler’s orders
and Heines and another aide are summarily executed in the courtyard. Shmidt
pushes Dieter into standing up, insisting on killing Hitler. So Shmidt dons the
bellhop’s uniform and they take Hitler’s meal order upstairs. They enter the
room and Dieter draws his gun. Shmidt recalls all of the people in his life who
have shown kindness then he overpowers Dieter and shoots him in the head with
his own gun. Hitler’s guards seize Shmidt but Hitler orders him released. As Hitler
consolidates his power, Johann Shmidt is one of his most faithful aides….


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[Red Skull] Incarnate Chapter 4
Nuremburg,
1933: Johann Shmidt is a member of the Sturmabteilung a/k/a the Brownshirts
but recognizes they are only for show at the rallies; the SS are the real
soldiers. Later Shmidt is slapped around by his superior who is also
disappointed with the Brownshirts but puts his faith in Ernst Rohm the leader,
convinced that Rohm will seize power and force Hitler out. Later that night,
Shmidt approaches some SS men and asks to join them. They mock him as a kid
but one puts him to the test; handing him a gun he points at a nearby shop and
tells Shmidt to kill some Jews. Shmidt squeezes the trigger but the gun is
unloaded. The SS man laughs so Shmidt cracks him across the face with the pistol.
Shmidt is beaten up and chased off as he thinks about those Jews….
In
the Dachau concentration camp, Dieter is released and returns to town, defeated
and broken…but behind closed doors, Dieter shows that it is all and act and
gets ready to run the party again. Then Johann Shmidt breaks in; Dieter calls
him a traitor for joining the Nazis but Shmidt reveals he has been brutalized
by them too. Shmidt tells them they are going to kill Hitler….


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Red Skull: Incarnate Chapter 3
Berlin,
1933: Adolf Hitler is now Chancellor. As a newly-minted Nazi member is
practicing his speech, he receives a visit from Johann Shmidt, reminding him to
money owed to gangster Emilie Beckert; he refuses, being part of the powerful
Nazi party so Shmidt stabs him. Shmidt walks past a fight between Nazis and
Communists and recognizes one of the Reds as his old friend Dieter. He joins
the fight and he and Dieter get away. At home, Dieter tells Johann that he had
always admired him for standing up to the Nazis and describes how he became a
Communist. But Beckert warns Johann that his Communist friend may cause trouble
with the Nazis which would be a threat to the gang. Beckert tells Shmidt that
if he can’t control Dieter, he will have to kill him. Shmidt bullies Dieter into
doing something “real” and takes him out at night to murder Beckert. Dieter is
unable to act and Shmidt punches him with contempt. Then they discover that the
Reichstag is on fire….
In
the aftermath, Dutch leftist Marinus van der
Lubbe is arrested and claims to have acted alone but Hitler uses it as a
pretext for suspending civil liberties and cracking down on the Communists. Shmidt
and Dieter run from the Nazis but Dieter is caught and beaten while Shmidt gets
away. The Nazis grow in power with millions joining the Party, including Johann
Shmidt….


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[Red Skull: Incarnate] “Chapter 2”
Berlin,
1926: Conditions are going back to normal, the Nazi movement is visible but
believed to be a dying phenomenon. Johann Shmidt steals some food from a market
but runs into a local gang run by Bormann who punches him, insisting he is the
leader of the streets; Shmidt slashes him with a knife. Shmidt runs away,
pursued by the hoods and finds refuge in a shop; the shopkeeper sees he is
injured and Shmidt, recognizing that the man is a Jew, tells him he was being
chased by Nazis because his mother was a Jew. The man and his daughter Emmy
give him medical care, food, and a bed and he relaxes but sees Bormann looking
at him through the window and smiling; the punk is impressed and tells Shmidt
to find out where the man keeps his money….
Shmidt
lives with the family but Bormann is always there keeping an eye on him. One
night, Johann tries to open the cash register but has second thoughts; the
shopkeeper sees this and they talk, the man realizing that for now, the
strongest make the rules but that people like him and Johann can make the world
a better place….
One
day, a bunch of Nazis, looking for trouble, are directed by Bormann to the
shopkeeper and his daughter; the man is attacked and he yells to Johann to
protect Emmy. Bormann and his gang break into the shop; Emmy realizes Johann is
one of them but he slashes Bormann’s throat with a knife and Emmy starts
screaming so Johann punches her to shut her up and leaves with the money. A
short distance away, he watches the shopkeeper die in the street and walks on….


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[Assistant]
[Red Skull: Incarnate Chapter 1]
1923:
As the German economy is at its lowest point, the orphaned Johann Shmidt is in
the Munich Home for Wayward Boys, managed by a brutal Director. His friend
Dieter finds a stray puppy and Johann helps him hide it from the dog catcher
and from the Director. Late one night, Johann goes downstairs but Dieter thinks
he is going to tell the Director but he is getting food for the dog from the
kitchen. Dieter ends up in the infirmary after another beating and Johann runs
away. The Director follows him but they are stopped by a Nazi march on City
Hall; the Director tells Johann these are the true German patriots. Gunfire
breaks out; the Nazi leader is hustled to safety by his men. The Director
forces Johann to stand firm but the boy runs away and jumps into the dog
catcher’s truck. He asks to see how the dog catcher kills the dogs. The dog
catcher stuns the dogs with a blow to the head with a club and then he cuts
their throats with a knife. He hands Johann the club and knife and tells him to
do the next one. Then he produces Dieter’s puppy but Johann can’t bring himself
to harm the pup. The dog catcher congratulates him for still having some
humanity, puts the pup in a pen with other dogs then leaves. The bigger dogs
attack the puppy so Johann enters the pen and beats the big dogs brutally with
the club. Afterward, he discovers the puppy is mortally wounded so he cuts its
throat and leaves….


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Part Three: Freedom
Magneto and the Red Skull lead the
insectoid hordes of Annihilus toward the Shield, guarded by troops
under the leadership of Commander Abigail Brand. The defenders
unleash the Sentinels. Magneto takes action—and discovers his
powers do not work on the giant robots—they are not metal. He tries
to destroy the Shield but likewise, it is not metal either. He is
blasted by a Sentinel and the defenders drive the insectoids back to
New Xandar.
Magneto, his face burned red by his
wounds, rises from the wreckage, seeking out the Red Skull who lied
to him. He locates the Skull fighting off zombies and confronts him.
The Red Skull snaps the power-dampening collar back on Mags and
explains that Mags and the insectoids were merely a distraction, to
enhance the legend around the Red Skull when he alone emerges from
the wilderness on his path of conquest. The Skull then tosses Magneto
to the zombies who tear him apart....
The Red Skull proceeds through the
gate, dreaming his dreams of conquest—and he is shot by Crossbones,
who plans to take his head back to Doom and gain his freedom....


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Part One: Hunters
Electro is in a bar in Battleworld's
Killville, regaling his cronies with tales of his exploits when a
huge figure enters, slaughters the pals and carries off Electro. The
baddie is deposited on an airship where he sees that others are
prisoners too: Magneto, Moonstone, Jack O'Lantern, Lady Deathstrike,
and the Winter Soldier. Their captor reveals himself to be
Crossbones, on a mission from Doom himself. The Red Skull had raised
a rebellion against Doom and was exiled across the Shield into the
wilderness occupied by zombies. But rumors report that the Skull is
alive and he is the rallying point for other rebels. Crossbones has
been tasked with creating a team of losers to go into the wilderness
and return with some proof that the Red Skull is dead and they gain
their freedom. They have each been fitted with collars that dampen
their super-powers to keep them in line (all but the Winter Soldier,
who volunteered for the mission).
Crossbones takes them through a gate in
the Shield, killing the dinosaur that served as a guard, and sends
them on their mission. Within minutes they are surrounded and
attacked by the zombies who kill all of them but Magneto. Magneto, it
turns out, is rescued...by the Red Skull....


