New Avengers #4-6 + Avengers #4-6 Annotations

[Swan Songs of a Dead World]

New Avengers #4 - "World Eater"

• Reed and T'Challa are almost done replicating Black Swan's weapon, an Anti-Matter device.
• Tony gives them VR helmets and shows them what he's been making: a Dyson Sphere around the sun to use as a tool to stop the Incursions.
• Reed christens it "Sol's Hammer". Recall that we saw Sol's Anvil back in Fantastic Four.
• Stephen reads dark spells in a book called the Blu'Dakorr. Wong is disturbed. The spells require a high cost; 40 fallen souls... and one righteous.
• An incursion is alerted, and Stephen tells Wong that his estate will be left to him in the case that anything happens.
• The gang runs through some solutions, but no avail. Namor says fuck it and goes into the fray.
• This world was ruled by Magneto but is in the process of being eaten by Galaktus.
• His herald, Terrax the Enlightened, dunks on them. He says there's nothing they can do: Galaktus will unmoor the universe by eating earth.
• The Illuminati say screw it and fight anyways.

New Avengers #5 - "Black Swans"

• The origin of Black Swan!
• The Illuminati resolves to let Black Swan out of the cage to get some info on the incursions.
• Beneath her cage is a bomb, but they give her a necklace with the same explosive power if she goes out of line.
• Terrax from last issue ended up getting captured; they were too late to stop Galaktus, but they took Terrax for some info as well.
• Swan doesn't rock with Stephen...
• Her origin has a reverse of the first page of Avengers #1.
• Her name is Yabbat Ummon Taaru. She had a brother, Dadingra, and they inherited a key to the Library of Worlds, a gift from Sinnu Sarrum, the Ivory Kings.
• Only the great ladies, Black Swans, could navigate the twisted paths between worlds.
• Their planet got attacked by beings called Black Priests, descending from an incursion world. They are seen in the flash forward from New Avengers #2.
• Yabbat is the only survivor, she takes the key and flees to the Library. The Black Swans find her and train her in their way.
• Her world was an offering to Rabum Alal. The birth of Rabum Alal started the incursions, and every Earth destroyed by Black Swans is a gift to him, to save one planet until the next incursion instead of both universes perishing. One season longer... Wardum Uggae.
• The Eighth Way, shading the apocalypse: evacuating Earth and destroying it stops the incursions for that universe.
• Alternate Beasts use this method, and his name is known in the Game of Worlds...
• Black Swan has incursion detectors in her eyes, but they can forecast better; she can predict them.
• An incursion begins, but this one is in Latveria...

New Avengers #6 - "Blue Hell"

• Incursion in Latveria!
• The gang shows Swan the anti-matter bomb they built.
• They take her with them to Latveria where they discover this to be a different kind of incursion: a blue sky.
• Blue means Map-Makers: so there is a race of beings called the Map-Makers who have hijacked the incursions for their own benefit. They harvest worlds, wait for incursions, then send their Sidera Maris (Bridge-Builders) to conquer the new world. From the new world, the dead world is destabilized, and a piece of it falls onto the new, marking it. The marker allows the Map-Makers to locate it and begin the cycle once more. Somehow, they can travel the multiverse at will.
• Doom and Kristoff take on the Sidera Maris, but Panther is worried about the actions of the Illuminati getting found out since Latveria is a surveillance state.
• The group agrees to destroy the dead world.
• Reed thanks Swan for her help.
• Swan telepathically conspires with Terrax, claiming they can be useful to each other in the future. He doesn't miss Galaktus, but he misses finding worlds to destroy.
• Doom's minions find a remnant of the dead world, a marker...

[Heroes Assembled]

Avengers #4 - "The Death & Resurrection of Major Titans"

• Origin of Hyperion!
• His world was destroyed by the Incursions. he tried to hold both earths apart but failed. He survived the death of the two realities but was snatched out of the void by AIM. He was then freed by the Avengers.
• The Avengers discover a sixth impact site of the origin bombs that Ex Nihilo unleashed, in the savage land.
• They intercept the AIM scientists trying to claim it, and the pods burst to reveal little alien children. Hyperion is their new dad.
• However, the AIM scientists find the seventh site in Norway, and an individual encased in crystal...

Avengers #5 - "Superguardian"

• Origin of Smasher!
• Flashback to the New X-men arc Imperial, the Shi'ar are attacked by Cassandra Nova and Smasher falls to Earth to warn the X-Men. A piece of his goggles is left behind, living armor picked up by Isabel Kane. She becomes the new Smasher, and is initiated as a Sub-Guardian of the Shi'ar.
• Her gramps was Captain Terror, an old ally of Cap. He puts her in touch with the Avengers.
• in present day, Stark finds out that the new man built by Ex Nihilo is called Adam/Blackveil.
• Cap and Smasher lead an Avengers squad to the help the Shi'ar against an invasion. They win, and Isabel becomes a Super-Guardian.
• Gladiator and the Superguardians discover that the invading race was actually running from something...

Avengers #6 - "Zen and the Art of Cosmology"

• The origin of Captain Universe!
• She was a single mother with her daughter in a car crash. She was in a coma for ten years.
• The Universe selected her because they were both broken and dying. Earth is the axis that the multiverse spins on.
• Spider-Man is Superior right now, douchebag Otto in our best boy.
• Shang Chi gets our Mother/Cap Universe back on track; Tamara Devoux faces grief.
• But nobody knows what happened to her daughter...
• Tony is still trying to decode the builder language to communicate with Blackveil.
• Cap Universe speaks builder machine code and reveals his name is actually Nightmask. She completes Tony's translator and gives Nightmask English:
• The System is broken, it's coming, the White Event...