Chapter Summaries

Eddie Brock fled the exposed base after Selene arrived, but Selene’s psionic sonic scream stripped the Symbiote Warriors of their symbiotes and let the Death Dealers destroy them. The survivors regrouped as Peter Parker pursued Gwen, while Samuel Stern began analyzing the Beacon Tree to trace Knull’s location.

• Eddie Brock recognized Selene as a threat, abandoned the Beacon Tree and his forces, and escaped through the ceiling.
• Selene and the Death Dealers entered the underground chamber, where Selene used a Slaanesh-powered sonic scream to immobilize the symbiotes and separate them from their hosts.
• The Death Dealers burned the immobilized symbiotes, and Selene told Polaris that the symbiotes were defective and did not need to be recovered.
• Peter Parker realized Gwen might have gone after the Void Knight, then transformed, carried Harry Osborn, and hurried into the tunnel with the Goblin Glider.
• Samuel Stern and Rebecca Chambers arrived with scanners, and Samuel began examining the Beacon Tree to uncover Knull’s interstellar coordinates.

Gwen decided to keep Eddie Brock’s identity secret so she could avenge her father herself, while Eddie remained unaware that Dr. Arnim Zola was manipulating events to send him into Insight Hangar. Knull sensed Klyntar being transported into an unknown dimension and felt the Symbiote world begin to tremble.

• Gwen thanked Peter Parker for rescuing Harry Osborn and chose not to expose Eddie Brock, intending to avenge her father herself.
• Eddie learned that neither Warp Group nor S.H.I.E.L.D. appeared to be pursuing him, then answered Maria Hill’s call and was ordered to report to Insight Hangar.
• Eddie welcomed the assignment as a chance to sabotage S.H.I.E.L.D.’s three Helicarriers, unaware that Dr. Arnim Zola had placed him on the selection list.
• Maria Hill questioned why Eddie qualified for the assignment but decided not to raise the matter with Nick Fury.
• Dr. Arnim Zola monitored S.H.I.E.L.D.’s projects through the Insight System, including the Titan Jaeger Project and the Ultron System.
• Klyntar was teleported into a Psionic dimension, where Knull sensed the planet and its Symbiotes trembling.

Carl teleported Klyntar into his warp and had Slaanesh break apart the planet, freeing Knull. Knull discovered the powerful beings and treasures around him, then attacked with his Xenophages as Khorne and the Emperor clashed over who would fight him; after his creatures were destroyed by Shou-Lao and Michael, Knull considered fleeing.

• Carl used the Space Stone to teleport Klyntar into his warp and ordered The Five to begin attacking Knull.
• Slaanesh cast the Obedience Spell on the Opposition Symbiotes, severing their connections and causing Klyntar to fall apart.
• Knull emerged from his throne, saw Carl and the others, and was stunned by the Infinity Stones and Darkhold pages in the warp.
• Khorne stepped forward to confront Knull, but the Emperor moved ahead of him, prompting Khorne to threaten the Emperor with a fight later.
• Knull ordered his Xenophage legion to kill the invaders, and Khorne sent Shou-Lao and Ammit to fight them.
• Shou-Lao and Michael burned the Xenophages to ash, revealing their weakness and leading Knull to consider escaping.

Carl defeated Knull in the Warp, erased the consciousnesses of the Opposition Symbiotes, and captured them for later use. He then inspected production of a new Bound Transformer Legion and left the Warp to visit Samuel Stern's laboratory.

• Tzeentch froze Knull and the Xenophages in time, while Nurgle claimed the immobilized Xenophages for research.
• The Emperor killed Knull, whose soul reawakened in the Warp and was left in the Emperor's care by Carl.
• Carl used the Mind Stone to erase the individual consciousnesses of the Opposition Symbiotes, then sealed them in a spatial capsule.
• Carl visited the factory and learned that the first batch of Demon Engines had entered production.
• Carl planned to build a Warp-version Bound Transformer Legion using Odin and Asgardian heroic spirits, rune-filled metal bodies, and the Eternal Flame as their spark.
• Carl left the Warp and headed to Samuel Stern's laboratory.

