Recaps

Lu Qi investigated a destroyed cargo fleet and learned that a person and a giant monster had attacked it. Meanwhile, Star-Lord and Gamora’s crew reached the Cosmic Beast’s last known location, where a Giant Beast Hunting Group ordered them to leave.

• Lu Qi found a cargo ship’s black box and watched recordings showing an unidentified figure and a giant monster destroy the fleet after it opened fire.
• Star-Lord told Gamora that Lu Qi could teleport across tens of millions of light-years and had promised to help them if they called for assistance.
• Star-Lord grew close to Gamora, but she slapped him when he leaned toward her.
• Star-Lord’s crew arrived at the Cosmic Beast’s last known location and spotted a fleet already there.
• Gamora answered the fleet’s contact request, and a member of the Giant Beast Hunting Group demanded that her crew leave.

Star-Lord’s group tracked the Cosmic Beast Shadowbane and discovered it was fighting Silver Surfer, while Shadow recognized the beast as a former comrade. Lu Qi joined the pursuit, leaving Gamora worried that he would uncover her past ties to Thanos.

• Gamora used the Cosmic Beast sightings to lead Star-Lord’s group toward the beast, while the Giant Beast Hunting Group secretly followed them and planned to profit by contacting Thanos.
• Star-Lord’s group found Shadowbane fighting Silver Surfer, whose attacks could wound the beast but could not stop its rapid regeneration.
• Shadowbane’s aura left Rocket, Groot, and Drax feeling sick, but Shadow urged the group to keep chasing after recognizing the beast as a comrade from the Battle of New York.
• Lu Qi arrived through a portal after Shadow contacted him and explained that he had followed Shadowbane’s traces across nearby star systems.
• Gamora recognized Lu Qi as an enemy of Thanos and withdrew to the lower cabin, fearing he would discover her identity, while Lu Qi chose to conceal that he knew who she was.

Lu Qi reunited with Shadowbane and trapped Silver Surfer in the Mirror Dimension, where he revealed that Galactus was his father-in-law. Outside, the Giant Beast Hunting Group disabled Star-Lord’s ship, and a Shadow Ninja began cutting through their cables.

• Lu Qi left Star-Lord’s crew at a distance and flew out to meet Shadowbane, while Star-Lord and Gamora discussed surviving in a vacuum and Shadowbane’s unsettling influence.
• Silver Surfer attacked Lu Qi and tried to flee, but Lu Qi trapped him in the Mirror Dimension and reunited affectionately with Shadowbane.
• Lu Qi told Silver Surfer that Galactus was resting at his home with Galacta and said Galactus was his father-in-law.
• Star-Lord’s crew discovered Lu Qi, Shadowbane, and Silver Surfer had vanished, then the Giant Beast Hunting Group captured their ship with heavy grappling cables.
• A Shadow Ninja went outside the disabled ship, used a Dark Energy spell on a cable, and severed it with an enchanted weapon.

The Guardians fought the Giant Beast Hunting Group as it tried to capture Gamora, but the attackers boarded and tore apart their ship. Star-Lord’s hidden Star God Gene awakened as he drifted unconscious in space, while a new warship arrived and charged its main cannon.

• The Giant Beast Hunting Group trapped the Guardians’ ship with an energy net, so Star-Lord called Yondu while Rocket, Groot, and Shadow attacked the warships to stall for time.
• The hunters sent armored Beast-Capture Mechas to seize Gamora; Shadow destroyed one and wounded others, but the mechas boarded the ship and cut through its hull.
• The mechas subdued Drax and captured Gamora, but Rocket’s laser weapon damaged them and tore the ship apart, leaving Gamora trapped in a mecha’s grip.
• Star-Lord freed Gamora by giving her his helmet, but debris separated them, and he lost consciousness in the vacuum as the Star God Gene activated within him.
• A vicious-looking warship arrived and its commander ordered the main cannon to charge.

Yondu rescued Star-Lord and his companions from the Giant Beast Hunting Group, then confronted Star-Lord over his alleged betrayal. Star-Lord avoided execution by claiming he had bypassed Yondu to secure a larger payout, leaving Yondu and the Ravagers hearing his explanation.

