Chapter Summaries

Heimdall attacked Hela but was quickly defeated, and she devoured his soul before confronting Tony and Loki. Hela left without fighting Tony, who then took Loki to the Asgard Vault to gather materials for a formation that could help the Reality Stone consume Asgard.

• Tony and Loki watched as Heimdall charged Hela, who shattered his sword strike, extracted his soul, and swallowed it.
• Hela questioned Tony and Loki, but Tony confidently reminded her that he had released her, and she chose to leave him alone.
• Tony told Loki they needed to gather materials for a formation using the Reality Stone to consume Asgard.
• Tony brought Loki to the Asgard Vault and pressured him to figure out how to open its doors.

Thor returned to Asgard with Captain and the others, found the palace in ruins and Frigga missing, and learned that Hela had escaped and killed Heimdall. Tony and Loki continued trying to open the Asgard Vault while Thor left to search for Hela.

• Thor brought Captain and the others to Asgard, where they found the realm eerily quiet and the palace devastated.
• Thor searched the Rear Garden for Frigga but found no sign of her, then reunited with Captain and the others.
• A boom from the Asgard Vault drew Thor and the others to Tony and Loki, who were trying to open its doors.
• Tony told Thor that Hela had escaped from Hell, that Frigga might have evacuated, and that Hela had killed Heimdall.
• Thor argued with Tony about failing to stop Hela, then left to search for her while Tony and Loki continued working on the vault.

Tony agreed to an alliance with Hela after learning that Bor, Odin’s father, might still be alive and pose a threat. Hela helped Tony and Loki open the Asgard Vault, and the three began searching its deeper chambers for valuables.

• Thor left Asgard with the Captain and the others to search for Hela while Tony waited with Loki as Loki worked to open the vault.
• Hela offered to help Tony open the vault and proposed an alliance against Asgard’s gods, warning him that Bor might still be alive.
• Tony agreed to work with Hela, intending to use her strength against Bor before their conflicting goals brought them into conflict.
• Hela helped Loki open the Asgard Vault, and she, Tony, and Loki entered together.
• Hela disparaged the vault’s shallow treasures while Tony and Loki selected materials from its deeper chambers.

Tony and his companions plundered the Asgard Vault, where Hela recovered the Eternal Flame for her Undead Army. After gaining the Dog Talisman and summoning Shadow Eater Ninjas, Tony secretly sent them across Asgard to grow by devouring shadows, and an unexplained epidemic began.

• Tony, Loki, and Hela took a third of the Asgard Vault’s contents, and Hela claimed the Eternal Flame.
• Hela invited Tony to witness her army’s revival, but he refused and returned to the palace with Loki.
• Tony used his remaining draw to obtain the Dog Talisman, which granted him eternal youth and undying life.
• Tony summoned a Shadow Eater Ninja and realized the ninjas could grow without limit by devouring shadows.
• Tony traveled through hundreds of Asgardian cities, summoning Shadow Eater Ninjas and ordering them to grow in secret.
• Residents across Asgard collapsed unconscious while Shadow Eater Ninjas grew stronger in the darkness.

Thor sought Mimir's guidance on how to save Asgard and learned that he needed Hela's help to survive the coming calamity. He led Captain and the others to the Sea of the Dead, where Hela was breaking the seal on her undead army, and flew to meet her.

• Thor searched for the hidden gods and, finding none, brought Captain and the others to the Well of Wisdom to consult Mimir.
• Mimir foretold Asgard's destruction and told Thor that Hela was in the Sea of the Dead and that he needed her help and the gods' strength to survive.
• Thor decided to follow Mimir's guidance and took Captain and the others to the Sea of the Dead, keeping his suspicion that Tony was behind the calamity to himself.
• Hela used the Eternal Flame to break the seal holding the Undead Army, awakening the undead beneath the Sea of the Dead.
• Thor spotted Hela and flew toward her while Captain and the others waited at the entrance.

