Chapter Summaries

Paradise recounted how the Shining Trapezohedron drove the Tayanans mad and led the planet’s AI to destroy the civilization to prevent it from summoning an unknown entity. After learning why the world was empty, Su Ming told the group to find what they needed and leave.

• Paradise explained that a Tayanan traveler had recovered his ancestors’ shipwreck but left the Cosmic Control Rod with the Annihilation Swarm King in exchange for peace.
• The Tayanans found the Shining Trapezohedron among the recovered relics, and strange events began after they removed the wires containing it.
• The crystal’s influence turned Tayanans into worshippers who captured dissenters and prepared a ritual to summon their true master.
• Paradise judged the Tayanan civilization lost, overloaded the planetary engines, killed all life on the planet, and initiated its own self-destruction.
• Wade asked whether tentacle monsters had caused the disaster, and Su Ming said it had nothing to do with them and urged the group to find what they needed and leave.

Su Ming and Doctor Doom deduced that Paradise had exterminated the Tayanans to prevent their enslavement, then scattered Creation Spores to revive them as a mechanical civilization. Su Ming forced Paradise to agree to hand over the Dimensional Teleporter and Polarity Converter, and Doom learned they had been abandoned underground at the ritual site.

• Su Ming rejected Wade's plan to trick Paradise and reasoned that the AI had a motive for preserving the planet.
• Su Ming and Doom deduced that Paradise could not lie and had spread Tayanan Creation Spores before self-destructing, intending to revive the Tayanans as digital life.
• Susan and Doom recognized that the spores could create a new civilization of intelligent machines.
• Su Ming threatened to destroy the planet with a Divinity Bomb unless Paradise gave them the Dimensional Teleporter and Polarity Converter.
• Paradise agreed and explained that the devices had been abandoned after the crazed Tayanans tried to use them to summon their master.
• Doom inferred that the devices were underground at the ritual site where the Tayanans had planned to summon the Old Ones.

Su Ming led Deadpool, Doctor Doom, and Susan to an underground site near a planetary thruster to retrieve the Skewed Trisoctahedron. After Doom’s robots began tunneling toward the target, Deadpool was suddenly disemboweled by an unseen threat.

• Su Ming used his powers to shut down Paradise and refused to take the AI, then explained that he planned to destroy the Tayanans’ facility and claim Infinity Crossroads.
• Su Ming and the others descended into the massive sinkhole, where Deadpool toasted a marshmallow beside the still-warm thruster nozzle.
• Doctor Doom directed the group toward their target, and his Doom Bots began cutting a tunnel through the earth.
• Su Ming warned that the group might encounter monsters connected to Nyarlathotep and handed out drinks before they proceeded.
• Deadpool tried to encourage Susan, but his intestines suddenly spilled onto the ground.

Su Ming's team fought a light-sensitive Shadow Nightmare while searching a warehouse in the underground Tayanan city. They restrained the monster temporarily and sent Doctor Doom and Wade inside to retrieve the Skewed Trisoctahedron.

• Su Ming's team reached the warehouse, where a Shadow Nightmare devoured half of a Doom Bot and vanished into the darkness.
• Deathstroke identified the creature, and Susan's light exposed it while a Flashbang blinded Susan and Wade.
• Su Ming threw the Cloak of Levitation over the monster, and Doctor Doom used Susan's force-field cube to trap part of it.
• Deathstroke cut at the regenerating Shadow Nightmare while Su Ming and the Cloak helped hold it in place.
• Su Ming told Susan to assist him and sent Doctor Doom and Wade into the warehouse to find the Skewed Trisoctahedron and bring it out under steady light.

Deathstroke and his allies searched the Tayana corpses for a metal device while the black-smoke monster grew into a cocoon, revealing that an Avatar of the Old Ones was descending. Deathstroke kicked the cocoon deeper into the tunnel and prepared to fight, while he told Susan to withdraw with Doom once they found the item.

• Deathstroke urged Deadpool to help Doctor Doom search the Tayana corpses, but Deadpool moved slowly and proposed finding a better method.
• As the smoke monster kept growing, Deathstroke told Doom to burn the corpses so the metal device could be found among the ashes.
• The monster slipped free of Cloak and transformed into a gigantic black cocoon that blocked the tunnel.
• Deathstroke warned Susan not to look at the cocoon and told her to leave with Doom once they found the item, but Susan stayed beside him.
• Deathstroke kicked the cocoon down the passage and swung the Nightfall Greatsword as he prepared to fight.

