Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Having dealt with the origin stories of the 3 new characters, we're back with the ongoing plot. The previously page has the by-now-usual mixture of panels and dialogue from previous issues, but often with the dialogue attached to 'wrong' panels. But this time everything comes from last issue, where Captain Universe allowed the other Avengers to understand what Adam is saying, we learnt his real name is Nightmask, and he announced that the White Event is fast approaching.
We start off in Universe 7109, seeing a Communication/Ascension Station being destroyed by what appear to be tentacles of space. Somewhere else 2 beings calling themselves Caretaker and Curator monitor this, and the demise of Stations in many other universes. It appears that there is 1 such Station in each universe, and they are part of a network called the Superflow. The early race called the Builders, who we heard about in #2, created this system a million years ago.
Stations are falling at an alarming rate, and it will not be long before they are all gone. The 2 aliens move their spacecraft into Dreamspace, the Nexus of all Superflows, the Cental Web. But they find the tentacles attacking here as well. The whole Superflow structure is collapsing, and the aliens can't escape. Before they are themselves destroyed, the Caretaker orders all remaining Stations to fire something. We see some Stations overwhelmed before they can fully fire whatever it is. But then in Universe 616 (the main Marvel timeline) the Station succeeds in firing.
In Avengers Tower Captain Universe, Iron Man, Shang-Chi and the Superior Spider-Man witness Nightmask announcing the White Event. On the roof Black Widow, Hawkeye, Thor and Wolverine see a blinding white glow in the sky. Nightmask says that this isn't just a White Event, it's the last White Event. Then he starts mentally disassembling machinery and reassembling it into new configurations.
Captain Universe says Adam was made to be one thing (by Ex Nihilo in #2), but became Nightmask. He is now looking for others who were transformed like him. Adam tells them that a White Event indicates that a world is ready to 'ascend'. The White Event creates beings to assist the ascension. First a Nightmask, but then a Justice, a Cipher, a Starbrand and sometimes a Spitfire. But CU and Adam also say that this White Event hasn't worked properly.
Nightmask's machinery has located something. An area of devastation at a college, marked with a giant symbol called a Starbrand. Tony Stark scrambles a bunch of Avengers:- Captain's America, Marvel and Universe, Hulk, Hyperion, Iron Man and Thor along with Adam/Nightmask.
While this has been going on we have seen flashbacks to the college before the explosion. We saw several people who we of course thought might be going to get superpowers. But the youth in the centre of the ruins is someone who was in the background of all those flashbacks. Someone who is used to being ignored.