Synopsis
Last issue the Ultimates caused Galactus the Devourer to be reborn as the Lifebringer. And his 1st act was to bring life back to Archeopia, the 1st planet that he drained life from.
Now the Shi'ar Imperial Guard have come to investigate in the form of Mentor, Oracle and Smasher. Mentor's scans show flora and fauna that weren't there days ago. Smasher's penta-vision can't detect anyone around to have caused it. So Oracle expands her over-consciousness to unlock total psychoscopic awareness to detect the impressions left by recent events. And she shows them that Galactus, eater of planets, was here and brought forth new life. Mentor says they must alert the Shi-ar Majestor immediately.
On the Alpha Flight spacestation in geosynchronous orbit over the Triskelion (HQ of Alpha Flight and the Ultimates) in New York, Captain Marvel looks out into space and at her reflection in the window. She's initially shocked when the reflection asks how her on/off relationship with Jim Rhodes is going. But then she realises correctly it must be Spectrum outside trying out a new trick. Monica Rambeau's light form stops projecting the image and enters the station to resume her physical body. But she tells her friend Carol Danvers that lately she feels when she switches to light form that she's *stopping* doing something, as if light was her natural state and she has to consciously keep her human body going. And she doesn't know what she thinks about that. Then Puck brings Danvers news that Gladiator, the Shi'ar Majestor, is contacting her urgently. He's angry.
2 hours later there's an emergency Ultimates meeting in the Triskelion. Blue Marvel (Adam Brashear) is happy that their plan (#1-2) worked to change Galactus to the Lifebringer state he was *supposed* to be. CM says that the Shi'ar are angry that they weren't consulted, Adam thinks they're just upset that they didn't think of it 1st. Carol thinks he might be right but that they shouldn't take any more cosmic actions until things have calmed down. But BM and Black Panther have to 'fess up that there's something else they've already been working on.
Adam claims that time is broken. Young versions of the X-Men are now living with their older counterparts. People from the future (like Loki) are often trying to change their pasts. Two-Gun Kid is here from the Wild West and will go back with future knowledge. Thing went back into the past and became the pirate Blackbeard. The Age Of Ultron event nearly shattered time completely. T'Challa blames a lot of this Dr Doom's mystical tech called Doomlock which allows someone to change the past without creating an alternate timeline. BP would like to prevent Doom from having invented it in the 1st place, but to do that he'd have to use a Doomlock. Dimensional traveller Ms America (America Chavez) tells them of timelines she's seen where they tried that. She describes the resulting reality as like "spaghetti that screams". BM says at the moment they can't even assess the scale of the problem from the inside. So he and T'Challa have devised a way to get completely *outside* reality.
Cut to the Triskelion's aircraft hanger where they've been building the Exo-craft Abeona, a modified quinjet. CM says she wants to pilot it but she worries if it's strong enough for the trip. Adam says he's hired a specialist to make sure. Enter the latest Giant-Man, Raz Malhotra. He's a multi-disciplinarian like Henry Pym had been, and he's developed a hyperdensity form of Pym particles (that power size changes). T'Challa takes the cannister of the stuff that Raz has brought with him and fits it to the Abeona. The particles spread through its hull to create an 'armour' to withstand the pressures of the Neutral Zone. GM asks if he can come with them, but BM asks if he's ever fought a Cthulhu. This journey's not for someone inexperienced, and besides they need someone to explain what's happened to them if they don't make it back.
When they're ready Captain Marvel tells MAC (apparently her nickname for Ms America Chavez) to open 1 of her star-shaped interdimensional portals big enough to take the Abeona. Their destination is still within their reality, a 'forbidden' area of asteroids on the edge of the Andromeda Galaxy where strange alien magic has made the wall of reality thin. Then another large portal takes them into the Superflow, the space between universes where they see the broken machines of the ancient gods (the Builders seen in the build-up to the end of the previous multiverse that happened in Secret Wars). Carol worries about the strain of multiple large portals on MAC but America says they must keep going.
The next portal takes them to the Neutral Zone/Exo-Space that surrounds everything. There they are attacked by some of the 'eldritch forms and predatory concepts' that inhabit the place. The Abeona escapes by a combination of dodging and blasting. Adam Brashear claims to have discovered the NZ, which seasoned dimension-hopper Chavez questions. He describes it as a place where matter and anti-matter can coexist (and it's where the Neutronium he used in #1-2 came from). But Captain Marvel has detected a glowing humanoid form amidst all the other inhabitants of the area. Adam recognises him as Conner Sims, the Anti-Man, who murdered his wife. He's supposed to be dead but here he is asking for help.