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Infinity Abyss (2002 series) #4

on-sale: Jul 24, 2002
Jim Starlin

Infinity Abyss (2002 series) #4 cover

Story Name:

Breakdown


Synopsis

Infinity Abyss (2002 series) #4 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
Thanos created a lot of android/clone/doppelgangers of himself (which Marvel will later refer to as Thanosi), but was disappointed in them. However 5 got free and are trying to end all life in the universe, and 1 of them is attacking him and Gamora in his home. The Thanosi believe Adam Warlock is a key to achieving their goal, and they tricked Moondragon and Pip The Troll into reviving him from a 2-year coma in his cocoon. Now he and Pip are trying to discover what sent him into the coma (something to do with a mysterious alien Atlez) and the trail has led to Eternity and Infinity who are merging. Meanwhile Captain Marvel (Genis-Vell) and Dr Strange are separately investigating mysterious white cubes of nothingness. The Thanosi weren't happy about this and sent mind-controlled MD to attack DrS as he voyaged through mystic realms. They fought a psychic battle which Strange won, but collapsed afterwards. The Thanosi also sent nihilist minions to a New York State farm where Spider-Man sensed great danger but CM turned up and a white cube swallowed the enemy.

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Gamora is supposed to be leading the Thanosi Armour to a sub-basement where Thanos will dispose of him. But he's proving a dangerous foe.

A somewhat deranged Eternity/Infinity are considering turning the universe inside-out, which Warlock already noticed as space and time intermingling. But his current mission is to find out what happened when he visited them 2 years ago. They tell him he wanted to leave space and time, and he became such a pest they created him a portal which they now show him.

Spidey and Genis (with Rick Jones as usual commenting from the Microverse) usher the Langunn back into their farmhouse, but both of them sense a bigger danger coming. Then the surrounding woods start to disappear into white nothingness until only the house is left. And Genis loses mental contact with Rick.

Gamora fears that she inadvertently lost Armour, but he smashes through a wall behind her breaking her gun. So she escapes through a grill in the floor.

Adam prepares to exit reality and tells Pip not to follow because the last time he did this it cost him his sanity. If he doesn't return the Troll should inform Thanos. Pip complains that the last time he brought the Mad Titan bad news he lobotomised him (Avengers Annual #7). But Warlock leaves him with the cosmic beings.

Back at the farmhouse CM tries to fly for help but finds himself returning from the other direction - they're trapped inside the nothingness. But meanwhile his cosmic senses have detected that it is 1 of the Langunns' twin daughters that has the cosmic power that has kept them safe. And (presumably not by coincidence) her name is Atleza.

Armour is still pursuing Gamora who has now led him to where Thanos wanted, and his promised escape portal is within her reach. But the Thanosi blasts her before she can go though it and prepares a killing blow. However Thanos steps through the portal and kills the foe with 1 blast from his eyes. (Though I don't know why he couldn't have just done that in the 1st place.)

Genis explains to Spidey that the child isn't responsible for the nothingness outside but is keeping it from engulfing them. However the 2-year old doesn't seem to know she's doing it. They can only hope that someone notices the nothingness in Upstate New York and works out how to get them out.

In the Thanosi's baseship Mystic and X have sensed Armour's death, and the nihilist patrol hasn't reported in from the farm plus X has lost mental contact with Moondragon. He says he'll take some elite nihilists to the farm while Mystic and Warrior go to find out what happened to MD and deal with Strange.

It turns out that Thanos has their base bugged (because they stole all their hardware from him when they thought he was dead). They still don't know he's survived which gives him and Gamora the best chance of stopping their plans. He believes they hope to win Death's approval as he used to long for. But he's over that now.

The exhausted Langunns have fallen asleep but our 2 heroes are drinking coffee to keep them alert. They speculate that time may be running completely differently in here than out there. And they commiserate with each other over how superheroing has messed up their lives, and SM says he's thinking of giving up the role. Then Atleza joins them with a suddenly precocious vocabulary to warn them of the approach of X and his soldiers. They appear outside the house via a portal.

Mystic has brought Warrior to the dimension where DrS and MD fought. Battle-hungry Warrior is disappointed to see them both unconscious. M can sense that the path Strange was following has brought them close to the anchor of reality the Thanosi have been seeking. So they leave to destroy it. But Strange revives to see them go.

Thanos and Gamora are now in a new large Sanctuary spaceship (the previous 1 was destroyed by the black hole in #1) viewing Kree worlds that have been destroyed (last issue). The Titan now tells his companion that the culprit is the 5th missing Thanosi named Omega who was designed to rival Galactus.

Meanwhile outside time and space Warlock has reverted to his previous costume, and realises he's actually reliving (courtesy of his Soul Gem) the missing memory of his previous visit here 2 years before. He sees dark globes that represent alternate realities swirling around in a vortex at the bottom of which is a dark oblivion. And his own reality is very near that edge which he realises is why he was summoned. He enters the orb which is the anchor of his reality and finds only darkness within. But he uses his Soul Gem to light up the darkness to reveal a pavilion. Entering he calls on Atlez who summoned him here. The alien shows himself and tells Adam he's only just in time. Adam now knows via his Gem that Atlez is 1 of a long line of beings who have been the anchor for Reality-616, but now is the time for his replacement. Warlock knows that's not to be *his* job because his fate is to keep dealing with cosmic disasters *within* reality. Atlez tasks him with bring his successor Atleza to take his place. But Adam knows this happened 2 years ago (when the 2 year old was born?) and he failed then.

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Characters
Good (or All)
ADAMWARLOCK
CMARVGVELL
DOCTORSTRANGE
ETERNITY
GAMORA
MOONDRAGON
PIPT
RICKJONES
SPIDERMAN
THANOS
Plus: Infinity.


> Infinity Abyss (2002 series) comic book info and issue index



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Main/1st Story Full Credits

Jim Starlin
Al Milgrom
Christie Scheele
Jim Starlin (Cover Penciler)
Al Milgrom (Cover Inker)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Jack Morelli.
Editor: Tom Brevoort. Editor-in-chief: Joe Quesada.



Review / Commentaries


Infinity Abyss (2002 series) #4 Review by (August 15, 2025)
This series occurs soon after Aunt May discovered Peter Parker was Spider-Man in Amazing SM (1999) #37-38, and while he and his wife Mary Jane were trying to recover from her having been kidnapped, feared dead.

The idea of alternate timelines goes back at least as far as an alternate Avengers in Av Annual #2 and later the Squadron Supreme in Av#85-86, and more explicitly the multiverse with the Nexus Of All Realities in the Man-Thing series in Adventure Into Fear. This may be the 1st use of a place outside all realities. Eternity here is depicted as only existing in universe-616, with presumably other timelines having their own copies. The idea of them all being fragments of a multiversal Eternity existing outside all the universes will I believe be due to the 2016 Ultimates series.

The idea of a succession of beings acting as an anchor for each reality won't be repeated outside this series.





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