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[Assistant]
Part Two: Annihilation
Magneto and his rescuer the Red Skull
escape the zombie hordes that are busy feasting on Magnetos's dead
comrades. The Skull takes his “guest” back to his home inside a
bombed-out Sentinel. The Skull sees Magneto as his tool to destroy
the Shield and return to conquer the civilized world. Magneto
refuses, not trusting the Skull who hands Mags a knife  and
challenges him to kill the Skull. Without his powers he is too weak
to defeat his foe. The Skull then claims to know how to remove the
power-dampening collar....
The two journey into New Xandar, the
realm ruled over by Annihilus. The Skull explains to the insectoid
monarch that Magneto can destroy the Shield, allowing Annihilus'
hordes to invade Doom's domain—but Annihilus recognizes that
Magneto is not convinced of this plan. So Red Skull unlocks Mags'
collar and, with his full powers back, the Master of Magnetism
unleashes a blast that armors himself with the cavern's metallic
walls and he agrees to join the Red Skull's scheme....


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Rescue me
Pepper Potts is investigating the school basement in Broxton, Oklahoma, when her exhausted brain starts hallucinating her dead husband Happy Hogan. She's found some boxing gloves, and he leads her through the process of taking her anger out on a punching bag. (I.e. she remembers how he did it.)She soon stops, saying fighting isn't her style. But Happy says not from what he's seen lately. She immediately guiltily apologises for sleeping with Tony Stark. But Happy's not bothered about that. He just wants to remind her that she's just busted Maria Hill and Black Widow out of Norman Osborn's clutches with her Rescue armour, retrieving a vital hard drive on the way.But Pepper also remembers thinking that she never wanted to be a superhero, on the way here. The 3 women had split up after their escape, to make their individual ways to the rendezvous in Broxton. Pepper was flying here in the Rescue suit, alone except for its AI JARVIS.They were running low on power when they saw a tanker about to collide with a car full of teenagers. Rescue saved the car, but the tanker smashed into a mini-mart, killing the driver and setting fire to the place.JARVIS alerted the fire brigade, and Rescue broke through the roof of the mart to help 4 detectable survivors. She needed to get everything done before the fire crew arrived, so Osborn's HAMMER don't notice her presence and come to arrest her.She got 2 people out. But a news copter saw her. HAMMER would be here sooner than she hoped.She went back in to find the other 2. A man was tending to a badly injured boy. Rescue took the boy out to waiting paramedics, and then headed back for the last person. Her power was nearly out, and HAMMER would be there any second. She found the man again, but he'd been hit by falling debris and was now also in a bad way. She took him to safety too, but then had to run from HAMMER without finding out whether he'll survive.Back in the present, Pepper sees her glass half empty. She thinks she should have stopped the tanker, or she should have got all 4 people out. But Happy tells her to think of the people she *did* save.He also says she should forgive herself for her part in having his life support terminated, when there was no hope of his recovery.Happy fades away, and Pepper continues punishing the punchbag.


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(no title given)
The Warners are a family of Skrull spies on Earth that we saw in the Meet The Skrulls mini-series. Mother Gloria Warner (G'iah) sends a report to the Skrull High Command informing them (and us) of what happened in that series. Their youngest daughter Ivy was kidnapped by Project Blossom and painfully used to create a method of detecting Skrulls. Father Carl Warner (Klrr) rescued her but was killed by their handler Moloth who had defected to Blossom. Gloria and her daughters (including Madison and Alice) killed Moloth in revenge. But along the way their house was destroyed. Gloria sends this report even though she never gets an acknowledgement and has lost contact with all other Skrulls on Earth.The female Skrulls are still in the deserted Project Blossom. They've found a lab with evidence that some Kree worked there, and they were studying a leaf that some of them recognise as part of Kree/Skrull history. Gloria summarises the story.The Skrull Empire was originally based on trade rather than war. Emperor Dorrek I offered Skrull technology to get other planets to join. Eventually they found Hala which was home to the barbaric Kree led by Morag. But they shared the world with telepathic plants, the Cotati. The Skrulls only wanted to deal with 1 species so they proposed a contest. They took a group of each species to separate distant moons, gave them Skrull tech and a year to build something impressive. The Kree came to Earth's Moon (where the Skrulls created the breathable atmosphere of the Blue Area for them) and built a city. On their moon the Cotati created a garden. The Skrulls took both parties back to Hala and adjudged the Cotati the winners. But the Kree rose up and killed the Cotati and the Skrull traders. Both species became warlike and thus began the millennia-spanning Kree/Skrull War. Which eventually spread to Earth (Avengers #89-97).Gloria wonders if the Kree here were investigating how to finally wipe out *all* Cotati. Ivy wonders if instead it's something to do with the Celestial Messiah, who her mother says is a myth. They take the leaf and computers back to their current base in a motel where Madison starts to decrypt comms messages on the computers. Ivy is tired of war. She believes the Messiah is real and is a chance for peace. She relates *his* story to her sister Alice.The Kree had a persecuted pacifist group called the Priests Of Pama who discovered surviving Cotati and fled with them to plant colonies on other worlds, including Earth. They had a prophecy of the Celestial Messiah to be born of the union of the Celestial Madonna and a Cotati. Eventually (Av#123-134 including Giant-Size Av#2-4) the Madonna was revealed as Mantis and she married a Cotati inhabiting the spirit of her dead lover Swordsman. Later they gave birth to a son Sequioa/Quoi. At 1st he was raised by the Cotati, but then Mantis hid him on Earth where the Avengers had to defend them against the Thanosi (clones of Thanos) (see the Av: Celestial Quest limited series).Gloria pooh-poohs all this. Madison figures out some of the Kree info on the computer. And their motel room is blown up by a mystery assassin ...... but Ivy shapeshifts into a large fireproof monster who swallows the other 3, escapes from the explosion and then spits them out unharmed. Madison has discovered the current GPS location of the Kree from the lab, so they head there in their car. She has also decrypted part of a transmission which reads "Attention Kree, this is Hulkling". They get their onboard computer to tell them about Hulkling.During the Kree/Skrull War in the Avengers issues mentioned above, the Kree Mar-Vell, who was the Earth hero Captain Marvel, was captured by Super-Skrull and taken to Emperor Dorrek VII. But Mar-Vell and Dorrek's daughter Princess Annelle fell in love which led to a baby boy. Annelle sent a handmaid to smuggle him to Earth, but by then Mar-Vell had died. The handmaid raised him and told him he was a mutant. As Hulkling he was a founder member of the Young Avengers, where Super-Skrull revealed his true origin. The Skrulls wanted him to rule them as Dorrek VIII, but the Kree claimed him as well.Now he seems to be communicating with the Kree so Gloria assumes he's decided which side he's on. Ivy insists that he might have been negotiating peace between their species, but Gloria fears she's been brainwashed. Ivy reminds them that there once *was* peace.Some time ago various galactic powers convened on the Moon for the trial of Phoenix (X-Men #137). Raksor represented the Skrulls and Bel-Dann the Kree. Fantastic Four Annual #18 revealed that the pair had remained on the Moon fighting until their Empires chose their battle to decide the winner of the long War. But the duo had to work together to survive and this led their Empires to a peaceful alliance. But it didn't last long. (But to give Ivy's claim due credit there have been other periods of peace between the Empires. 1 of which was after Hulkling agreed to go with *both* the Skrulls and Kree, and share his time between them, but it was actually Super-Skrull in disguise. This phase was terminated by the Annihilation event.)The Skrulls break into the target house and find the assassin with his Kree family, also posing as humans. Gloria intends to kill them but Madison persuades her not to. The Kree get a message from Emperor Dorrek VIII saying that the Kree and Skrull armadas are now joined in attacking Earth. And we see that the Emperor is Hulkling.