Deathstroke fought a Black Pharaoh avatar inside a black cocoon and survived a Planet Bomb blast that badly injured him. The Black Pharaoh revealed that he bore no ill will, struck a deal with Deathstroke, and demanded the return of his relic before they parted.

• Deathstroke and Su Ming tested the cocoon with attacks, but it withstood their blasts with little effect.
• Deathstroke enclosed himself and the cocoon in Susan's force field and his Cloak, then detonated a Planet Bomb inside.
• Doom and Susan left with the robots while Deadpool stayed behind and waited for Deathstroke.
• The Cloak fell away to reveal Deathstroke badly injured and a smiling Black man, whom Deathstroke identified as the Black Pharaoh's avatar.
• The Black Pharaoh said his game with Earth's civilization was not over and told Deadpool to return what belonged to him.
• Su Ming agreed to hand over the relic, and Deadpool prepared to give it to the Black Pharaoh so they could go home.

Su Ming and Deadpool survived an encounter with the Black Pharaoh, then reunited with Doom and Susan after their return to the Main Dimension. Su Ming and Doom began a discreet plan to kill Reed and replace him with a Synthezoid double.

• The Black Pharaoh swallowed Deadpool’s crystal offering, bid farewell, and vanished after promising to meet him for riddles.
• Su Ming explained that the Black Pharaoh had only wanted entertainment, and Deadpool said he planned to visit Vanessa with his new earnings.
• Doom returned to the Main Dimension, cast a spell that left Susan unconscious, and agreed to cooperate with Su Ming against Reed.
• Su Ming brought a Reed-like Synthezoid to a reef-covered island and asked Doom to give it counter-surveillance skills and rubber-like abilities.
• Doom began modifying the Synthezoid so it could impersonate Reed and keep fleeing around the world.

Reed Richards grew anxious in S.H.I.E.L.D. confinement and escaped through an air vent, only to fall through a mysterious portal into a lightless void. As he drifted helplessly, a blonde woman in a brown leather jacket approached him.

• Reed worried about the spatial rift near Mars and paced while considering a quantum-theory solution.
• Reed squeezed through an air vent to escape confinement, but a red ring appeared beneath him and he fell into it.
• Two unseen women discussed the escape, exchanged “Hail Hydra!” in German, and disappeared without being detected by surveillance.
• Reed tried to slow his fall by reshaping himself into a parachute, but the airless darkness made it useless.
• Reed saw a red light approach and recognized a blonde woman in a brown leather jacket with a ruby necklace floating toward him.

A young girl killed Reed Richards in space after freezing him with magic and following her instructions. Back on the Helicarrier, the Avengers learned Reed had gone missing and ordered S.H.I.E.L.D. to pursue him after Tony spotted him near the New York coast.

• The girl identified Reed Richards’s weakness as extreme temperature, froze him with a spell, and killed him to carry out her assignment.
• After the Avengers defeated Abomination and Hulk, Carol helped take them back to Earth, and Ms. Marvel accepted an unofficial invitation to join the Avengers.
• Maria Hill told Steve Rogers that Reed had disappeared from protective house arrest and suspected Hydra had helped him escape.
• Steve suggested issuing a wanted notice and bringing Reed back, while Tony revealed that a Stark satellite had spotted him crawling from a sewer near the coast.
• Hill ordered Agent Hand’s team to pursue Reed under plan A, citing Steve’s orders.

Su Ming and Doom finalized a plan to keep the synthetic Reed alive and in hiding while they monitored the growing Spatial Rift near Mars. After Elsa Bloodstone confirmed the real Reed’s soul was destroyed, a mysterious American arrived at Kamar-Taj seeking magic, but Su Ming left him waiting while he went to eat.

• Su Ming and Doom agreed that the fake Reed would flee through Cuba and Brazil to the Amazon, preserving Susan’s claim to the Baxter Building while they left the Mars rift to Tony Stark for now.
• Doom departed Kamar-Taj, and Su Ming asked Elsa whether she had witnessed Hela destroy Reed’s soul; Elsa confirmed it and received money for her family and hunting equipment.
• Elsa left to hunt restless Vampires on the United States West Coast, while Deadpool collected his payment and went home to Vanessa.
• Mordo told Su Ming that a tall, thin American with a mustache was kneeling at the mountain gate and wanted to learn magic to save his life.
• Su Ming told Mordo to keep the stranger waiting until he returned from a meal with Old Zheng.

