Comic Book / Ultimate Galactus Trilogy

And that's just a bullet. Gah Lak Tus had not even arrived yet at that point.

The Ultimate Galactus Trilogy is a three-part comic book miniseries that adapted The Coming of Galactus to the Ultimate Marvel universe. Those three parts are Ultimate Nightmare, Ultimate Secret and Ultimate Extinction.

Ultimate Nightmare: A broadcast showing images of death and destruction is suddenly seen all across the world, in all types of media, causing a small-scale wave of mass suicides. S.H.I.E.L.D. locates the source of the broadcast to be from Siberia, so Nick Fury goes to investigate with Captain America, Black Widow, and the Falcon. The X-Men also notice it, and Xavier sends Wolverine, Colossus and Jean Grey. Both teams, unaware of each other, enter into an abandoned military bunker. After dealing with several weird things including leftover Soviet experiments, they find the Vision, an alien robot who warns them about the coming of Gah Lak Tus.

Ultimate Secret: An alien invasion by the Kree tries to destroy an experimental spaceship. Dr. Philip Lawson, the creator of the ship, manages to stop them. It turns out that Lawson is a Kree himself, Captain Mahr Vehl, who had been sent to infiltrate Earth to examine humanity to see if they posed a threat to the Kree, but he actually came to like humanity's culture over time and wants to help them stop Gah Lak Tus. With his help, the heroes infiltrate the ship of commander Yahn Rgg and steal their info about Gah Lak Tus.

Ultimate Extinction: It's discovered that Gah Lak Tus is not really a single creature but rather a Hive Mind - a sentient swarm of millions of machine beings. As it arrives to Earth, Xavier and Jean Grey try to make psychic contact with the swarm, repulsing it and distracting it. Meanwhile, the Ultimates deal with Gah Lak Tus' army of Silver Surfers terrorizing the streets. With that, Reed Richards is able to use his new weapon against Gah Lak Tus, a cannon channeling the raw power of an alternate universe's big bang. This destroys 20% of the entity, who flees.

This story had a sequel, Ultimate Vision, centering on the robot found in the first issue.

Note: If you are looking for the time when the Galactus from the mainstream universe visited the Ultimate Universe, see Cataclysm: The Ultimates' Last Stand.

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Tropes:

• Accidental Misnaming: Lawson's Kree name is Mahr Vehl, and he has a rank of pluskomander, the analogous thing to a Captain. Everybody then calls him "Captain Marvel", except for Thor and Sam Wilson, the only ones who bothered to get the name right.
• Accidental Pun: After arranging the action with Xavier, Nick Fury tells him to "hop to it" (as in "let's do this, now!"). Then he remembers that he's in a wheelchair, so he adds "or whatever".
• Achilles in His Tent: Sam Wilson was enjoying the solitude of the Amazon jungle, but will gladly go back and help Nick Fury with his crisis.
• Adaptation Name Change
  • Galactus is renamed as Gah Lak Tus.
  • Captain Marvel is a mispronunciation of "Mar-Vell". Here, he was renamed as "Mahr Vehl" (but the misunderstanding as "Captain Marvel" stays).
  • His Kree superior, Yon-Rogg, was renamed as Yahn Rgg.
• Adaptation Species Change
  • Gah Lak Tus is not a universal cosmic being, but just a robot hive-mind.
  • The Sentry is adapted as a high detail telescope.
  • Ultimate Vision, to an extent. She is still a robot, but unlike the original universe version (who was created on Earth by Ultron), she was made by aliens.
• Adaptational Villainy
  • In the main continuity, the Silver Surfer was working for Galactus and betrayed him in the first adventure, siding with humanity. Here, his equivalents are the actively homicidal Silver Wings, who never change sides.
  • Red Guardian, Russia's version of Captain America, is usually portrayed as a good man who tends toward My Country, Right or Wrong. Here he's a deranged madman wielding a shield made from human remains.
  • Moondragon is a hero in the main universe (at least, that's the basic idea). Here, she's a sniper that worships Gah Lak Tus and attacks both the Silver Wings and the Ultimates.
  • The Big G himself. In the main continuity, Galactus is a regrettable part of the cosmic balance, who doesn't enjoy being constantly hungry. Here, Gah Lak Tus is deliberately going around exterminating entire species because it hates them.