Carl arranged for Samuel Stern to develop Symbiote Power Armor using the nearly one million consciousness-wiped symbiotes, then prepared the Warp Group for its cosmic expansion while keeping Earth central to his plans. Meanwhile, Nick Fury learned that more than five thousand Symbiote Warriors had vanished.

• Carl gave Samuel Stern nearly one million symbiotes and proposed using them as power cores for the Thunder Warrior Legion's new Symbiote Power Armor.
• Samuel Stern explained that synthesized phenethylamine could replace the symbiotes' need to eat human brains and said Regnar and Phineas Mason were helping the weapons development department.
• Carl approved revisions to the armor's design, reviewed the expedition's gains, and gave Zemo a consciousness-wiped Symbiote Suit for protection.
• Zemo reported that alien sales of blackstone creations had not begun, but Carl said the Warp Group's cosmic plans would proceed while Earth remained its primary focus.
• Nick Fury angrily confronted Black Widow after learning that more than five thousand Symbiote Warriors had disappeared.

Nick Fury learned that the symbiotes had vanished after their lair was destroyed and ordered Black Widow to investigate a possible S.H.I.E.L.D. mole. As New York’s mayoral race began, Victoria Neuman saw Wilson Grant Fisk gaining support and asked Homelander to help her win the mayoralty.

• Captain America and Black Widow told Nick Fury that Ravencroft prisoners had reappeared without symbiotes after a fierce battle destroyed the Symbiote Warriors’ lair.
• Nick Fury suspected a mole in S.H.I.E.L.D. and assigned Black Widow to lead a secret loyalty investigation.
• New York’s mayoral race drew attention to Victoria Neuman and Wilson Grant Fisk, whose campaigns blamed City Hall’s failures and reliance on street-level heroes.
• Victoria Neuman watched a news report showing a voter favoring Fisk, then told her daughter Zoe that Fisk was behind New York’s turmoil.
• Victoria Neuman visited Homelander at Vought Group and asked him to use Vought’s resources to help her become mayor of New York.

Homelander threatened Victoria Neuman into revealing her identity and obeying him, so she resolved to find a way to eliminate him. She enlisted Stan Edgar’s help, and he brought her to the unconscious Starlight, where an ally delivered a mysterious injection.

• Homelander demanded that Victoria Neuman reveal herself as a superhuman and threatened her daughter Zoe when she refused.
• Victoria Neuman heard Wilson Grant Fisk announce his run for mayor, then decided to strike first against Homelander and seek help from Stan Edgar.
• Victoria Neuman visited Stan Edgar in prison, explained Homelander’s threats, and offered him a pardon in exchange for helping her protect Zoe.
• Stan Edgar accepted Victoria Neuman’s plea and promised to protect his granddaughter.
• Victoria Neuman and Stan Edgar visited the unconscious Starlight, and a man arrived with a gun loaded with a dark blue substance.

Stan Edgar revived Starlight with Compound V and recruited her and Victoria Neuman to fight Homelander, then led them to a deserted lab where a virus meant to neutralize Homelander had vanished. At the farm, Victoria confronted Stan over how he had treated her and endangered Zoe.

• Stan Edgar injected Starlight with Compound V, waking her from her coma, and Victoria Neuman told her Hughie Campbell had died.
• Starlight chose to avenge Hughie, and Stan Edgar took her and Victoria west while Selene let them leave under the Coven’s surveillance.
• The three found Stan’s farm laboratory abandoned and in disarray, with blood, broken Compound V containers, and missing virus samples.
• Stan Edgar revealed the lab had been developing a virus to neutralize Homelander, and Starlight said she would accept losing her powers to avenge Hughie.
• Victoria accused Stan of using her and putting her and Zoe in danger, while Stan condemned her decision to inject Zoe with Compound V.
• Victoria insisted Stan had hidden her identity because he was ashamed of her powers, and said she had vowed not to let Zoe endure her childhood.

