Chapter Summaries

Nebula accepted Alice’s offer to have her original body restored in exchange for letting a virus monitor her, while Andrew revealed himself as Ghost Rider and took control of the battle. The Dark Aster’s self-destruct was thwarted, but the Kree kept fighting inside Andrew’s sphere.

• Alice implanted a virus in Nebula’s systems and erased her memory after Nebula agreed to the Mechanical Demon King’s deal.
• Andrew used Spatial Energy to knock Black Bolt unconscious, and Tony and the others recognized him as Ghost Rider.
• Ronan secretly ordered Korath to activate the Dark Aster’s Self-Destruct Device, forcing the heroes to prepare to escape.
• Andrew banished the Dark Aster to another plane and knocked Ronan unconscious, then trapped the combatants in a sphere.
• Korath rallied the Kree soldiers to capture the heroes, and Tony’s group joined Steve’s team as they struggled to fight in zero gravity.

Andrew defeated Ronan’s forces, explained Thanos’s plan to collect the Infinity Stones, and kept the Power Stone for his own plans. He recruited Black Bolt and the Inhumans into his service, while the battle against the Kree ended.

• Andrew took Ronan’s Universal Hammer, modified it, and gave it to Steve, who used it to defeat Korath and the Kree soldiers attacking him.
• Andrew explained that Thanos sought the Infinity Stones to erase half the life in the Universe, and revealed that Earth held four Stones, including the Space Stone and Mind Stone.
• Andrew kept the Power Stone for himself and pulled the unconscious Black Bolt into the Consciousness Space, where he offered to protect the Inhumans in exchange for their submission and a Soul Pact.
• After consulting Professor Charles, Black Bolt agreed to serve Andrew, and Andrew advised him to humor S.H.I.E.L.D. without getting involved in Earth’s affairs.
• Black Bolt returned to space with a Mechanical Parrot that could speak for him, as the Kree invasion battle ended with the soldiers captured or killed.

After the alien invasion ended, Earth’s leaders and Wakanda weighed how to respond to future threats while the heroes celebrated in Attilan. Andrew met the stranded Guardians of the Galaxy, revealed that Peter Quill’s father was not from Earth, and left Quill hoping his heritage would not affect his reward.

• Black Bolt told the wary heroes through his Mechanical Parrot that he had recovered, and the alien invasion officially ended.
• Nick Fury and Pierce agreed to accelerate Project Insight, while Pierce privately planned for Hydra to seize control of the world in three months.
• Tchalla urged Wakanda’s Old King to help defend Earth, but the Old King refused to risk exposing Wakanda’s secrets.
• Queen Medusa hosted the heroes and Guardians in Attilan, where Drax remained powerless and the Guardians lamented losing the Power Stone and their ships.
• Andrew arrived and learned the Guardians were stranded; Star-Lord asked for a reward, and Andrew revealed that Peter Quill’s father was not from Earth.

Andrew arranged for Yondu to learn that Star-Lord was imprisoned on Attilan, then Yondu came to rescue him and reunited with him. Meanwhile, Earth and Attilan agreed to an alliance, and Tony enlisted Scarlet to smuggle Attilan technology back to Earth.

• Andrew promised Star-Lord a father as a reward and had Gamora tell Yondu that Star-Lord was in Attilan and would be executed.
• Andrew counted his gains, including over ten million souls, the Power Stone, the Dark Aster, and research rights to Carol's body.
• Black Bolt agreed to an alliance with Earth after Nick Fury accepted his conditions, and he ordered Attilan's criminals to work in the mines.
• Tony persuaded Scarlet to conceal and take a Terrigen Crystal and Defensive Shield wreckage back to Earth.
• Yondu sneaked into Attilan to rescue Star-Lord, but Andrew and the Guardians were waiting for him.
• Andrew reminded Star-Lord of his promise not to sleep with women if Yondu came to save him, while Groot forced the two into an embrace.