• Analogy Backfire: When Reed says he works alone, Fury mentions that it's team work, and compares the situation with playing ball at school. Surely Reed played football at school, right? Reed points that no, he didn't play much ball at school, he was the nerd reading books inside... and that's how he got to be a genius, with the guy who played lots of ball at school now asking for his help. And he's not going to get a damn thing until he starts treating Reed and his friends with respect.
• Apocalypse Cult: One springs up worshiping Gah Lak Tus. Actually, at least two:
  • The one set up by the Silver Surfers, who encourage people to mass suicide in Gah Lak Tus' name.
  • A seemingly human one that believes only they should be allowed to contact Gah Lak Tus, and to that effect create an army of clones of a homicidal mob hit-woman, to take out anyone else trying to communicate with it (we barely learn anything about this group).
• Arc Words: The "Take two things that work and nail them together" takes a new spin when they find out what has been going on at the bunker all those years.
• Artificial Limbs Are Stronger: The bald sniper is cornered by Misty Knight, and she throws her knife at Misty's hand. Fortunately for Misty, her arm is an artificial one.
• Artistic License – History: The Tunguska Event took place in 1908, not 1904. Warren Ellis knew this, but moved the year so that it happened a whole century before the comic release (2004).
• Ascended Fanboy: Ben, Johnny and Sue are in full fanboy mode when they hear they will be working with the Ultimates.
• Asshole Victim: The X-Men announce that they intend to liberate all those Russian prisoners who had been experimented on and then left abandoned in the bunker. One of those guys, who could turn into a giant, thanks in full Sarcasm Mode the heroes who came to liberate them, and gets enraged, thinking that it's just psychological torture.
• Atop a Mountain of Corpses: Ultimate Extinction # 1 and 3.
• Atrocious Alias: Mahr Vehl thinks that "Captain Marvel" is a terrible mispronunciation of his name.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: When facing the clone army, Iron Man asks what the plan is. "All the people coming out of the water? Kill them".
• Badass Boast: "Humans can kick the [censored] out of anything!"
• Badass Normal: Moondragon can give Misty Knight a run for her money.
• Bald of Evil: Moondragon
• Bat Family Crossover: The story has crossovers of just 2 comics at a time, and Spider-Man is left out of this.
• Because I Said So: Reed may like to work alone, but Fury wants him to work with Sam, Tony and Mahr Vehl. Because he says so.
• Beleaguered Boss: Superpositioning coordinates? That was not your job! Richards wants a stress test on the gate walling, to make sure that it doesn't flex on the given coordinates! If you need more men, call Fury and get more men!
• Big Damn Heroes: When the clone army attacks, Xavier summons the X-Men to contain them.
• Blasphemous Boast: One of the more famous quotes from Ultimate!Nick is from Ultimate Extinction, wondering if he gets to heaven if God will put up a fight or let Nick sit on his throne.
• Blatant Lies
  • Lawson says that he created the suit as a hobby, based on Iron Man's tech. The invisibility is SHIELD's "light sensitivity mode", which he does not have clearance for, but he got it with Hollywood Hacking. Danvers dosn't buy it for a second. Then he says he's an alien.
  • Before joining the Ultimates' meeting and explaining who Misty Knight is, Tony is talking with some girl on the phone. "...I need to help out an old friend here. No, of course she's not female. He. He's not female. Gotta go. Call later. Love you".
• Call-Back: Reed mentioned the Fantastic Four's adventure in the Negative Zone, where they met the alien Nihil. The knowledge they got there is crucial for Reed to develop the weapon that's key to victory. Also, they let Johnny name the shuttle again. Cut to name Awesome II on the side of the craft.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Danvers has to report the results of her interrogation of Lawson. She's visibly ashamed to open her mouth and say "His name's Captain Marvel and he's a spaceman from the Cree Indian tribe, sir"
• Cassandra Truth:
  • Played for drama. Xavier agrees that the vision of the aliens dying (that he got in a dream, as well as Jean) was not a made-up montage, but thought that it was just a visual metaphor of loneliness and abuse from some new mutant. It turns out that the visions were completely what they appeared to be.
  • Mahr Vehl telling Danvers and Fury he's on their side isn't believed at first, which he's indignant about.
  Mahr Vehl: Are you people so far gone you can't tell when someone's trying to help?
• Chekhov's Gun: Why would they bother so much to make Dr. Phil Lawson go through the ID tests?
• The Chosen Wannabe: Heather Douglas, considering that only she and her clone sisters are capable of having first contact with Gah Lak Tus, and try to destroy Xavier's array because he will do it instead of them.
