Chapter Summaries

Tony defeated Ivan Vanko at the technology expo and handed him over to S.H.I.E.L.D. Meanwhile, Chen Mo learned that his Blacklight clones had successfully begun absorbing energy from stars, leaving him considering a visit to Kamar-Taj to learn about powerful threats in the multiverse.

• Tony used separating Quake missiles and a powerful punch to defeat Ivan, whose crude chest reactor overloaded and went dark.
• Ivan accused the Stark family of stealing his father's Arc Reactor technology, but Tony demanded evidence and pressed him for the story behind their fathers.
• Coulson received Nick Fury's order to take Ivan into custody, and Tony handed Ivan over to S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.
• Tony returned to the stage as reporters rushed in to photograph him, while Chen Mo watched the renewed publicity.
• Chen Mo received word that his Blacklight clones had survived the stellar absorption test and were multiplying to harvest energy from more stars.
• Chen Mo considered seeking advice from the Sorcerer Supreme at Kamar-Taj about powerful hidden figures in the multiverse.

After the Ancient One warned Chen Mo that his clones’ star-harvesting was disturbing the universe’s balance, Odin arrived at the New York Sanctum to meet him. Odin said he had come to see the being who had caused the Ancient One to change their agreement.

• Tony joked with reporters about Ivan’s attack before arguing with Coulson over Ivan’s arrest and the damage to his expo.
• Chen Mo told Tony to finish his custom armor, then opened a portal and left to meet an important old man.
• Chen Mo arrived at the New York Sanctum, where the Ancient One had prepared tea and was waiting for him.
• The Ancient One said Chen Mo’s clones were leaving the Solar System and urged him to stop harvesting stars in this universe for the time being.
• Odin appeared in the Sanctum and told Chen Mo he wanted to see the being who had made the Ancient One alter their agreement.

Chen Mo faced down Odin at the New York Sanctum while the Ancient One stopped their clash from damaging the building. After Odin left, Chen Mo asked the Ancient One to list the beings in the universe who could threaten him, and she agreed he was powerful enough to know.

• Odin tested Chen Mo's power, but Chen Mo matched his divine force with energy from the Million-Star Network.
• The Ancient One contained the collision with Mandala Magic Circles and persuaded Odin and Chen Mo to stop before the Sanctum's defenses failed.
• Odin explained that he would strip Thor of his divine power and banish him to Earth for a trial, asking Chen Mo not to interfere.
• Chen Mo agreed to leave Thor alone if he behaved, but warned Odin that he would defend himself if Thor attacked him.
• Odin departed the New York Sanctum, and Chen Mo asked the Ancient One which beings in the universe could threaten him; she said he was qualified to know.

The Ancient One showed Chen Mo the multiverse’s most powerful beings and warned him about the dangers they posed. Chen Mo fixated on the energy he could take from them and demanded coordinates to their dimensions, while the Ancient One warned that they could track him back to Earth.

• The Ancient One projected the multiverse and introduced Chen Mo to the Living Tribunal and the cosmic embodiments Eternity, Infinity, Death, and Oblivion.
• The Ancient One showed Chen Mo Galactus, but Chen Mo saw him as a mobile power bank and considered studying his energy-devouring abilities.
• The Ancient One revealed the Celestials and warned Chen Mo that provoking one could bring the entire race down on him.
• The Ancient One showed Chen Mo the dimensional demon gods Cyttorak and Shuma-Gorath and warned him never to enter their domains.
• Chen Mo asked for coordinates to the demon gods’ dimensions so his clones could scout and steal energy, but the Ancient One warned they could track him to Earth.

Chen Mo returned from Kamar-Taj and found Tony struggling to obtain enough Vibranium for his custom armor. Chen Mo used his matter-transmutation ability to create a huge supply of pure Vibranium, leaving Tony to reconsider his composite-material plans and build the suit.

• Chen Mo told Tony that the Ancient One had sent him out of Kamar-Taj after he asked for dimensional demon-god coordinates and help obtaining goods from another world.
• Tony showed Chen Mo the armor model and explained that the suit was mostly complete but needed Vibranium, which was difficult to obtain.
• Chen Mo crushed Tony's only Vibranium sample, then revealed he could reproduce the metal using matter transmutation and his vast supply of energy.
• Chen Mo generated so much Vibranium that it piled up to the laboratory ceiling and fused into a person-sized ingot.
• Tony tested the newly made Vibranium and found its properties surpassed the original sample, while Chen Mo told him to get on with making the armor.