Victoria Neuman, Starlight, and Stan Edgar found Samir and the last dose of a virus that could kill Homelander, then joined forces with Godolkin University students after escaping mutated animals. Meanwhile, Homelander addressed Vought’s executives about the country’s corruption, leaving them unsure what he intended to do.

• Starlight found a dead lab assistant, and the group was attacked by superpowered sheep before escaping into a warehouse.
• Victoria Neuman reunited with Samir, who explained that a Compound V-injected hamster had caused a lab disaster and that the farm’s water may have been contaminated.
• Samir revealed that the virus was mostly destroyed and handed Victoria Neuman the last dose, prompting her and Starlight to insist it be saved for Homelander.
• Stan Edgar summoned Godolkin University students, who killed the mutated animals, and proposed using them to help take down Homelander.
• Homelander questioned Vought’s executives about why the company had created him and declared that the country was too corrupt for him to repair completely.

Homelander introduced Vought Group’s Metaverse project, which would upload consciousness into a virtual world using Alex Wesker’s T-Phobos Virus. Alex explained the virus’s origins and dangerous fear-triggered mutations, while Homelander claimed he could solve its fatal flaw.

• Homelander announced that the Metaverse project had overcome its biggest challenge and introduced Alex Wesker as the virus laboratory’s new director.
• Alex Wesker described the Metaverse and said Vought Group would test it on prisoners and homeless people before expanding it into other fields.
• Alex revealed that her virus could digitize consciousness and upload it into the Metaverse through specially designed medical pods.
• Alex’s history showed that she had secretly developed the T-Phobos Virus while pretending to pursue Ozwell E. Spencer’s immortality research.
• After Spencer died, Alex sought Vought Group’s backing and offered to help develop a vaccine for the African bioterrorism outbreak linked to Albert Wesker.
• Alex explained that fear activated the T-Phobos Virus and caused mutations, but Homelander said he could solve the problem.

Homelander threatened Victoria Neuman after she refused to remain his puppet, so Stan Edgar arranged a confrontation at an abandoned warehouse and prepared a plan to kill him. Homelander arrived to find Victoria, Starlight, and several Godolkin University students waiting to fight.

• Homelander secured the executives’ support for technical testing in New York, then received Victoria Neuman’s declaration that she would resign and expose him if he harmed her or her daughter.
• Stan Edgar told Victoria and Starlight that provoking Homelander would draw him out, and outlined a plan involving A-Train, the newer Seven members, and Starlight injecting Homelander with the virus.
• Stan Edgar promised the young metahumans that they could join the Seven if they helped kill Homelander, and they agreed to follow his orders.
• A day later, Homelander entered the warehouse and threatened Victoria and Starlight, boasting that he was a god and revealing he had spotted their hidden allies.
• Mary Moreau, Jordan Li, Luke Riordan, and Andre Anderson emerged from behind the barrels as Homelander faced the assembled group.

Homelander was trapped by Stan Edgar and a team of Godolkin students, who prepared to inject him with a deadly virus. Just as Starlight moved to kill him, Slaanesh answered Homelander’s plea and began empowering him with a surge of Warp energy.

• Victoria Neuman and four Godolkin students confronted Homelander, but the Deep and Queen Maeve arrived as his allies.
• The Deep and Queen Maeve attacked Homelander under Kate Dunlap’s mind control, while Luke Riordan, Jordan Li, Andre Anderson, Mary Moreau, and Victoria Neuman restrained and weakened him.
• Stan Edgar arrived with Kate Dunlap and Sam Riordan, explained how he had neutralized Homelander’s allies, and revealed A-Train had betrayed him.
• Stan Edgar let Starlight approach Homelander with a virus injector so she could avenge Hughie.
• Homelander begged Slaanesh for power and offered his soul, and Slaanesh answered by pouring Warp energy into him.

Homelander gained new demonic powers during the failed attempt to inject him with the virus, killing several of the young fighters and escaping their restraints. He caught Stan Edgar and Victoria Neuman on the highway, injected Victoria with the virus, and left Stan helpless as she began to die.

