Chapter Summaries

After learning about their original futures, Tony Stark and the others recognized how He-El had changed their lives and made Earth safer. As Hela’s escape drew near, they turned to Thor and Loki to decide how to protect Asgard.

• Tony Stark reflected that He-El had prevented many tragedies in his life and could stop Thanos from wiping out half the universe.
• Steve Rogers, Clint Barton, Natasha Romanoff, and Bruce Banner absorbed the memories of their original futures and felt the pressure of Thanos’s victory.
• Thor and Loki learned that Asgard had been destroyed by Surtur and that Thanos had killed Loki after Loki tried to protect Thor.
• Bruce Banner, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, and Clint Barton agreed that He-El had created a far better future for Earth.
• Natasha Romanoff urged everyone to discover BOSS's purpose, and Tony Stark asked Thor and Loki what they would do about Hela.
• Tony Stark noted that Hela’s escape was near and considered whether they would need to use Surtur and the Eternal Flame to destroy Asgard.

Thor and Loki learned that Hela could threaten Asgard and agreed to seek a way to protect its people. Thor proposed using the Power Stone to sever Hela's connection to Asgard, and the group prepared to race Thanos to Xandar to obtain it.

• Thor said he would keep Surtur's head from the Eternal Flame, but Loki warned that Hela's bond with Asgard made the threat more complicated.
• Tony Stark proposed evacuating Asgard's civilians, and Steve Rogers and the others agreed.
• Thor asked the group to help him obtain the Power Stone so he could sever Hela's connection to Asgard, despite Stephen Strange warning that it could kill him.
• Loki revealed that Xandar's artificial sun had been ignited and proposed that he impersonate Odin to stall Hela while the others went after the Power Stone.
• Thor set aside his anger at Loki and urged everyone to gather their equipment and depart for Xandar before Thanos found it.

A mysterious woman appeared in the garden outside the Earth United Government Presidential Office and forced her way inside, overpowering its guards without killing them. She was confronted again by the two Crimson Giant soldiers after they recovered from her attacks.

• A black tornado formed in the peony garden, and a darkly beautiful woman appeared as it dispersed.
• The woman approached the Presidential Office, and the chief presidential secretary ordered the guards to stop her.
• Two Crimson Giant soldiers charged her, but she pierced their lower abdomens with black spikes and sent them crashing into the walls.
• The guards opened fire, but the woman immobilized them and deflected their bullets, leaving them piled together and injured.
• The two Crimson Giant soldiers got back up and charged again, and the woman praised them before raising her hair into a grotesque crown.

Hela Odinson fought He-El’s Red Hulk soldiers to test their strength, then entered the presidential office to face He-El. He-El recognized her and asked whether she had come looking for him.

• Two Red Hulk soldiers attacked Hela Odinson, but she blocked their blows with her bare hands.
• The soldiers coordinated an assault, and one used Vibranium and new-metal Tiger Claws to pierce Hela Odinson’s palm.
• Hela Odinson praised the guards’ Battle Power, seized the Tiger Claws soldier, and threw him through the office door.
• Hela Odinson punched the other soldier through a wall and into the garden.
• He-El sent the injured soldier outside and asked Hela Odinson if she was looking for him.

Hela explained her past conflict with Odin and praised He-El’s supposed plan to unite the Nine Realms under Earth’s leadership. She offered him an alliance, Asgard’s forces, and herself as queen so they could conquer beyond the Nine Realms.

• Hela recalled how Odin erased her from Asgard’s history after she defied him, slaughtered the Valkyrie Corps, and was stripped of her power and sealed away.
• He-El demanded an explanation for Hela injuring his guards and entering the Earth United Government’s presidential office, threatening to kill her if she gave none.
• Hela claimed she had seen through He-El’s plan to use a trade alliance centered on Earth to bring the Nine Realms under his control.
• He-El regarded Hela’s praise and ambitions with skepticism, while she condemned Odin’s limited rule and admired He-El’s greater ambition.
• Hela offered to unite with He-El, bringing Asgard as her dowry and proposing that they conquer the Nine Realms and expand beyond them.

