Chapter Summaries

Servis’s rage drove him to bargain with the Earth Dimension for still more power, while Robet and the Martian Manhunter waited for the right moment to trap him. As Darkness Dimension agents began descending to investigate, Clark intercepted Grant, leaving the planned confrontation poised to close around Servis.

• Servis kept attacking the intangible Martian Manhunter, forgot his original goal, and drew on enough power to reach the Earth Dimension’s limit.
• Robet told the Martian Manhunter to hold on and instructed Baron Mordo and the Kamar-Taj members to open the Mirror Dimension when Servis was about to destroy Earth.
• Hercules ordered Grant and the others to descend through Servis’s line and search for the scientific-side Vampire and the Daywalker, but Grant’s attempt to control Dracula failed.
• After Grant returned to the Darkness Dimension, Hercules forced him to descend again, and Kamar-Taj detected the incoming agents and alerted Clark.
• Clark arrived as Grant descended and seized him before he could move, prompting Grant to send over more power in an attempt to escape.

Clark captured the Darkness Dimension powerhouses and brought them to the Mirror Dimension, where Robet struck Servis and the heroes prepared to fight the remaining attackers. Grant broke free and led an assault toward Blade and Morbius, while Clark faced him as another fighter approached.

• Clark captured all five Darkness Dimension powerhouses, and Grant's true body paid a heavy price as he drew more power to challenge him.
• Clark brought Grant and the others to Servis's battlefield, where Baron Mordo and his allies formed the Mirror Dimension and Robet struck Servis with an electrified attack.
• Grant broke the rope binding the five powerhouses, and Servis warned him that the encounter was a trap and urged him to seize Blade and Morbius.
• Grant told the other four powerhouses to go after Blade and Morbius while he held Clark off, and Blade prepared to fight them.
• Baron Mordo and the others divided the attackers among Martian Manhunter, Kara, the Avengers, and the Mirror Dimension, while Clark confronted Grant.
• Grant asked Clark about his strength and tried to tempt him to open the Mirror Dimension, but Clark refused and mentioned a battle maniac who might visit the Darkness Dimension.

Robet tricked Grant into attacking Servis, then fought both Darkness Dimension experts while using light power to suppress them. He later stopped using that advantage to give Grant a fair fight, leaving Robet battling at a disadvantage as his strength and fighting spirit grew.

• Robet used light-attribute power left on Servis to make Grant mistake him for an enemy, then sent Grant flying and took over the fight.
• Robet told Clark to help the Avengers and Kamar-Taj while he handled Grant and Servis, and Clark left to support them.
• Robet overwhelmed Servis and Grant with his light power, while the badly injured Servis gave up and Grant hesitated to fight back.
• Robet stopped using light power and challenged Grant, prompting Grant to attack while Servis stayed on the ground.
• Grant gained the upper hand as Robet fought without his countering power, but Robet's fighting spirit and strength continued to rise.

Robet gained the advantage over Grant while Kara and Clark defeated their opponents, but Hercules intervened from the Darkness Dimension and transferred power to Servis and Grant. Servis refused to fight despite his increased strength, and Grant’s sudden power surge left Robet struggling to avoid fatal blows.

• Robet exploited Grant’s hesitation and growing fear to turn their battle in his favor, while Servis lay motionless and watched.
• Kara nearly killed her opponent, and Clark erased the dimensional powerhouse attacking Kamar-Taj after its members began collapsing from exhaustion.
• A defeated dimensional powerhouse returned to the Darkness Dimension and told Hercules that the invasion had failed to capture Morbius and Blade, so Hercules killed and devoured him.
• Hercules sent power to Servis, but Servis recognized that it would not overcome Robet’s light-attribute advantage and continued lying flat.
• After learning Servis had not acted, Hercules devoured several more dimensional powerhouses, causing their opponents on Earth to stop fighting.
• Grant suddenly received a major surge of power, forcing Robet to dodge several potentially fatal attacks.

Grant’s borrowed power drove him into a fierce battle with Robet, while Clark contained the damage and found Servis unwilling to resist. Servis revealed that the Darkness Dimension’s invasion would continue unless it obtained Blade and Morbius, but the Avengers rejected his offer and braced for a long conflict.

• Grant regained his fighting spirit after Hercules’s power boosted him, and he pressed Robet with attacks that shook the Mirror Dimension.
• Clark shrank the Mirror Dimension around his Bio-field to protect it from the battle, then pulled Servis from the earth and questioned why he would not fight.
• Servis explained that the Earth Dimension’s light-based powers countered him and that he saw no point in resisting a defeat he considered inevitable.
• Martian Manhunter told the Avengers that the enemy they had fought had vanished because its true body’s consciousness was erased, prompting Servis to suspect Hercules had killed the four others.
• Servis offered to take Blade and Morbius away in exchange for an oath that the Darkness Dimension would never invade Earth again, but Tony Stark rejected the deal.
• Servis warned that the Darkness Dimension’s invasion would continue and that Earth faced a long struggle, then resumed waiting for death.

