Synopsis / Summary / Plot
The previously page runs to 2 pages this time. Mr Fantastic talks to Black Swan and she tells him how the Black Priests destroyed her Earth and the Black Swans saved her (NAv#15). AIM retrieve a set of evil alternate Avengers (Av#25) and our guys defeat them (Av#27). Dr Strange sells his soul for power to stop the incursions (NAv#14). Then 8 months later Dr Doom, Molecule Man and Thinker have a plan to find the cause of the dying multiverse (NAv#24), and Sunspot sends Thor's team on a similar mission (Av#36).
Most of Thor's team (Abyss, Nightmask, Starbrand and a horde of Ex Nihili) gate in to the Black Priests' Temple in the Nothing Space of destroyed universes between the surviving universes. The Black Priests immediately respond to the attack with their words of power. By the time Hyperion and Thor follow through the gate from a collapsing universe, our side is losing the battle.
Thor's team have been hopping from universe to universe since leaving Earth-616 in Av#36. They have fought the Sidera Maris, agents of the Mapmakers, many times. They only met the Black Priests once, but that was only a small contingent. Now they face thousands of them, and the vastly outnumbered Ex Nihili are being picked off.
The 2 powerhouses prepare to enter the fray. Thor discards his axe Jarnbjorn and reveals a hammer strapped to his back. This is not Mjolnir, which he has been unworthy to wield since the end of Original Sin. Instead it is the hammer of Thorr, his alternate universe counterpart from Av#25-27, which he doesn't have to be worthy to use.
Hyperion and especially Thor have an immediate effect. But the Priests find a way to 'freeze' the hammer. Abyss declares that the the Priests build their spells by combining their individual 'letters' - to defeat them keep them apart. Hype and Starbrand blast Thor's foes and his hammer is freed. He uses it to kill a bunch of Priests.
Heartened the Ex Nihili resume their attack. Other Priests die. And the remaining Priests seem to have lost their power words. (Ie enough individual letters have been lost that they can no longer form useful words.)
But now it is the Priests' turn to regain heart, as the 1 they call the Eye approaches. This Priest can speak whole spells by himself, and the Avengers find themselves frozen in place. The Eye wears the Orb of Agamotto, and takes off his headmask to reveal himself as Dr Strange!
This is the time of course to change scenes to Latveria. Dr Doom is exchanging pseudo-philosophy with Molecule Man. The only solid piece of new information is that Owen Reese's origin isn't what everyone thinks it is, and he is somehow connected to the fragment of an alternate Earth that Doom retrieved after a Sidera Maris incursion in #6.
While Thinker's machinery tries to keep the released energies under control, Victor von Doom opens the container holding the fragment. Reese babbles about the Mapmakers, and Doom asks him to take them to the alternate Earth that started the whole incursions/death of the multiverse thing. Molecule Man snaps his fingers and they are gone.
Back in Nothing Space Dr Strange and the Thor-vengers are exchanging notes.
Nightmask explains how he found the Black Priests' home. He was designed by the Builders to travel the Superflow between universes. The Superflow was destroyed in Av#7, but his ability still works in the remaining Nothing Space.
In return Stephen Strange tells them about an ongoing war between the Ivory Kings and Rabum Alal, both of whom want to destroy the multiverse. He claims the Black Priests are unwillingly caught up in it. He doesn't say how he came to be in a position of importance within the Priests, but claims that they are killing Earths to save their universes (as the Builders in the Infinity Event tried to destroy Earth-616 to save universe-616). And as a consequence they hope to preserve the multiverse.
Strange confirms that each Priest commands a symbol, and they need to combine their symbols to create spell-words. But as Sorceror Supreme he knows the spell-words himself.
Thor's gang came here hoping that this was the source of the universe-destroying incursions. But it seems not. However Strange has persuaded the Priests to change their tactics and attack the Kings and Alal directly. Everyone decides to join forces.
A Priest tells them all that they need to ask a Mapmaker how to find the Ivory Kings. And they should follow the Black Swans to find Rabum Alal. Starbrand suggests the Avengers go after 1 target and Doc and the Priests take the other 1. An Ex Nihilo (probably the 1 we met 1st in Av#1) tosses a 'coin' and asks Stephen to use its fall to decide which target his side has.