The Wilamean Imperial
Guard, led by Juno and Antonitus, tracks down the base of the terrorist group
Succession Alliance and puts an end to them. The two then discover the gang’s
secret leader is their grandmother Layana Sweetwater who faked her death many
years earlier and has done it all for revenge against Hercules. And now she has
achieved her goal: she has seen her grandchildren now that the galaxy is about
to be destroyed. The Guard then goes over to arrest Prime Minister Spincor, secret
founder of the Succession Alliance and co-conspirator with Llayana….
At the hospital, Emperor
Arimathes injects the comatose Hercules with the drug that will revive him. As
Dr. Bophish explains how his white hole device will turn the black hole that is
Galactus inside-out, Hercules steps forward to reveal he has the one spacecraft
that can enter the black hole unaffected: his own enchanted chariot of Apollo.
When warned that he will die, Hercules takes pride in the fact that he will
have died a hero….
Herc stops by the
hospital to visit the dying Skyppi and asks if he would join him; Skyppi
declines as a blaze of glory is not the Skrull way, he has the death ritual to
undergo. Herc bids him farewell. Herc says goodbye to his grandchildren Juno
and Antonitus and advises them to watch over their grandmother, saying, “Keep
thy friends close and thine enemies closer.” As he is about to board his
chariot, he takes leave of his son the Emperor, telling him he is proud of him.
Recorder 417 startles Herc as he has been merged with a Rigellian to create an
impossibly tall new being called Pak-416; he asks to join Hercules but Herc
declines, telling him he is needed to remember Hercules’ heroic deeds. He takes
off, crossing space toward the black hole and he spies a familiar face: Uatu
the Watcher from Earth, come to see the end of a mighty Earth hero. Hercules
enters the black hole and meets Galactus, his distorted vision replaying the
events of his long life, from ancient Greece through his time with the Avengers
to the present, friends and enemies spiraling past. There is a bright light and
Galactus is reborn to be greeted by Uatu. Galactus says that his destiny is to
give back infinitely more than he has taken and Uatu notes that is true. Juno
flies her tiny ship up to the World-Devourer and demands to be made his new
herald. Galactus transforms her into a new Silver Surfer, determined to select
only uninhabited planet for him to feed on, part of keeping an enemy closer….
But Hercules? He is
reborn as Cosmos, Bringer of Worlds, a creature passing through the universe,
giving life to dead planets with the Colonizers of Rigel following in his path,
taking advantage of the new worlds….
Epilogue: Skyppi has
reached the end of his life and has chosen his inanimate form; he transforms
for the last time into a statue honoring Hercules…and then a bird poops on his
head….