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[Assistant]
Hate is a Color Called…Green!
Thor is brought
before Odin who explains that his having turned Thor into Don Blake to teach
him humility was a lie. It was a test of featly so now Thor is commanded to get
a haircut and go to Earthgard and take a job in tech to make money….
And so, under
the guise of Chad Hammer, Thor takes an executive job with Roxxon and carries a
Roxxon-branded Mjolnir. A gorgeous woman gushes over him and he points out to
her his Thor-Truck, listing its particulars which can be accessed with a
Roxxbook account. He returns to Roxxon headquarters to find young people protesting
the corporation’s misdeeds and calls down a storm to blow them away, mourning
the fact that he only wanted them to think he was cool….
The Minotaur explains
to Thor that the youth are misguided, unaware that a world without Roxxon would
be a horror, and quality of life is also the best, foreseeing the future of
wealthy people living in domes (as seen in IMMORTAL THOR #9). Thor deduces it
must be Loki behind the protests….
So while Loki
is indoctrinating the youth with environmental messages, Thor goes to the beach
to find his Broskis Three (Enchantress, Executioner, and Heimdall) who are
undergoing a bit of soap opera at the moment. See, Skurge loves Amora but she
has eyes only for Thor. Thor arrives and the Roxxon Eliza device tells him what
he wants to know about Loki so he and his Broskis invade Loki’s lair. Loki
casts a spell that would trap Thor in a false world….
***And at this
point, the real Thor is shocked and appalled at what he is reading. Dario “the
Minotaur” Agger explains that self-parody is the best way to capture the minds
of the masses, by making them think they are all in on the joke.***
The Broskis
depart and return with Roxxspexx, a virtual reality viewer that allows Thor to
see the truth and defeat Loki and his hippie minions….
Thor returns to
Asgard where Odin has Gaia and Minotaur explains to Thor how unrestricted capitalism
is the only way to live. And Odin hands over a cash bonus to “Chad Hammer.”
Story continued
in IMMORTAL THOR #10.


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[Assistant]
Women in Flight
Valkyrie
rides over the face of the Earth. Phil Sheldon sees her from the window of his
plane but his seatmate, Raven Darkholme, suddenly screams and mutates, having
forgotten to take her psychiatric medications….
At
the airport, a Secret Service agent taking her away shoves an old man out of
the way; the sound of breaking glass is taken for a bomb but it is only a
device to suppress magnetic fields. With the device broken, the old man (Magneto)
begins to attract all metal to himself including the jet, causing massive
destruction….
Phil
visits a Texas prison where Warden Wilson Fisk shows him the Shock Corridor,
the wing full of mutants. Scott Summers who had to be blinded after he
incinerated his entire family, Kitty Pryde, seriously injured when becoming
solid while passing through a cell door, Pietro Maximoff, whose legs have been
amputated to keep him still. Fisk reveals that the President himself often visits these
prisoners. Phil was allowed in without his camera, as a favor to a dying man.
Outside he sits by a stream to unwind and a little girl invites him to a picnic
with her and her mom….
Don
Blake leads a crackpot Cult of Thor; Emma Frost leads the Church of the Next
Generation which adopts children and then performs psychic surgery on them to
bring out “psychic abilities.”
Out
West, Phil visits the Quintano Carnival and meets Princess Python. He sees
Saint John (Johnny Blaze) who sets his head aflame with gasoline then rides
around on his motorcycle; he doesn’t survive….
Phil
sleeps and dreams of a place where heroes have arisen to make the world a
better place….
Militiamen
Victor Creed, Jack Monroe, and Bucky Barnes are arrested.
Phil
visits retired space pilot Ben Grimm who tells him of Reed Richards who wanted
Ben to help him hijack a space rocket to fly out to study cosmic radiation. Ben
refused as the ship was lacking in some essential safety equipment. Richards
talked a colleague named Victor Von Doom to fly him and the Storms into space.
They were all killed in a gruesome fashion. Ben can’t help thinking that things
might have turned out differently had he flown them….
Back
in New York, Phil begins to feel ill; he recalls a Bugle photographer named
Peter Parker who was bitten by an irradiated spider, contracted a virus but
managed to infect many of his friends and co-workers before any symptoms
showed. And then Phil realizes he has contracted Parker’s virus; he collapses
in an alley and dies, his briefcase popping open and his notes and photos blowing away….


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[Assistant]
Men on Fire
In
an alternate reality where everything has gone wrong, Phil Sheldon sees a
Patriot missile from the US military strike and destroy the Avengers Quinjet,
killing all on board. He recalls how Tony Stark was critically wounded by a
grenade when he was trying to mediate between a secessionist group and the
National Guard; he saved his life with technology then formed a revolutionary
cell called the Avengers, with Hank Pym, Janet Van Dyne, Captain America,
Stephen Strange, and others. He heads to a bar reading about Matt Murdock, a
boy who was killed by radioactive waste thrown from a truck. At the bar he is
hassled by a barfly who is a Canadian with a weird bone disease….
T'Challa
has been arrested with the radical Black Panthers; Clint Barton was executed in
San Francisco by a military advisor; Wanda Maximoff has turned against the
Avengers, seeking immunity.
Phil
journeys out to the prison camp where the Kree invaders are being held to
interview their leader. After being required to don a radiation suit, he meets
the leader, Mar-Vell who relates how their invasion fleet came across the
corpse of the Silver Surfer in space and the radiation it emitted negated the
Kree cloaking devices so they were shot down by the Earth military. The few
survivors were imprisoned in these camps located at an atomic testing ground
and over the years, all of the Kree have developed cancer….
In
Washington DC, Phil sees a homeless woman, Jean-Marie Beaubier fused at the
elbow with her dead brother Jean-Paul. Phil then meets with Nick Fury, who, on
finding out Phil is wring a book, punches him in the gut. Phil assures Fury he
has no political agenda and only wanted to talk about Captain America. Fury
shoots a rabid dog and tell Phil that Cap introduced him to cannibalism. A
prostitute, Jean Grey, approaches them and Fury calmly shoots her to death. He
then tells Phil that Cap was killed recently and then fires a bullet into his
own head….
The
corpse of Galactus has been found floating in space; a porn star called
Enchantress is accused of murdering a Hollywood producer; there has been a
sighting of the reclusive US President Charles Xavier….
In
a Chicago slum, a woman tells Phil that her baby Daimon Hellstrom will be the
messiah some day. He meets Rick Jones and his drug-addicted girlfriend
Marlo Chandler. Jones, drinking liquid morphine, tells Phil how he was traveling
across Arizona when a scientist tried to warn him away from an area. The man
pushed Jones into a trench when a bomb went off; the man was immediately
swelling and breaking out in cancerous tumors; Jones heard that he was still
alive being kept in a lab under the code name: Hulk. Marlo sneers at his story
and Jones beats her. Phil leaves hurriedly. In the street it begins to snow but
Phil trips over the corpse of a murder victim wearing a black T-short with a
stylized skull on it….


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[Assistant]
Fire with fire
The shadowy government agency Aladdin sent 3 Bio-Con Rune-based vampires after Gemini. Last issue they caught up with him as a golden Ultrahero in his Noel persona and siphoned off much of his power.Now they're draining his blood as well when a new order from the AI GENIE that runs Aladdin tells them not to kill him but bring him to the Colorado base. But at the same time the sun sets allowing Erik to take over the Gemini body and its golden skin splits to release his Rune-like form. He reckons his fully Rune DNA will trump the Bio-Cons' partial Rune DNA. And he's proved right as he kills 1 by sucking its energy. And the other 2 are convulsed by its pain.Meanwhile Adam Warlock has entered the soul of gravely-injured Angelique Zane to help her heal. Inside she is running from her (sort-of naked like Silver Surfer) birdlike golden Ultra-powered id, appearing now giant-sized, which she wishes she'd never 'let out'. (The police officer used it to fight golden Noel in #5 because he'd taken rather extreme measures to deal with hostage-holding terrorists, and she was injured in the process.) She wants him to take the power away but he says it's part of her and she must come to terms with it else it will take control without her humanity to restrain it. So she allows her 2 forms to merge into a human female with wings (and a pet bird and a minimal costume). Adam leaves her soul and she wakes. Then he bids her farewell and sees a TV report of the 3 robots' fight with golden Noel (but not Erik).We see Erik kill another robot vampire and break the back of the 3rd before sucking its blood-analogue and then tearing off its head as a souvenir. He leaves the bodies as an Aladdin helicopter arrives, and returns to the abandoned church they call home. He tells Noel (and us) that he's got his power back from the 'bots. Then he spins a gooey cocoon out of which golden Noel emerges. But this Noel's lack of human conscience has gotten worse. He says he's tired of being treated like a villain when he tries to do 'good'. He teleports to the centre of Los Angeles and hovers in midair and announces that he's come to pass judgement. Unless they renounce their 'barbarism' he'll destroy a city each day, starting with this 1.But Warlock joins him in midair saying he can't allow him to do that. And declares that he thinks they are brothers.To be concluded in Ultraverse Unlimited #1.