Thor warned Hela that someone intended to destroy Asgard and tried to persuade her to cooperate against the threat. Hela refused to stop hunting the gods, but allowed Thor and his companions to follow her as the seal on the Sea of the Dead neared its destruction.

• Thor told Hela that someone planned to destroy Asgard and said Mimir had revealed the danger.
• Hela admitted she did not want Asgard destroyed but doubted Thor's warning and refused to cooperate.
• Thor offered to stay with Hela and help if she could not handle the calamity herself.
• Hela insisted on hunting the gods, and Thor decided to follow her while keeping his own plans in mind.
• Hela continued breaking the Sea of the Dead's seal with the Eternal Flame, and Thor chose not to stop her.

Hela awakened the Undead Army and led it to invade Midgard, while Thor and his companions followed, hoping the attack would draw out the gods. As the army overwhelmed Midgard’s defenses, a gigantic shadow monster appeared outside a besieged city.

• Hela awakened the Undead Army, then led it out as Thor and the others followed after she refused to promise cooperation.
• Hela announced that she would sweep through the Nine Realms and marched the Undead Army toward Midgard to force the gods to defend their believers.
• After nine days of marching, the Undead Army shattered Midgard’s nine border defenses in three days and pushed into the realm.
• Captain challenged Thor over the carnage, but Thor argued that the coming destruction of Asgard would be far worse.
• As the Undead Army threatened a border city and its million-plus inhabitants, a huge shadow gathered outside the walls and formed a towering monster with an enormous mouth.

A giant shadow eater and the Shadow Eater Corps halted the Undead Army across Midgard, while city generals fed prisoners to the creatures in exchange for their aid. After receiving reports of the creatures, Hela and Captain suspected they were connected to Tony.

• A giant shadow eater attacked the Undead Army, while tiny shadow eaters devoured the defenders’ shadows on the city walls.
• The general ordered soldiers to feed prisoners to the Shadow Eater Corps, which grew into towering creatures and joined the battle outside.
• After the Shadow Eater Corps helped hold back the Undead Army, the general ordered more criminals gathered as offerings.
• Similar shadow eaters appeared across Midgard, and most city generals fed them while those who refused were devoured with their guards.
• Hela received reports of the Shadow Eater Corps, and Captain remarked that they sounded like Tony’s Shadow Army.

Thor led the Captain and the others to fight alongside Hela because he believed Tony might threaten Asgard, but Susan discovered the Shadow Eater Corps were feeding on humans. The group attacked the Shadow Eater Corps, leaving the battle raging.

• Thor convinced the Captain and the others to help Hela, arguing that Tony might be the black calamity threatening Asgard and that Hela could match him.
• Susan went undercover to investigate why Tony's Shadow Eater Corps were defending Midgard.
• Susan discovered that the Shadow Eater Corps were devouring people's shadows and that humans were being brought in as food.
• Susan told Thor and the others what she had seen, enraging the Captain.
• The Captain charged the Shadow Eater Corps, and Thor and the others followed, striking the monsters on the battlefield.

Tony watched Thor and the others join forces with Hela against the Shadow Eater Corps and suspected the world's will had changed events to oppose his plan to devour Asgard. He tasked Loki with hunting down the gods and sealing their souls, and Loki set out with the Shadowkhan to find their resting places.

• Tony watched Thor and the others fight alongside Hela and wondered whether his plans had prompted the world's will to alter events.
• Tony summoned Loki and ordered him to find and kill the gods, but Loki explained that their souls made them difficult to destroy.
• Tony gave Loki a Lava Troll and temporary command of the Shadow Trolls and Shadow Ninjas, marking him so he could sense the Shadow Kingdom.
• Loki summoned the Shadow Trolls and Shadow Ninjas and ordered them to search for the gods' resting places.
• Loki left Asgard, vowing to toll the gods' death knell himself.

Loki entered the Dark Abyss and used the Shadowkhan to fight through its dark creatures until he reached Hoder’s Palace. Hoder came out to confront him, unaware that Loki intended to kill him.