Andrew arranged for the Guardians of the Galaxy to kill Ronan, then planned to use a staged story about Star-Lord holding the Power Stone to draw Ego out. Yondu joined Andrew after witnessing his power, while Ronan became an officer under Yelena in Hell; Carol waited for Andrew to study her but he never came.

• Andrew had Drax duel Ronan, and the Guardians joined the fight before Drax killed Ronan and avenged his family.
• Andrew collected Ronan's soul, offered the Guardians Ronan's bounty, and showed them a fabricated version of events that centered on Star-Lord holding the Power Stone.
• Andrew gave the Guardians a fake Power Stone to sell on Xandar and told them to leave the next day with his version of the story.
• Yondu confronted Andrew about using Star-Lord to lure Ego, then accepted Andrew as his boss after being sent to Rebirth Hell and was ordered to spread the story and gather his old crew.
• Ronan surrendered in Rebirth Hell and reported to Yelena aboard the Peacekeeper as a first officer.
• Carol undressed and waited for Andrew to study her, but he never arrived that night.

Carol returned to Earth determined to train after receiving Andrew’s messages, while Andrew discussed Skye’s Inhuman mother with Gwen and went to meet friends in space. The Guardians of the Galaxy arrived at Sovereign, where Andrew suddenly appeared aboard the Benatar.

• Carol received three messages from Andrew explaining their agreement and asking whether she had looked forward to the night before, then flew back to Earth to train.
• Star-Lord and the others collected their reward on Xandar, cleared their wanted status, and formed the Guardians of the Galaxy; Nebula returned to Thanos and reported what had happened.
• Andrew gave Gwen Frost Fruit and learned that Skye had found her birth mother, while Gwen resolved to investigate Skye’s father before allowing her to become an Inhuman.
• Tony and Breaker found a way to disable the nanites in Whitehall, and Carter told the group she was trying to recruit Carol to their side.
• The Guardians traveled aboard the Benatar toward Sovereign, and Andrew appeared on their ship while Star-Lord and Rocket were talking.

Andrew joined the Guardians of the Galaxy on their trip to Sovereign and watched them fight two dimensional monsters stealing energy batteries. After the team drove the monsters away and rescued Drax, High Priestess Ayesha summoned them and reprimanded them for failing to eliminate the threat and using a battery without permission.

• Andrew explained that he had secretly tracked Star-Lord and joined the Guardians, while assuring Gamora that Earth’s Infinity Stones remained safe.
• On Sovereign, two dimensional monsters attacked the Guardians at the power plant, and the team struggled to hurt them.
• Andrew advised the Guardians to use bright light against the monsters, and Rocket built a powerful lamp from an Annullax Energy Battery.
• The monsters fled through a portal that Andrew redirected to Rebirth Hell, while Drax emerged from one of them and claimed he had killed it.
• Ayesha summoned the Guardians to her hall, reprimanded them for failing to eliminate the monsters, and criticized their unauthorized use of a battery.

The Guardians of the Galaxy left Sovereign with Ego, who revealed that Star-Lord was his son and invited him to learn about his Celestial heritage. Andrew stayed behind and revealed his overwhelming power, lifting Sovereign’s city into the sky while Ayesha begged for mercy.

• Ayesha blamed the Guardians for failing to kill the Dimensional Monster, but Gamora insisted they end the mission until Ayesha doubled their payment.
• Ego invaded Sovereign, destroyed its defenses, and told Star-Lord that he was his father and a Celestial’s son.
• Star-Lord agreed to travel with Ego to learn about his heritage, and the Guardians followed him aboard the Benatar.
• After Ego and the Guardians departed, Ayesha ordered her guards to seize Andrew, who disarmed them and lifted the entire city into the sky.
• Andrew destroyed the approaching ships and threatened to drop Sovereign’s city, prompting Ayesha to apologize and offer compensation.

Andrew forced Sovereign to surrender, demanded its technology and souls, and exposed the rot beneath its claims of perfection. After ordering Ayesha to reform the civilization, he traveled to Knowhere to meet Collector Tivan.