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[Assistant]
(various)
The Rune story was created by Malibu staff. It has script Chris Ulm & Dan Danko, pencils Henry Flint, inks Marl McKenna, letters Patrick Owsley, colours Violent Hues, editor Dan Danko. The Rune cover is by Barry Windsor Smith. It's entitled "Into infinity".This tale begins with a replay of nearly the end of Godwheel #3. Thor got brought to the Godwheel in the Ultraverse and helped the Ultraheroes defeat the big villain. The energy vampire Rune watches from the shadows as Thor tries to use Mjolnir to send everyone to wherever they want to go, including himself back to Marvel Universe-616. It doesn't work until he gets a boost from the sorceress Mantra. But as they leave Rune leaps on the Thunder God, hungry for his power.Now we see that Thor fought Rune off and they arrived in U-616 separately. Rune lands in New York with a thump. The Star Stones he wears on a necklace tell him that this isn't the Ultraverse Earth, and he senses Thor here and lots of other ultrahumans (we see Human Torch, Spider-Man, Storm and Sub-Mariner). People start calling him a monster so he disguises himself as the only 616 denizen he knows, Thor. Some cops call him to help them with a villain called Powderkeg who sweats nitroglycerine and is holding hostages. 'Thor' goes straight for him and sinks his fangs into his neck to imbibe his energy. PK sinks to the ground apparently dead and the power boost enables Rune to sense cosmic energies elsewhere on Earth.We now enter a phase which runs parallel to part of Warlock & Infinity Watch #42 and will explain how the Watch lost all their Infinity Gems there.We see Gamora having a swim off the coast of California. The commentary summarises her recent past. Months ago (Infinity Gauntlet event) she helped save the universe from Thanos, and as a result Adam Warlock made her part of his Infinity Watch to guard the Infinity Gems. She got the Time Gem, but she quit the Watch (W&IW#40) and it was given to Maxam. Then in #41 she joined Thanos (who had been entrusted with the Reality Gem). But now she's attacked by Rune who senses the Time Gem but quickly realises she no longer has it. He hypnotises her into telling him that the Gem is still on Monster Island with the other holders (except of course Thanos).Next stop Monster Isle where he finds Maxam wandering alone without a care in the world. The energy vampire now siphons power from *him* and then takes the Time Gem from his brow. He uses it to stop time (and for some reason we see Beast, Bishop, Captain America, Hulk, Jean Grey, Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter), Venom and Wolverine presumably halted in mid-action). We learn that Gamora told him where the Watch keep their Gems. So we see him move through frozen time taking the Space Gem from between the toes of Pip the Troll. This allows him to conquer space as well as time to get the Reality Gem from Thanos' brow. Then he moves on the take the Mind Gem from Moondragon's forehead and the Power Gem from inside the stomach of Drax the Destroyer. Finally he approaches Warlock for the Soul Gem on *his* brow ...... which is when things go wrong and he finds himself in Soul World (within the Gem) facing Warlock free from the effect of the Time Gem. But to Adam's surprise Rune uses the Reality Gem against him and boasts that he has the other 4. Warlock declares that the 6 Gems can't be used all together (by edict of the Living Tribunal) and his command of the Soul Gem will ensure that it doesn't happen. But suddenly the Soul Gem rebels against him and declares that it's been waiting since the dawn of the universe for Rune to claim the 6 Gems. It offers the vampire power over all of the Ultraverse and the Marvel multiverse if he accepts it as his guide. It transfers itself to Rune's brow and calls the other Gems to form the 'Gauntlet' on the fingers of his right hand. Rune gloats in victory.But in the Dimension of Manifestations the Living Tribunal senses the Infinity Gems disturbing the fabric of reality and decides to ask someone for help.Meanwhile the Soul Gem urges Rune to go back to the Ultraverse to gain vengeance on his enemies. The vampire doesn't like being told what to do and says that there is much for him to savour in *this* world. The Gem then claims to be the true master here but Rune resists coercion even as the Gem makes him open a portal to his home.However the dispute is unresolved because the Living Tribunal's help arrives in the form of the Silver Surfer who's here to keep the Infinity Gems in *this* universe and out of the hands of Rune. They fight briefly (and it's presumably the villain's unfamiliarity with the Gems that stops him from winning effortlessly). I'm not sure exactly how it happens but the 5 Gems leave Rune's hand and go through the portal. Rune's right hand is on fire and he too falls through the portal to the sky of Ultra-Earth, from which he falls to sink to the ocean bed with the angry Soul Gem still on his head.The 2nd story was created by Marvel's Glenn Herdling writer, John Buscema penciler, Bill Anderson inker, Ken Bruzenak letterer, Mike Rockwitz & Prism Riot & Andy Walton colourers, Mark Gruenwald editor. It's cover was by John Romita breakdowns, John Buscema pencils, George Perez inks. It's entitled "If I should die".Silver Surfer is riding his Cosmic Surfboard through the deserted Omega Quadrant of space when he's battered by a cosmic storm which turns out to be due to the sudden appearance of the very large Living Tribunal. It's exposed face of Equity tells him that time has been stopped. The veiled face of Necessity tells him that this has disturbed the balance of the universe, favouring Order over Chaos. It reminds him how the Infinity Watch were given an Infinity Gem each to safeguard. But the extradimensional Rune stole the Time Gem and froze time allowing him to take the others, threatening to break LT's ban on the Gems all being used together. So he wants SS to prevent it. Norrin Radd objects to being again used as a pawn by cosmic beings and suggests the Tribunal does it himself. LT says that not all 3 of his faces agree on the course of action. And it also mentions that Oblivion has also sent an agent to take the gems. Norrin's conscience won't let him refuse the task.He heads to Earth where the Gems were stolen. In New York he sees the populace frozen in time. He continues on to Monster Island where he sees frozen Watch members menaced by a being of blackness with white cloak, gloves and boots and a black 'spear'. That being strikes Surfer and announces himself as Deathurge. The spear is numbingly cold and saps his will. Before he can recover the opponent uses his weapon again to pin the surfboard to a tree. Then he pulls black skis out of his body and skis off into space. Surfer struggles to pull the spear from his board, its freezing black energy increasing the will-sapping effect. But eventually he overcomes. But then the spear dissolves into shards.Deathurge is following the trail of the Gems through space until a streak of light tells him that SS has caught up with him. It's Surfer's turn to strike, which causes the foe's dark body to begin to break up. He describes it as being composed of a dark force derived from the despair and guilt of the universe's inhabitants. But the setback is only momentary and then he produces a black bow and arrow. Surfer's board dodges the shaft and then he circles his opponent at faster than the speed of light before firing a cosmic blast through his chest. DU laughs that off and tells the other that his featureless obsidian face is a mirror into the viewer's soul. He shows Norrin 1 of the many planets that he led his former master Galactus to consume. He ignored the pleas of the populace, even killing those who tried to stage a defence. And now Deathurge opines that Surfer's feeling of guilt makes him wish to die. Norrin counters that Galactus made him do it but DU doesn't think he believes it. Producing another black spear he pierces Norrin's chest and Surfer almost gives in. He recalls that his loves Mantis and Nova are dead, and Shalla Bal has turned to his brother. But the Tribunal appears to him and urges him to atone for his past sins by saving the universe now. So Norrin accepts his self-destructive urge but masters it by confronting it and Deathurge. They meet head-on in a mighty explosion. And only Silver Surfer remains.Now he continues his quest and sees Rune wearing the Infinity Gems on hand and brow and creating a rift in space. We see again the battle between them. It is clearer here that Surfer's blast destroys the hand that wears the 5 Gems leaving Rune with only the Soul Gem. These 5 Gems fall through the portal before Surfer can stop them, and Rune follows.He thinks he's failed but the Living Tribunal counts this a success. With the 6 Gems scattered through another universe they're unlikely all to be used together. And with the Time Gem gone time in the 616 universe has resumed its flow. However LT does admit that if they *are* ever assembled in the Ultraverse then it might signal the end of *both* universes.