• Loki learned that the Shadowkhan had found Hoder recovering in the Dark Abyss and flew there.
• Loki plunged into the abyss, descended for an hour, and landed among its dangerous dark creatures.
• A Shadow Ninja killed a giant black serpent, and Loki ordered the Shadowkhan to clear a path to Hoder.
• The Shadowkhan slaughtered dark creatures as they led Loki tens of thousands of miles to Hoder’s Palace.
• Hoder sensed Loki’s arrival, looked for Tony, and then left the Palace to threaten Loki.
• Loki welcomed Hoder’s approach and decided to kill him swiftly.

Loki confronted Hoder in the dark abyss and used illusions and successive waves of summoned creatures to wear down his opponent. When Hoder ignored the attacks to hunt for Loki’s real body, Loki detonated a hundred Lava Trolls, leaving Hoder’s fate uncertain.

• Loki revealed his intention to kill Hoder, who mocked Loki’s origins and attacked him with dark power.
• Loki survived Hoder’s killing blow by using an illusion, then sent repeated waves of Shadowkhan against him until Hoder grew exhausted.
• Hoder tried to seize Loki’s true body, but the figure vanished as another illusion.
• Hoder ignored the Shadowkhan and prepared to endure their attacks while searching for Loki’s real body.
• Loki ordered the Lava Trolls to swell and explode, engulfing Hoder’s Palace in a massive blast.
• After the flames and dust cleared, Loki found a charred body at the battlefield’s center and wondered if the explosion had killed Hoder in one go.

Loki outwitted Hoder, beheaded him, and banished him to the Shadow Kingdom, cutting him off from Asgard. Hoder remained alive but helpless as the Shadow Ninja carried his head away.

• Loki waited in hiding while Hoder feigned death, then summoned Shadowkhan when Hoder revealed the ruse.
• Hoder tried to flee, but Loki used Lava Giants and Lava Trolls to block his path and blast him.
• Loki distracted Hoder with the Mind Stone Scepter and beheaded him.
• Hoder insisted that his soul would let him return, but Loki said he would banish him from Asgard.
• Loki sent a Shadow Ninja to carry Hoder's head into the Shadow Kingdom.

Loki left the Dark Abyss after Hoder’s death and began hunting the surviving gods, while Hela’s forces struggled against the Shadow Eater Corps at Midgard. Hela apparently destroyed the Shadowkhan, but the silent city and its sleeping defenders left Thor and Captain suspecting that the creatures had only withdrawn.

• The Shadow Ninja returned to the Shadow Kingdom with Hoder’s head, and Loki left the Dark Abyss to target Manni and the other surviving gods.
• Thor and his allies fled after fighting the same Shadow Eaters through repeated revivals, and Captain told Hela they were called the Shadowkhan and served Tony.
• Hela swept the Shadow Eater Corps away with her deathly power, but sensed no souls and doubted they were truly destroyed.
• Hela ordered the Undead Legion to advance into the city, where Thor and his allies found no resistance and discovered defenders lying asleep on the walls.
• Thor wondered whether the Shadowkhan had retreated because the city had no food left, and Captain suspected he was right.

Thor, the Captain, and Hela discovered that a force had left the people of a city alive but permanently asleep, and the Captain urged Hela to join forces against Tony. Their discussion was interrupted by a sign that a god had been permanently killed, while Tony wondered whether consuming divine souls could endlessly strengthen the Shadow Kingdom and the Shadowkhan.

• Thor and the Captain searched the city with the Undead Army and found its inhabitants alive but trapped in a deep, unending sleep.
• Hela questioned whether she should continue attacking Midgard, but the Captain argued that Tony posed a greater threat and might be as powerful and difficult to destroy as Odin.
• Thor recognized blood raining over Asgard as Godfall and explained that a god had been permanently killed; he suspected Tony.
• Tony realized that the Shadow Kingdom had devoured Hoder's soul and strengthened the Shadowkhan.
• Tony wondered whether consuming more gods could make the Shadowkhan an immortal army of godlike warriors, then hoped Loki would provide another test.