• Ayesha surrendered Sovereign after Andrew used the planet’s magnetic field to threaten its military bases, and Andrew demanded its technology and the souls of its people.
• Andrew showed Ayesha and the Sovereign leaders the Titan Beasts in Rebirth Hell, then revealed their damaged souls and ordered them to abandon their restrictive reproductive system.
• Andrew asked Ayesha about her research into super lifeforms and the Collector’s cocoon, then ordered her to prepare Sovereign while unmanned fighters escorted him to Knowhere.
• Andrew entered Knowhere alone, surveyed its violent, rundown streets, and sensed that the mined Celestial Head beneath the city still had value.
• Collector Tivan welcomed Andrew at the museum in the center of Knowhere.

Andrew went to Tivan to obtain the Celestial Head, but when Karina seized the Power Stone and caused a catastrophe, he took Tivan’s collection and rescued him. He left Tivan insisting the Celestial Head was payment for saving his life, while Tivan accused him of swindling him.

• Andrew offered Tivan money, his own body after death, and then the Power Stone in exchange for the Celestial Head.
• Tivan showed Andrew his collection, including a cosmonaut dog, Howard the Duck, and a golden cocoon, while Karina reached for the Power Stone.
• Karina seized the Power Stone, causing explosions that destroyed the museum, and Andrew teleported the collection to Hell before drawing Karina’s soul there.
• Andrew shielded Tivan, took the Power Stone, and ordered an assault on Knowhere; Hulk helped the Sovereign fighters defeat its defenders.
• Andrew sent Hulk and the Celestial Head to Rebirth Hell, then told the awakened Tivan that his collection had been destroyed and claimed the Celestial Head as payment for saving his life.

Tivan conceded his defeat to Andrew, while Thanos recruited Ego into a scheme to counter Andrew and obtain the Time Stone. Andrew failed to repair the Celestial Head without Ego’s brain and continued preparing Rebirth Hell’s technology as the Guardians remained on Ego’s planet.

• Andrew warned Tivan not to break the rules, then left, and Tivan contacted Grandmaster for a ride.
• Ebony Maw told Thanos that Ego had taken the Guardians from Sovereign, and Thanos concluded that Ego was Andrew’s target.
• On Ego’s planet, Gamora grew suspicious while Ego taught Star-Lord to use celestial power and planned to activate his Clone Seeds.
• Thanos entered Ego’s dream and persuaded him to use altars and a dimensional demon god against Andrew’s clone, in exchange for the Time Stone after Ego killed The Ancient One.
• Andrew failed to repair the Celestial Head without Ego’s brain and told Howard and the scientists to study Sovereign technology without damaging the cocoon.
• Cosmo said Howard had left, prompting Howard to complain that Cosmo meant the talking duck who shared his name.

Andrew discovered that Thanos and Ego planned to use an altar linked to the Blood Demon God against him, but he had already taken control of Ego’s brain and prepared countermeasures. On Ego’s Planet, the Guardians uncovered Ego’s murders of his children, and Ego admitted the truth to Star-Lord.

• Cosmo told Andrew that the Dimensional Monsters wanted Energy Batteries, and Andrew ordered that they be supplied while warning them not to escape Hell.
• Alice inferred that Thanos and Ego were conspiring, and Andrew revealed that he had secretly placed magic Nanites in Ego’s brain and planned to use the altar to destroy the Blood Demon God.
• Andrew ordered the Sovereign and Ravagers to prepare for deployment, sent powerful artifacts to his true body, and kept the Peace Knights and Titan Beasts in Hell.
• Gamora and the Guardians pressed Mantis, who revealed that Ego had killed his children when they lacked the Celestial Gene and left their skeletons in a cave.
• The Guardians confronted Star-Lord with Mantis’s story, but Ego appeared before they could leave and admitted that he had killed his other children to gain energy.

