Realm of Kings

"Realm of Kings" is a crossover comic book storyline published in 2010 by Marvel Comics. Written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, it is a follow-up to the 2009 storyline "War of Kings".

Publication history
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.

Plot summary
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 both the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Nova Corps. They sent Wendell Vaughn, the first Quasar, into the Fault to scout it, given that his energy form would be able to survive its treacherous storms. Quasar soon finds that the Fault is actually a tunnel, leading to another universe which reeked of corruption, ruled by evil organic masses that had 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.

Titles

 * 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) #32-35
 * Realm of Kings: Son of Hulk #1-4

Collected editions
The story has been collected into individual volumes:


 * Realm of Kings (collects the Realm of Kings one-shot, Realm of Kings: Inhumans #1-5, Realm of Kings: Son of Hulk #1-4, and Realm of Kings: Imperial Guard #1-5, 336 pages, hardcover, August 2010, ISBN 0-7851-4809-4)
 * Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 4: Realm of Kings (collects Guardians of the Galaxy (vol. 2) #20-25, softcover, June 2010, ISBN 0-7851-4049-2, premiere hardcover, July 2010, ISBN 0-7851-4543-5)
 * Nova, Volume 6: Realm of Kings (collects Nova #29-36, 168 pages, softcover, June 2010, ISBN 0-7851-4067-0)
 * Realm of Kings: Imperial Guard (collects Realm of Kings Imperial Guard #1-5, 120 pages, June 2010, ISBN 0-7851-4597-4)

Aftermath
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.