Hela offered Asgard as a dowry and proposed marrying He-El so they could rule the Nine Realms together, but He-El said he did not need her help. He-El offered her another opportunity, then showed her a projection of Tony Stark and the others discussing how to deal with her.

• Hela proposed marrying He-El and joining forces to conquer the Nine Realms and worlds beyond them.
• He-El told Hela he could rule the Nine Realms without her and that he had no intention of spending centuries building an empire there.
• Hela refused to become He-El's subordinate and insisted that sharing his throne was her bottom line.
• He-El told Hela she could earn an opportunity to stand beside him, then projected an image of Tony Stark and others discussing how to deal with her.

At the Guardians of the Galaxy’s base on Knowhere, the team argued after Gamora boarded Thanos’s warship to save the station. Star-Lord, Drax, and Rocket blamed themselves and each other, while Mantis urged them to work together to bring Gamora back.

• Star-Lord angrily confronted his teammates for letting Thanos take Gamora.
• Drax slammed the table and blamed himself for being away when Thanos arrived.
• Rocket snapped back that Drax’s damage to the ship had left him trapped in its thruster.
• Groot voiced his worry about Gamora.
• Mantis reminded the team that Gamora had boarded Thanos’s warship because she had no other choice and urged them to bring her back.

After Thanos took Gamora, the Guardians of the Galaxy learned she had left a farewell message and no trail to follow. They decided to answer a Nova Corps distress signal, hoping its technology could help them find her.

• Mantis told Star-Lord Peter Quill that Gamora had said goodbye and urged him to forget her, while Destroyer Drax mourned that she had not left him Thanos’s location.
• Rocket Raccoon revealed that Gamora had found and discarded the tracker he had planted on her, though he had trackers on all the Guardians.
• Rocket Raccoon received a large-scale distress signal from the Nova Corps and found that its coordinates had shifted by one hundred seventy thousand light-years.
• Star-Lord Peter Quill agreed to head for the Nova Corps after Rocket Raccoon suggested they might help locate Gamora and Thanos.

After Xandar’s sun was destroyed, Queen Adora and the Nova Corps tried to stabilize the planet with a magnetic field simulator called the New Sun. The New Sun exploded, devastating Xandar, and a gigantic starship appeared with its cannons aimed at the planet.

• The Nova Corps created the New Sun to restore Xandar’s magnetic balance after Odin moved the planet away from its original sun.
• The New Sun exploded during activation, sending a massive fireball and shockwave toward Xandar.
• A planetary defense commander activated Xandar’s defenses, but the system failed, so Nova Corps members linked their shields to protect key facilities.
• The blast crushed buildings, damaged underground bases, and caused many civilian deaths as Xandar dropped in space.
• Queen Adora and the Nova Corps suspected sabotage or an internal traitor, but could not find the cause of the explosion or the defense failure.
• A gigantic starship appeared after the fireball faded and aimed its cannons at Xandar.

Thanos began his assault on Xandar to seize the Power Stone, having obtained the Soul Stone by sacrificing Gamora. With Xandar’s defenses disabled, he ordered Ebony Maw to attack.

• Thanos reviewed his plans for collecting the Infinity Stones and judged that Odin’s apparent absence made Asgard vulnerable.
• Thanos recalled how he sacrificed Gamora on Vormir to obtain the Soul Stone.
• Thanos ordered Ebony Maw to activate Nova Corps informants, destroy the New Sun, and disable Xandar’s defenses.
• Ebony Maw reported that Xandar’s defenses were down and the Nova Corps had contained the explosion.
• Thanos ordered his forces to attack Xandar and seize the Power Stone.

Thanos’s forces launched a planned assault that devastated Xandar, killing civilians and overwhelming the Nova Corps. Thanos watched from his floating throne as Xandar’s people died and their souls appeared to enter the Soul Stone.