Ego began using Star-Lord to power his planetary clone project, while the resulting energy spread across Earth, Xandar, and more than a dozen inhabited planets. Andrew harvested the panic through the Illusion Realm as Ego and the Blood Demon God prepared to face the approaching Mechanical Demon King, whose radiant figure finally appeared on Ego's Planet.

• Star-Lord rejected Ego's plan, but Ego captured him and the Guardians and used Star-Lord's celestial power to begin the planetary clone project.
• Ego's Clone Seed erupted in Missouri, and S.H.I.E.L.D. mobilized superheroes who found that attacking the spreading energy only strengthened it.
• Carol contacted Andrew for help, but Hellboy learned from The Ancient One that Andrew was fighting a boss and would not let Earth be destroyed.
• Andrew used media networks on Earth, Xandar, and more than a dozen planets to spread news of the disaster and draw the despairing populations into the Illusion Realm.
• Ego and the Blood Demon God prepared the Altar to summon the Blood Demon God's projection and kill the Mechanical Demon King's clone, then a radiant figure descended onto Ego's Planet.

Andrew confronted Ego on Ego Planet as the Blood Demon God and the Demon Kings of Hell launched coordinated attacks against him. As the battle spread across the planet, the Blood Demon God privately offered Andrew a deal to betray Ego, and Andrew heard him out.

• Andrew rescued the Guardians of the Galaxy, attacked Ego, and learned that Ego and the Blood Demon God had set a trap for him.
• Demon Kings of Hell sent their armies into Mechanical Hell while Andrew deployed his forces against the Blood Monsters on Ego Planet.
• Andrew fought Ego with lightning and metal defenses while the White-haired Man battled the Blood Demon God using the Power Stone.
• Yondu brought the Guardians aboard his ship, urged Star-Lord to fight Ego, and sent Rocket to attack the Blood Monsters.
• The Blood Demon God contacted Andrew and offered to help eliminate Ego in exchange for Andrew's protection, and Andrew questioned his plan to betray Ego.

Andrew and Star-Lord turned the fight against Ego around, but the Blood Demon God brought his true body and the Blood Dimension into the battle, leaving the heroes under pressure again. Andrew urged the Demon Kings of Hell to betray the Blood Demon God and seize his dimension, and they revealed that Thanos’s inspections had kept them from tampering with the altar.

• The Blood Demon God offered Andrew a deal for Ego’s brain, but Andrew refused and claimed he could win without him.
• Star-Lord attacked Ego over his lies and fought him with the powers Ego had given him; Andrew joined in after Ego trapped and tortured Star-Lord.
• Andrew provoked Ego by calling him a failed creation, and Star-Lord helped him cut down Ego’s tentacles and beat him back.
• The Blood Demon God summoned the Blood Dimension and unleashed Blood Monsters, then used his true body’s power to strengthen the Blood Dragon and trap the White-haired Man.
• Ego and the Blood Demon God regained the upper hand as their attacks overwhelmed Andrew and Star-Lord.
• Andrew asked the Demon Kings of Hell to drag the Blood Demon God’s true body into Hell and take his dimension, but they said Thanos had inspected the altar three times and prevented them from tampering with it.

Andrew’s concealed control of Ego’s Brain turned the battle on Ego Planet, letting him seize Ego and bind the Blood Demon God while Star-Lord took revenge on his father. Andrew defeated the Blood Demon God’s escape attempt with curses already planted on the Altar, leaving the demon god helpless before him.

• The demon kings admitted that Thanos had found several flaws in their schemes, while Andrew lamented that they had failed to betray the Blood Demon God.
• Ego forced Star-Lord to activate the Clone Seeds, causing viscous energy to spread across Earth and other planets as Andrew harvested soul pacts from the despairing population.
• Andrew used the Mind Stone and magic nanites to take control of Ego’s Brain, which then bound the Blood Demon God and restrained the Blood Dragon.
• Andrew brought Ego’s Brain and the Altar to the surface, cut Ego off from celestial power, and let Star-Lord attack the clone who had killed his mother.
• Andrew’s cannon barrage destroyed the Blood Monsters, and the demon kings and Thanos withdrew after their plan failed.
• The Blood Demon God begged for his life, then tried to curse Andrew, but curses Andrew had planted on the Altar erupted and collapsed his body.

