Thanos (2003 series) #11

Thanos travelled to the edge of the expanding universe called the Crunch. The huge Kyln has been built there to siphon power from beyond, and it's also a death-row prison whose inmates serve as workforce. But 3rdly it's a site of pilgrimage where supplicants hope to meet their gods, or holograms thereof. Thanos encountered Death there. But he also arrived at the beginning of a riot led by 1 of 3 maximum security convicts called the Maker, who is actually the Beyonder/Kosmos gone mortal and mad. She blew up a large chunk of the Kyln, but last issue Thanos rendered her comatose.

Now nano-sentinels in the prisoners' bodies have been boosted and are restoring order. But Omega Core cops, including our Earth friend Cole, are moving in to make sure that's working properly. They think Thanos had something to do with the riot.

Meanwhile a 2nd maxsec escapee, the diminutive Sprite, is on the Titan's shoulder guiding him towards the Creche where the 3 major prisoners were kept in cocoons. But they find that the 3rd cocoon is also broken open and empty. She says that it was occupied before she and Maker were incarcerated. She says it was the Fallen One, the 1st Herald Of Galactus. Thanos thought Silver Surfer was #1. Skreet repeats a tale that Big G disowned him when he learned of his Herald's deeds, but she doesn't elaborate.

Thanos previously allied with some inmates opposing the Maker and some of them turn up now including Peter Quill, ex-Starlord, who thought the Titan had left the Kyln and advises him that the Omega Core are looking for him. His comrade Ch'ak warns Peter of how dangerous the Creche is but Quill says his optical prosthesis allows him to see that the power is out and there's no sign of the Fallen One, but he enters to make sure. Sprite offers the information that Quill brought the FO in. Peter says that was when he was Starlord and changes the subject by telling the Titan that Skreet is a dangerous companion - ask her previous partner. Which sends her into a rant about how he left her to be cocooned. Peter finally notices that the even tinier thing in tiny Skreet's hand is alive and it's Mynx (who the Maker miniaturised in #9).

We see the Fallen One zooming through space. His body is comics' black (ie with blue highlights) and his hair is light blue with seeming stars inside. He spies something in the (galactic) distance and screeches to a halt before zooming off towards it.

Cole is celebrating an uneventful job with a new teammate and they discuss his earlier teammate Kika. He says she's dangerous to know and she tried to kill Thanos. His new pal tells him that his other old partner Swad is getting a commendation and a bonus for letting the Titan into the Kyln because apparently Thanos helped quell the riot. (Cole is gutted because *he* let Thanos in but blamed Swad, which is why he switched teams.) We see Peter Quill walking past them with a full-size Mynx who now owes him a debt for somehow getting her restored. And it looks like she's planning revenge on Skreet for keeping her as a tiny plaything.

Thanos steps through a teleportal to his huge spaceship Sanctuary with Skreet still on his shoulder. His system scans local space and intercepts space chatter but asks rhetorically why there's no sign of the Fallen One. Sulking Sprite says she's not talking to him because he gave her pet Mynx away to Starlord. The Titan bats her away. He then finds myths that might refer to the FO but Skreet insists he's real and she saw him herself before she hooked up with her previous partner who promised her half of their gains and then ran out on her.

Quill meets up with his co-conspirator prisoner Gladiator who now wears an Omega Core uniform (because he was really an undercover Shi'ar Imperial Guard sent to keep watch on the Fallen One). Kallark tells Peter that his sentence hasn't been repealed but he's been remanded into the Guardian's custody. Because Starlord was the 1 who defeated and arrested the FO before, he's now conscripted into the Guard to catch him again.

Skreet gets bored with sulking and persuades Thanos to listen to what she knows of the Fallen One. The myths tell the truth. Galactus eats planets because that's what he's designed to do. But the FO inflicts pain and suffering because he *likes* to. She also says he 'eats of the black'. The Titan says he'll go to Galactus. Skreet tells him not to bother because Big G has beaten him many times. But Thanos knows that he left G much diminished (in #6 after their battle against Hunger).

We see Galactus recuperating in his spherical spaceship in the wreckage of 2 colliding Rigellian planets (#6 again). He's visited by a hologram of Thanos who accuses him of making a being who lives on the black matter (ie dark matter) that stops galaxies from flying apart. G confirms that he's had to fight his Herald many times and always won. T suggests that the reason he hasn't *killed* the FO is because he bears the guilt of creating him. T also points out that G is weaker now, but G says he accepts his fate.

And we see the Fallen One getting closer.