Martian Manhunter invaded Servis’s consciousness while Clark suppressed him, and Wade helped the Avengers defeat Servis and uncover intelligence about the Darkness Dimension. The Avengers learned that the Darkness Dimension’s strongest figures were unlikely to invade openly, then turned their attention to Robet’s ongoing battle with Grant.

• Clark suppressed Servis while Martian Manhunter tried to probe his consciousness, and Wade suddenly stabbed Servis with a knife.
• Tony Stark ordered the Avengers to attack Servis, and their silver weapons and light-based attacks shattered Servis’s body and consciousness.
• Servis’s true body awoke in the Darkness Dimension, where Hercules invaded his memories and learned that Robet and Clark had obstructed the mission.
• Servis blamed Hercules for the failure and accused him of being too timid to retrieve the Vampires, while Hercules held back from killing him to avoid taking all the blame.
• Martian Manhunter shared Servis’s memories, including the Darkness Dimension’s power hierarchy and the likelihood that Hercules would be punished after the failed mission.
• The Avengers left the Mirror Dimension to deal with the remaining Vampires and Werewolves while Robet continued fighting Grant.

Luke tried to persuade his Werewolf followers to stop killing humans, but they turned against him until Jocelyn and Clary intervened. Martian Manhunter arrived and killed the remaining Werewolves, then targeted Luke before Clary blocked him.

• Luke gathered his followers and urged them to suspend attacks on humans because he feared the Avengers had killed their powerful allies and would come for them next.
• Luke's followers rejected his warning, and one demanded that Luke die before the group could continue its killings.
• Jocelyn and Clary arrived, and Jocelyn joined Luke; when a Werewolf threatened Jocelyn, an unseen attacker killed him, then killed three more Werewolves as they charged.
• Martian Manhunter appeared, identified himself as an Avenger, and used psychic power to kill the remaining Werewolves while sparing Luke's life.
• Martian Manhunter moved to kill Luke because he sensed Luke had murdered innocent people, but Clary blocked the attack, prompting Martian Manhunter to question her.

Clary tried to protect Jocelyn and Luke from Martian Manhunter, but her fire temporarily weakened him and Jocelyn urged Luke to kill him. Tony Stark arrived and, mistaking Luke’s movements for a threat, shot him with a Silver Matter Repulsor Blast.

• Jocelyn pleaded with Clary to save Luke, and Luke admitted that he had killed people while leading his Werewolf underlings.
• When Martian Manhunter attacked Luke, Jocelyn tried to shield him, and Clary intervened but was overwhelmed by his psychic power.
• Clary’s burst of flames weakened Martian Manhunter, allowing her to urge Jocelyn and Luke to flee.
• Jocelyn tried to attack Martian Manhunter, but Clary stopped her and Luke hesitated to kill the Avenger.
• Tony Stark arrived and aimed at Luke as he moved toward Jocelyn; after Jocelyn accused Tony of ruining her family, Tony fired a Silver Matter Repulsor Blast through Luke.

Tony Stark accidentally killed Luke while trying to save Jocelyn, and Jocelyn then used Luke’s claws to take her own life. Clary arranged for their bodies to be buried together, while Tony Stark and Martian Manhunter returned to hunting vampires and Werewolves.

• Tony Stark realized he had shot Luke, and Martian Manhunter assured him that Luke had committed serious crimes.
• Luke comforted Jocelyn as he died, but Jocelyn used his claw to slit her own throat and fell onto him.
• Clary asked Tony Stark to contact the Saiyan, but Tony Stark explained that Robet was fighting outside normal Earth space and could not come.
• Clary accepted that Jocelyn had chosen to die and asked Guardian to open a Portal so she could take Luke and Jocelyn’s bodies away.
• Guardian said he would tell others, including Constantine, about helping against the vampires and Werewolves, and Tony Stark ordered robots to clean up before leaving with Martian Manhunter.
• The Avengers, Wade, and Constantine continued reducing the vampire and Werewolf populations, sparing a few who had no blood sins.

The Avengers kept the untainted Vampires and Werewolves under surveillance while helping them address their weaknesses. In the Mirror Dimension, Robet defeated Grant, and Robet and Clark destroyed his avatar on Earth, leaving Grant’s true body in the Darkness Dimension numb and broken.