• Classified Information
  • After retrieving the Vision, everything about her and Gah Lak Tus was made classified information of the highest level.
  • Sam has to call the woman "Black Widow", because he's not cleared for real names.
  • The Kree also have it. Only the Supreme Intelligence fully knows about Gah Lak Tus, and this knowledge is only passed to high-ranked Kree military leaders on a need-to-know basis. The Kree are not ready for this knowledge, and they would all go mad if they knew the full details.
• The Comically Serious: Carol Danvers turns into this, since she cannot stand all the crazy stuff going on.
• Composite Character: The Vision takes over the role of Uatu the Watcher from the original Galactus arc, an alien being who warns worlds of the approach of Galactus.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: Captain America lands in the middle of an unending army of deadly Heather Douglas clones, all of them armed to the teeth. Of course, they do not stand a chance.
• Continuity Nod: Mahr Vehl's interrogation brings up a few factoids from over in the first volume of Ultimates, namely that there are eleven known alien species on Earth (the Kree aren't in that number because they're not on Earth, just watching), and he even compliments Fury on the Chitauri business. Later on, Hawkeye grumbles about Captain America's famous line from the conclusion of that fight.
• Cosmic Horror Story: Just like the original Galactus story. A massive swarm of alien robots decides to stamp us out like ants, our insignificance in the grand scheme of things is a recurring theme, and ultimately Gah Lak Tus isn't destroyed, just driven off. Still, the story ends with the Vision being loaded up with the plans for the dimension cannon, and the characters noting that if the next worlds on Gah Lak Tus' route get organised, they may be able to actually kill the thing one day.
• Covers Always Lie: Ultimate Extinction #2 features Wolverine, who isn't in the comic.
• Crazy-Prepared: Basic NASA engineering doctrine, meaning they've got a nice backup ASIS to lure the Kree troops in.
• Crisis of Faith: Captain America has a big one about Gah Lak Tus. How can God allow such a creature to exist? He always thought that God allowed evil to exist because he also allowed virtuous and good men to stand against evil, but how can men stand against something so big and far removed?
• Deadly Euphemism: "Disavowed" is a Kree euphemism for "turned into protein sludge".
• Deadpan Snarker: Everyone. Warren Ellis is writing, after all. Carol Danvers, in particular, is a veritable fountain of snark on her own.
  Thor: You, military-industrial drone woman, fetch me a beer.
  Danvers: Certainly, sir. How far up your ass do you want it?
  Thor: Well, I was thinking a keg, so...
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Xavier's telepathic contact and Reed's doomsday device are not enough to cause Gah Lak Tus any real harm, but it is scared off by the unexpected resistance and leaves.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Subverted. The scientists are taking their seats, but Lawson is taking his sweet time to do so, because he's "just looking at her". Carol Danvers? No, the ASIS ship, in the window right behind her.
• Do Not Adjust Your Set: The warning released by Vision is seen all across the world, in all forms of media.
• Downer Beginning: The video of the dying aliens that starts everything.
• Dramatic Unmask: Captain Marvel removing his alien armor, and revealing himself as Phil Lawson. In-universe, at any rate. The readers already know who he is.
• Epic Fail: Ton Stark, rich billionaire Casanova, tries flirting with Sue Storm. She completely brushes him off.
  Iron Man: Some people think my armor is... cool.
  Sue Storm: You should definitely find someone like that, then.
  Iron Man: (slumping) I'll just be going over there.
• Eye Poke: What can Sam, a mere human being, do against Colossus, a man of living steel? Well, take advantage that his eyes are not made of steel, otherwise he shouldn't be able to see.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: The "Silver Wings" actually look like Angels, complete with wings, but their purpose is to help Gah lak Tus to destroy planets.
• Fantastic Rank System:
  "My name is Geheneris HalaSon Mahr Vehl, rank of Pluskommander, officer of the Kree Void Navy. Pluskommander is a rank roughly analogous to Captain."
• A Father to His Men: Nick Fury has a habit of calling Reed "son". And when he asks to use the Sentry system some day, Reed asked him to make it sound less as if he was asking his dad to borrow the car for the weekend.
• Gender Flip: Vision is a male robot in the mainstream universe, but female in the Ultimate universe.
• Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: After WWII, the Russians increased their work on this in the secret bunker housing Vision, trying in vain to make some viable super soldiers from it. Captain America was dead (or so it seemed at the time), but they had no guarantee that the US could not eventually replicate the process and create more like him.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: The Kree in general are not ready to learn about Gah Lak Tus. Only high-ranked officials may, after extensive training. And yet, Yahn-Rgg went mad anyway after reading the Gah Lak Tus files.
• A God I Am Not: "Hala was not a god. Hala was a Kree that thought that innocent life was worth saving."
• Godzilla Threshold: Reed figured out a way to hurt Gah Lak Tus, perhaps even kill it, but it is incredibly risky and a crime against nature. The idea is to open a portal to an alternate universe that is having its Big Bang, let it get out like a death ray, and attack Gah Lak Tus with it. It works.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Xavier uses the improved Cerebro system to attack Gah Lak Tus with all of humanity's thoughts.
• Heroic BSoD: Captain America is so shocked by the details of Gah Lak Tus, that he has a brief religious crisis.
• Hopeless Suitor: Tony tries to flirt with Sue, but she only has eyes for Reed.
• Humans Are Warriors: After the victory against Gah Lak Tus, Fury proudly declares that humans can defeat anyone.
• Implied Answer: Nuck Fury wants Reed to work in the Triskelion with the others, but Reed works better alone. Fury insists, Reed reminds him how much they need his help... and Fury gives some orders, ordering to have a ship in the Baxter Building, ready to bring to the Triskelion at any moment of need.
• Imported Alien Phlebotinum: Tony and Reed would like to reverse-engineer Marvel's armor so badly... he offers to let them do so when everything's over.
• Interspecies Romance: In Extinction, it was pointed out that Mahr Vehl and Danvers became a couple. This was completely ignored by later works.
• Intrigued by Humanity: Why Mahr Vehl decides to help us. We've got Lost, and Pearl Jam and Krispy Kreme donuts!
• It Makes Sense in Context: After discussing with Charles Xavier how to make contact with Gah Lak Tus, a robotic hive mind, Nick Fury complains that "I just ordered a mind reader to make contact with a mechanical brain floating in space".
• It's Personal: Captain America will not shy away from saving the world, but taking down a cult of aliens that pervert the idea of God... that's something else.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Mahr Vehl has to suffer one of those after being captured, when Nick Fury refuses to believe him.
• Jerkass: Hawkeye spends all of Ultimate Secret moaning and sulking about these stupid superheroes and aliens and kids and how they're all going to get him killed. Sue Storm eventually gets fed up with his attitude, and tells him to shove it.
  Sue: We're not professionals, and if being professionals means being like you, we don't want to be!
• Just Think of the Potential!: Johnny and Ben took parts of Reed's particle accelerator... to make a still?
• Kick Them While They Are Down: Captain America has no qualms about kicking alien villains while they are down. It's the best moment to kick them.
• Killed to Uphold the Masquerade: The Silver Wing tries to kill Misty Knight to keep his existence a secret. But she proves to be a resourceful fighter, and then the Ultimates show up, so he has to flee.
• Killer Robot: Kree Killforms.
• Klingon Scientists Get No Respect: Thor is not impressed at all by Reed and Sue. But Ben and Johnny... those are real warriors!
• Klingons Love Shakespeare: Mahr Vehl just loves all of human pop culture, to the point that he talks like characters from TV series, thinking that real people talk that way.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: When "Ultimate Nightmare" was first released, it was not marketed as a story about Galactus in any way, so when the Vision says what was it all about, it was a genuine surprise for the audience. Now, with the three miniseries sold as the "Ultimate Galactus Trilogy", it is no surprise that it involves Galactus.
• The Law of Conservation of Detail: In Ultimate Extinction, the Ultimates and the Fantastic Four are preparing for the arrival of Gah Lak Tus... and then we change focus to Misty Knight, private investigator, and a client whose wife joined a cult. What does that have to do with anything? Of course, later on, both plots will be related. The cult leader is actually an alien working for Gah Lak Tus.
• Light Is Not Good: Paul Maitreya looks like an angel and glows. He's here to help Gah Lak Tus to destroy the planet.
• Like Reality, Unless Noted: The Ultimate Marvel universe has seen many alien species visiting earth, but somehow the Drake equation and the Fermi paradox still apply. Mainly because SHIELD hasn't been telling people about them, and Gah Lak Tus has been killing anything it can find.
• Ludicrous Precision: Nick Fury tells Xavier that he has resources and a bottomless budget to improve Cerebro and help him use it to make contact with Gah Lak Tus. Xavier asks Jean how much money they would need. She replies it would be near the Gross National Product of Germany. Xavier then asks, "Define 'bottomless'".
