Chapter Summaries

Red Skull told the other leaders that General Zod was coming to Earth to help them deal with Superman. On Qatar Star, Jude argued with Ivy about his fight with Peter Parker, considered luring Planet Devourer to Earth, and then faced Tyrant, one of Devourer Star’s Heralds.

• Red Skull revealed that Hydra had contacted General Zod, who was expected to reach Earth within half a month, and the leaders agreed they had no better option than to accept his arrival.
• Jude told Ivy that he had beaten Peter Parker and sent him back to Earth, while Ivy warned him that Peter was one of the few people able to put up with him.
• Jude refused to apologize to Peter and planned to make him ask for help by letting Earth face an unsolvable threat, possibly Planet Devourer.
• Jude arrived on an asteroid to fight Tyrant, one of Planet Devourer’s Heralds, and Tyrant charged at him as soon as the protective barrier vanished.

Jude fought Tyrant and discovered that his Cosmic Power displaced energy-based attacks while leaving him vulnerable to physical blows. After activating Overlimit Mode, Jude killed Tyrant in three punches, leaving his corpse on the nameless planet.

• Jude overwhelmed Tyrant with heavy blows and taunted him into drawing on Planet Devourer's Cosmic Power.
• Jude used Cowboy 2's analysis to identify that Cosmic Power displaced his energy attacks to Devourer Star.
• Tyrant challenged Jude to use his purple-flame state and threatened to lead Planet Devourer to Earth, so Jude activated Overlimit Mode.
• Tyrant attacked Jude with his axe, but Jude's armor absorbed the blows while he drank from his flask.
• Jude deduced that Cosmic Power could displace energy attacks but could not stop physical ones, then killed Tyrant with a final punch.

After Tyrant survived Jude's defeat and threatened Earth, Silver Surfer urged Jude to help destroy Planet Devourer, but Jude refused. The tournament continued to its final eight, where Jude faced Captain Marvel and discovered she had gained a mysterious new power.

• Tyrant returned to life through Planet Devourer's Cosmic Power and said he would give his master Earth's coordinates.
• Silver Surfer asked Jude to help kill Planet Devourer, but Jude said he did not care if Earth was destroyed and left with Ivy.
• The tournament narrowed to eight contestants, and Jude's next opponent was Captain Marvel.
• Captain Marvel activated Binary Form, while Jude entered Overlimit Mode and taunted her about Blue Marvel's death.
• Carol activated the Insect King's power, and Jude noticed that something about her had changed.

Jude defeated Captain Marvel after she fought under the influence of the Insect King’s power, using three increasingly powerful punches that left her badly injured. The battle destroyed the asteroid, and Carol surrendered and was teleported away.

• Captain Marvel attacked the arena barrier, and the battle began as she and Jude moved too quickly for spectators or the equipment to track.
• Jude interrupted Carol’s charged attack, struck her, and said he had used only 50% of his energy.
• Jude hit Carol with punches at 60% and 80% energy, sending her hundreds of kilometers away and leaving her unable to fight back.
• Jude used 100% energy for a third punch that drove Carol into the asteroid and triggered its collapse.
• Carol crawled from a fissure, glared at Jude, surrendered, and was teleported away.

Jude returned to Qatar Star after the tournament matches and confronted Veronica about her illicit bet on his fight with Gormann. Meanwhile, Ravenous turned Captain Marvel into a puppet and ambushed Tyrant, leaving him captured so Ravenous could use his Cosmic Power to open a passage for Annihilus.

• Jude learned that Gormann, Gladiator, and Silver Surfer had won their matches, setting the tournament’s final four while leaving Jude and Gormann as the favorites.
• Star-Lord and Rocket Raccoon pressed Jude about his chances, and Jude kicked them away before returning to his quarters.
• Veronica admitted she had used stolen energy and a stolen identity to place a hundred-million-coin bet, and Jude had Ivy throw her into the sky.
• Ravenous revealed that he had tracked Tyrant’s route and planned to capture him, while Captain Marvel refused to help and attacked Ravenous.
• Ravenous triggered the Insect King’s control over Captain Marvel, turning her into a puppet who joined him in ambushing Tyrant.
• Captain Marvel overpowered Tyrant with a barrage of punches, and Ravenous retrieved the battered captive to extract his Cosmic Power and open a passage for Annihilus.

