Synopsis
Ultimates² (2017 series) #5 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
The Never Queen takes over the splash page catch-up. She reminds us that Carol Danvers formed the Ultimates to solve cosmic-scale problems. which included turning Galactus from Devourer to Lifebringer. Later he and they discovered that the multiversal Eternity was in chains. The Ultimates were disbanded by the US Government but Galactus brought them secretly back together in this 2nd series to help Eternity. However a Government troop called the Troubleshooters has tracked them to Galactus' worldship Taa II and attacked them. And it turns out 1 of them, Simon Rodstvow, may be a big threat himself.
Meanwhile Lord Chaos and Master Order took Big G to be judged by the Living Tribunal over his change. When things didn't go their way C & O killed LT and merged (along with the In-Betweener) to replace him as a being named Logos. They then killed the (remaining) Celestials (except for the boss Celestial, the One Above All, which we see in her hand). And then they reverted G into an even worse Devourer. But the Queen believes that there is something behind chained Eternity, corrupted C & O and the existence of Rodstvow.
This issue begins with Philip Nelson Vogt reviewing his life. He didn't do well as a teenager so his parents sent him to military school where he was discovered to have psychic ability. He was assigned to the experimental Eternity Battalion where he became friends with Jim Tensen. During a mission in Transia something happened that left only those 2 as survivors, both with prematurely white hair. The duo kept quiet about what happened to team member Emmett. They were discharged and Vogt joined the NSA. Later he formed the Troubleshooters and put Tensen in charge. But lately the NSA seems to have cut him adrift and he's left to decide what to do about the Ultimates himself. They are a secret team run by Colonel Danvers, the head of the Alpha Flight planetary defences, and Black Panther, king of foreign power Wakanda. Are they a conspiracy or Earth's best defence against cosmic threats?
And in the darkness outside the multiverse something laughs. At Vogt's dilemma. At the dead Celestials and Living Tribunal. At corrupted Galactus. And its minion Logos who promises to take the multiverse back to a better time.
On Taa II Conner Sims (Anti-Man), the latest Herald of Galactus, who was the 1st to see that the multiverse was in chains and is currently dying, continues to babble about the One Who Is One, the Jailer who's going to take everything back while the Ultimates fight the Troubleshooters around him. America Chavez spars with Jim Tensen. Spectrum (Monica Rambeau) stands entranced by Network (Terry Jessup) in her head. Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) is entangled in the solid emotion tentacles of Indigo (Dionne McQuaid). And T'Challa (without his Black Panther costume) faces the armoured Codename: Spitfire (Kathy Ling).
Ling doesn't care that Sims is dying because he's a mass murderer. But she wonders how her foe's strength alone can keep her armoured arms apart. He tells her it's (heart-shaped) herbal supplements. She breaks free of his grasp and fires tranquilliser darts which he dodges. The darts nearly hit McQuaid, which makes her angry and she takes it out on CM. Ling tells BP to give in because he can't beat her telekinetic armour. But he leaps to kick her forehead (which he calls Shadow Combat, a fusion of Wakandan and K'un-Lun martial arts). And her armour falls apart because he struck her 3rd eye, disrupting her chi and her telekinetic control over the Spitfire armour. He suggests they talk.
Rambeau and Jessup are meeting on the astral plane in the mental simulation of his kitchen. But now she rejects his definition of their situation - his kitchen where she's human. She switches to her natural state, a being of light, and suggests they fight mind to mind. Terry blusters that he's a black-belt psychic combat master but he's clearly rattled. And he succumbs to her 1st strike and they return to the real world with his slightly-visible real form in tatters. Then she zaps McQuaid's mind, dispelling her tentacles and freeing Danvers. She mentions that hasn't worked since Shuma-Gorath (Mighty Avengers (2013) #3) and jokingly asks Carol if she can have her Captain Marvel codename back.
They all 4 now gang up on Chavez' opponent Tensen. He claims (as we saw last issue) that he never wanted to fight them (until Rodstvow started it). But he's been told they make cosmic decisions that risk universes with no oversight to keep them in check. And he has orders to bring them in. As she attacks him Ms America Chavez responds that they are paramedics for the multiverse and they're doing their job. They work for Eternity but who does *he* work for? And she breaks his psi-shield which shocks him. She suggests that maybe his belief was shaken. She claims to have met many of his alternates in other timelines (Jims, Johns and Jennys) and they've all been Warriors Of Spring (as Jim claimed to be last issue). But now Winter is winning.
Then the missing combatants turn up. Simon Rodstvow appears through 1 of his golden star-shaped portals from another dimension, in a monstrous golden form with Blue Marvel (Dr Adam Brashear) limp in 1 fist. Chavez says she has a theory about what he really is but she wants to know who sent it and why. Light-form Monica is concerned about Adam and gives him some of her energy. As he returns to consciousness he tells her that he could only stall Rodstvow in that other dimension, but back here he has a plan. But the Rodstvow being says that it's too late because they wasted time fighting each other. Now his master who created him is on the verge of success after 'numberless aeons'.
Back on Earth Vogt is confronted by tattered Network who's travelled via the collective unconscious to show him what's been happening. Through mental contact Vogt sees the monstrous Rodstvow and the now-ravening Galactus. And it's up to him to decide what to do.
Outside the multiverse the big bad is taunting Eternity. He's corrupted the Big E's 'systems' like Galactus and Logos who will devour him from within. And he himself will absorb the remaining scraps. And everything will go back to what it was before the multiverses - the current 8th cosmos and those before it. Back to when there was only 1 cosmos containing 1 universe which was *him*, the First Firmament - soon to be the last.
CharactersGood (or All)Plus: Anti-Man (
Conner Sims), Blue Marvel (
Adam Brashear), Spectrum (
Monica Rambeau), Ultimates.
Enemies
Dionne McQuaid, First Firmament, Jim Tensen, Kathy Ling, Logos, Philip Nelson Vogt, Simon Rodstvow, Terry Jessup.