Synopsis
The story begins in deep space aboard the Shano, a 2-person Wakandan exploration craft containing Blue Marvel (Dr Adam Brashear) and Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers). Adam is describing something called Neutronium, a stable combination of matter and antimatter which could only exist outside of reality. When he had previously tried to bring it into normal space it condensed into an unstable structure based on 7 atoms. He theorised that it was was a byproduct of the creation of the multiverse. But lately some of it has been found in real space in a stable pattern of 8 atoms which he calls Isometry-8. He has some and so does SHIELD. He reminds his companion of the event 8 months ago which people are struggling to remember. He posits that the event was a rebuilding of the multiverse. (Readers of the Secret Wars series know he's right.) He further proposes that Neutronium is a cosmic counter. Before the event was the 7th multiverse and now they're in the 8th iteration.
Carol brings him back from his musings to say they're nearing their destination. And she reports back to the Triskelion in New York ...
... where Black Panther, flanked by Aneka and Ayo of the Dora Milaje, is explaining the setup to the UN Secretary-General. The Triskelion tower has 3 wings radiating from its base. The 1st houses the ground crew for the Alpha Flight project. The 2nd is the new Wakandan Embassy. The 3rd is the Ultimates base from which they will proactively deal with cosmic threats. The UN is happy to see Wakanda rebuilding but worried that the US/Wakanda alliance will upset global stability. But T'Challa assures the SG that the alliance is only to pool knowledge - Wakanda is far ahead of the US militarily. Then he leaves to deal with the message from the Marvels which shows Galactus' homebase dwarfing several nearby planets. He tells the SG that the 1st problem they've chosen to solve is the Devourer. The SG is worried that poking the bear will just bring retribution to Earth, but T'Challa claims such a cosmic being is beyond petty grudges - he'd only kill the Ultimates. The SG leaves them to it.
But now BP contacts the other Ultimates members Spectrum (Monica Rambeau) and Ms America (America Chavez) in another part of space, the planet Moroder-9 in the Archeonos system. They've been sent to retrieve something but at the moment they're seeing a giant head with a helmet full of eyes floating in the air. Monica says she's never seen anything like it before but America says *she* has in her travels across realities since a child. It's the Incubator that they're looking for and in 90% of parallel realities it lands on this planet, but who finds it and what they do with it varies a lot. This time a local warlord seems to have used it as a throne to implement a total surveillance state and continue beaming the command "Obey". It spots the duo and spits out a horde of living hunter-killer drones. Spectrum launches a counter-attack in her lightform. Moving at lightspeed means everything around her seems to be standing still. Except Chavez is only slowed down in *her* attack, which to Monica is incredible.
Elsewhere BM and CM approach Big G's worldship. Adam has just admitted he's in his 80s and a bit conservative. For example he's not sure he approves of what his son (Max) is doing with Roberto Da Costa (in an Avengers/AIM consolidation in the concurrent New Avengers series). But then he also sometimes questions what the Ultimates are doing. He doesn't want them to be another Illuminati. Carol says she'd be opposing them if they were. But they both agree that Galactus is a problem that needs solving.
However Galactus seems to consider *them* a problem and unleashes a load of his Punisher robots to 'solve' them, which quickly break into their spaceship. Luckily they can both survive in space. Blue M blasts at the robots but Captain M asks him to blast *her* instead because she's an energy absorber. She takes in as much as she can, which is enough for her to enter her Binary mode. And then she quickly destroys all the Punishers.
Galactus at last deigns to speak to them and invites them in to make their futile attempt to kill him. But they assure him that's not what they're here for. They're the Ultimates and they solve problems. And they're here to solve *his*.