• Starlight nearly injected Homelander, but a maw on his armor blasted a hole through her chest and killed her.
• Homelander's fleshy whip decapitated Luke Riordan, and his laser vision killed Andre Anderson as the fighters tried to restrain him.
• Homelander killed Mary Moreau before she could inject him, then caught the syringe and pursued Stan Edgar and Victoria Neuman.
• Victoria blamed Stan for the failed plan as they fled, but Homelander landed in front of their car and crushed its front end in the collision.
• Homelander pulled Victoria from the wreck and injected her with the virus despite her offer to cooperate, while Stan Edgar watched helplessly.

Homelander killed Victoria Neuman and Stan Edgar, purged Vought of their allies, and used Neuman’s death to announce a manhunt and the Metaverse at Wilson Grant Fisk’s inauguration. The first inmates entered the eerily realistic virtual New York, where newly activated NPCs appeared as testing continued.

• Homelander taunted Victoria Neuman, revealed the faces of captured students on his armor, and watched Neuman and Stan Edgar die as their souls entered the Warp.
• Homelander ordered a purge of Vought employees who had aided Stan Edgar, sending the Deep and Queen Maeve to deal with them.
• At Wilson Grant Fisk’s inauguration, Homelander blamed A-Train’s organization for Victoria Neuman’s murder, vowed to hunt down its collaborators, and announced the Metaverse.
• Alex Wesker injected the first inmates with the T-Fear Virus and placed them in medical pods as Homelander and Sage monitored the consciousness-upload test.
• The inmates awoke in a convincing, empty virtual New York and explored it, while Homelander explained the Metaverse to the cameras.
• Sage activated the next testing phase, causing human figures to appear on the virtual streets, and the inmates speculated that they were NPCs.

Homelander launched the [Metaverse] as a rehabilitation program while secretly using it to draw people into the [Warp] and strengthen his [Slaanesh Cult]. Meanwhile, Gwen and Peter were arrested over alleged murders, released on bail, and faced an uncertain future as their identities drew public attention.

• Homelander used [Sage] to send a Mute Man prisoner to solitary confinement after the prisoner attacked a woman in the [Metaverse], winning praise from reporters.
• Homelander privately revealed that the [Metaverse] was an illusion of the [Warp] built from the six rings of [Slaanesh]'s [Palace of Pleasure], and that pleasure experienced there would make users followers of [Slaanesh].
• The prisoners followed [Sage]'s rules and enjoyed virtual freedom while serving their sentences in medical pods, and the [Vought Group]'s stock and Homelander's popularity surged after the [Metaverse] launched.
• Federal agents arrested Gwen Stacy on suspicion of multiple homicides, and Gwen and Peter Parker were released on bail by legal teams from the [Vought Group] and [Oscorp].
• Gwen told Peter that she had little left to lose after her father's death, and Peter admitted that having his identity exposed had made him feel freer.
• Maria Hill asked Nick Fury whether [S.H.I.E.L.D.] should find another pretext to arrest [Spider-Woman] after the [Vought Group] bailed her out.

Nick Fury monitored Thor and the Warp Group while planning the Ultron System, as the Nova Corps dismissed warnings about Chaos-corrupted Anulax Batteries and sent them to Sovereign. Peter Quill was released from detention and confronted by Yondu, then began to explain what he had found in the forbidden star sector.

• Nick Fury ordered Maria Hill to watch Jane Foster after learning Thor had carried blackstone constructs to Sokovia, and he suspected Carl Mala was gaining Asgard as an ally.
• Eddie Brock learned that Gwen was Captain George Stacy's daughter and looked forward to settling their score when Doomsday arrived.
• Nova Prime failed to persuade the Kree official to restrain Ronan, then dismissed Carson Salk's warnings about Chaos and ordered the Anulax Batteries returned to Sovereign.
• Nova Prime let Peter Quill go free because he had rescued Carson Salk, despite Quill's protests that the batteries were his salvage.
• Peter Quill left the detention center and was grabbed by Yondu, who demanded to know why he had entered the dangerous star sector.
• Peter Quill denied disobeying Yondu and began telling him what he had seen there.