• A warship fired a Star Annihilator Cannon shell at Xandar, and Nova Corps warriors shielded the planet’s core as the blast shattered their defenses and devastated the surrounding land.
• The explosion destroyed Xandar’s atmospheric circulation, triggered massive fires and tsunamis, and killed civilians across the planet.
• Thanos’s fleets descended on Xandar and fired on civilians while Nova Corps warriors fought back, but the exhausted defenders were killed in large numbers.
• Thanos’s cruisers sealed off Xandar’s skies and shot down escaping spacecraft, trapping everyone on the planet.
• Thanos watched from his floating throne as Xandar’s dying people’s souls seemed to be absorbed into the Soul Stone.

Thanos led the Black Order in destroying Xandar and used the Soul Stone to absorb the planet’s dead. The Guardians of the Galaxy arrived to find the planet devastated and Thanos’s mothership in orbit, while a rainbow streak raced toward Xandar from Asgard.

• Thanos and the Black Order massacred Xandar’s defenders and destroyed the planet’s central defenses.
• Thanos used the Soul Stone to gather the souls of Xandar’s dead, then entered the central building.
• A dying Xandarian commander confronted Thanos before his soul was absorbed by the Soul Stone.
• The Guardians of the Galaxy arrived near Xandar and saw its destruction and Thanos’s mothership.
• Mantis identified the ship as the one that had taken Gamora, and Star-Lord Peter Quill led the Guardians toward Xandar as a rainbow streak approached from Asgard.

Thor, the Avengers, and their allies arrived on devastated Xandar as Thanos's forces attacked and used Stephen Strange's portal to reach the planet's central building. They confronted the Black Order and Thanos's army, while Drax joined the battle demanding that Thanos come out.

• The group arrived on Xandar and found its surface devastated by lava, radiation, and corpses.
• Tony Stark detected Thanos's fleet and army, and Thor and the Hulk charged toward the approaching spacecraft.
• The others chose to bypass the scout fleet and used Stephen Strange's portal to reach Xandar's central building.
• Ebony Maw recognized the Avengers, ordered the army to attack, and hurried inside to find Thanos.
• Wanda Maximoff struck the spacecraft crews with Chaos Magic, Tony Stark disabled unmanned ships, and the army fired on the group as Loki turned invisible and left.
• Drax the Destroyer leaped from a Guardians of the Galaxy spacecraft and roared for Thanos to come out.

The Guardians of the Galaxy joined the Avengers’ battle against Thanos’s army on Xandar, and the two teams coordinated an attack on the building where Thanos was believed to be. The Guardians’ ship cannon destroyed the building, revealing a burly figure with purple light flashing from his right hand.

• The Guardians crashed their ship into Thanos’s forces, and Drax charged into battle while the others attacked from the wreckage.
• The Avengers fought through the army as Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff engaged the Black Order, while Drax battled Black Dwarf.
• Stephen Strange suspected Thanos was inside Xandar’s main building, and Tony Stark asked Star-Lord Peter Quill to fire the Guardians’ main cannon at it.
• Peter agreed, and Rocket Raccoon aimed the ship’s cannon at the building.
• The cannon blast scattered the Black Order and destroyed the building, revealing a tall figure amid the flames with purple light shining from his right hand.

Thanos obtained the Power Stone on Xandar, and Stephen Strange and the Avengers arrived too late to stop him. As the Guardians of the Galaxy attacked, Thanos demonstrated his newfound strength and told Peter Quill that Gamora had completed her mission.

• Thanos absorbed the Power Stone into his Infinity Gauntlet, and Stephen Strange saw that he also possessed the Soul Stone.
• Tony Stark, Stephen Strange, Steve Rogers, Clint Barton, and Natasha Romanoff prepared to fight Thanos, believing this was their best chance to defeat him.
• Drax the Destroyer charged Thanos, but Thanos pulled him in with the Power Stone and punched him high into the sky.
• Ebony Maw stopped the Black Order from intervening while Thanos tested the Power Stone against the Guardians.
• Peter Quill fired his blasters at Thanos and demanded to know where Gamora was, and Thanos said she had completed her mission.

