Appearing in "Zen and the Art of Cosmology"
Featured Characters:
- Avengers
- Shang-Chi
- Captain Universe (Tamara Devoux) (Name revealed) (Main story and flashback)
- Spider-Man ("Peter Parker"/Otto Octavius)
- Cannonball (Sam Guthrie)
- Sunspot (Bobby Da Costa)
- Iron Man (Tony Stark)
- Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew)
- Smasher (Izzy Kane)
Supporting Characters:
- "Blackveil" / Nightmask (Name revealed)
Other Characters:
- Ella Devoux (First appearance) (Only in flashback)
Locations:
Items:
Events:
Synopsis for "Zen and the Art of Cosmology"
Shang-Chi meditates across from Captain Universe and they discuss the origin of all things, and how all things partake in the essence of the universe, who is her. Shang-Chi says he wants to speak with her human host, but Captain Universe says she is broken. Shang-Chi offers pie, which draws out her human host and enables them to talk.
Elsewhere, Cannonball gets upset when Spider-Man (secretly Doc Ock trying to be a hero) steals his specially-prepared salad. He complains to Tony and taunts Blackveil, believing the alien cannot understand him.
Confused and unsure of her surroundings, the wman says she doesn’t even remember her name; Shang-Chi says she is Tamara Devoux and offers her a fork. She says all she remembers of her past is a flash of light and a crash. Shang-Chi helps her remember more details; she recalls it was a car crash and her baby was with her. She asks to see her but Shang-Chi says they have not been able to discover what happened to the baby. Shang-Chi reveals that Tamara was in a coma for ten years. The distress of learning this causes her to radiate energy and warp reality and revert back to her Captain Universe form. She says that Earth is significant because it is the axis around which the multiverse spins and the Universe chose to become sentient here because here the life and death of everything will soon be decided. She chose Tamara as a host because she is broken and dying, just as the universe is.
Shang-Chi and Captain Universe go to speak with Tony Stark, and to everyone’s surprise Captain Universe can speak in the Builders’ language and communicate with the human grown by Ex Nihilo, whose name is actually Nightmask, not Blackveil. She empowers them to understand the alien’s tongue, and they learn he is saying “the system is broken” and “the white event is here.” Outside, the sky turns electric white and massive swirling bolts of energy come to consume the Earth.
Solicit Synopsis
“GODDESS”
• The Secret Origin of the Universe.
• Watch as for the first time in history, The UNIVERSE becomes sentient.
• Watch as Captain Universe deciphers the code that was hidden in the first five issues.Trivia
- This issue takes place after Avenging Spider-Man #15.1.