• Yondu used his Ravager insignia and a threat of enforcing the code to make the Giant Beast Hunting Group let his ship take Star-Lord and his companions.
• Yondu recalled how Stakar had rescued him from slavery, and how he was later expelled from the Ravagers for violating their code while refusing to deliver children to a client who killed them.
• The Giant Beast Hunting Group secretly attached a tracker to Yondu's ship, then offered Thanos the signal coordinates of the Ravagers carrying Gamora.
• Star-Lord woke in Yondu's custody, where the Ravagers argued over how to kill and eat him until Yondu gave him time to explain himself.
• Star-Lord claimed he had sought a larger profit by arranging a deal for the orb's hundred-million-credit black-market bounty, which had drawn his pursuers.

Star-Lord recovered aboard Yondu’s Ravager ship and reunited with the Shadow Ninjas and his other companions, who fought their way toward the hangar. As Yondu moved to intercept them, a strange arrow shot toward Star-Lord.

• Yondu spared Star-Lord, demanded a share of the hundred million credits, and sent him to the medical bay before allowing him to visit the prisoners.
• Drax, Groot, Rocket, Gamora, and the Shadow Ninjas broke out of their cell and knocked out the Ravagers guarding Star-Lord.
• The escape alarm sounded after Yondu’s cameras spotted the group, and Star-Lord led his companions toward the hangar.
• The group fought through the Ravagers, and Star-Lord discovered he could sense attacks and withstand blows better than before.
• Groot used Wood Release, Deep Forest Emergence to seal the hangar entrance with vines while the Ravagers prepared flamethrowers.
• Yondu headed to the hangar with his Yaka Arrow as Star-Lord led the others toward a spaceship, but a strange arrow suddenly shot at him.

Star-Lord and his companions escaped Yondu’s Ravager ship after fighting over the hundred million and the Yaka Arrow, but they encountered a warship sent by Thanos to retrieve Gamora. With Lu Qi still unreachable, they turned back toward Yondu’s ship to seek help.

• Yondu confronted Star-Lord’s group over the hundred million, and the Yaka Arrow battled Shadow Ninjas before the group restrained it and Star-Lord knocked Yondu unconscious.
• Rocket recovered the Yaka Arrow, and the group fled the Ravager ship as Yondu’s crew fired at them.
• A warship hailed Gamora and announced that it had come to take her back to her adoptive father, Thanos.
• Rocket found that Lu Qi had used the Energy Crystal, so Shadow Ninjas sent him a message while the group faced the approaching warship.
• Gamora warned that Thanos’s forces would kill her companions, and Star-Lord turned the ship back toward Yondu’s Ravager ship for help.

Star-Lord and the Ravagers fought Ebony Maw’s Chitauri fleet, initially overwhelming the soldiers while Gamora suspected Ebony Maw was luring them into a trap. The Ravagers ignored Star-Lord’s warning, and their warship aimed its main cannon at the enemy vessel.

• Star-Lord recognized that Yondu had deliberately let his team go, then urged him to join forces against the warship seeking the hundred million credits.
• Yondu rallied the Ravagers by claiming someone wanted to steal their credits, and they launched their ships to attack.
• Ebony Maw deployed the Chitauri fleet and piloted the warship toward the Ravagers’ vessel while Cull Obsidian waited near the boarding rack.
• The Ravagers’ ships destroyed Chitauri skiffs and biological ships, while the Chitauri soldiers’ return fire failed to reach them.
• Gamora noticed the Chitauri soldiers’ unusual frenzy and warned Star-Lord that Ebony Maw might be setting a trap.
• Star-Lord told Blaze to warn Yondu and the others, but Blaze dismissed the warning as the Ravagers’ warship aimed its main cannon at the enemy vessel.

Yondu and the Ravagers fought to escape the Chitauri fleet’s encirclement, but Ebony Maw turned the battle against them and captured Yondu’s Yaka Arrow. The Ravagers remained under attack as Ebony Maw imprisoned the arrow in compressed wreckage.