Peter Quill returned to Yondu and his men and agreed to join a job to retrieve the Orb, while Ronan assigned Gamora to pursue it and planned to seek the Cosmic Cube on Earth afterward. On Xandar, Carl obtained the coordinates for Knowhere and decided to watch Star-Lord before visiting the Collector.

• Peter Quill embellished his account of the cargo ship for Yondu and his men, hiding his discovery of the Anulax Batteries.
• Yondu told Peter Quill about a job involving the Orb, and Peter learned that the crew had not come to Xandar just to rescue him.
• Ronan killed a Nova Corps Centurion, then ordered Gamora to retrieve the Orb after Korath reported that Star-Lord had escaped with it.
• Ronan assigned Gamora the Xandar mission and planned to pursue the Cosmic Cube on Earth afterward, while Nebula fell silent after hearing about Earth's protectors.
• Carl left a private art shop on Xandar with the coordinates for Knowhere and decided to watch Star-Lord before visiting the Collector.

Carl arrived on Xandar to pursue the Embers of Genesis and the Celestial head that housed Knowhere, while secretly marking Star-Lord to track his movements. After Star-Lord and his companions escaped Kyln Prison with the Orb, Ronan arrived too late and ordered a search for them.

• Carl left the Broker's shop after planting a psychic mark on Star-Lord, who met Gamora and lost the Orb to her after she kicked him.
• The Nova Corps captured Star-Lord, Gamora, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot and sent them to Kyln Prison, while Carl departed through an azure portal.
• Star-Lord and his companions escaped Kyln Prison aboard the Milano and headed for Knowhere with the Orb.
• Ronan and Nebula arrived at Kyln Prison, where Nebula killed a guard who could not tell them where Star-Lord and Gamora had gone.
• Ronan learned Gamora had planned to sell the Orb and escape Thanos, then ordered his forces to search the star system and kill the prisoners before meeting Thanos.

Ronan confronted Thanos over Gamora’s failure to retrieve the Orb, while Thanos ordered him to return with either the Orb or the Cosmic Cube. At Knowhere, Carl met the Collector and bet that the people who brought him the Orb would ultimately take it back.

• Ronan blamed Gamora and the Chitauri commander for the failure to obtain the Orb, then killed the commander when he insulted him.
• Thanos rebuked Ronan and demanded that he bring back the Orb or the Cosmic Cube, threatening to destroy him and the Kree Empire if he returned empty-handed.
• At Knowhere, Carl examined the Collector’s vast collection and corrected Taneleer Tivan’s mistaken belief that he was the Sorcerer Supreme.
• Tivan asked Carl to sell him his body after death, but Carl instead proposed a bet that Tivan would not keep the Orb.

Carl wagered with Taneleer Tivan that he would give up the [Embers of Genesis] and Knowhere if he lost, while Tivan risked both in return. When Star-Lord and the others arrived with the [Orb], Tivan began showing them the [Power Stone] inside, unaware that Carl expected to win the wager.

• Carl offered to become part of Taneleer Tivan's collection if he lost, while demanding the [Embers of Genesis] and Knowhere if Tivan lost.
• Taneleer Tivan accepted the wager, confident that bounty hunters would soon sell him the [Orb] for four billion.
• Star-Lord, Gamora, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, and Drax arrived at Knowhere and met Taneleer Tivan at his exhibition hall, where they recognized Carl.
• Taneleer Tivan tried to buy Groot's corpse and insulted Rocket Raccoon, prompting Rocket to reach for his blaster before Gamora intervened.
• Gamora handed Taneleer Tivan the [Orb], and he placed it on a disassembly machine while explaining the Infinity Stones to the group.
• Taneleer Tivan projected an image of a [Celestial] holding a scepter with the purple [Power Stone] embedded in it.