After losing his surgical skill, fortune, and home, Strange learned that his ruthless persona had been a deliberate protest against a medical system that let his family die for lack of money. He sought magic to heal his hands, and a Vampire Hunter pointed him toward Kamar-Taj as his remaining hope.

• Strange’s family died after hospitals refused to treat them without insurance, turning him into a wealthy-patient-focused surgeon who hoped to provoke a revolt against the medical system.
• A car accident damaged the nerves in Strange’s hands, forcing him to quit surgery and spend his savings on unsuccessful treatments.
• Strange lost his home and became homeless near New York Harbor, where workers’ stories about the Invaders made him consider magic as a possible cure.
• Strange searched New York’s Mystic Side and begged an alchemist to heal his hands, but the shopkeeper refused to break the Sorcerers’ rules.
• A Vampire Hunter told Strange that he could try Kamar-Taj, and Strange eagerly asked where it was.

Strange traveled to Huaxi Village seeking a Sorcerer Supreme who could heal his hands, then waited outside Kamar-Taj's gate despite hunger and rejection. After Tina Xiu fed him and sent him away, Strange returned the next morning, clean and determined to try again.

• Strange reached Huaxi Village and learned that Kamar-Taj opened its gates for trade every few days, so he knelt outside and waited for help.
• After Strange endured more than ten hours without food or water, Tina Xiu brought him a bowl of rice and told him to eat and leave.
• Strange insisted that he was a doctor seeking treatment for his hands, but Tina Xiu dismissed him and shut the gate after he finished eating.
• Tina Xiu reported to Su Ming that Strange had left with the Yuan blue-and-white porcelain bowl, and Su Ming predicted that Strange would return.
• Strange earned money working at a restaurant, cleaned himself up, returned the bowl, and knelt outside Kamar-Taj's gate again at sunrise.

Strange waited outside Kamar-Taj, hoping to have his hands healed, and endured a series of strange tests meant to gauge his willingness to become a Mage. After three days of smoking, drinking, and being told the Sorcerer Supreme disliked him, he prepared to get a perm for the next trial.

• Strange reflected on his past and told Mordo he wanted to heal patients and save lives, but Mordo said that answer would not persuade the Sorcerer Supreme.
• Mordo offered Strange cigarettes, then shut the gate after Strange refused to smoke, claiming the Sorcerer Supreme disliked him for not understanding a supposed magical principle.
• Strange bought cigarettes and spent the next day smoking and chewing betel nut outside the gate, but Guardian Hamill shut him out after he refused a drink.
• Strange returned on the third day with cigarettes and alcohol, and Daniel Drumm delivered him an alien roasted chicken before declaring that the Sorcerer Supreme disliked him for not getting a perm.
• Strange accepted the chicken and decided to smoke, drink, and get a perm after working that night, determined to endure whatever trials came next.

Su Ming used Strange’s hope of healing his hands to draw him toward Kamar-Taj, while Daniel prepared to take over the New York Sanctum Sanctorum. After a week of increasingly bizarre tests, Strange waited at the gate with every requested item and skill on display.

• Su Ming explained to Daniel that Strange’s loyalty to Kamar-Taj mattered more than his ability, and described how learning magic would endanger Strange’s surgical career.
• Daniel asked about his upcoming post at the New York Sanctum Sanctorum, and Su Ming approved his appointment as resident Great Mage while warning him against reading American police news.
• Strange spent a week kneeling outside Kamar-Taj each night, enduring tests involving singing Shāntào Yóu, raising Little Horse, and wearing a Posture Corrector.
• Strange arrived at midnight with a cigarette, liquor, large intestine sashimi, a perm, a Posture Corrector, and a borrowed Little Horse, then sang and played a clapper before the opened gates.

Stephen Strange abandoned his dream of healing his hands and joined Kamar-Taj as Deathstroke’s apprentice. After welcoming him, Deathstroke secretly assigned Mordo to put Strange through punishing physical training before he could learn magic.