• Blaze ignored Star-Lord’s warning and charged the Ravagers’ main cannon, while Yondu noticed the Chitauri fleet had surrounded his forces and ordered Blaze to fire at their flagship.
• Ebony Maw used telekinesis to move his warship out of the cannon’s path, seal off the Ravagers’ escape, and board the Ravagers warship with Cull Obsidian and Chitauri soldiers.
• Yondu led the Ravagers fleet through the encirclement with his Yaka Arrow, but Ebony Maw manipulated wreckage to attack their ships.
• Yondu recognized Ebony Maw as the one directing the attack and sent the Yaka Arrow after him, but Ebony Maw used a Chitauri as a shield and disrupted Yondu’s control.
• Ebony Maw compressed nearby skiffs and wreckage around the Yaka Arrow, trapping it and preventing Yondu from controlling it.

Yondu and Kraglin battled Ebony Maw until Star-Lord’s crew rescued them. Afterward, Kraglin revealed that Yondu had protected Star-Lord from his murderous father, leaving Star-Lord struggling to face the man he had mistaken for a villain.

• Ebony Maw trapped Yondu’s Yaka Arrow, cut the Ravagers’ ship in half, and offered Yondu a place in Thanos’s service, but Yondu refused.
• Star-Lord’s cannon fire struck Ebony Maw, and Groot brought Yondu and Kraglin aboard the rescuers’ ship.
• Star-Lord pressed Yondu about why he had let the crew go, but Yondu stayed silent until Kraglin decided to explain his past.
• Kraglin revealed that Yondu had refused a client’s order to deliver Star-Lord after discovering the client had murdered more than a thousand children, and had kept Star-Lord safe from then on.
• Star-Lord learned that the father he had longed to meet had ordered the deaths of his children, while Yondu had protected him, and he struggled to face Yondu.

Yondu rushed back toward the Ravagers' mothership after Blaze reported an attack, while Cull Obsidian seized control of the ship and encountered Gamora. Gamora tried to lead Cull Obsidian away, but he grew suspicious and smashed the floor beneath him.

• Blaze told Yondu that a hammer-wielding monster had broken into the Ravagers' mothership, and Yondu flew there with Star-Lord.
• Ebony Maw survived Star-Lord's attack and called on Supergiant for assistance.
• Cull Obsidian and the Chitauri overwhelmed the Ravagers aboard the mothership, and Cull Obsidian broke into the bridge, burying Blaze under debris.
• Gamora appeared and told Cull Obsidian she wanted to return to her father, then proposed blowing up the mothership rather than clearing it of enemies.
• Cull Obsidian became suspicious when Gamora led him somewhere with no hangar and claimed Ebony Maw was waiting outside, then smashed the floor with his hammer.

Rocket, Shadow, and the Guardians fought Cull Obsidian, whose strength and durability overwhelmed them until Groot drained his vitality through his wounds. Cull Obsidian was left helpless and dying as Yondu killed the arriving Chitauri.

• Rocket detonated the corridor bombs, but Cull Obsidian survived the debris and charged him until Shadow intervened.
• Shadow used Shadow Form and black flames to injure Cull Obsidian, while Drax and Groot joined the fight; Cull Obsidian severely damaged Groot and blasted Shadow into a wall.
• Cull Obsidian captured Gamora, who offered to return to Thanos, but Star-Lord attacked with gravity devices and Yondu joined the battle with his Yaka Arrow.
• Rocket revived Groot with nutrient fluid, and Groot clung to Cull Obsidian and drained his strength through the wounds in his body.
• Shadow kicked Cull Obsidian's hammer away as Groot continued draining him, and Yondu killed the Chitauri who arrived to help.
• Cull Obsidian lost his strength, fell to his knees, and closed his eyes as he awaited death.

Star-Lord and his allies battled Ebony Maw aboard the Ravagers' ship, but Shadow was destroyed when Maw turned the ship's engines against him. After Maw tortured Star-Lord and blamed Gamora for his suffering, Star-Lord awakened a powerful energy within himself, killed Maw, and rescued Gamora.