Tony used Chen Mo’s matter transformation ability to duplicate rare materials and redesign his armor, then a burly bearded man crashed through Stark Tower’s ceiling into the lab. The man’s hammer landed at Chen Mo’s feet as Tony joked that his father could cover the damage.

• Tony gathered rare experimental alloys and asked Chen Mo to copy them.
• Chen Mo duplicated the materials until the laboratory and underground storage were filled with metal ingots.
• Tony redesigned his armor with vibranium plating, heat-resistant alloy, and energy-buffering structures, then tested the virtual model successfully.
• Chen Mo warned Tony not to assume the armor could withstand every threat in the universe.
• A burly, heavily bearded man smashed through Stark Tower’s ceiling and crashed into the lab, while his hammer rolled to Chen Mo’s feet.

Thor fell from Asgard into Tony's laboratory, where Chen Mo and Tony found him beside Mjolnir. After waking, Thor discovered he could no longer lift his hammer and learned he had become an ordinary man on Earth.

• Thor crashed through the laboratory ceiling and landed unconscious in a crater beside Mjolnir.
• Tony tried and failed to lift Mjolnir while JARVIS could not scan it.
• Odin banished Thor from Asgard and sent Mjolnir to Midgard, while Loki watched from the palace.
• Thor woke, challenged Chen Mo and Tony, and tried to lift Mjolnir.
• Thor failed to move the hammer, broke a fingernail, and realized he had lost his powers.
• Tony welcomed Thor to Earth and told him he would pay for the ceiling repairs.

Thor attacked Tony and Chen Mo after losing his divine power, but Tony restrained him before Chen Mo could eat him. Tony then tried to teach Thor about money and demanded $136 million in compensation, leaving Thor still refusing to understand the bill.

• Thor failed to lift Mjolnir, attacked Tony, and could not land a punch against his armor.
• Thor charged at Chen Mo, whose black-and-red tentacles frightened him into stopping.
• Tony used mechanical arms to restrain Thor and lock him in the security room.
• Tony calculated $136 million in damages and tried to explain dollars to Thor, who rejected the lesson.
• Tony told Chen Mo he would find Thor's father and settle the bill before allowing Chen Mo to eat Thor.

Tony and Chen Mo kept Thor and Mjolnir at Stark Tower while Nick Fury sent Coulson to assess the situation. Coulson arrived to find Tony failing to cut the hammer and Thor being forced to study loan formulas, then Thor mistook Coulson's receding hairline for a deliberate torture tactic.

• Tony ignored Fury's calls, and Chen Mo answered when Fury demanded that S.H.I.E.L.D. take custody of Thor and Mjolnir.
• Tony refused to surrender Mjolnir until Thor's debt was paid, while Chen Mo said S.H.I.E.L.D. could take Thor but must return his body.
• Fury sent Coulson to Stark Tower to assess the alien and the weapon, despite Coulson's reluctance to leave Ivan's interrogation.
• Coulson found Tony's plasma cutters smoking as he tried to cut Mjolnir, while Chen Mo discussed cooking Thor and Thor endured a loan lesson in the secure room.
• Thor saw Coulson's receding hairline and roared that S.H.I.E.L.D. had plucked a man's head bald to break the crown prince of Asgard's will.

Chen Mo explained Thor’s Asgardian identity and banishment to Coulson and Tony, who learned that Odin ruled the Nine Realms. Thor left the security room convinced his status would earn him respect, while Tony and Coulson saw an opportunity to charge the wealthy royal for the damage and services.

• Coulson asked Chen Mo about the alien in the security room after Thor kept insulting him and Tony’s equipment was destroyed during attempts to cut Mjolnir.
• Chen Mo identified the prisoner as Thor Odinson, crown prince of Asgard, and explained that Odin had stripped him of his powers and sent him to Earth to learn humility and responsibility.
• Chen Mo told Coulson that Earth was called Midgard and that Thor could regain his powers by earning Mjolnir’s approval.
• Tony learned Odin might be rich enough to make a whole Earth out of gold and opened the security room.
• Thor declared himself the Son of Odin and heir to Asgard, while Tony and Coulson recognized him as a potential source of payment.