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The forgotten machines of Nikola Tesla
This issue Howard Stark gets his 1960 panel in 1st with his dictation of a summary of the events we have been witnessing. This time he reflects that there comes a time when a man must choose between keeping his head down and standing up for what is right.But this time we continue with Stark as he wakes up after the explosion in 1956 in #2 to find himself in a very hot jungle. And overhead the Moon has some large chunks broken off. (It also appears to me to be bigger hence nearer.)Then we catch up with him days later making his way through the jungle and he's in communication with someone by portable solar-powered shortwave radio. That person guides him to their meeting place and we see it is Nathaniel Richards, who was with him in the explosion. They both agree that the position of the stars and the state of the Sun mean they're probably 5-6 hundred thousand years in the future.Nathaniel has a theory that they were brought here by the power source of their foe Night Machine, which is what caused the explosion. If they can find his body they might be able to get back home. (Stark's 1960 commentary suggests at least *he* will succeed.) But so far he says all he's found is ruins. He leads Howard to the edge of a cliff to a vista over some *colossal* ruins, many of which are metal pyramids. And they are dwarfed by a huge seated Pharaoh-like statue which we might recognise as Immortus.For the next section we return to this series' present and are treated to a voiceover by Leonid explaining what happens from 1957 to 1960. Leonardo da Vinci, who travelled from his time to this era, gradually attracts a large number of the Brotherhood Of The Shield to be his followers, abandoning their immortal Isaac Newton. Leonardo offers them the hope of a long evolving future for mankind. But Newton's remaining adherents became more fanatical in their belief in his prediction that humanity will be destroyed in 2060.Meanwhile the Star Child baby Celestial that Leonardo rescued from the Sun last issue grows up rapidly. As well as his size this is indicated by the increasingly less simple maths he burbles and the increasingly less simple things he can build. By 1960 he is taller than a man and allegedly aware of the conflict brewing in the Immortal City (beneath Rome) that they live in.In parallel Leonardo's golden globe that he calls the Human Machine (which he obviously *didn't* leave behind in the Sun last issue in exchange for the Star Child) has been getting more complex too. Leonid likens it to various atoms. In 1957 it has gained a smaller orbiting ball and Leonid calls it reasonably Hydrogen. In 1958 it has 2 satellites and its central body has 2 merged lobes - Helium - as the Brotherhood begins to polarise. In 1959 the central body is back to a globe but with the hint of many balls packed inside it, and it has 6 'electrons' - Carbon - the basis of all living things as da Vinci's teachings take hold. In 1960 it is Oxygen with its 8 electrons and Leonid says the Human Machine becomes alive.And through it all Newton has been constructing his Century Machine, his doomsday clock. It is now complete and war is imminent within the Immortal City. Nostradamus gives Leonid and the Star Child a quatrain (presumably 1 of his earlier prophecies, or at least 1 of them that Jonathan Hickman has made up):-Armies will be heard clashing within the EarthThat very same year completion and schismOne hundred years, one hundred years, one hundred yearsThe drums of war and the sum of all fears(The 100 years presumably refers to the gap between 1960 and the predicted end times in 2060. Or since it's repeated 3 times it could be the 300 years that Newton had Nostradamus prisoner and ruled the Brotherhood.)But we pop back to 1951 where Howard Stark is waiting in his car for Nathaniel Richards to leave a house. It turns out Nathaniel's just been to see his family and has apparently chickened out of telling them he has to go away for a long time. This is to become an agent of the Brotherhood with Stark. The Brotherhood has actually told them they'll *never* see their families again, but Nathaniel refuses to believe that. Howard is actually glad to be free from the chains of a family. He hasn't told *his* family anything either, but the Brotherhood are going to fake a car crash for him.Their initial assignment concerns a man who disappeared in 1943 along with most of his tech and notes. Now he's returned and their mission is to get hold of his Forever Machines and documentation. Stark says it's also personal for him. (The title of this issue and its appendix make it obvious that the man in question is Nikola Tesla.)Stark turns his car into a flying machine, a more fantastical version of SHIELD's original flying cars.In the far future the 2 adventurers have approached the ruins. Richards says there's a smaller set on the other side of the mountain but these appear much older. Then they see a woman in white who spots them and turns into a bird to fly away. They suspect she is the talking pigeon who accompanied Night Machine (and was *also* caught in that explosion). They follow her into a ruin where she reverts to human by the side of their gravely injured foe.She thinks they are here to finish him off, but they say they need him to get them all home. In that case she says they'd better figure out how to save his life. And at last we learn he is Nikola Tesla.This issue has the almost obligatory appendix, this time 2 pages:- 1 labelled 'The forgotten machines of Nikola Tesla'. The other 'The forever machines of Nikola Tesla'. All of them are mysteries apart from a name and a guess at their function. The forgotten machines are ones that have been found, the forever machines are still missing. (But is that before or after Stark & Richards 1951 mission?)The forgotten machines are:-Pulsar cascade: Creates a short-burst anti-matter wave.Living mechanisms: Tools that expand or contract to fit the task.Firmament: Anti-gravity coating.Extinction engine: Death ray.Lifter: Ion-propelled aircraft.The forever machines are:-The divide: Can pass through anything short of vibranium alloys.The eternal dynamo: Unlimited power from zero-point energy.The night machine: Quantum power driver.Five fists of science: A coded historical document.Tempest: Ball lightning generator.I'm guessing a night machine is what Night Machine had in his body, that sent the 4 to the future.