• Ebony Maw tore open the battleship and fought Yondu, while Shadow protected Star-Lord and the others as they moved toward the hangar.
• Shadow used Yondu's Yaka Arrow to reach Ebony Maw, but Maw activated the ship's engines and annihilated Shadow with their energy stream.
• Gamora warned that Supergiant could arrive with a fleet, and Ebony Maw captured the crew, imprisoned Gamora, and tortured Star-Lord with thin needles.
• Gamora blamed herself for Star-Lord's suffering, but Star-Lord urged her not to listen to Ebony Maw and awakened a surge of blue energy.
• Star-Lord broke free, killed Ebony Maw, and rescued Gamora before the two kissed; Yondu and the others returned to the mothership.

Yondu, Star-Lord, and their allies escaped the Chitauri after rescuing the Ravagers, but Supergiant trapped them with a fleet while attempting to seize Gamora. As Supergiant’s forces closed in, unidentified objects approached her warship from several directions.

• Yondu discovered that the Ravager warship’s engines and spatial anchor had broken it, so he organized an evacuation while Star-Lord and his companions stayed behind to help.
• Star-Lord used his new powers to hold off the Chitauri while Yondu and the others evacuated the remaining Ravagers, then the group escaped together.
• Gamora told Star-Lord that Thanos had killed her parents and raised her, leaving her conflicted about how she felt toward him.
• Supergiant’s fleet emerged from wormholes and surrounded the group; her persuasive voice nearly compelled them to surrender Gamora, but Star-Lord shut off the communicator.
• Star-Lord offered to use up his remaining energy to help his companions escape, but Rocket insisted they would leave together, while Supergiant ordered her forces to capture Gamora.
• Supergiant’s confidant reported that unidentified objects were approaching from different directions.

Lu Qi intercepted Supergiant’s fleet, defeated it with the Dark Giant Legion, and secretly influenced Supergiant to report Gamora’s betrayal to Thanos in person. After reuniting with the others, Lu Qi learned that Star-Lord had awakened his power, and the chapter ended as Star-Lord went to speak with Yondu before he left.

• Supergiant ordered her fleet to retreat when she learned Lu Qi was approaching, while Star-Lord and the others waited for the newcomers.
• Lu Qi smashed through Supergiant’s fleet, unleashed the Dark Giant Legion, and captured and manipulated a thread of Supergiant’s psychic power before she escaped.
• Supergiant decided to return to Thanos in person and tell him that Gamora had betrayed him, while Lu Qi watched the Dark Giants destroy the remaining ships.
• Lu Qi let Shadowbane collect the wreckage, then reunited with Rocket, Star-Lord, Gamora, and the others and gave Rocket a new Energy Crystal.
• Lu Qi recognized that Star-Lord had awakened his power and introduced Silver Surfer to the group.
• Star-Lord hesitated when Gamora told him Yondu was leaving, then went to speak with him.

Lu Qi helped Star-Lord and Yondu confront Yondu’s guilt, and Star-Lord learned that Yondu had saved him out of love and had come to consider him family. As Yondu departed, Ego approached, and Star-Lord agreed to meet his biological father before Lu Qi dealt with him.

• Lu Qi identified himself to Yondu, who thanked him for destroying the Kree Empire and confessed his guilt over the children he had delivered to Ego.
• Lu Qi argued that Yondu had saved Star-Lord, and Star-Lord asked whether Yondu had rescued him only to atone for his sins.
• Yondu recalled protecting Star-Lord, sharing the Ravagers as his home, and eventually treating him as family; Star-Lord thanked him and called him Father.
• Yondu urged Star-Lord to cherish his family, and Star-Lord affirmed that Gamora, Rocket, Groot, and the Shadow Ninjas were family to him.
• Silver Surfer spotted Ego approaching, and Lu Qi offered to handle him while arranging a reliable fleet commander for Star-Lord’s team.
• Star-Lord agreed to meet Ego before he died so he could ask why Ego had abandoned his mother.

Ego approached Star-Lord, who confronted him about murdering his half-siblings and abandoning his mother. Ego offered a sympathetic account of his past and used Star-Lord’s lingering hopes for a father to invite him to his planet.