Tony and S.H.I.E.L.D. argued over how to profit from Thor, then Tony began teaching the stranded prince Earth’s basic rules and sent him to live as an ordinary person in Brooklyn. The chapter ended with three muggers cornering Thor, who mistook them for reasonable mortals.

• Tony and Coulson negotiated over using Thor’s potential Asgardian inheritance as collateral, while Thor tried to demand respect.
• Chen Mo warned Coulson that harming Thor could provoke Odin and endanger Earth, so S.H.I.E.L.D. agreed to let Stark Industries handle Thor’s temporary accommodation while monitoring him.
• Tony put Thor through lessons on traffic lights, money, and paying for goods, then sent him with Happy to Brooklyn without money.
• Thor tried to order hot dogs on the Son of Odin’s account, but the vendor demanded payment and refused to serve him.
• Three armed men lured Thor into an alley and threatened him with a knife, and Thor welcomed them as reasonable mortals.

Thor defeated three muggers in an alley, took their money, and paid for hot dogs to avoid another lesson from Tony. Meanwhile, Chen Mo decided to retrieve Steve Rogers from the Arctic and opened a portal to the glaciers, leaving Tony wary of his plans.

• Thor defeated three armed men who tried to rob him and took the cash and valuables from their pockets as spoils.
• Thor insisted on paying for hot dogs, giving the vendor far more money than the food cost.
• Tony reviewed Thor’s progress with Chen Mo and began planning lessons in work, housing, transportation, and banking.
• Chen Mo remembered that Steve Rogers was frozen beneath Arctic ice and asked JARVIS for the glacier coordinates.
• Chen Mo opened a portal to the Arctic and stepped through, saying he would loosen the soil around S.H.I.E.L.D.'s ancestor.

Chen Mo found the Valkyrie beneath Arctic ice and uncovered the frozen Captain America, Steve Rogers. As Tony and Coulson watched the rescue through a live feed, Coulson panicked when Chen Mo reached for Steve’s shield.

• Chen Mo opened a spatial rift from Stark Tower and traveled to the Arctic Ocean, where he used telekinesis to scan beneath the ice.
• Chen Mo lifted the buried Valkyrie bomber out of the glacier, and Coulson recognized its Hydra emblem and identified it as the plane Captain America had taken into the Arctic in 1945.
• Chen Mo tore open the bomber’s frozen hatch and found Steve Rogers encased in ice in the cockpit, still holding his shield.
• Tony said he wanted to study the shield, while Coulson protested and watched Chen Mo reach toward it.
• Coulson shrieked at Chen Mo not to touch or scratch Steve’s shield, startling Tony.

Chen Mo brought the frozen Steve Rogers to Stark Tower, where Coulson and Nick Fury recognized Captain America and Fury ordered a secret medical response. When Fury asked what Chen Mo wanted in exchange, Chen Mo demanded the Tesseract, leaving Fury alarmed that he knew about S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secret.

• Chen Mo pulled Steve and his shield from the Arctic ice and dragged the frozen captain through a portal into Stark Tower.
• Coulson excitedly recognized Steve, while Tony argued with him about the captain's shield and mocked his devotion.
• Nick Fury arrived, recognized Steve, and ordered S.H.I.E.L.D. to secure the discovery and prepare resuscitation equipment.
• Fury asked Chen Mo what he wanted in exchange for Steve, and Chen Mo demanded the Tesseract.
• Fury questioned how Chen Mo knew about the Tesseract, and Chen Mo acted as if its existence were common knowledge.

Chen Mo forced Fury to trade the Tesseract for Steve Rogers, warning that using the cube could bring an alien army to Earth. After Chen Mo freed Steve from the ice, Steve awakened and attacked Coulson before throwing his shield at Fury.

• Chen Mo and Tony pressured Fury to exchange the Tesseract for Steve, while Coulson protested that Steve was not an exhibit.
• Chen Mo warned Fury that the Tesseract could reveal Earth's coordinates and invite an alien army.
• Fury agreed to deliver the Tesseract after confirming Steve was alive.
• Chen Mo shattered the ice, and Steve fell onto the floor.
• Steve awoke, seized Coulson by the throat, and hurled his shield at Fury.

