Avengers (2012) #36

Cannonball and Smasher have returned to Earth with Manifold. Their first stop is Izzy’s family’s farm in Iowa so that they can introduce her father to their baby, Josiah. They also take their son to the grave of Izzy’s grandfather, Dan, which is marked on the property by a statue of Dan in his Captain Terror uniform. Izzy tells her grandfather that Josiah has powers like they do, a fact she and Sam have decided to keep secret from Izzy’s father for now.

Meanwhile, Sunspot arrives at the Avengers’ base in the Savage Land with two assistants in tow - a pair of the Children of the Sun - to prepare for the Avengers’ next mission. Disembarking his jet, Bobby is greeted by A.I.M. scientists who advise him they’ve had a breakthrough in increasing the amount of power they can supply to the Auger.

T-minus four hours: Nightmask and Starbrand tell Bobby about the multiversal Aleph they encountered in space, and reveal that they believe it was forced into their universe by the rapid, uncontrollable compression of the multiverse. As the end gets closer, the compression will only worsen, impacting what can exist in the space between universes. Facing a crisis of this scale, the two outcasts ask to join the Avengers.

T-minus three hours: Abyss tells Bobby and A.I.M. that she and the Ex Nihilii have discovered locations all over Earth that have had contact with foreign universes: the incursion points Captain America told the team about months earlier. This further confirms that the universe is in peril, and with the end of everything approaching fast, Abyss and Ex Nihilo volunteer for the upcoming mission.

T-minus two hours: While the Children of the Sun beg their father, Hyperion, to stay behind, Bobby tells Odinson how wrong it feels to send him across the multiverse while he, Bobby, is taking on leadership of the team Thor helped found. Odinson simply wishes Bobby luck and says he hopes both their wills are strong enough for the challenges that face them.

T-minus zero: A.I.M. powers the Auger on and Sunspot’s assistants process the readings from the device. They theorize that at this point there are a couple hundred thousand universes left in the multiverse, and that they will be able to generate enough power to send the team to a universe halfway down the multiversal spectrum from their own - a distance that almost certainly means a one-way trip. As the away team - Odinson, Hyperion, Starbrand, Abyss, and the Ex Nihilii - steps into the Auger’s portal, Odinson’s words echo in Bobby’s memory: that if Bobby is inclined to pray, he should pray that Odinson is worthy of the end when it comes.