Gamora reported to Thanos that Mongul had failed to conquer Earth and that an Earthling held the Space Stone. Thanos sent Corvus Glaive to lead a fleet toward Qatar Star, where the Earthling was staying, and the fleet began its journey with help from nations along the route.

• Gamora secretly sent Thanos information about the Infinity Stones, Mongul, and an Earthling carrying the Space Stone on Qatar Star.
• Ebony Maw told Thanos that Mongul's operation against Earth had failed and that the Earthling had built a planet ship.
• Thanos decided to send a fleet to Qatar Star and ordered Corvus Glaive to assemble the Zehoberians.
• Ebony Maw revealed that he had arranged supplies and passage from nations along the route by promising they could join Thanos's command.
• Corvus Glaive mobilized the Zehoberian fleet, which resupplied in the Maple Leaf Empire before jumping onward.

Ravenous used Tyrant’s Cosmic Power to open a passage between the Prime Universe and the Negative Zone, allowing Annihilus to lead the Annihilation Wave into the Prime Universe. After devouring Tyrant, Annihilus ordered his army to attack and set his sights on Qatar Star for more Cosmic Power.

• Ravenous repeatedly had the puppet Captain Marvel beat Tyrant to extract his Cosmic Power and fill the Cosmic Control Rod.
• Ravenous activated the rod, and Annihilus used the resulting passage to bring the Annihilation Wave into the Prime Universe.
• Annihilus praised Ravenous as countless insectoid warships and soldiers poured through the passage.
• Ravenous presented Tyrant as an appetizer, and Annihilus bit through his skull, ripped him apart, and swallowed him.
• Ravenous told Annihilus that a being like Tyrant was on nearby Qatar Star, and Annihilus ordered the army to attack.

Jude celebrated his winnings at Mediocre People's Filthy Bar while the Fan Sector's complacent commanders slept through Annihilus's coordinated invasion. The invasion overwhelmed the planets' defenses, and their officers tried to hide the attack or flee rather than warn Qatar Star.

• Jude covered the bar's tabs and celebrated with alien beauties while Rocket Raccoon explained that some wanted to use Jude's genes for their civilizations.
• Annihilus led an insectoid army in a simultaneous invasion of inhabited planets across the Fan Sector.
• The soldiers on duty at Qatar Star's command center slept through a flood of distress calls.
• Insectoid warships bombarded the planets, destroying ships, defenses, and communications as soldiers and commanders scrambled to respond.
• Several commanders refused to report the invasion to Qatar Star and ordered their subordinates to seek help from neighboring planets.
• After learning that nearby planets were also under attack, commanders tried to flee, but the insectoid army surrounded their escape ships.

Annihilus led the Annihilation Wave to Qatar Star and ordered its inhabitants exterminated. The fleet’s opening bombardment devastated the planet, while Jude survived the attack and realized Thanos had arrived.

• Ravenous told Annihilus that Qatar Star held the sector’s rulers and warned that killing them would remove obstacles to conquest.
• Annihilus ordered the insectoid army to kill every life-form on Qatar Star and let no one escape.
• A drunken soldier spotted the invading warships on the Planetary Sky Eye and sounded the planetary alarm.
• Collector saw the fleet surrounding Qatar Star, but Annihilus’s ships opened fire before the planet’s defenses could respond.
• Jude survived the bombardment inside Cowboy 2, found the red-haired beauty and the others dead, and vowed to beat Thanos for ruining his fun.

Jude confronted Gamora after the Guardians were injured in an attack on Qatar Star, suspecting she had led Thanos to them. When a second bombardment struck, Gamora insisted the invading fleet was not Thanos’s and explained that his forces were still a day away.

• Veronica told Jude that Quill and she had been badly injured, while Ivy, Groot, Rocket, and Gamora were mostly unharmed.
• Jude arrived and stopped Gamora from leaving, accusing her of leaking Star One’s location and secrets to outsiders.
• Jude cut Gamora’s blades, seized her, and demanded to know whether she had brought Thanos’s fleet to Qatar Star.
• Cowboy 2 destroyed an insectoid warship’s energy chamber and stopped a bombardment beam from hitting the planet.
• Gamora said she had sent Thanos information about the Infinity Stones, but his forces would not arrive for another day and the invading fleet was not his.
• Jude recalled Thanos’s fixation on the Goddess of Death and concluded that the attackers were not part of Thanos’s forces.