Steve Rogers awoke in 2010 after spending seventy years frozen in the Arctic and learned that the war against Hydra was over. As he struggled to accept his lost era, Tony showed him the advanced technology of the new age.

• Steve crashed the Hydra bomber into the Arctic sea and sank into darkness after telling Peggy he would have to postpone their dance.
• Steve awoke in a laboratory, mistook Nick Fury and the agents for enemies, and threw his shield at Fury before Chen Mo caught it.
• Phil Coulson told Steve that it was 2010 and that he had been frozen beneath the Arctic ice for seventy years.
• Steve asked about the plane and his mission, then learned that he had been the only survivor and that Hydra was already defeated.
• Tony activated the laboratory's holograms and Iron Man armors, welcoming Steve to the new era.

Tony tried to impress Steve with the Iron Legion, but Steve criticized the suits’ battlefield weaknesses, nearly provoking a fight before Fury intervened. When Fury brought the Tesseract as part of a deal for Steve, Steve recognized it and tried to stop Chen Mo from taking it, but Chen Mo immobilized him and picked it up.

• Tony activated the Iron Legion to boast to Steve, who criticized the suits as conspicuous and tactically vulnerable.
• Tony ordered an armored suit to aim at Steve, but Fury stepped between them and persuaded Tony to deactivate its weapon.
• Fury announced that S.H.I.E.L.D. had brought the Tesseract and expected Steve to come with them.
• Steve recognized the Tesseract and demanded that Fury explain why it had survived and was being traded.
• Chen Mo used an invisible force to stop Steve from reaching the case, then opened it and picked up the Tesseract.

Chen Mo ended Steve’s attempt to keep the Tesseract from him by revealing that the cube was only a shell around the Space Stone. After Chen Mo broke it open, Tony eagerly asked to study the stone.

• Chen Mo released Steve from his telekinetic restraint, and Steve warned that the Tesseract could bring another war.
• Tony argued that Chen Mo was too powerful to be considered an ordinary person and that the Tesseract was safer with him.
• Steve insisted he would stop Chen Mo from taking the Tesseract, while Fury stayed focused on Chen Mo’s claims about its power.
• Chen Mo dismissed Steve’s objections and explained that the Tesseract was not truly a cube.
• Chen Mo crushed the Tesseract’s shell, exposing the Space Stone and unleashing a surge of energy across the laboratory.
• Tony approached Chen Mo and asked whether he could make a copy of the Space Stone for him to study.

Tony asked Chen Mo to copy the Space Stone for study, while Fury sought a deal for vibranium and Steve demanded that the Stone be handed over. Fury diverted Steve by telling him Peggy Carter was alive, then confronted Chen Mo about the alien army that might follow the Tesseract’s signal to Earth.

• Tony asked Chen Mo to copy the Space Stone, but Chen Mo said he could not reproduce it because it embodied a fundamental law of the universe.
• Fury asked Chen Mo for a strategic agreement to supply vibranium, and Chen Mo refused while joking that he could give Fury hair follicles instead.
• Steve demanded that the Space Stone be isolated and handed over, so Chen Mo threatened to send him back to the Arctic ice.
• Fury told Steve that Peggy Carter was still alive, and Steve left with Coulson to learn about the modern world and arrange to see her.
• After Steve and Coulson left, Fury asked Chen Mo what alien army might follow the Tesseract’s coordinates to Earth.

Chen Mo told Fury and Tony that Thanos sought the Infinity Stones to erase half of all life in the universe, but assured them the Space Stone could not reveal Earth's location while its blockade remained. He proposed that Earth could attack and plunder alien forces instead, leaving Fury and Tony eager for the technology and resources a fleet might bring.

• Chen Mo explained that Thanos, whom he nicknamed the purple sweet potato spirit and eco-boy, wanted all six Infinity Stones to randomly wipe out half the universe's life.
• Fury asked how dangerous Thanos was, while Tony speculated that Chen Mo's talk of different versions pointed to the multiverse.
• Fury pressed Chen Mo to say whether keeping the Space Stone would expose Earth to an alien invasion.
• Chen Mo said the blockade prevented aliens from detecting the Space Stone and argued that Earth could use the coordinates to attack alien worlds instead.
• Tony and Fury grew eager to seize alien ships, weapons, energy sources, and technology if Thanos's fleet came to Earth.