Loki found Manni, the God of Strength, sleeping in the Withered Bone Plain and attacked him. Manni broke free of Loki’s illusion and charged again, but Loki used the Mind Stone to keep him at a distance.

• Loki sent hundreds of thousands of Shadow Ninjas into the Withered Bone Plain to search for Manni, then entered the gravity-heavy territory himself.
• The Shadow Ninjas located Manni inside a peak, and Loki blasted open the mountainside to wake him.
• Manni emerged from the shattered peak and attacked Loki, who trapped him in an illusory world filled with disasters.
• Manni tore through the illusion and charged at Loki again, but Loki used the Mind Stone to make the space between them seem endless.

Loki killed Manni and sent his head into the Shadow Kingdom, where Tony watched the darkness consume Manni’s soul. The Shadow Kingdom and its Shadow Ninjas grew stronger, leaving Tony eager to see how powerful they would become by devouring Asgard’s gods.

• Loki immobilized Manni with psychic energy and burned his body to ash after rejecting his offer to submit.
• Loki sent Manni’s head into the Shadow Kingdom with a Shadow Ninja, where it joined Hoder’s head.
• Tony entered the Shadow Kingdom and watched as darkness gradually covered Manni’s head while Manni remained trapped and unaware.
• After several hours, the darkness consumed Manni’s soul, causing the Shadow Kingdom and Tony’s two Shadow Ninjas to grow stronger.
• Tony concluded that Asgard’s gods could empower the Shadow Kingdom and Shadowkhan, then returned to Asgard.

After learning that two gods had died, Hela flew to Asgard to confront Tony, despite Thor’s warning that it might be a trap. Tony defeated her Rule of Death with the Dog Talisman’s Immortality Rule, and Hela accused him of stealing her chance to gain power from dead gods.

• Hela ordered everyone to go to Asgard, but Thor tried to stop her and warned that Tony might be waiting for her.
• Hela struck Thor down with Death Power and flew to Asgard while Captain and the others guarded Thor as he recovered.
• Tony sensed Hela’s arrival and appeared in Asgard’s square to face her.
• Hela invoked her authority to kill Tony, but the Immortality Rule shattered her attack and caused her to spit blood.
• Hela demanded to know how Tony had destroyed gods completely, then accused him of stealing her authority to grow stronger from their souls.
• Tony refused to give up the gods’ souls and mocked Hela for teaming up with Thor.

Tony overwhelmed Hela, burned away her body, and forced her to escape as a soul through a spatial passage. She survived and headed toward the Undead Army, determined to find someone who could defeat him.

• Hela attacked Tony, but he caught her blows and hurled her into a crater, where her injuries quickly healed.
• Tony unleashed eye lasers and flames, burned through Hela’s shield, and reduced her body to ash.
• Hela escaped the flames using astral projection, then opened a spatial passage and fled before Tony could stop her.
• Tony let Hela escape because killing her permanently would require destroying Asgard.
• Hela emerged far from Asgard as a weakened soul, vowed that someone would put Tony in his place, and followed a faint pull toward the Undead Army.

Hela returned to Thor as a soul after losing to Tony and warned that even the Gods might not be able to defeat him. Thor went to bring Odin back, while Hela continued her attack on Midgard to restore her body, and the awakened Gods discovered that Loki had killed three of them.

• Hela returned to Thor as a soul, apologized for underestimating Tony, and told him that Tony might defeat even the Gods if they joined forces.
• After another Godfall, Hela said Tony had to be stopped and agreed with Thor that Odin should return to lead them.
• Hela set out to find another powerful ally and gather living flesh and blood to restore her body, while Thor traveled to the Blue Planet to summon Odin.
• Captain and the others agreed to help Hela continue her campaign against Midgard after Thor persuaded them.
• The Gods awoke in alarm after three of their kind died and discovered that Loki, not Hela, had killed them.