Draft:Time Runs Out

"Time Runs Out" is a 2014 comic book crossover storyline that was published by Marvel Comics. Written by Jonathan Hickman with artwork by a rotating team of artists including Jim Cheung, Mike Deodato, Kev Walker, and Stefano Caselli. The crossover debuted on September 2014 and concluded on April 2015.

The storyline concludes Jonathan Hickman's run on the two main Avengers titles—Avengers and New Avengers—and leads directly into the finale of his saga, Secret Wars.

Plot summary
Eight months have passed since Namor destroyed Earth-4290001 with one of the Illuminati's antimatter bombs and reformed the Cabal to destroy other Earths in order to stop the incursions. The governments of Earth-616 have learned about the truth about the incursions and have chosen to not oppose the Cabal's efforts. The Cabal invade Wakanda and make Necropolis their base of operations, taking possession of the Illuminati's arsenal of antimatter bombs. Iron Man attempts to stop them in order to prevent the slaughter, but is overwhelmed by the Cabal and imprisoned.

Captain America assumes command of S.H.I.E.L.D. and hunts the Illuminati alongside Avengers members loyal to him. The Illuminati attempt to find solutions to the incursions and defeat the Cabal while evading capture from S.H.I.E.L.D. . The Invisible Woman joins SHIELD to assist their hunt, but is secretly a double agent working for the Illuminati.

Namor has grown weary with the Cabal's slaughter and attempts to form an alliance with Doctor Doom, but is rebuffed. Doom has been secretly researching the incursions on his own, and developed a means to track the Mapmakers to their masters. Doom is joined in this endeavor by the Molecule Man, who takes Doom on a journey to parts unknown.

Sunspot purchases A.I.M. and makes the Savage Land his base of operations, alongside the Avengers not affiliated with Captain America's S.H.I.E.L.D., and the remaining active systems created by Ex Nihilo's origin bombs. The group make plans to address the multiversal collapse and the feuding heroes: the Multiversal Avengers lead by Thor will head into the multiverse to find and stop the source of the collapse, while the New Avengers lead by Sunspot will attempt to make peace between the feuding heroes.

The Multiversal Avengers end up on the Black Priests' base of operations. Their battle is interrupted by the Priests' leader, who's revealed to be Doctor Strange. Strange informs the Avengers that he had convinced the Priests to confront the true architects of the multiversal collapse, Rabum Alal and the Ivory Kings. Both groups agree to team up and attack each enemy separately, with the Multiversal Avengers going after the Ivory Kings while Strange and the Priests go after Rabum Alal.

The Multiversal Avengers make their way to the Ivory Kings' home dimension but lose Nightmask in the process. The squad is confronted by two of the Ivory Kings, who are killed through sacrificial efforts by the Ex-Nihilii, Abyss, and Star Brand. Thor and Hyperion subsequently die after being confronted by the rest of the Ivory Kings.

Strange and the Black Priests follow the Black Swans to their base of operations, the Library of Worlds. While Strange and the Priests managed to force their way inside the Library, they're eventually overwhelmed with all of the Priests being killed. Strange is taken by the Swans to their leader Rabum Alal, who is revealed to be Doom.

In the past, Molecule Man reveals his true history to Doom during their journey. He's a weapon created by the Beyonders, the so-called Ivory Kings and the parent race of the Beyonder from the original Secret Wars. The Beyonders intend to destroy the multiverse by detonating Molecule Men on every universe simultaneously. Doom (through his Rabum Alal persona) and Molecule Man sabotage the Beyonders' experiment by prematurely killing Molecule Men throughout the multiverse, which started the incursions. The Beyonders created the Mapmakers to counter Doom's efforts.

In the present Doom, Strange, and Molecule Man go to the Beyonders' dimension and attempt to kill them with a weapon of mass destruction. Something goes wrong and everyone present is engulfed in a bright light, while out in the multiverse the amount of remaining universes is reduced to less than two dozen. Because of this event, the Illuminati decide to finally confront S.H.I.E.L.D.. Their battle is joined by Sunspot's New Avengers and Luke Cage's Mighty Avengers, respectively. The battle is eventually interrupted by the arrival of the Invisible Woman, Medusa, Black Bolt, and Namor.

A ceasefire is reached to allow Illuminati and Namor to set a trap for the Cabal on a parallel Earth targeted by the Mapmakers. Namor arms the antimatter bomb to take out the Cabal, but he's attacked by T'Challa and Black Bolt and left to die alongside the villains. However a second incursion suddenly occurs and the Cabal along with Namor flee to Earth-1610, where they're met by the Maker.

The Illuminati release Stark from his captivity and allow him to leave. They brief the other heroes on the state of the multiverse, including the fact that their Earth will miss every remaining incursion except the last one. They're interrupted by the arrival of Hank Pym, who ventured into the multiverse to find out the source of the collapse. He found the Beyonders, who were busy wiping out every major cosmic entity in the multiverse.

The Illuminati harvest the remains of the Living Tribunal to create a lifeboat capable of surviving the collapse of the multiverse. The lifeboat will carry a select group of people necessary to restart humanity.

The Shi'ar find out about the collapse of the multiverse and Earth's role in it. They marshall a fleet comprised of every major interstellar empire in order to destroy Earth. However the fleet is destroyed by Stark who uses Sol's Hammer, and the Illuminati protects the Earth from the weapon's effects by using the captured rogue planet.

The Maker reveals the truth about the incursions to the Earth-1610 counterparts of Nick Fury and Hawkeye. The Maker introduces them to Thanos and Maximus, who tell them that Earth-616's defenders will oppose them in the final incursion. While the Cabal and Maker make plans to survive the collapse of the multiverse, Fury rallies the rest of SHIELD to defend their Earth. Captain America dons customized War Machine armor and confronts Iron Man. Both men engage in a bitter fight and seemingly perish after a helicarrier from Earth-1610 crashes on their location. The final incursion between Earth-616 and Earth-1610 begins, setting the stage for Secret Wars