Quasar stands facing the Magus’ stronghold in space and nervously activates the Ultimate Nullifier. A tiny sphere of whiteness emerges from the weapon’s nozzle and begins to grow rapidly as it floats toward the villain’s lair. But Quasar has miscalculated: he is closer to the globe than he thought…he is drawn inside and nullified….
Meanwhile Makkari is on the Mourners’ space ship, near the doomed Scadam. They explain how their sole task is to acknowledge and honor those who surrender to the cycle of life and death. Outside the ship, Kismet battles the Black Fleet (and incidentally here takes on the name of Kismet).
On the surface of Scadam as the ships destroyed by Kismet crash around her, Holly stands guard over the body of Kayla which has been growing a cocoon about it since her death. Kayla awakens from her sleep. She finds she has a star-shaped tattoo on her neck which has endowed her with great powers. After a bit of practice, Kayla picks up Holly and flies her to a battle scene some distance away. There, the Black Fleet ships are attacking a giant armored man and they conclude it is the synthetic man the Examiner told them about….
Quasar finds himself in a colorless expanse populated by all manner of beings from across the galaxy. He finally remembers that he was nullified. Detecting a powerful energy source nearby, Quasar heads in that direction and comes face-to-face with…Oblivion, who informs him there is no escape from nullification. To prove him wrong, Quasar challenges him to a fight but the abstract entity conjures up the hero’s death-avatar, Kid Reaper (from issue #22) to battle him. The avatar easily slices through Quasar’s quantum shield with his scythe so the hero armors up, if only for the psychological boost. It doesn’t help much….
Aboard Galactus’ starship, Thanos informs the heroes of the Earth Expeditionary Force that Quasar has been nullified. Later, Thanos contacts his thrall Marvel Boy (a version of Quasar) in exile on the corpse of Eon (since #25-26). Thanos dispatches Marvel Boy to Earth via a portal to take Quasar’s place….
Quasar is clearly overmatched by the weapons of his cartoonish death-avatar. He works on a way to outwit his foe. He flies at Oblivion’s face, causing Kid Reaper to crash into the entity. Quasar’s scheme is to make Oblivion angry enough to send him back to the real universe. He drives an energy lance into Oblivion’s chest with all his might but it barely annoys the entity. The hero teleports to another part of this mysterious zone and discovers Tath Ki, the Contemplator, but the mystic cannot see or hear him in his nullified form. Kid Reaper pops into existence and a fast-talking Quasar convinces the deadly little creep that if he dies, the Kid ceases to exist. That sounds logical the the minireaper who promises not to kill the hero. But as soon as Quasar turns his back he is impaled on the Kid’s scythe. Moral: never trust a death-avatar, especially your own. Kid Reaper claims the Quantum Bands but they vanish and reappear in the lap of the embryonic being waiting to be born….