Plot summary
After the demonic dream-being Nightmare is killed by the Chaos King, an identity of the evil god Amatsu-Mikaboshi, humanity is rendered unconscious.[5] Writer Fred Van Lente said Mikaboshi is based on the Shinto concept of the same name, "who[m] some see as the Japanese god of evil, but he really is a being that represents the polar opposite of the core values in the Shinto religion."[6]
Mikaboshi's army of enslaved alien deities then invades the underworld realms of the gods Hades and Hela, resulting in the Greek and Norse dead having to fight for their existence. The demon-lord Daimon Hellstrom finds that the personification of Death has fled, unleashing the souls of the deceased on Earth.[7]
The Greek god superhero Hercules, who had died but been resurrected with enhanced powers, assembles a group of heroes including Thor, the Silver Surfer, Venus, Galactus, and Sersi. This informal alliance is dubbed the "God Squad".[8]
While Mikaboshi destroys the various pantheons of the mythological gods, Thor engages in battle with Mikaboshi's servant Glory. Thor barely survives, reverting to an amnesiac form of his human identity Donald Blake, and is cared for by a new character, Rebecca Steinhardt.[9]
The Impossible Man and the demon lord Marduk Kurios individually confront Mikaboshi and are consumed.[10] Several dead heroes, including Vision, Doctor Druid, Deathcry, Swordsman, Yellowjacket, and Captain Marvel, return to Earth and defeat Mikaboshi's supervillain accomplices, Grim Reaper and Nekra, with most of the group being killed in the battle.[11] Deceased members of the Canadian superhero team Alpha Flight similarly return to Earth, and, with living members, fight Amatsu-Mikaboshi and the Great Beasts.[12]
The mystic Doctor Strange, formerly Earth's Sorcerer Supreme, tasks the Hulk and others to find the dead Marlo Chandler, who contains part of the essence of the personification of Death. Meanwhile, Brian Banner, the dead father of the Hulk, is resurrected as a Hulk-like creature and fights his son.[13] A number of dead members of the X-Men also return, seeking a prophetic diary that holds information for defeating Mikaboshi. The dead X-Men manage to prevent Carrion Crow from claiming the diary at the cost of some of their lives.[14]
Hercules' sister, the Greek goddess Athena, believing the current reality is irreparably metaphysically corrupt, and wishing to start fresh with a new Big Bang, is revealed as Mikaboshi's accomplice. The primeval Earth goddess Gaea and her daughter Pele, the goddess of fire, summon the surviving gods to Hawaii. The young genius Amadeus Cho calculates that Mikaboshi by now has consumed most of the multiverse, and urges humanity to escape to an unpopulated and sealed-off continuum which he knows of. Hercules argues to go down fighting, and is confronted by Athena. But Gaea and Pele destroy and recreate Hercules as a maintainer of the cycle of life, and Hercules annihilates his sibling.[15]
While the Hulk and his allies, the God Squad, Alpha Flight, and the surviving Dead Avengers fight Amatsu-Mikaboshi's forces, Cho and Galactus work on a machine that will transfer Earth to the sealed-off continuum. Not wanting to allow them to seal off the Earth forever, Hercules throws Mikaboshi inside it, sealing him off from all of reality instead. He then restores all that Mikaboshi had destroyed by expending his entire power, returning to being a "regular" mortal in the process.[16]
