Synopsis
Black September infinity #1 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
This issue begins near the end of the Ultraforce/Avengers 1-shot where Black Knight plunges an Ebony Blade into the cosmic being Nemesis, created from the 6 Infinity Gems plus a 7th, who was planning to replace the Ultraverse and the Marvel Universe with a creation of her own. His blow split her into the 7 Gems again.
Now for the 1st time the 7th Gem is given the name Ego Gem, because it provided the consciousness for the combination. But now we learn that the Mind, Power, Soul and Space Gems have taken the Ego Gem's consciousness and split it between them. And we see them take on bodies for nefarious purposes (which we will never know about).
Meanwhile the Reality and Time Gems have fled separately to Ultra-Earth for safety.
The Reality Gem finds the feral Amber Hunt and bonds with her to restore her mind. It now blames the destruction of Nemesis on it and the Time Gem rebelling against the others. But the release of all the Nemesis energy has created a totally unstable result where realities get created then destroyed to make way for the next 1. As if to prove its point a volcano appears before her where there wasn't 1 before. It explains that it is keeping *her* constant while everything else changes. But they need to find the Time Gem to stop the madness. Amber agrees to work with the Gem until the crisis is over.
But we transition to a seemingly stable reality in New Los Angeles, ruled by Warstrike and his paramour Necromantra. (This is a dystopian future that his precog Ultrapower predicted in Godwheel #3, which prompted him to abandon his Warstrike identity.) We see teen Jimmy Ruiz (Prototype in the old Ultraverse reality) brought for execution for being an ally of the rebel Shuriken. But Ruiz unleashes his Ultrapower. However NM protects herself and WS with a mystic forcefield, and the only deaths are Ruiz and his guards. Next Brandon Tark beats up Lord Pumpkin (who appears powerless here) while his friend Nicholas Lone (Solitaire in the old reality) disapproves. Then his daughter Jamie Tark (dead in the old reality) runs in to say that the dangerous flaming woman she dreamed about is almost here.
Amber Hunt, back in her costume and flying surrounded by sparkling energy, approaches a dome over LA which the RG says the TG must have created to protect the area from the chaos outside. She passes into the dome but immediately falls to the ground in flames. Mastodon and someone else see this and recognise the prophesied flaming woman. War Eagle turns up to fly her to the castle. He delivers her to Warstrike (where we see Blind Faith and Casino in attendance) in a cage on wheels. Jamie's dream has come true and WS now wonders if she's inherited his precognitive power. But he orders his men to find and destroy the rebels and sends Slayer to find a way to kill the woman.
Nicholas leads Dirt Devil, Outrage and others on the search and they run into Sludge who kills DD. Rebels attack. Waver kills kills Outrage, and Ripfire, Choice, Sweetface and Flygirl take care of the others. Shuriken tells them to leave Lone for her, and it turns out he's their spy in Warstrike's court. Nicholas tells them about the flaming woman. Shuriken leads him to others including Arena.
Lone returns to the castle where Tark is giving a stirring speech to the masses and showing them the flaming woman now chained on the executioner's block. Meanwhile Generator X, Iron Clad and Pistol are on patrol when they are killed by Arena, Tooth and Yrial. Having lost the element of surprise the 2 sides meet in battle, Warstrike's forces headed by Foxfire and Quixote. Arena and Tugun kill each other. Rebels Boomboy and Cayman kill Planet Class. In the castle the executioner turns out to be Shuriken using Anything as a disguise. Solitaire attacks Warstrike and Anything fights Blind Faith. Shuriken intends to free the flaming woman but she has to go through Necromantra. Which she does with a shuriken through the eye accompanied by an Aerwan 'destroy magic' spell (spoken by Aera?).
Lone and Tark are still fighting with blows and words when Jamie blasts Solitaire to save her father. Shuriken finds him aged and weak because the girl blasted him with her Time Gem. She admits to Brandon that it was the Gem that told her about the flaming woman. Then freed Amber Hunt interrupts and tells them that their world isn't real, and that she must unite the Time Gem with her Reality Gem to save all realities. Amazingly she persuades them and leaves the dome with both Gems.
The Gems take her to Nemesis who they have frozen in the nanosecond after the 7 Gems were split. We only see the other 4 Gems which have absorbed the Ego Gem because the Time Gem had already moved itself and the Reality Gem out of that nanosecond to avoid a paradox. Nemesis' body is starting to emit the waves of energy that keep rewriting the universe. Unfortunately they can't stop the 1st wave which was emitted even as the Gems split up, so the changes wrought by that are fixed. But they can stop the rest of the waves.
We see images from the 7 infinity issues which start off the 7 titles in the new Ultraverse:- Volume 2's of Mantra (Lauren Sherwood becomes the new Mantra), Night Man (where 1 of the 2 NM copies gets sent to Marvel Earth), Prime (the 1st wave already dumped Prime on Marvel Earth where he fought Hulk in Prime Vs Hulk #0, but here he becomes Spider-Prime and returns to Ultra-Earth), Rune (Adam Warlock is reborn in the Ultraverse) and Ultraforce (the new UF and the 'unreal' UF from the UF/Avengers 1-shot share an adventure). Plus new series All-New Exiles (Amber Hunt teams up with Shuriken and Warstrike plus Marvel mutants Juggernaut, Reaper and Siena Blaze) and Siren (who winds up on Marvel Earth).
Then the Reality and Time Gems release Nemesis from the frozen nanosecond and Amber Hunt has to absorb all the energy that would have created the succeeding waves of reality. Then she releases it all as 'harmless' energy ... and finds herself back in her feral state.