Doomsday Plus One!

With the Earth being struck by powerful reality inversions, the Eternal Sersi used her powers to protect the Avengers and their ally Spider-Man from the growing casade of disorientating inversions. When they finally abate, they discover that the entire universe around them has ceased to exist, leaving only Sersi, Captain America, Thor, Spider-Man, the Avengers butler Jarvis and the room they’re in as the only apparent things in existence.[1] Not willing to accept there is nothing left, Spider-Man takes to the controls and does a long range scan and discovers that something else exists in the void: the PolyDyne Institute building.

Wanting to know what they might be facing, Captain America orders Sersi to use her telepathic power to scan the building. What she discovers there is something so evil that she ends up curling up in the fetal position.[2] As the Avengers try to figure out their next move, Jarvis points out to them that the air is starting to get stale. This makes Spider-Man fear that they are sunk, but Captain America insists that as long as there is life, they’ll find a way to restore the universe.

Over at the PolyDyne building, the universe had been snuffed out of existence by a new experimental energy compressor. This machine now runs almost out of control thanks to the machinations of a space pirate named Nebula, who disguised herself as one of the scientists on the team as part of a larger scheme to conquer the universe. Seeing the device working as she planned, Nebula then tries to contact Gunthar, one of her minions, on her ship orbiting Earth. When she gets no response she looks out the window and sees that the universe has been wiped out of existence. Furious, Nebula drops her disguise and orders Professor Paul Harker, the inventor behind the compressor, to explain what happened.[3] He explains that the device must have created a genesis pulse that is replacing the old universe with a new one. Furious that this has happened, Nebula demands Harker reverse what has been done, but he’s not entirely sure if he can.

That’s when Captain America, Thor, and Spider-Man come crashing through the wall, having moved their single room to just outside the building. Thor instantly recognizes Nebula and wonders how she escaped from the Time Bubble, something that Nebula has no memory of happening.[4] While Spider-Man tries and fails to distract Nebula, Captain America and Thor try to get the energy inverter back under control but its power is continuing to grow at an exponential rate that even the mystical Mjolnir can contain it. That’s when Professor Harker explains what happened and is about to tell them how to reverse the device when Nebula incinerates him for betraying her.

While Thor deals with Nebula, Cap finds another one of the scientists and he tells him that the only way to shut the generator down is to sever its connection to its primary batteries. Unfortunately, this is nearly impossible because the cable connecting the compressor to its power source is protected by an powerful magnetic field. Cap tries to remove it by hand, even at the risk of electrocuting himself, but the magnetic field around the cable prevents him from being able to touch it. When Spider-Man learns what he is doing, the wall-crawler uses a web-line to yank the plug from its socket. The moment the machine is shut down, the old universe snaps back into reality as if nothing happened. While the Avengers and Spider-Man are reinorientating themselves, they discover that Nebula has escaped in the confusion. However, Captain America isn’t overly worried since Iron Man and the Vision are still making their way to her ship as they speak now that reality has reasserted itself.

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Captain America, Quasar, Thor, Sersi) Spider-Man, Nebula, Starfox, Gunthar, Edwin Jarvis, Paul Harker

Continuity Notes

1. Here, Jarvis is depicted wearing an eye patch. This is because he suffered a serious eye injury after receiving a severe beating from Mister Hyde during the Masters of Evil’s siege on Avengers Mansion back in Avengers #273-277. Jarvis will continue wearing the eye patch on the regular until issue #317.

2. Thor recounts how something similar happened when Sersi tried to mentally probe the Negative Zone. This happened in Avengers #309.

3. Here, Nebula makes the claim that Thanos is her grandfather, something she first claimed back in Avengers #260. This is later refuted by Thanos himself in Infinity Gauntlet #1-6. Later, in Gamora #1-5 and Silver Surfer: Rebirth #2, it is revealed that Nebula’s actual connection to Thanos was that he raised her as an adopted daughter early on in his career. Nebula’s motivation for claiming to be his grandfather is unexplained at she has made contradicting details regarding her true lineage as seen in Silver Surfer Annual #5 and Nova (vol. 2) #1. I have a theory on all of this here.

4. Thor is referring to the events of Avengers #294-267, wherein Doctor Druid was manipulated into bringing the Avengers into a Time Bubble that existed some 20 years in the future that hid a incredibly powerful weapon. This woman claimed to be Nebula, and the Avengers accepted that at face value. It’s later revealed that this Nebula was actually Ravonna Renslayer, the jilted lover of Kang the Conqueror, as explained in the Citizen Kang storyline chronicled in Captain America Annual #11, Thor Annual #17, Fantastic Four Annual #25, and Avengers Annual #21.

Topical References

• Spider-Man quips that Nebula is so nasty that she makes Doctor Doom seem like Mister Rogers. Fred Rogers was a children’s television entertainer best known for his television show Mister Rogers Friendly Neighborhood which ran from 1968 to 2001. He subsequently died in 2003. His reference her should be considered topical.