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The madness, the Star Child, and the Celestial Madonna
We open in 1956 with Leonardo da Vinci (and the youth Leonid) confronting Isaac Newton and the Council of the Brotherhood Of The Shield in the Immortal City below the Eternal City of Rome (ie the end of both #2 and #3). But before we can get anywhere we have another single panel of Howard Stark in 1960 dictating his history of these events. His words this time are "Silence is not security".Leonardo announces his name and says he is a Patriarch of Shield. Newton doesn't believe the man standing before him is who he says he is because Leonardo died, Newton's master (presumably Galileo) buried him and Isaac himself has seen the tomb. Leonardo says he has come through time to bring the Brotherhood a gift - the Human Machine. Here he holds up a glowing ball he held in previous issues, which now floats above the assembly. Newton sends everyone else out of the room so he can interrogate this man alone. Leonardo tells Leonid to obey but to await him in Iter (where they met in #1).The pair converse in Egyptian hieroglyphs until Newton is convinced of da Vinci's identity. Isaac announces *his* name and says he too is a Patriarch of Shield, and currently its Master. After a bit of verbal sparring Leonardo says he's here to do his duty as a Brother of the Shield - he will stand in the gap (a phrase Isaac used in #1). Then he stalks off ...... and joins Leonid to pass through the Iter 'passage' to the observatory floating above Rome. He asks the youth about Newton and gets the reply that he is harsh but fair, although most of the Brotherhood fear him. Leonardo advises Leonid to do the same, and cryptically that being someone's child is not the same as being someone's son. (Vol 2 #1 will confirm that Leonid is Newton's child, but it was Nikola Tesla who brought him up as his son.) Leonardo says he's also 'supposed' to tell Leonid to look for a passage behind the Council Chamber with the sign of an open eye.And then da Vinci activates his flying armour and sets off to become the 1st man in space.Now we continue a flashback from #1 in China in 114 AD where Zhang Heng of the Brotherhood Of The Spear is conversing with a female Celestial. She tells him that Earth, like many planets, has a Celestial embryo growing at its centre. After millions of years the new-born Celestial will emerge, consuming the planet as it does so. Zhang promises that the Brotherhood will guard the egg for as long as mankind exists (which he doesn't expect to be more than say 1 million years).But that isn't what the Celestial wants. She is the 1st Celestial to carry an embryo within herself. (And this may be forbidden.) She expects the birth to kill her but she needs 'food' to see it through. She wants to eat the Earth, killing humanity, or the Moon, causing 'apocalyptic chaos' which will have dire effects for mankind. (She doesn't seem to care that the 1st option would knacker the prospects for the egg at the centre of the Earth.) She wants Heng to choose which she should do.But Zhang suggests a fitting alternative for a 'child of the stars' ...... and we see 'space-suited' Leonardo approach the Sun wherein we see the body of the female Celestial. (We get a brief flashback to the 1495 flashback in #1 where he detects something growing in the Sun.) I think he sends the glowing ball (the Human Machine) into the Sun and in return gets a baby-sized Celestial. Which says "1+2=3", and Leonardo agrees.Meanwhile back in the Immortal City Leonid locates a passage behind the Council Chamber and finds a door with the sign of an open eye above it. This is obviously the way Newton arrived at the end of last issue because it leads to a downward spiralling staircase and hence to the dungeon containing Nostradamus.We now get a flashback to 1652 following the 1 last issue where Newton kidnapped Nostradamus. He now has him chained up here with the Well Of The World containing the Elixir Of Life which Isaac explains confers effective immortality. But he explains that he also creates various diluted versions with different properties and names like the Forever Compound, the 2nd Substance and the Infinity Formula. He uses 1 of such to keep control of the Brotherhood by giving them necessary repeat doses to keep extending their lives.He will give Nostradamus the Forever Compound that will give him long life but his body and mind will slowly decay. But if the seer gives Newton the prophecy he wants he will get the real Elixir. The prophet refuses and Newton injects him with the Compound, saying he'll wait. (In both #2 and #3 we saw Nostradamus finally relent in 1956 and promise to say the prophecy. Newton let him drink the Elixir Of Life and the prophet prophecied, but Newton was then alerted to the events up above and had to rush off to the beginning of this issue.)We then see 4 earlier Nostradamus prophecies (invented by Hickman) and what they refer to in Marvel's version of history during the years he's been imprisoned. And we see him age in parallel.The 1st shows 3 Arabic gentlemen in stasis tubes who are referred to as the Last Caliphate (mentioned as Section 3: The Navigator (containing 3 subsections) of the Human Machine in #1), the 3 greatest ones of Asia. We'll learn more about these in Shield: Infinity and vol 2 #4-6. There are 3 ships which could be Christopher Columbus discovering America except that happened way earlier (even before the real Nostradamus was born). It also mentions the Hidden Knowledge passing from the Muslim world to the European world of monarchies. This can't refer to the Brotherhood Of The Shield because that had already transferred its base to the Immortal City under Rome. It is true that Europe took over the lead in science and mathematics from Islam, but this was a gradual process that was already well under way before Nostradamus' captivity.The 2nd shows Benjamin Franklin sporting a Shield badge during the American War of Independence. And someone discovering the Savage Land. This looks reasonably like Captain Cook who did explore the Antarctic around this time. But I don't believe the Marvel version has ever been credited with such a discovery.Quatrain 3 covers the siege of the Alamo. Marvel Wiki suggests that the man with the Shield badge here is William Travis. He's holding a futuristic gun which the prophecy calls the 'great immortal gun'.In the last entry it is suggested that the Eastern Brotherhood Of The Spear disintegrated and the Spear of Imhotep eventually fell into the hands of the Japanese Emperors and was lent to the Germans in WWII. This may be confused with the Spear Of Destiny (from the crucifixion of Christ) which was used by the Nazis in the Twelve: Spearhead 1-shot, but which has also made later apps. Marvel's History Of Hydra says that the Spear Brotherhood became (part of) the organization that would become Hydra. Hydra's Baron Strucker has the Spear of Imhotep in Hickman's Secret Warriors #25. And the image here certainly looks more like him than Hitler.Back in 1956 Nostradamus tells Leonid that he's been chained up here for 300 years. (Actually he repeats Newton's number of 500 years from last issue, but as there I've changed it to 300. However the repetition suggests this is not just a simple mistake.) He says he's been waiting to be freed by the boy with stars in his skin (as Leonid is depicted here and elsewhere).In 1645 he was visited by the Forever Man who told him what Newton would do to him and asked him to accept that fate. Nostradamus asked why he should do that and in reply the FM touched his forehead to give him a revelation. (I suspect this is the origin of his prophecies. This is why he told Newton last issue that he isn't a prophet, he *knows* the future. It's no use comparing the date with that of the publication of his prophecies because this Nostradamus lives in a different century to the 1 in our reality.)Leonid frees Nostradamus who now tells him his name and says he is the Catalyst and the Architect Of Revelation. (These sound like more references to the Human Machine in #1 but they aren't.)There's an appendix which repeats the Human Machine diagram from #1 but misses off Section 1: The Anchor. It also has a human baby linked to the central Section 4: The Source, which in #2 Leonardo said was Leonid.And on another page Section 1 is called the Star Child. It appears in the centre of a different diagram labelled the Foetus Of God and is linked to the baby Celestial. It says that the Star Child spins against the axis of the Human Machine.


