The Pegasus Project Part 6: To the Nth Power!

Klaw has the Thing, Quasar, and Giant-Man at his mercy and is about to blast the Thing at point-blank range when he suddenly discorporates and is shunted back into his sonic claw. This has been caused by Wundarr who has now achieved a normal intellect and is calling himself Aquarian. When the Thing revives, Aquarian explains to Ben that he has undergone this change after a second exposure to the Cosmic Cube. With the help of the Project Pegasus security staff, Ben and Wundarr take Giant-Man and Quasar back to the infirmary. There Aquarian explains to Ben that he has detected a disturbance in the very fabric of reality.

Taking the Thing down to the lower levels of the Pegasus complex, they find that Thomas Lightner has transformed into the nebulous Nth Man, a human-shaped sentient void that is literally sucking all reality into itself. Nth Man explains his plot to the two of them and his intention to absorb all reality. Aquarian then tries to stop Lightner by using his energy dampening powers, which succeeds only in turning off all the power in Project Pegasus, including the energy bars of Thundra's holding cell.

As Wundarr continues to try and stop Nth Man, Quasar and Giant-Man revive and meet up with Ben to see what they can do, they are soon also joined by Thundra. Quasar tries first to stop the creature with his Quantum Bands, however, they have no effect as Nth Man can absorb even it's massive energies. Giant-Man then decides that he is going to sacrifice himself to save the universe hoping that his size powers can "plug" the Nth Man. When the others try to stop them, Giant-Man reveals that he had contracted terminal cancer from his encounter with Atom Smasher and that he is doomed to die anyway and jumps into the Nth Man. This ploy also does not work, and in a desperate measure, Aquarian jumps into the Nth Man hoping his powers can work from the inside.

This works in the hero’s favor, so Aquarian and Giant-Man are pulled out of Nth Man, as Aquarian’s very own powers cause Nth Man's absorption to reverse shunting the menace off to another reality. Although they are victorious, Quasar grimly wonders if their victory over the Nth Man has doomed some other reality in the Multiverse.

With the battle over, Ben decides to return to the Fantastic Four and bids farewell to everyone, including Wundarr who decides to venture on his own and try to bring peace on Earth. The Thing departs leaving Bill to try and find a cure for his illness, Quasar resuming security detail at the Project and Thundra going to investigate who her mysterious employers were. Unknown to all, the masterminds behind the attacks on Project Pegasus is none other than the Roxxon Oil company, hoping to stop the project in order to prevent a discovery of a perpetual fuel source that might cut into their oil profits. However, the CEO of Roxxon writes off this failure as his organization has more lucrative measures in place that will soon come to fruition.

Recurring Characters

Thing, Aquarian, Thundra, Quasar, Giant-Man, Klaw, Nth Man, Roxxon Oil’s Nth Command, Jeannine O’Connell, Myron Wilburn

Continuity Notes

• The Thing has a bandage on his arm because he was wounded by the Deathlok robot in Marvel Two-In-One #54.

• Although dissipated here, Klaw is revived in Marvel Two-In-One Annual #6.

• The Aquarian was first exposed to the Cosmic Cube in Marvel Two-In-One #42.

• The Nth Man goes over some of his recent history here:

  • He became the super-villain known as Blacksun back in Marvel Two-In-One #21, but the transformation threatened to kill him, necessitating his revival by Donald Blake in Marvel Two-In-One #22-23.

  • Restored to human form, he infiltrated PEGASUS for Roxxon, as first seen in Marvel Two-In-One #42.

  • The Deathlok robot smuggled in the Nth Projector for him back in Marvel Two-In-One #54 and he exposed himself to the device last issue.

• This issue Giant-Man reveals he has contracted cancer. This happened thanks to radiation he was exposed to while battling Atom Smasher in Black Goliath #3. He is eventually cured in Marvel Two-In-One #85.

• Although the Nth Man appears to have been destroyed here he is actually shunted to Earth-712 as seen in Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe #1.