• Deathstroke revealed himself to Strange as the Sorcerer Supreme, and Strange asked him to become his disciple.
• Strange said he had given up on returning to medicine and wanted to become a mage who could help the world.
• Deathstroke brought Strange to Kamar-Taj, where he met the mages and apprentices at a banquet and settled into his new dormitory.
• Deathstroke told Mordo to keep Strange away from magic and make him practice horse stance and greatsword strikes.

Deathstroke returned Hermione and Gin to the United States and discussed dimensions, Ciri’s abilities, and Hermione’s future plans. At Midtown High School, Peter talked with Ned about visiting Jessica in the hospital before Thompson mocked them over a misunderstood conversation about kissing.

• Deathstroke explained to Hermione how dimensions stabilized a mature universe and compared Ciri’s Elder Blood to the Warhammer Universe’s Navigator bloodline.
• Hermione said she wanted to visit The Witcher’s world with Ciri, and Deathstroke warned her to prepare for the Wild Hunt and pursue political ambitions.
• Hermione refused Deathstroke’s suggestion to bring Skull Servitors home to her parents and left through a Teleportation Portal.
• Gin arrived with roasted bear paws, and Deathstroke took her to The Villa before suggesting they spend time alone in New York.
• At Midtown High School, Peter told Ned that Jessica had thrown his flowers out of an eighth-floor hospital window, while denying that he had romantic feelings for her.
• Thompson overheard Peter and Ned discussing kissing, then put an arm around each boy and mocked them.

Peter stopped Flash Thompson from bullying him by pretending he could get him rare Captain America memorabilia through his fast-food job. Flash agreed to leave Peter alone until next week, while Peter and Ned worried about how to keep the lie going and discussed their upcoming visit to Osborn Industries.

• Flash Thompson choked Peter and threatened to strip him and post photos unless Peter could stop him.
• Peter claimed his job at Wilson's Chain Fast Food could get Flash rare Captain America collectibles, and Flash agreed to leave him alone if Peter brought him a set next week.
• Peter admitted to Ned that he had only made up the offer, and they worried Flash would retaliate if he discovered the truth.
• Ned reminded Peter that their class would visit Osborn Industries the next day and teased him about confessing to his crush.
• Peter hid behind a book and peeked toward the girl he liked.

Peter watched Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane, Liz Allan, and their friends at school while Ned urged him to stop hiding his feelings and pursue a girl. Meanwhile, Norman Osborn examined a spider from the OZ Project and began telling Dr. Jester the story of Arachne.

• Peter observed the girls in his class and reflected on his crushes, including his feelings for Liz Allan and his past affection for Mary Jane.
• Ned told Peter he would regret never confessing to a girl, but Peter remained reluctant and pointed out that Thompson was watching them.
• Norman Osborn visited the OZ Project laboratory beneath Osborn Industries and handled Test Subject No. 56, a spider with orange markings.
• Norman asked Dr. Jester about Greek mythology and began explaining the story of Arachne.

Norman Osborn’s Oz Experiment spider escaped from the laboratory, while Peter Parker worked a delivery shift and visited the unresponsive Jessica at the hospital. Peter planned to bring her photos from the class visit to Osborn Industries, and her slight reaction suggested she had heard him.

• Norman Osborn told Dr. Jester the myth of Arachne while handling the Oz Experiment spider.
• Norman left the lab to argue with his lawyer, and his startled secretary accidentally threw the spider, which vanished into the ventilation duct.
• Peter finished two deliveries in the storm and went to visit Jessica at the hospital.
• Peter told Jessica about the class trip to Osborn Industries and offered to take photos of her friends, and her ears twitched.

Tony struggled to solve the growing cosmic rift near Mars while Pepper told him about a traumatized girl whose family died in the Baxter Building car accident. After realizing Peter Parker was the girl's classmate, Tony planned to use their school trip to Osborn Industries to bring them closer.

• Tony hid his drinking from Pepper and admitted the expanding cosmic rift near Mars was putting him under pressure.
• Pepper told Tony that the girl rescued from the Baxter Building car accident had severe post-traumatic stress and that the Baxter Group would cover her medical expenses.
• Tony considered having Captain America visit the girl, then realized she might benefit from support from her classmates and friends.
• Tony asked Jarvis to find Peter Parker's school records and learned that Peter had won several technology and robotics awards.
• Tony discovered that Peter's class would visit Osborn Industries the next day and decided to make an impression, despite Pepper warning him not to do anything reckless.