• The Avengers continued monitoring Vampires and Werewolves without human blood debts, while Tony Stark subsidized them and researched their weaknesses.
• Robet’s prolonged battle with Grant shifted in Robet’s favor as Grant lost his will to fight and Robet’s power rose.
• Robet shattered Grant’s arm with a punch, and Grant escaped through the broken Mirror Dimension as it collapsed behind him.
• Clark and Robet tracked down the fleeing Grant and subjected him to a sustained attack of light that destroyed his avatar and shattered his consciousness.
• Grant’s true body returned to the Darkness Dimension, where Hercules crushed him in anger, but Grant showed no reaction.

Hercules learned from Grant’s memories how badly Earth’s power had broken him, then faced the Darkness Lord’s judgment after the failed mission. The Darkness Lord eliminated Hercules, Grant, and Servis and ordered the remaining beings to retrieve Morbius and the others or be erased, leaving them to plan against Earth’s powerful defenders.

• Hercules restored Grant after Grant’s body exploded, then invaded his memories and discovered the torture that had shattered his consciousness.
• Hercules reconsidered Servis’s warning and feared facing Clark and Robet as the Darkness Lord appeared in the Darkness Dimension.
• The Darkness Lord demanded that Hercules explain the failed mission, and Hercules faltered when he tried to promise he could retrieve the targets.
• The Darkness Lord punished Hercules, Grant, and Servis with unbearable pain, then made them disappear and threatened to restart the Darkness Dimension if the mission failed.
• The Darkness Lord ordered the remaining powerful beings to go to the Earth Dimension and retrieve the perfect experimental individuals, with a reward for success and destruction for failure.
• The Darkness Dimension’s powerful beings received Hercules’s intelligence and discussed how to overcome Earth’s Kryptonians, Robet, and their countering powers.

After Robet and Clark erased Grant, Hercules, and Servis, they returned to Earth as the Darkness Dimension began preparing for future conflict. At the Avengers Base, Robet intimidated Werewolf Knight and learned the vampires and werewolves were cooperating with Tony Stark’s research.

• Baron Mordo apologized to Robet and Clark for failing to maintain the Mirror Dimension, and Robet reassured him that Kamar-Taj was not to blame.
• Clark left to look for people who might need help, while Robet went to the Avengers Base to check on the vampire and werewolf investigation.
• Werewolf Knight challenged Robet, but Robet knocked him through a metal wall and transformed into a giant ape, prompting Werewolf Knight to apologize.
• Tony Stark explained that Venom had returned to his own life while the Avengers focused on studying the vampires and werewolves and the threat from the Darkness Dimension.
• Tony Stark told Werewolf Knight that Robet was the Avengers’ special consultant for powerful supernatural beings, and the vampires and werewolves realized how formidable the Avengers were.

Tony Stark and Steve worked to expand and manage the Avengers while Robet relaxed on Kara’s campus and learned about Johnny Storm’s struggles with nuclear physics. The chapter ended when Robet and Kara sensed a powerful energy surge at Johnny’s school and realized his teacher’s experiment was about to explode.

• Tony Stark and Steve focused on improving the Avengers’ staffing and future prospects after the Mirror Dimension battle.
• Robet visited Kara’s campus and joined her friends for a picnic, where Johnny Storm lamented his difficulties studying nuclear physics.
• Johnny Storm explained that his mentor had called him useless, while Pietro said his own mentor treated him well.
• Robet sensed a powerful, ki-less energy fluctuation coming from the campus.
• Kara recognized that the energy source was about to explode and warned that it seemed to belong to Johnny’s teacher.

An explosion at Otto's laboratory left him alive but fused with four mechanical tentacles, and Robet brought him to Avengers Base. Tony Stark began investigating Otto's condition while Susan Storm took Johnny Storm away and threatened to cut off his financial support if he failed to study.

• Robet and Kara reached Otto's laboratory after an explosion and found Otto alive beneath the rubble with mechanical tentacles fused to his body.
• Robet and Kara carried Otto out, and the Avengers left the campus before the arriving crowd could see him.
• Johnny Storm explained that the tentacles were Otto's research equipment and speculated that the explosion had fused them to him.
• At Avengers Base, Tony Stark recognized Otto's scientific work and began examining the tentacles and their energy source.
• Johnny Storm decided to leave with the others, but Susan Storm warned him to study or lose his family support and Avengers salary.

Otto woke in Tony Stark’s laboratory with his Mechanical Tentacles fused to his body, but mistook Tony’s examination for an experiment and attacked him. After the tentacles absorbed Tony’s Repulsor Blast and took control of Otto, Martian Manhunter stopped their assault, but Otto and the tentacles fled Avengers Base.

• Otto awoke naked in an unfamiliar laboratory and discovered his Mechanical Tentacles were fused to his body and easier to control than before.
• Otto mistook Tony Stark for a captor conducting experiments, attacked him, and fled the laboratory while accusing him of stealing other scientists’ work.
• Tony fired a Repulsor Blast at Otto, and the Mechanical Tentacles absorbed its energy, leaving Otto briefly dazed.
• The energized tentacles took control of Otto and struck Tony hard enough to send him flying in his armor.
• Martian Manhunter caught the tentacles and knocked Otto down, then suggested the tentacles and Otto had formed a symbiotic link that could let them control each other.
• The Mechanical Tentacles carried Otto away as Tony realized he was escaping.