• Ego recognized Star-Lord as a son whose Celestial Power had awakened and flew over to meet him.
• Star-Lord asked Lu Qi to let him speak with Ego, and Lu Qi agreed while considering how to deal with Ego and questioning his claims about Star-Lord’s power.
• Star-Lord confronted Ego about killing his half-siblings, and Ego claimed he had killed them to spare himself the pain of watching them age and die.
• Star-Lord challenged Ego over leaving his mother, and Ego claimed he had returned to Earth three times but fled when the Kree threatened his planet.
• Ego told Star-Lord he had searched for him after escaping the Kree and promised he would have cared for him regardless of his inheritance.
• Ego invited Star-Lord to visit a room prepared for him on the planet, as Star-Lord’s hostility began to give way to hope.

Lu Qi stopped Ego from taking Star-Lord’s energy, then destroyed Ego’s planetary body and summoned Galactus to enforce the rules of balance. Galactus erased Ego and sent Silver Surfer to remove his seeds from over a thousand planets, while Lu Qi looked forward to a reward from Eternity.

• Lu Qi interrupted Ego’s attempt to influence Star-Lord and rescued him from Ego’s grasp by burning Ego’s body.
• Lu Qi transformed into a giant demonic form and battered Ego’s planetary body until most of it shattered.
• Galactus arrived, explained that Ego’s plan to assimilate planets violated the rules of balance, and destroyed Ego’s consciousness.
• Galactus identified Ego’s brain as that of a juvenile Celestial and extracted coordinates to more than a thousand seeded planets.
• Galactus sent Silver Surfer to remove Ego’s seeds and left to meet Eternity, while Lu Qi returned to Star-Lord and his companions through a portal.

Lu Qi rescued Mantis after Ego’s defeat and helped Yondu seek a return to the Ravager Alliance. When Mantis revealed Rocket’s short remaining lifespan, Lu Qi created a contract that bound the Guardians’ lives and lifespans together, and the group signed it before considering whether to accept Mantis as a companion.

• Lu Qi offered to explain Yondu’s role in Ego’s crimes so Yondu could rejoin the Ravager Alliance, then freed Mantis from Ego’s powerless egg-shaped ship.
• Star-Lord awkwardly discussed his inherited powers and endless lifespan with Gamora, then learned from Mantis that Rocket feared he would die soon.
• Lu Qi stopped Rocket from threatening Mantis and urged him to tell his companions the truth about his condition.
• Lu Qi created a contract to divide the signers’ lifespans and bind their lives together, and Star-Lord and the others signed it while leaving out the reviving Shadow Ninjas.
• Lu Qi explained that Mantis could join the group and use her abilities to help them, and Gamora agreed after hearing she could read people’s thoughts during deals.

Lu Qi checked on Hela as her treatment progressed, took her out for a day in the city, and learned she had begun to recognize her own role in the conflict with Odin. He then advanced the Shadow World’s development by inscribing six higher-order rules from the Infinity Stones, while Galactus and Eternity discussed the risks and agreed Lu Qi would eventually need balancing rules.

• Lu Qi reviewed the Trading Station’s transactions, then learned Hela’s treatment was progressing but that images of Odin could still upset her.
• Hela asked Lu Qi to take her outside, and he agreed after the doctor approved; she said she regretted rebelling against Odin without hearing him out.
• Lu Qi spent the day shopping with Hela, thanked her for trusting him, and asked Thor and the others to visit her when they could.
• Lu Qi used the AllSpark to draw rule fragments from the six Infinity Stones and inscribe them into the Shadow World, then replenished the stones with Dark Energy.
• Eternity told Galactus that Lu Qi had begun inscribing higher-order rules, and Galactus said he would help Lu Qi obtain balancing rules while Eternity insisted he must pass their tests.

Lu Qi returned with Galacta, while the secretary of defense was arrested after trying to expose the president’s cooperation with suspected Muspelheim survivors. Lu Qi then brought Megatron and his forces to the Transformers World, where nearly two hundred unidentified spacecraft approached China.

• Lu Qi met Galacta after helping Shuri design Wakanda’s armor, and Megatron arrived seeking his help.
• The secretary of defense suspected the president’s Trading Station partners were Muspelheim survivors plotting revenge on Asgard, but the president arrested him to protect their cooperation.
• Megatron assembled his troops, and Lu Qi transported them through the Shadow World to the Transformers World so they could begin reviving Cybertron.
• In China, officials discussed the country’s Dark Energy weapons and the possibility of another Decepticon attack.
• An alarm announced that nearly two hundred unidentified spacecraft were approaching Chinese airspace.