• The Main Characters Do Everything: Discussed, during Ultimate Nightmare. The small Ultimate force would need a science guy, but Fury cites many reasons for not calling Tony Stark this time. Fortunately, he has other science guys in the payroll, such as Sam Wilson.
• A Match Made in Stockholm: In the first arc we see them, Carol Danvers conducts the Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique on Mahr Vehl. Unsure how to take him out of his armor, she places a plastic explosive on his neck, and was ready (and willing) to proceed with an alien autopsy if needed. By the time of Extinction, they are a couple.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Sam is explaining that the captured Heather Douglas is a clone, and she suddenly says "I'm a priestess" inside her cell. Does she have mind reading powers, as mainstream Moondragon? Or are the cells not as soundproof as they should be?
• Mistaken for Romance: Sue asks Lawson to see him without clothes. Stark is confused, he's in the room, and she wants him to get naked? Reed clarifies: he's an alien, and she's only interested in his biology.
• Mr. Exposition:
  • Wolverine doesn't know what had happened in Tunguska a century ago, so Colossus explains it to him.
  • Phillip Lawson explaining the idea of zero point energy to the SHIELD scientists (and also the audience).
  • Reed Richards explains to the audience the nature of the Drake Equation and Fermi Paradox, in the guise of explaining it to a massively disinterested Sue.
• Murder by Suicide: Gah Lak Tus's heralds thin the population of worlds by inspiring mass suicides.
• Mythology Gag: Professor X attacks Gah-Lak-Tus with the mental might of all humanity behind him, much like how his mainstream counterpart drove off the Z'nox in the 60s.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Sue Storm accuses Reed of enjoying the thought of something going around killing civilizations in the crib.
• Nightmare Fuel: The video of the dying aliens is an in-universe example.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
  • Captain Mahr Vehl stops the Kree killbot and saves the prototype of the ASIS... and gets locked in an interrogation chamber as a result, with plastic explosives strapped to his neck just in case he tries something.
  • Misty Knight is attacked in her own office by a Silver Wing, who wants to kill her to keep his existence a secret. She blows a fire extinguisher on him, and the explosion brings Captain America and the Falcon to the scene. They drive him away, and try to detain her for the whole incident.
• No One Gets Left Behind: Yahn-Rgg messes with Marvel's armor, and he's incapacitated by pain. Hawkeye wants to go on and leave him behind, but Reed and Sue help him to his feet and bring him with them.
• No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Subverted. The killbot destroys the ASIS, but there is a back up unit.
• No-Sell: Misty Knight blows a fire extinguisher on the Silver Wing. He gets up as if that was nothing.
• Not Distracted by the Sexy: Reed completely ignores Sue's very vigorous attempts at getting his attention away from lecturing her on the Fermi Paradox.
• Not Me This Time
  • When a random mom sees the video of aliens dying, she thinks it's a Heavy Metal video. They shouldn't allow this stuff on TV!
  • Before taking Misty Knight out of trouble, Tony has to explain to some girl on the phone that it was a friend, not a fling. Always the Casanova, nobody would believe him, so he had to lie that he was about to help a "male" friend.
• Oh, No... Not Again!: Nick Fury did not go through the Cold War, and in fact end the Cold War, to accept a massively destabilizing terrorist communications attack emerge from Russia!
• Ominous Multiple Screens: SHIELD has several screens, but when the Heather Douglas clones show up, they all go into "Red Alert" mode.
• Orcus on His Throne: Yahn Rgg sends killbots and soldiers to attack, but he does not do much of anything by himself. By the time the heroes get to him, he's locked himself into a escape pod, ready to start the self-destruct behind him.
• Plug 'n' Play Technology: The Russian bunker has an 80s keypad stuck on a 60s computer system. According to Sam, the Russians did that stuff all the time. "Take two things that work and nail them together".
• Point of No Return: When he calls Nick Fury to inform him about his project that may kill Gah Lak Tus, Reed accepts that he has crossed this point and that it cannot be undone.
• Poor Communication Kills: Sam Wilson openly calls the X-Men "morons" for charging into investigating Vision's broadcast on the belief it was a mutant psychic without even bothering to turn on the TV and see if anything else was happening in the world. Wolverine concurs and chides Jean that she and Xavier and are so tied up in the mission of protecting mutants that it never occurred to them there's more to the world.