Jude sent Ivy and the others back to Star One, where Veronica activated its defenses and turned the tide against the insectoid assault. After Star One's Planet Destroyer Cannon destroyed three Leviathan beasts, Kaven Fisher ordered the insectoids to land and seize the planetary warship.

• Jude opened a portal and sent Ivy and the others to Star One while he stayed behind to fight the attackers.
• Veronica activated Star One's combat systems and planetary defenses, destroying more than a thousand insectoid warships.
• Kaven Fisher summoned three Leviathan beasts, which fired powerful energy beams at Star One and the forces around it.
• Veronica fired Star One's Planet Destroyer Cannon, countering the beams and destroying all three Leviathan beasts.
• Kaven Fisher ordered the insectoid forces to begin a landing operation and seize Star One.

Star One’s shield failed under the insectoid assault, and Kaven Fisher’s troops breached its hull and fought the Inhumans inside. Ivy amplified her plant-control power across the planet, turning the first passageway into a deadly mass of vines as the battle continued.

• Rocket Raccoon and Groot headed out to join the battle, while Ivy kicked Star-Lord for complaining and discouraging the others.
• Veronica warned that Star One’s shield was about to fail, then announced that the insectoid army was preparing to land.
• Kaven Fisher ordered his forces to capture Star One after the shield vanished, and insectoid soldiers landed and detonated themselves to breach its steel armor.
• The Inhumans fought the invading soldiers in the first passageway, suffering heavy losses against the insects’ suicidal attacks.
• Ivy used specialized equipment to amplify her power, causing seeds on the insectoids to grow into toxic, spiked vines that overwhelmed the passageway.

The Insect race devastated Qatar Star and prepared a ground assault despite Ravenous's warnings about the powerful beings there. The Collector rallied the survivors, while Jude slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Insect troops and declared the real battle had begun.

• After two rounds of bombardment left Qatar Star's defenses and military in ruins, Ravenous warned Annihilus that powerful beings had survived and urged him to destroy the planet from orbit.
• Annihilus rejected Ravenous's advice and ordered a ground assault because he wanted to keep his dessert alive.
• The Collector and the Grandmaster emerged from the ruins, and the Collector projected his image across Qatar Star to rally the surviving soldiers.
• Annihilus leaped from his mothership and scattered the Collector's projection, then urged the Insect army forward.
• Jude cut down waves of beetle and locust soldiers, then activated a ten-kilometer Super Gravity Field that killed nearly two hundred thousand Insect troops and other living beings in its range.
• Jude declared that his warm-up was over and the real war had begun.

The insectoid invasion overwhelmed Qatar Star as the tournament elites fought back, while Jude Herbert attacked Annihilus's warships. The Collector and Grandmaster confronted the Insect King, but Annihilus broke free of their spatial attacks and struck the Grandmaster.

• Hyperion and Gladiator teamed up to carve through swarms of insectoid soldiers with their eye beams.
• Gormann, Hawkman, Starfire, Silver Surfer, and Nova battled the insects, but Gormann was overwhelmed after a giant mosquito poisoned him.
• Jude Herbert destroyed dozens of insectoid warships, prompting Annihilus to send his puppet Captain Marvel after him.
• The Collector and Grandmaster attacked Annihilus, but he shattered the Collector's spatial seal and absorbed the Grandmaster's energy blast.
• The Collector and Grandmaster made two warships collide to strike Annihilus physically, but he broke free and pierced the Grandmaster's chest before biting his neck.

As Ivy weakened while holding back the insectoid soldiers, Veronica sent Star-Lord to retrieve a device from Jude's laboratory. Star-Lord used the Mission Accomplished Box to summon helpers, only to learn that they might kill him if they could not fulfill his wish, and he resigned himself to the danger.

• Ivy's plant defense repeatedly killed the insectoid soldiers, but their corrosive blood destroyed the plants, and the strain left Ivy badly injured.
• Veronica berated Star-Lord for his helplessness, then asked him to retrieve a useful invention from Jude's laboratory.
• Star-Lord entered the laboratory, avoided the dangerous Annihilator armor, and took the Mission Accomplished Box Veronica indicated.
• Star-Lord wished for the bugs outside to be destroyed, and Mission Accomplished Mr. ran out with the box to summon companions.
• Veronica revealed that Mission Accomplished Mr.s might kill Star-Lord if they could not fulfill his wish, and Star-Lord stopped trying to change it.

