Synopsis / Summary / Plot
The Super-Adaptoid has met Kubik, the sentient Cosmic Cube and absorbed its powers, rendering it a master over reality like its forebear. SA locks the Avengers—She-Hulk, Sub-Mariner, Marrina, Captain Marvel—in transparent boxes, along with his former ally Machine Man. He then converses with Kubik who desires to stay and observe, so SA teleports him into the center of a black hole. SA resumes his original form, a featureless humanoid model with a sliver of the Cube within, revealing his plan to create a new race of Adaptoids to replace every living human on Earth, reigning as the Supreme Adaptoid. Left alone, Machine Man summarizes the story thus far for the Avengers. Captain Marvel exerts her energy to take on a fully material form. MM tells them of a trick her learned from a book by Henry Kissinger on the domino theory and so he tumbles against the other cubes, pushing them into a line and out the door…
…where they see the giant form of the Supreme Adaptoid, smaller Adaptoids pouring from his chest and across the world, seeking out humans to duplicate and replace. On their way back from the West, Black Knight and Doctor Druid see this from the Quinjet. Druid tries to throw a cloak of invisibility over themselves but a pair of Adaptoids see through this illusion and attack. The two heroes battle these creatures who are slowly absorbing their powers but BK’s Ebony Blade is enough to destroy them. Too late, Supreme Adaptoid has spotted them and encloses them in transparent boxes like the others. BK tries to cut his way out with his sword but the cuts just close up again. They discuss their options and find very few….
In the Andromeda Galaxy, Kubik emerges from the black hole Super-Adaptoid sent him to and ponders its options. SA must be stopped but a direct confrontation will destroy all of reality so it must find an intermediary—and it has one in mind. The former Captain America, now just The Captain, is riding through the countryside when approached by Kubik which explains the situation and Cap instantly agrees, figuring the means to defeat the Supreme Adaptoid may lie in the fact that it was created to destroy Cap. Kubik teleports Cap to Hydrobase where he is instantly detected by SA and imprisoned in another cube. Cap reveals that he has come to challenge the SA who has never fulfilled its original programming by killing Cap; SA insists it is beyond the influence of any programming—but Cap sows the seed of doubt by suggesting becoming the Supreme Adaptoid may also be part of his programming. SA creates an Adaptoid and orders it to replicate and kill Cap. The two battle, the Adaptoid slowly becoming another Captain with all of his skills and knowledge intact. While they battle, Dr. Druid has an idea and asks SA what he plans to do once he has replaced all of humanity with his own kind…and SA doesn’t know, thus demonstrating a lack of imagination. SA doesn’t care, considering conquering the Earth a result of imagination. But Cap has defeated his duplicate so SA shrinks down to become a Captain duplicate and as they fight, Cap points out that, without the knowledge that it will die, it is doomed to a pointless immortality—and this causes the Supreme Adaptoid to collapse. Kubik frees the Avengers, pays tribute to Captain America, and removes the sliver of Cosmic Cube from the Super-Adaptoid so this problem will not be repeated and departs….