• Power Floats: Jean Grey levitates while she takes down the door bunker all by herself, thanks to her Phoenix power.
• Pragmatic Adaptation
  • Ellis redesigned Galactus as a Hive Mind because he thought that a giant man with a purple helmet would not fit the grounded tone of the Ultimate universe.
  • Captain Marvel's suit is the original suit (the least known one, white and green Kree military uniform) with Tron Lines.
• Properly Paranoid: Mahr Vehl points out Carol never trusted him when she thought he was human. As Carol retorts, she didn't trust him because she thought he was a flake, not an alien spying on mankind.
• Puny Earthlings: Yahn-Rgg talks this way non-stop.
• Red Alert: S.H.I.E.L.D. got in this mode when the Heather Douglas clone army started attacking the Triskelion.
• Sir Swears Alot: Misty Knight hurls insults at Captain America when he wants to detain her. He retorts that in Iceland they had a bottomless well for dames like her.
• Slasher Smile: Carol Danvers looks way too enthusiastic about handing Mahr Vehl over to the scientists for an old fashioned vivisection.
• Soviet Superscience: The Soviets tried to make their own super soldier by grafting bits of an alien robot onto human test subjects. Not only did the subjects go nuts, but it almost doomed the planet because that robot was our best warning of Galactus.
• Starfish Aliens: The Kree are nowhere near human beings (they barely even qualify as humanoid). Mahr Vehl has gone through extensive surgery to look like one.
• Starts with a Suicide: The broadcast of the dying aliens causes a wave of mass suicides.
• Supernatural Fear Inducer: One of the weapons of Gah Lak Tus, a psychic attack that can turn whole worlds mad with fear.
• Tempting Fate: Misty Knight thinks that her mission will be super easy. Spy on the Paul Maitreya guy and his cult from the other building, takes some photos and a video, and that's it. Easy money! Yeah, no.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Discussed by Hawkeye, to Reed Richards, when boarding the Kree vessel. He kills, Tony kills, Mahr Vehl almost certainly kills, but Reed and Sue do not. Later on, Nick mentions that Johnny and Ben only beat up the Kree soldiers they fought, as opposed to everyone else. So he'll have them burnt once the Fantastic Four aren't looking.
• To Make a Long Story Short: After the Sentry system provides the first view of Gah Lak Tus, Nick Fury asks how big is it. The scientist starts giving the reasons for the estimations, until Nick interrupts him: get to the point!
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: "Kiss my black butt, Captain Whitey. Misty Knight, ex-NYPD, licensed private investigator, attacked in my own office by a guy who disappeared because you didn't hit him hard enough, and your flying Stepin Fetchit missed with two guns! Count'em! Two guns!"
• Those Were Only Their Scouts: We have seen how deadly the Heather Douglas clone can be. What about an army of them?
• The Tunguska Event: It was caused by Vision landing on Earth.
• Vagueness Is Coming: The video of the dying aliens really knows how to get a point across, but does not really say much that might be actually useful. "No. No escape. No escape. It comes. And there's no escape. All the stars got out. You are already dead. It comes and you are all dead. We are all dead. Listen. There is only death for you. There is only small life. Then there is this. We he I send this tell this warn this. There is only horror now. There is only death now."
• Villainous Breakdown: Professor Xavier tries to mentally contact Gah Lak Tus, which is so utterly repulsed by the very concept of organic life that it freaks out from this minor mental contact. Xavier describes its reaction to the contact as "contamination" and "unclean".
• We Come in Peace — Shoot to Kill: Vision came to earth to warn humanity about Gah Lak Tus. The Russians stored her in a bunker, and tried to create super soldiers by removing parts from her and implanting them into people. All those experiments have Gone Horribly Wrong.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Hawkeye refuses to see the Kree as people, and eagerly murders them with no remorse. When Mahr Vehl points out they are people, and he's one of them, Hawkeye retorts "you'll die like people too".
• While Rome Burns: Sure, Gah Lak Tus may have fired a missile at 99% of light speed directly to earth, but did anyone remember to put some vodka on Tony's armor?
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Nick Fury points out that they can either hear the ravings of that Russian Captain America expy, or just shoot him and get on with the mission. Cap refuses: this guy has been waiting 40 years to fight him, it would be rude to not kick his head in.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Things start with all technological media devices being interrupted with a clip of dead aliens. Nick Fury is forced to redesign the plan all the time, as new information about it arises.