Realm of Kings

The series started with a Realm of Kings one-shot that establishes the setting and is followed by a number of separate series or storylines which focus on how the different characters, Imperial Guard, Inhumans, Guardians of the Galaxy and Nova, deal with this situation.

The storyline also includes the limited series Realm of Kings: Son of Hulk by Scott Reed, with art by Miguel Munera. This focuses on Hiro-Kala and his journey into the Microverse.

A giant time-space tear called the Fault had been created by Black Bolt's T-Bomb, killing both himself and the Shi'ar leader Vulcan. The Fault becomes an immediate concern for the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Nova Corps, who send Wendell Vaughn, the first Quasar, into the Fault to scout it. Quasar discovers that the Fault is a tunnel leading to another universe that is ruled by a corrupted Mar-Vell and his servants, evil organic masses who consumed their universe like a cancer. It is described as a Cancerverse, where "Life has won, Death has lost." He is captured by that universe's Avengers (called the Revengers), who plan on imposing their Earth on his, to enable their gods, the Many-Angled Ones, to continue to spread.

• Realm of Kings (one shot)
• Realm of Kings: Imperial Guard #1-5
• Realm of Kings: Inhumans #1-5
• Guardians of the Galaxy (vol. 2) #20-24
• Nova (vol. 4) #31-35
• Realm of Kings: Son of Hulk #1-4

Both the Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy series were put on hiatus following the conclusion of "Realm of Kings" and the events in the storyline lead directly into "The Thanos Imperative".

Also the conclusion of Son of Hulk intersects with the end of the back-to-back Hulk storylines "Fall of the Hulks" and "World War Hulks" in the story arc "Dark Son", partly written by Scott Reed.