Star-Lord Peter Quill attacked Thanos in rage after believing Gamora was dead, but Thanos broke free and knocked him away. The Avengers then coordinated an assault on Thanos, ending with Tony Stark firing a powerful energy blast at him.

• Star-Lord Peter Quill demanded to know where Gamora was and wounded Thanos's cheek with a blaster beam.
• Stephen Strange trapped Thanos with magic while the Avengers moved in to remove the Infinity Gauntlet.
• Star-Lord Peter Quill ignored Tony Stark's order and fired both blasters at Thanos, who broke his restraints and blasted Quill away.
• Mantis ran to help Quill while Rocket Raccoon sent Groot to get a medkit.
• Thanos tore up a massive section of ground and struck it toward the Avengers; Pietro Maximoff rescued Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff, and Wanda Maximoff lifted the falling rubble.
• Clint Barton shattered the airborne earth with explosive arrows, and Tony Stark fired an azure particle-flow blast at Thanos.

He-El watched the battle against Thanos through Tony Stark's vision and considered seizing the Infinity Stones gathered on Xandar. Wary of Odin and Ancient One's unknown preparations, he chose to remain on Earth, where Vivian then detected a photon energy mass arriving in Earth's outer space.

• He-El saw that five Infinity Stones were gathered on Xandar and was tempted to go there and take them.
• He-El recalled that Odin had sworn upon Gungnir and suspected that Odin and Ancient One were preparing a trap for him.
• He-El decided to stay on Earth, trusting that the Avengers or Thanos would eventually come to him.
• Vivian reported that a photon energy mass had passed through a Solar System node and appeared in Earth's outer space.

He-El detected Captain Marvel Carol Danvers approaching Earth and secretly ordered Vivian to analyze her photon energy. Carol followed Nick Fury’s pager signal to a damaged safe house in the Himalayas, where finding the pager made her fear something had happened to him.

• He-El asked Vivian to locate Captain Marvel Carol Danvers and analyze her photon energy without being noticed.
• Carol flew to the Himalayas and followed the pager signal into a snow-covered canyon.
• Carol melted the snow covering a Vibranium safe house and noticed a powerful strike mark outside its door.
• Carol entered the unlocked, ransacked safe house and found the pager she had given Nick Fury.
• Carol picked up the pager, saw her emblem on its screen, and suddenly changed expression.

The Avengers fought Thanos on Xandar, but the Power Stone and his immense durability blunted their attacks. As the battle continued, Tony Stark turned to Mantis after recalling the future he had seen.

• Thanos overpowered Tony Stark’s cannon beam, but Stephen Strange redirected the blast through a portal and struck Thanos with it.
• Stephen Strange revealed his many manifestations and led a magical assault, while Tony Stark and the other Avengers charged Thanos.
• Stephen Strange broke Thanos’s miniature black hole into cherry blossom petals, and Wanda Maximoff used Chaos Magic to pin Thanos down with gravity before he dispelled it.
• Thanos threw Tony Stark and Rocket Raccoon aside, knocked Natasha Romanoff and Steve Rogers away, and blasted Pietro Maximoff back with the Power Stone.
• After the Avengers’ attacks failed, Tony Stark remembered the future he had seen and looked toward Mantis.

Tony Stark asked Mantis to control Thanos so the Avengers could remove his Infinity Gauntlet. Star-Lord, Peter Quill agreed to join the fight, and Stephen Strange began binding Thanos with golden whips.

• Tony Stark hurried to Mantis and asked her to mind-control Thanos while the team removed his Infinity Gauntlet.
• Star-Lord, Peter Quill recovered from his grief over Gamora, rejected Mantis’s first-aid kit, and agreed to fight alongside Tony Stark.
• Tony Stark warned Star-Lord, Peter Quill not to attack Thanos while Mantis controlled him, but Star-Lord, Peter Quill insisted he would keep his composure.
• Tony Stark contacted Stephen Strange, who coordinated with the other Stephen Stranges and sent golden whips to bind Thanos.