Megatron sent a vast fleet through a portal near Earth to test Optimus Prime, while China and the Autobots prepared to repel the invasion. The Autobots advanced with new Dark Energy equipment, and the chapter ended as their attacks made the Decepticon starships’ armor tremble.

• A fleet emerged from a black doorway in Earth's orbit, and China’s leader and Optimus Prime began planning a counterattack.
• Megatron explained to Lu Qi that he wanted to test Optimus Prime and compare their rival ideals, then ordered his fleet to confront the Autobots.
• Optimus Prime led the Autobots into space wearing new equipment that generated black barriers, which surprised Lu Qi and Megatron.
• Dark Energy blasts from Earth damaged dozens of starships, and Lu Qi controlled the energy while Megatron ordered the damaged ships to withdraw.
• The Autobots used their Dark Energy weapons against the remaining fleet, and the starships’ armor began to tremble.

The Autobots fought Megatron’s Starship Giants and tried to destroy the portal, but Lu Qi arrived and stopped the Destruction Bomb from detonating. Megatron explained that he had tested the Autobots’ progress and challenged Optimus Prime to prove whose ideals could restore Cybertron faster.

• The Starship Giants pressed the Autobots, while Arcee Squad attacked their shields and Star Rock disrupted their assault before Bumblebee drew him away.
• Optimus Prime led the Autobots toward the portal as Earth’s forces provided covering fire, then charged through the Starship Giants with his Dark-Energy Swords.
• Optimus Prime tried to send the Destruction Bomb through the portal, but Megatron emerged and caught it as its countdown reached zero.
• Lu Qi arrived, revealed that he had stopped the bomb by controlling its Dark Energy, and halted the fighting.
• Megatron said the battle had been a test of whether the Autobots could revive the Cybertronian Race and proposed competing with Optimus Prime’s civilization.
• Optimus Prime accepted Megatron’s challenge to let their actions prove whose ideals would restore Cybertron faster.

Lu Qi learned that Supergiant was about to meet Thanos and told Odin, who hurried to join him. As Odin prepared to confront Thanos, he decided to blame him for Hela’s past actions so he could welcome her back into the family.

• Lu Qi told Galacta that the Xia Dynasty had turned Dark Crystal energy into weapons and planned to bring them to the Trading Station.
• Surtur secretly gathered Flame Demons beneath Earth, shrank into a crystal embedded in his crown, and planned to trick humans into delivering it to Asgard.
• Supergiant arrived at Thanos’s planned hiding place, while Lu Qi sensed the approaching opportunity and opened a portal connecting Transformers World to the Trading Station.
• The Xia Dynasty leader visited the Trading Station with Optimus Prime, while invited world leaders refused to attend after misunderstanding his invitations.
• Lu Qi told Odin that Supergiant had found Thanos, and Odin rushed to confront him while deciding to hold him responsible for Hela’s past and bring her back into the family.

Supergiant returned to Thanos to report Gamora’s betrayal, but Thanos realized her mind had been influenced, and Lu Qi and Odin confronted them aboard the Chitauri warship. Thanos escaped before they arrived, while Lu Qi offered to help Odin find him; elsewhere, Thanos reached a frost-covered planet, and an envoy brought Zha Hamiao a helmet found in magma.

• The Chitauri commander detained Supergiant and showed her Thanos’s message, after which she reported Gamora’s betrayal to Thanos.
• Thanos recognized that Supergiant’s mind had been affected, but Odin and Lu Qi arrived before she could leave and Lu Qi killed her with a psychic blast.
• Thanos argued with Lu Qi about his plan to kill half the universe’s population, then revealed that he had already escaped the warship.
• Lu Qi searched the ship and told Odin that Supergiant had led Thanos’s intelligence network, then offered to take Odin to the Nova Empire’s Supreme for help tracking him.
• Thanos arrived at a frost-covered planet, while United States envoy Jell brought Zha Hamiao a massive helmet discovered in underground magma.