Andrew defeated the Blood Demon God and Ego, took control of the Blood Dimension, and gathered a vast haul of souls, technology, and powerful materials. After the Guardians celebrated their victory, Andrew returned to Rebirth Hell and planned how to use his new gains.

• Andrew killed the Blood Demon God, claimed the Blood Throne, and entered the Blood Dimension to gain authority over it.
• Yondu killed Ego's avatar after Andrew rejected Ego's surrender, and Andrew ordered Ego's brain to restore the Clone Seeds.
• Andrew took control of the Blood Dimension, linked it to Rebirth Hell, and placed the Collector's cocoon in the Blood Pool, naming the developing life-form Adam.
• Earth and other planets learned that the crisis had ended, while Andrew assigned Alice to manage the Blood Dimension and told Yondu to expand the Ravagers.
• Andrew returned to Rebirth Hell, ordered scientists to study Ego's brain, and counted more than thirty million soul pacts along with numerous other spoils.

Gideon Malick launched a mission to bring Hive back to Earth, while Tony Stark obtained Terrigen Crystals after agreeing to help Jiaying kill Whitehall. With Project Insight seven days away, Carter gathered Carol and a team of heroes, leaving the story poised for their next move.

• Gideon Malick sent a rocket carrying a space shuttle toward Hive's planet, expecting Hive to return in about a month.
• Jiaying offered Tony Stark a way to find Terrigen Crystals in exchange for killing Whitehall, and Tony agreed after learning Whitehall was her abuser.
• Tony contacted Carter, who helped him retrieve the Obelisk; three days later, Tony opened it and found Terrigen Crystals inside.
• Gwen defeated Mr. Hyde in New York and worried that Skye might destroy Earth.
• With seven days left before Project Insight, Carter brought Carol to an underground bar where a group of heroes had assembled, while Hawkeye and Black Widow were absent.

Carter revealed that Hydra had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. and planned to use Project Insight to kill millions and seize control of the world. The superheroes agreed to help stop Hydra in Washington, where they expected to face its armed forces.

• Spider-Woman asked Carol what she would do if a friend might destroy Earth, and decided to stop Skye from becoming an Inhuman.
• Carter showed the heroes Whitehall and Pierce discussing Hydra’s plans, including Project Insight and its planned mass killings in seven days.
• Carter named several Hydra agents in S.H.I.E.L.D., the military, and politics, and revealed that Nick Fury was not Hydra but had embezzled much of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s funding.
• Carter outlined a plan to seize control of the Helicarriers, arrest Hydra leaders, expose them through the Daily Bugle, and have governments hunt down Hydra agents.
• Susan and the other superheroes agreed to cooperate, and Carter said they would quietly gather in Washington to prepare for the coming fight.

Carter, Tony, and President Ellis prepared to destroy Hydra and discussed reorganizing S.H.I.E.L.D. as New S.H.I.E.L.D., while Carol left Earth to lower Hydra’s guard. Gwen received a communicator and a protective Blood Puppet from Andrew, and the chapter ended as a shuttle arrived at Attilan.

• Carter recruited Carol to pretend to leave Earth, and the heroes agreed to keep their plans against Hydra secret.
• Tony learned that President Ellis and Garrett knew about Hydra, then agreed to work with them while opposing Garrett becoming the sole director of New S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Tony returned to Carter and Steve, who agreed to deal with Hydra before deciding who would lead the reorganized agency.
• Andrew sent Gwen a Quantum Communicator and a Blood Puppet, and Gwen put the puppet in her schoolbag before preparing to go to Washington.
• Carol told Nick Fury she was leaving to help the Skrulls, and Pierce celebrated her departure as he prepared for Project Insight.
• Jiaying settled into Attilan and spoke with Gordon as Gorgon’s group welcomed a shuttle arriving at the city.