Mission Accomplished reinforcements helped the Inhumans hold the Star One, while Annihilus defeated Collector and captured Grandmaster on Qatar Star. The story then returned to Jude's battle, where he overwhelmed Captain Marvel and sent her crashing into an insectoid warship.

• Veronica ordered the Inhumans to fall back as the Mission Accomplished army charged in and swept through the insectoids.
• Annihilus wounded Grandmaster, but Grandmaster healed himself while Collector warned that Annihilus could counter spatial powers.
• Collector used Bunny's Pocket Watch to stop time, but Annihilus broke free with the Cosmic Control Rod and ate Collector.
• Annihilus blocked Grandmaster's escape, knocked him unconscious, and had flying insects carry him to the mothership.
• Jude rampaged through the insectoid fleet in Overlimit Mode, destroying hundreds of warships before Captain Marvel attacked him.
• Jude dodged Captain Marvel and struck her into an insectoid warship, which exploded.

Jude discovered that an insect attached to Captain Marvel’s heart had controlled her and removed it, restoring her consciousness. Captain Marvel attacked Annihilus to avenge her enslavement, but he trapped her with the Cosmic Control Rod and killed her.

• Captain Marvel fought Jude with greatly increased strength, but showed no response when he tried to reach her.
• Jude restrained Captain Marvel and used Cowboy 2’s scanner to find an insect controlling her through her heart.
• Jude extracted and crushed the insect, freeing Captain Marvel from its control.
• Captain Marvel recovered, remembered her enslavement, and charged into the insectoids while setting aside her grudge against Jude.
• Annihilus confronted Captain Marvel, overpowered her with the Cosmic Control Rod, and snapped her neck, leaving her headless.

Jude battled Insect King Annihilus in deep space after Annihilus killed Captain Marvel, but the Cosmic Control Rod gave Annihilus powerful control over space. Jude escaped Annihilus’s spatial trap with a portal and prepared to attack again.

• Annihilus ate Captain Marvel’s head and destroyed his body before clashing with Jude.
• Jude and Annihilus’s fight created an expanding energy storm that pulled in and destroyed nearby insect warships.
• Jude and Cowboy 2 injured Annihilus and sent him into the storm, but Annihilus swallowed its energy.
• Annihilus used the Cosmic Control Rod to make the surrounding space unbearably heavy and trap Jude.
• Annihilus shifted Jude directly in front of him, but Jude opened a portal, escaped, and recognized that the rod required a brief moment to prepare its powers.

Jude used a neural stimulant to overwhelm Annihilus and destroy most of the insect fleet around Qatar Star. After the first echelon was wiped out, Annihilus returned, healed and empowered after eating the Collector and the Grandmaster, and threatened Jude.

• Jude took a neural stimulant and used Cowboy 2’s enhanced speed to evade Annihilus’s Cosmic Control Rod and batter him, tearing off his wings before Annihilus escaped.
• Jude slaughtered the insect warships around Qatar Star, destroying over half the first echelon and helping the ground forces win their battle.
• Gladiator, Hyperion, Hawkman, and Gormann gathered beside Jude, while Nova abandoned thoughts of revenge.
• Jude told the others that Annihilus had probably eaten the Collector and the Grandmaster.
• Annihilus reappeared with his injuries healed and said the energy of the two Elders had made him more powerful, then threatened to kill Jude.

Annihilus gained the Collector’s and Grandmaster’s spatial powers and used the Cosmic Control Rod to trap Jude Herbert and the others. Jude struck him through portals, blasting him into the insect fleet, but warned that Annihilus could soon defend himself against another ambush; Jude then left the group to decide what to do.

• Annihilus devoured the Grandmaster, completed a molt, and gained the ability to manipulate space more effectively with the Cosmic Control Rod.
• Nova and the others tried to flee, but Annihilus rearranged space and crushed them with pressure.
• Jude attacked Annihilus through shifting portals, landing more than a thousand blows before finishing with a Power Stone-enhanced punch that shattered half the Insect King’s head and sent him through over a hundred warships.
• The spatial lockdown ended, freeing Gormann, Gladiator, and the others, who gathered beside Jude.
• Jude explained that Annihilus could trap him if an attack lasted longer than a second and would likely guard himself after the beating.
• Jude said he was leaving and told Gladiator and the others to do as they pleased.