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The theory of eternal life
This issue tells the Marvel life story of Isaac Newton.His journal (translated by the magic of comics into pictures) begins with him as a youngish adult working on something mathematical when someone calls on him to take him away in a carriage. (But this 1st section is interrupted by another panel of Howard Stark's 1960 'typewriter' continuing his ongoing document with "This is a record of consequences".) Newton is transported by ship to Rome where he is taken to the Immortal City being built below Rome to be inducted into the Brotherhood Of The Shield by an aged Galileo Galilei who says "Some men call me Master, you will call me Brother". (This is presumably a few years before his next episode in 1625).But now we switch to much older Newton doing some chemistry and talking to someone. We will learn later in the issue that it is 1956 and he's talking to Nostradamus. In this bit he mentions how Galileo knew the price that had to be paid to advance the world. And he offers to explain the secrets of the organisation - the 5-fold understanding. 1st is the Greater Science. (Remember the Council's mantra in #1:- The greater science, the quiet math, the silent truth, the hidden arts, the secret alchemy.)But we cut to Rome in 1582 where in #1 we saw young Galileo building a machine to defeat Galactus. Now we learn that the glowing Forever Man helped in the design. Galileo remarks that FM refuses to join the Brotherhood but still keeps interfering in its business. And Galileo is worried because the Brotherhood tried something similar before and it failed disastrously ...... and we skip back to Baghdad in 750 where young Newton's journal tells us of Abu Musa Jabir Ibn Hayyan Al Azdi, the latest heir of Imhotep and Brother of the Shield, who had a dream. After the fall of the Ummayad Caliphate he linked the minds of 1,000 of the Brotherhood to his, intending to become the Second Man. With such power he could create a new Earth if ever the original was destroyed. But all the 1,000 died. And a panel has 1956 Newton saying that without Shield to watch over them humanity sank into a Dark Age.But Galileo and the Forever Man are trying again with much improved machinery. FM says "That's the necessity of the Engine. There must be a Mechanism to align soul, mind and body. A Machine to focus man." (And the capitalised words take us back to the cryptic description of the Human Machine in #1.) But he adds that there will still be a price.Young Newton's journal tells us that Galactus was driven off (by creating a 2nd world for him to consume), but 2/3 of the Brotherhood Of The Shield were lost. However the remaining 1/3 were enough to usher in the Age Of Reason and the Greater Science. And it was after this that he himself was recruited to bring a fresh new way of thinking.The journal continues by describing how in 1625 Galileo sends Newton to Ashomia, city of the Deviants, in the mountains of Japan to seek new knowledge. He is captured and brought before their leader and asks to be allowed to learn from them. The leader somehow detects an interesting uniqueness in Newton's DNA and breeds him with the Deviant Morda, after which he is allowed to study their lore, especially a certain holy book (which in a 1965 panel Isaac says contained the Hidden Arts). This book was unique because it was forbidden to copy it. It contained something other than science, "something sideways, something bent, refracted, something alien and devout". And somehow he transferred the words from that book onto his own skin. And fled the city leaving it in flames behind him.And in 1956 Newton tells his companion that the Hidden Arts were the 2nd of the 5-Fold Understanding (#4 of the mantra). And the 3rd part that companion himself knows well ...... It's France in 1652 and Nostradamus is enjoying many pleasures in his home. But when Newton arrives he sends his women away and takes a last draw on his hookah. Isaac tells him he has found what he sought and now they will have all of time to discuss his prophecies. Nostradamus claims he is *not* a prophet. He *knows* the future and so is cursed to know what will happen to him next. Newton tells his men to chain him ...... and now at last in 1956 we see that it is Nostradamus, chained to a wall, who Newton has been talking to. The 3rd Understanding was the Secret Alchemy (#5 of the mantra) which he found here in the Well Of The World (in the Immortal City below Rome) where the Elixir Of Life flows.Back to young Newton's journal. He says that with immortality came the clarity of thought to discover the Quiet Math (#2 of the mantra). We see a page of strange equations with 2060 as the answer (not 42, then). And the journal says it led to the 5th Understanding ...... which 1956 Newton names the Silent Truth (#3 of the mantra). This changed the very purpose of the Brotherhood. It justified everything that he did. And the old had to make way for the new ...... and young Newton's journal shows us Isaac killing Galileo - the price that must be paid.And we return for the last time to the current Isaac Newton with Nostradamus who's been chained to the wall for over 300 years. Nostradamus promises to finally give Isaac what he needs. Newton puts on his High Council helmet and we now discover their conversation is taking place in 1956 as we get a word-for-word replay of their opening scene in #2. Newton allows his prisoner to drink the water of eternal life. And Nostradamus utters a cryptic prophecy as they hear the explosion that ended the Night Machine/Richards/Stark battle. (Next issue we will learn that Newton originally gave Nostradamus a weaker version of the Elixir Of Life which keeps him alive but not without his body and mind getting weaker. Now Nostradamus' promise gets him a drink of the real thing.)(It is strictly speaking only at this point that we are shown that Newton is a member of the Council and that the Well Of The World is below the Immortal City.)Now the scene continues as Newton races up from the dungeon to the Council Chamber. This is overlaid by words from younger Newton's journal:- He describes the Brotherhood's old rallying cry "This is not how the world ends" as a thing of defiance and hope. They would not *let* it end like that, they would save it so man could live to reach his infinite potential. But now the Quiet Math has revealed to him the Silent Truth. He now knows *when* the world will end (2060). And the rallying cry now means it doesn't end yet.He reaches the Council Chamber in time for the final scene of #2 as Leonardo da Vinci and Leonid rise up through the floor. And the journal words "Some men call me Brother, you will call me Master" suggest that the Brotherhood has been changed to a dictatorship and Newton is the top dog.This issue ends with an appendix from the secret Vatican archives. It is correspondence between Galileo and Pope Gregory XIII after the attack by Galactus in 1582. (But all mentions of the word Galactus have been redacted.)Galileo explains that the Brotherhood saved Earth from Galactus by creating a 2nd Earth (remember Abu Musa's plan) which Galactus ate instead. The Pope is grateful but can't allow the general populace to have the ideas of godlike beings from space, and man having the ability to create worlds. Galileo reminds him of the well-known problem of the Julian Calendar being out of step with the seasons (due to not allowing for leap years). He proposes changing to a new Gregorian Calendar which will require an initial skipping of 10 days. And they agree to place those 10 days around the invasion of Galactus so that officially it never happened.


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Newton's theory of eternal life
This issue begins with  a restatement and continuation of a panel early in last issue. A man is dictating into a steampunk typewriter with an enormous selection of 'letters'. But the document he's producing only uses the conventional Western alphabet and is headed S.H.I.E.L.D.. In v2#2 we'll discover he is Howard Stark in 1960 and he's leaving a record of what's been happening in this title. Here he talks of the idea of a democratic force for peace.Back at the end of last issue in 1956 we find the head of the Council of the Shield consulting his captive Nostradamus in the Immortal City under Rome. He allows the prophet a drink of a liquid that grants him extended life. In return he gets a prophecy:-The sounds of war echo in the sky.Soon the son of eternity returns.Soon the child of the stars is born.Fate or free will, the mechanism reveals.Change is not coming, it is here now.And they hear an explosion.5 minutes ago a man calling himself Leonardo da Vinci appears in winged armour in the Immortal City to confront the youth Leonid, who he calls the Eternal Dynamo, the Source of the Machine. He touches Leonid's forehead to cause him to remember further back in his childhood, before the time with his 'father' in New York. The boy remembers a gathering of monsters in a temple poring over a book with no words. A glowing golden man took him away from a 'monstrous' woman as a baby, and after a time growing up in a machine he was given to the man he calls his father, who we saw last issue as the Night Machine and is here seen with a glowing pale woman.After the visions Leonardo says he flew here and asks Leonid how *he* got to this observatory. The youth says he came through a door (the door Iter that Night Machine opened for him last issue) but now he suspects it wasn't just a door. Leonardo confirms it's a space-time bridge. Meanwhile he's located a specific tile in the floor and pressed it, allowing some machinery to rise up. Leonid asks how he knows these details about this place. Da Vinci says he built it.The view pans back so we see that the observatory is a giant craft hovering over Rome. Da Vinci uses the machine he just extruded to sound a 'bell' that will summon the High Council. They hear the explosion I mentioned, which Leonardo says was foretold and comments that Leonid's father is fighting the Shield. (So the observatory is over the current Rome, and so the space-time bridge is only through space from the Immortal City under Rome to the observatory above Rome.)Indeed we now go back 5 minutes again to see the continuation of the battle between Night Machine and Agents Richards and Stark. We learn their 1st names which makes them Nathaniel Richards, father of Mr Fantastic, and Howard Stark, father of Iron Man. And Night Machine claims they killed him once before. He fires a blast which wrecks part of the building, and says he's going to destroy the whole Immortal City.. Howard comments that he must have improved the Mechanism (his body-suit) but Nathaniel thinks the power is coming from the man himself.Stark magics up 1 of his self-assembling devices and sets it off. Part of NM's suit disintegrates to reveal a power source in his stomach, which Stark thinks is building to critical mass. NM says they're all going to die now, so he'll achieve his objective. Richards dives forward saying he's going to "displace the core". Stark dives to stop him. The explosion happens and we see a blinding light and multiple versions of Nathaniel Richards. NM's white pigeon says "Oh, no" and all 4 disappear.Leonardo da Vinci leads Leonid down the winding staircase that is the space-time bridge down to the Immortal City. He tells the boy that his father and the others have been transported to another time and won't return for 3 years. When they come back they will have been changed by their experiences. He knows these things because he was told them by the Forever Man, who also told him to be here now. That man is the golden being from Leonid's past, and he is the Engine of the Machine (as the youth is the Source). The machine in question is the Human Machine (cryptically described in the appendix to last issue) which will reshape the world. Leonid can't take it all in.When they exit through the door marked Iter they find that the explosion at the end of the battle has destroyed the direct way to the Council Chamber. Leonardo leads them another way through 'The World', a globe of the Earth. He manipulates some controls and the globe opens up in segments, and he takes Leonid to a 'lift' in the middle. Meanwhile he explains that *he* used to lead this group, and then they believed Man had an infinite future. But the current Council believe Man has a definite and finite fate. Now he has come to lead them back to the better way. The disc they stand on rises through a section of the ceiling that segments open and delivers them to the centre of the Council Chamber and the gathered Council.


