Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Last issue our heroes (except Leonardo da Vinci who stayed behind as the Anchor) in the Human Machine followed Isaac Newton and the Celestial Star Child from 1960 to 3 versions of 2060:- The Height Of Modernity (a technopolis); The Rebirth Of Man (a green jungle with possibly the remnants of mankind hiding in it); The End Of The World (a devastated wasteland). Now they somehow simultaneously fight in all 3 timelines at once.
3 of the characters are the Last Caliphate, the 3 Arab Brothers Of Causality, the last representatives of the Eastern Brotherhood Of The Spear, who have been revived from suspended animation. Here they are given names Hasan, Hamza and Haider Ibn Al-Haytham. In earlier issues they have been said to represent what is, what was and what will be. Hasan in technopolis does a voiceover for the 1st half of this issue, and his statements suggest that Haider represents the past. It is less clear that Hasan is the future and Hamza is the present. All 3 exist in each timeline, but the wording seems to associate the future with the technopolis, the present with the green, and the past with the wasteland.
The other heroes are Howard Stark, Nathaniel Richards, Night Machine/Nikola Tesla and his bird/woman companion and their adopted son Leonid (the actual son of Newton and a Deviant woman). They and da Vinci are part of the Western Brotherhood Of The Shield, and the 2 historical organisations are now reunited to oppose Newton's plan to ensure Mankind's fated doom in this future year.
In each world they attack Newton and the Star Child, but the details of the battle vary. In technopolis the Star Child kills Hamza and crushes Stark to death, and the distraction allows Newton to down Richards. In the jungle the Child crushes the bird/woman, and *that* distraction allows Newton to defeat Tesla, but Howard builds a machine around Nathaniel. In the wasteland the Star Child kills Hamza and the bird and distracts Leonid from maintaining a defensive shield allowing the Celestial to damage lots of foes.
The Forever Man accompanied them here, and now in all realities multiple chronal copies of him start dismantling the Human Machine vehicle. And Nostradamus utters his final prophecy "Between the gates of Heaven and Hell lost in a circling forever the faithful and faithless meet, steel on steel, blood on stone, crying to the Great Immortal - What will you do?" And he looks at the immortal Newton. In 2 timelines Isaac kills him, but in the wasteland he lets him live.
The conflict continues. In technopolis as Night Machine assaults the Star Child the bird pecks Newton's right eye out and he kills her in revenge. In the green Haider tries to mentally control the Child as Newton continues to batter Tesla. In the desert the Celestial kills Hasan(?) while wounded Haider kneels over dead Nathaniel, and then Nostradamus brains him with a rock.
Then in techopolis Newton kill Haider. Hasan takes a blast meant for Leonid and redirects it at the Star Child before dying as well. In the green world Newton finishes off Tesla and the Star Child's foot stomps Hasan and Hamza. Haider also dies (from the strain of trying to mentally control the Celestial or the shock of it killing his brothers). In the wasteland the Star Child kills Stark and Tesla. Future Hasan (and the others) being dead means his narration stops.
Meanwhile the multi-Forever Man has been rebuilding the Human Machine in a new form which he shows to Leonid in all 3 worlds.
In technopolis Tesla seeks revenge for the death of his bird/woman by flying into the Star Child and blowing them both up. In the green Stark has finished the special set of armour for Richards who flies to the Star Child and takes it away in a time bubble (like the 1 they used in v1#6). Newton retaliates by killing Stark. And in the desert the multiple Forever Men take the Star Child to pieces.
If you've been keeping score (like I had to) then you should agree that basically the only people left alive are the Forever Man, Leonid and Newton in all 3 realities. Plus 1 of the Nathaniel Richards' maybe escaped into time to continue his life as a time-traveller (in Fantastic Four). And we don't know what happened to Nostradamus in the wasteland timeline.
Now Forever Man sends the 3 copies of Leonid into the new Human Machine where they coexist (shown in a pose echoing da Vinci's Vitruvian Man). And the boy takes it away on another time journey.