Otto tried to escape Avengers Base, but Werewolf Knight and the others helped Tony Stark capture him. Tony rewarded Werewolf Knight by allowing him to return home, then took Otto and Morbius back to the laboratory, where Otto became agitated again.

• The Mechanical Tentacles controlled Otto as he fled from Martian Manhunter, and Werewolf Knight volunteered to stop him.
• Werewolf Knight dodged Otto's attacks and threw him back toward Avengers Base, but Otto ran toward Morbius and the others.
• Morbius bound Otto and his Mechanical Tentacles with red energy, ending his escape attempt.
• Tony Stark thanked Werewolf Knight and promised him a reward; Werewolf Knight asked to go home, and Tony told Jarvis not to stop Jack when he returned.
• Tony Stark and Martian Manhunter followed Morbius as he took Otto back to the laboratory, where Otto grew agitated and his Mechanical Tentacles lit up again.

Martian Manhunter discovered that he could calm Otto but could not detect the Mechanical Tentacles’ program consciousness, which kept driving Otto back into a rage. After learning what had happened and refusing to give up the tentacles, Otto got one chance to take control of them while Jarvis had temporarily disabled their program.

• Martian Manhunter repeatedly subdued Otto and explained that Otto could resist the program, have the Mechanical Tentacles removed, or have their program erased or rewritten.
• Tony Stark asked Martian Manhunter to communicate with Otto so Otto could choose what happened to the tentacles himself.
• Martian Manhunter told Otto the tentacles had saved his life, and Otto chose to keep them and asked for help communicating with them.
• Tony Stark had Jarvis disable the program in the Mechanical Tentacles, then warned Otto he would erase and replace it if Otto failed to take control.
• Otto began communicating with the Mechanical Tentacles, which moved again without their scarlet glow.

Otto recovered at the Avengers Base after fusing with his Mechanical Tentacles, and Tony Stark recruited him to cooperate with the Avengers. After examining Otto, Tony explained that he would need to balance his Artificial Sun research with Avengers work, while they still had to decide how to handle his public identity.

• Otto thanked Tony Stark and Martian Manhunter, then agreed to cooperate with Avengers supervision and examinations.
• Tony Stark explained that Otto's fusion made him part of the extraordinary world, and Martian Manhunter left to investigate the Vampire and Werewolf situation.
• Otto realized he had been running around naked, received clothes, and insisted that Jarvis call him Doctor Octopus instead of Doctor Tentacles.
• Tony Stark examined Otto and found that his Mechanical Tentacles could release energy, then warned him that his identity might need to be hidden.
• Otto argued that he had no family to endanger and wanted his identity announced, so Tony Stark gave him Avengers communication devices and outlined his duties and research responsibilities.

Otto made his identity as Doctor Octopus public and returned to campus, where reporters and students overwhelmed him with attention. Watching the fallout, Johnny Storm and Pietro became more cautious about revealing their own identities.

• The Avengers' media announced that Otto had recovered from his laboratory accident and joined the Avengers as Doctor Octopus.
• Johnny Storm considered the attention Otto received but rejected revealing himself as Human Torch because it could endanger his family and expose his friends.
• Otto returned to campus on his Mechanical Tentacles, where reporters crowded him with questions and the school's community scrutinized his past.
• At Avengers Base, Tony Stark and Morbius discussed the unwanted attention Otto faced, while Tony let Otto handle the consequences of his choice.
• Johnny Storm and Pietro watched Otto struggle with the publicity and grew more wary of exposing their identities.

Otto accepted the university’s offer to become its guardian superhero, recovered his Artificial Sun research data, and resumed teaching and experimenting. Meanwhile, inspired by Otto’s fame, biology professor Curtis Curt Connors injected himself with a lizard-regeneration serum, regrew his missing arm, and began showing a green change in his skin.

• Otto agreed to become the university’s guardian superhero and continue teaching Johnny Storm and his fellow students.
• Otto used his Mechanical Tentacles to recover his experimental data from the ruined laboratory, and the university later renovated the lab.
• Otto returned to researching the Artificial Sun while teaching and occasionally assisting Martian Manhunter and Tony Stark.
• During the university break, Otto focused on his research and gave Johnny Storm a passing grade so he would not disturb him.
• Curtis Curt Connors, whose research on limb regeneration had lost Norman Osborn’s funding, injected himself with his experimental serum.
• Connors discovered that his right arm had regrown, celebrated his breakthrough, and failed to notice his skin turning green.