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The master's hand
The opening segment of the issue is in Rome in 1960 with an ongoing voiceover by Leonid. A crack appears in a fountain in the Eternal City, a small sign of the events in the Immortal City deep beneath. The followers of Isaac Newton and Leonardo da Vinci are at war with each other. And both sides have armour and weapons both ancient and futuristic.Newton believes that man has a fixed fate (in 2060) and the duty of the Brotherhood Of The Shield is to ensure that it survives that long but doesn't avoid its destiny. Leonardo believes that mankind's future is their own to make, and the Brotherhood must help them to make it long and glorious. Leonid believes there must be a 3rd way. And he now uses the power that has been growing within him since birth to effect that way.But we now leave that spectacular scene to a more peaceful 1 amid the jungle-overgrown ruins of a world 600,000 years in the future. However we focus in on the only bit of non-peace as Howard Stark and Nathaniel Richards try to save the life of Nikola Tesla/Night Machine, urged on by his companion - sometimes a bird, now a woman.Richards removes the overactive power source that Tesla has embedded in his abdomen. Tesla tells them the have less than a minute to put it back. Stark creates 1 of his self-assembling tools to fix the machine. The woman warns them not to kill Nikola *again*. And she says the problem is all their fault. Nathaniel says "I know."Now we skip back to 1955 where Richards and Stark confront Tesla (noticeably without a power source in his torso) and his pigeon. Night Machine tells the bird that she knows what to do next. Then he uses the electrical powers of his suit aggressively and the 2 agents respond with the advanced guns of the Brotherhood. Tesla winds up with his middle blown to shreds, looking extremely dead.The pair search Tesla's place, chock full of machinery, Stark using a retro-futuristic scanner. But they can't find what they're looking for, which is a child. And when they turn around Tesla's body has gone.Back in the future Stark mends the core just in time and Richards reconnects it within Night Machine's body. Tesla has fallen unconscious but is now shocked back to life. However he automatically starts to attack the 2 agents. The woman steps between them to avert further conflict and initiates a grudging truce. She says they have to work together to get them all back to the present.Howard accuses Nikola of bringing them all here (#2). But Nathaniel says he thinks it's *his* fault. The explosion back then somehow gave him the ability to travel through time. (In my comments last issue I explained that NR had little side-trip into Fantastic Four #581 where he was told about his new abilities.) So they all join forces to get home.While they're working Richards asks Tesla to explain how he survived their 1st encounter. Nikola refuses, but we see a panel of the Forever Man inserting the power source. (More on that in #infinity.)Stark has cobbled together a lash-up that will enable Tesla to boost Richards' nascent time-travelling ability. They do the business and all 4 disappear, taking a large chunk of the hi-tech pyramid they were in with them. (We'll see them show up in 1960 in the 1st issue of the 2nd series.)But we ourselves can go back to 1960 where we see that Leonid has created a forcefield separating the 2 sides. Nostradamus and the Star Child make their only apps this issue watching this. Da Vinci asks the youth to drop the barrier because they have to stop Newton *creating* the extinction future he predicts. Newton says that end is inevitable (his Quiet Math predicts it). And he also wants the shield dropped.When Leonid refuses Newton's people detect the frequency of the forcefield and create bombs that can tunnel through it to explode among da Vinci's forces. So reluctantly Leonid dissolves the barrier to avoid a 1-sided slaughter. And he sees the idea(l) that created this place being torn apart.His despair is interrupted by the gradual manifestation of the glowing Forever Man. FM commends Leonid for seeing that both sides are blinkered by their preconceptions. He also says this war was an inevitable clash of ideas. But together he and Leonid can break through the walls of misunderstanding. And he reveals his identity to be Michelangelo.


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Fire
After last issue's explanation of the Forever Man's manipulation of events we return to pick up the story from the end of v1#6 and the last bit of last issue.Except we start with 1 of the historical flashbacks, this time to Florence 1503. Leonardo da Vinci has built a robot replica of himself which he calls a decoy. He and the robot are linked to fantastic machinery, and all they need is lightning to perform the transference. The decoy will gain all Leonardo's knowledge and it will remain behind to live out his life after the original has left. But there's no thunderstorm due now, so the master returns to working on his winged spacesuit which will take him forward through time.At last we get to the 'present' of 1960 in the Immortal City below Rome. Da Vinci has been here since v1#1 to oppose the immortal Isaac Newton, the current leader of the Brotherhood Of The Shield. That opposition has flared into open civil war which the Forever Man and young Leonid have tried to stop. And at the very end of last issue Howard Stark and Nathaniel Richards returned from the far future with Nikola Tesla/Night Machine and his white pigeon/woman companion.Now Leonid greets his adoptive father Tesla while Richards and Stark stare around at the ruined war zone. Leonardo welcomes them but armoured Newton attacks him with a hi-tech spear. However Stark does the reverse of his usual trick and with a gesture breaks the spear into it's component parts, claiming he didn't make it for war or murder. (So what *did* he make a spear for?)Howard wants to know what's going on, and Newton tells him that da Vinci has fomented a rebellion against the Brotherhood's aims, but his loyal followers are resisting. But then Michelangelo questions that loyalty which is based on Newton bribing them with regular doses of the Elixir Of Life which has staved off death for centuries. But Isaac has kept secret the fact that the Well of the Elixir is nearly dry. (We see an image of the dungeon where Nostradamus was held being nearly full of the Elixir, and a continuous supply running in. But now there is only what exists in the Well in the centre and the inflow is reduced to a trickle.)Newton protests that it was a necessary lie to keep focus on the fated end of the Earth (in 2060). But Howard and Nathaniel say that they have been to the future and the Earth still stands long after that date. A member of the Council of the Brotherhood says that the Council must be convened. But who will lead it since Newton can't be allowed to do that job. Leonardo proposes that Leonid should judge the merits of the ideas presented by himself and Newton, because they divide his 2 fathers. (Tesla, an opponent of Newton, may be Leonid's adoptive father but Newton is his biological sire.)The meeting is held, but 1 of Newton's followers holds a sack ready for an unwelcome conclusion. Newton is challenged by a guard but declares that he is unarmed. He approaches a device in the centre of the Council Chamber with 2 protruding globes. He grasps 1 and da Vinci holds the other. Leonid sits on a throne with Night Machine and the Forever Man to his left and Richards and Stark to his right. Tesla's pigeon sits on Leonid's shoulder.Tesla stands before 1 set of controls and the lightning from his suit charges what Nathaniel Richards calls the Spirit. Then Howard Stark does his machinery-manipulation stuff to another control panel and engages the Truth. The contestants are forced to manifest their thoughts. Leonardo's emerge as a white cloud with black writing, and Isaac's as an inky cloud with white script. Da Vinci expresses his doubts while Newton his certainty. Newton says he's killed for his cause many times (as seen in issue Infinity), including the previous leader Galileo. Da Vinci says he has faith in no-one (not even himself?) and he has sacrificed everything(?).When it is all over Leonardo asks Leonid to judge what he has heard. Newton says that their motivations and actions are irrelevant. It only matters that his calculations prove he is *right* and his predictions are unavoidable. Leonid says he doesn't believe in fate, and he chooses da Vinci's cause of free will. And Tesla calls for Newton's execution.Isaac's ally acts and tosses Newton a helmet from the sack. Newton throws aside his robe to reveal that he's wearing Leonardo's winged time suit. And he vanishes into the timestream. Forever Man says that's what Newton 'always' does. Leonardo suggests Isaac has gone to his predicted future, and Michelangelo says they must follow him.Later we see Stark building the large voice-operated typewriter that we saw him dictating to in the 1st volume. He's going to leave a message in case they don't return. He begins "My name is Howard Stark and this is a record of why we war."Meanwhile Nostradamus and the Celestial Star Child are searching Newton's office. Nostradamus is desperate for more of the Elixir Of Life (or maybe it's formula). The Star Child is just hungry for information. His thoughts are mathematical, and he comes across Newton's revolutionary Quiet Math and his proof that the world would end in 2060. Either the Math or the proof drive the Celestial mad, and the strange symbol which equates to 2060 appears on his metal brow,And he grows huge and bursts out of the building.