The Multiversity #2 (2015)

In darkness, just before the end of all things, a light. The Harbinger, controlling AI of the House of Heroes, starts awake, and does a brief check on the multiverse... On Earth 13, vampire soldiers from a parallel universe have captured a group of locals. One of them, a young pastor, begins a poem. The vampires react in horror as the pastor reveals his cursed alter ego - Etrigan, the Super-Demon. Freeing his comrades, they form a plan. On the Rock of Sivana, Splattercore Sivana and Funny Animal Sivana have set the Transmatter Cube to allow the Blood League of Earth 43, led by Vampire Sivana, to conquer Earth 13, a world without sunlight. Confident of victory, Vampire Sivana leads his force through... only to be immediately killed by Fate. Within seconds Annataz has cast a spell to change the Blood League from craving blood to craving coffee, thus saving the day. Meanwhile, Splattercore Sivana and Funny Animal Sivana escape the Rock of Sivana for Earth 18, seconds ahead of being captured by the Marvel Family. The duo land at Fort Sivana, a stronghold of tin men whose diminutive owner, Old West Sivana, has just been shot dead. Splattercore Sivana has a few seconds to lament the injustice that has been done him before he is shot in turn by El Diablo of the Justice Riders. On Earth 17, the Omega Saucer of Darkseid threatens Novamerika. On Earth 51, Shark-Men menace our heroes. On Earth-20, the Temple of Nicshuotan summons evil lightning. On Earth 36, the undead Optiman threatens his former friends. On Earth 26, the Just'a Lotta Animals try to best the Zoo Crew. On all worlds, crisis. On the House of Heroes, the Transmatter Cubes are flashing nonstop, summoning superheroes from world after world. Dino-Cop tries to explain what they should next, but they cannot leave the station without help from Harbinger - and her system is under attack by Hellmachine of the Gentry. In the crowd, Lord Volt and Lady Quark of Earth 48 meet Atomic Knight Batman of Earth 17. Recognizing the narrative need, Volt demands he prove he deserves to be here. Atomic Knight Batman points to Li'l Wonder Woman & Li'l Steel of Earth 42, and says he met someone like them before. This causes Nth Metal Hawkman of Earth 44 to accuse them of being spies for Hellmachine and the Gentry. However, rather than fight this accusation, the two reveal themselves as robots, initiating a shutdown sequence so as not to betray their master. Fortunately, Nth Metal Hawkman can remotely read their memory, and says that they can be saved by the map that Atomic Knight Batman carries - The Multiversity Guidebook #1. On Earth 8, a forward group from the Hall of Heroes have allied with the local super-teams against the Superjudge - Nix Uotan, corrupted by the Gentry into a cosmic nihilist with a scary cube. As the seconds tick down, Superman of Earth 23 tries to talk Superjudge out of his course. Superjudge bats him aside and promptly beheads Captain Carrot. Though the Lagomorphic Liberator keeps fighting, in ten minutes his superpowers run out - and without a mouth, he cannot eat the cosmic carrots that empower him. As the Gentrified victims of Earth 7 emerge to fight alongside Superjudge - as zombies - Mister Stubbs finds the head of Captain Carrot and explains that the whole crisis is part of a plan by Nix Uotan. By serving the Gentry, he opened the doors... but doors open both ways, and with some grit, they can turn this victory by the Gentry inside out. In the fight, Aquawoman convinces Thunderer to start a mighty rainstorm. Empowered by the water, she fires bio-electricity at Superjudge and stabs him in the eye. In the Hall of Heroes, Harbinger's internal memory of the multiverse is being destroyed, but thanks to external memory in the form of Atomic Batman's map, she is able to recover herself. Outside, the Marvel Family of Earth 5 throw the Rock of Sivana at Hellmachine, causing him to lose his grip and fall into the Bleed, where he is immediately mugged by one of the local Things That Should Not Be. On Earth 8, Red Racer drags the still fighting headless body of Captain Carrot to where his head is. Putting himself together, Captain Carrot re-energizes with a cosmic carrot and says he needs Red Racer's help. He hands over a collection of comic books that Mr Stubbs just gave him, and says he needs the whole story. Red Racer is appalled that they want him to read comics at a time like this, but he speeds through the collection and realizes what Superjudge represents. As Superjudge puts his cube through the process of turning into a weapon, Red Racer starts running around the world, approaches dimensional escape velocity and vanishes. Mr Stubbs and Captain Carrot explain to the others that Nix Uotan is not behind a forcefield but rather trapped, and that it will take fast thinking to get him out. Just as Superjudge finishes prepping his scary cube, the Red Racer re-appears in a flash - at the head of a mob of speedster heroes. Uniting their power, they chain a series of infinite-mass punches to cut through the forcefield and deal a right hook to the Superjudge. The villain goes down. As the heroes take stock in the hush, Nix Uotan as he was before emerges from the remains of Superjudge. Machinehead realizes that the scary cube is a gateway to potentially anywhere. From the cube emerges the Gentry, the group that has scourged worlds for the threat known only as the Empty Hand. The villains sneer, but at that moment, Harbinger sends the full compliment of the House of Heroes to Earth 8. Pulled forward by Thunderer's desire for vengeance against the villains, the horde of brightly-dressed men and women carry the day. As the Retaliators congratulate themselves, Superman realizes that it was too easy. He also realizes that the front door of Lord Broken has sounds coming from behind it... and a strange light in its windows. With a group, he walks through it - and finds himself on Earth 7, standing before the throne of the Empty Hand, which is flanked by multiple versions of the six members of the Gentry. On the throne, the colossal humanoid called the Empty Hand says that he believes they cannot stop him. His assembled Gentry, fat and nourished on the remains of Multiverse-2, will labor to construct the Oblivion Engine. It will be the final part of their collective never-ending story, and they will not meet until he deems the time is right. At the House of Heroes after the fact, Superman sat down with as many of the heroes who had just helped him as Harbinger would find. This battle was extraordinary, but it deserves to not be an ending. He proposes that the heroes form a volunteer super-guardian force, to react to cosmic threats. Afterwards, Captain Carrot salutes his dedication, but wonders where he will find the time, between cosmic guardianship, the Justice League... and his day job as President of the United States. Superman says he doesn't have a choice: the Gentry and the Empty Hand hail from Earth 33, and the people of the multiverse need some protection from whatever the nefarious masterminds of that world plot for them next. In front of a gathering of the multiverse's greatest heroes, Nix Uotan is congratulated for helping to defeat the Gentry. Dino-Cop asks if there is any way they can repay the debt they owe him. Nix can think of nothing, but with some prompting from Mr Stubbs, he says there is one way... Life lives everywhere life can. Nix Uotan lives in his apartment, where he began this senses-shattering adventure. His landlady is still knocking, demanding that he pay his rent. Nix Uotan reaches into his pocket for eight hundred dollars that was not there an hour ago: his rent.