—Never Queen[source]I am the Never Queen. I am what might be, forever outside what is. From here, I see all.
The Queen of Nevers, or the Never Queen, is the embodiment of possibility.[6][7] She is the lover of Eternity, and in the moments when they are together, anything can happen.[8]
The Never Queen was originally known as the Pilgrim, the embodiment of the Fourth Cosmos and third Multiverse.[3][4] Identifying as male at the time, he succeeded the Sentience of the Third Cosmos and was replaced by the Sentience of the Fifth Cosmos.[2]
The Pilgrim journeyed into the Mystery upon the Fourth Cosmos' end and took on a new form and identity.[3] Now known as the Never Queen, she exists outside of space and time.[8][7] She counters the Griever at the End of All Things, and nexus beings are her agents.[9]
History
Fourth Cosmos[]
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As the Pilgrim, the Sentience of the Fourth Cosmos
The Pilgrim was the Sentience of the Fourth Cosmos, a Multiverse full of archetypal beings. When the Multiverse was about to pass through a renewal cycle yet again, the Archetype known as "What-Can-Be" summoned the Pilgrim to take the time-displaced Defenders of the Eighth Cosmos to the Third Cosmos, as they were chasing Carlo Zota. After doing so, the Pilgrim shed his energy to form the Fifth Cosmos and carried the Archetypes, as well as Cloud, with him on a quest to the Heart of Creation.[3] He then became the Queen of Nevers, the embodiment of possibility.[4]
Queen of Nevers[]
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The Queen's heart being taken
After several multiversal cycles, the Multiverse was the Seventh Cosmos. During one of her moments alone with Eternity, the Queen of Nevers was robbed of her heart by Incredulous Zed, an alien who was being secretly backed up by Glorian. Gifted with armor and a fabled sword called the Edge of Reality from the Land of Couldn't-Be-Shouldn't-Be, Zed entered the time without space and the space without time to carve out the Never Queen's heart. He used the heart to build the Impericon.[10][7]
As the Never Queen approached the Impericon to reclaim her heart, numerous "champions" were dispatched to defeat her, but all of them failed to do so.[1] The latest champion selected by Incredulous Zed was the Silver Surfer, one of the former heralds of Galactus. He confronted the Queen and destroyed Zed's observing drones to try and talk to her freely. Determined to fight for all the futures, the Queen used her power to tear the Surfer apart by making him experience all possible futures at once. However, the Surfer was saved by Dawn Greenwood, the person Zed captured as a leverage to make the Surfer fight her, whom upon finding the Queen's heart in the Impericon made a wish to save the Surfer. The Never Queen explained to the Surfer the power of wishes, and told him her nature as the representation of possibility, and that without her heart, with each moment that passed, an infinite number of futures died inside her. After understanding the Queen's motivations, the Surfer agreed to get her heart back.[6]
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Watching Dawn and the Silver Surfer with Eternity
With the help of Dawn Greenwood, the Silver Surfer retrieved the Queen's heart, destroying the Impericon in the process, though he held it together with the Power Cosmic long enough for its inhabitants to escape. As Silver Surfer later confronted the Incredulous Zed, Dawn was the one to finally get the heart back to the Never Queen. The Silver Surfer defeated Zed when he was stabbed with the Edge of Reality. For his crime, Eternity cast him out of the universe and into the Lands of Couldn't-Be-Shouldn't-Be, where he was enslaved by Glorian, and transformed into the lowly Zee. Dawn and the Surfer bid farewell to the Queen as she faded away. She was reunited with Eternity, who asked her why the Surfer or Dawn hadn't reached their potential in the moments when anything could happen, but accomplished this now. She told him that now that the Surfer and Dawn were together, those moments were every moment.[8]
Death and Rebirth of the Multiverse[]
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Dying alongside the Multiverse due to the incursions
The Queen of Nevers perished when the Multiverse, the Seventh Cosmos, met its end from the final incursion.[7] She was brought back once her recreated heart was found by Dawn Greenwood.[11] Not long afterwards, after the Multiverse's rebirth as the Eighth Cosmos,[12] Lord Chaos and Master Order fused with the In-Betweener to become Logos and install themselves as the new embodiment of multiversal law. When they annihilated the Celestials, the Queen of Nevers managed to whisk the One Above All to safety.[5] During the showdown against the evil First Firmament, who had been pulling the strings behind Logos, the Queen of Nevers used the One Above All to kickstart the rebirth of the Celestials.[2]
Later, during the Reckoning War, the Never Queen comforted Eternity as he was "poisoned" by a universal conflict thanks to the Reckoning. She sent the Silver Surfer to stop the Reckoning and congratulated him once the war was over.[13][14]
Defenders[]
The Queen of Nevers was summoned by Defenders using the Eternity Mask along with Cloud and the Archetypes of the Fourth Cosmos. She took the Defenders from the Land of Couldn't-Be-Shouldn't-Be to the door to the House of Ideas.[4]
Scarlet Witch[]
The Scarlet Witch, one of the Queen's nexus beings
Attributes
Powers
Weaknesses
"Heart": If the Queen's "heart" is removed, she will grow weak and die.[6]
No Future or Possibility: The Queen represents possibility. If there is no possibility or future, then she will fade and die. When the final incursion ended the Multiverse, it also ended the Queen of Nevers.[7]Notes
- If the Queen of Nevers dies, the result would be a single future with no branching paths nor free will.[8]
- Although not consistently drawn, the Queen of Nevers also has stars and planets on her body like Eternity, but the colors are inverted.[8][13]
- The Pilgrim became the embodiment of possibility after the Fourth Cosmos' end,[3] but the concept of possibility predates this, as it originates in the Second Cosmos.[17]
Trivia
- The Silver Surfer groups the Never Queen, the Griever at the End of All Things, and Eternity together as they represent what could be, what will be, and what is.[18]
- The Never Queen can appear within normal reality, though Eternity tells her not to.[19]
See Also
- 17 appearance(s) of Queen of Nevers (Multiverse)
- 2 minor appearance(s) of Queen of Nevers (Multiverse)
- 2 mention(s) of Queen of Nevers (Multiverse)
- 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Queen of Nevers (Multiverse)
- 23 image(s) of Queen of Nevers (Multiverse)
- 6 quotation(s) by or about Queen of Nevers (Multiverse)
Recommended Reading
- Silver Surfer (Vol. 7) #2–3 - introduces the Never Queen in great detail.
- Defenders (Vol. 6) #4 - introduces the Pilgrim, the Sentience of the Fourth Cosmos (previously mentioned in Ultimates 2 #100).
- Defenders: Beyond #4 - reveals that the Pilgrim and the Never Queen are the same entity.
- Scarlet Witch (Vol. 4) #2 - connects the Never Queen to nexus beings. Defines her relationship with the Griever at the End of All Things.
Links and References
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Silver Surfer (Vol. 7) #1
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Ultimates 2 #100
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 Defenders (Vol. 6) #4
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Defenders: Beyond #4
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Ultimates 2 (Vol. 2) #4
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Silver Surfer (Vol. 7) #2
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Silver Surfer (Vol. 7) #13
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Silver Surfer (Vol. 7) #3
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Scarlet Witch (Vol. 4) #2
- ↑ Silver Surfer (Vol. 7) #2–3
- ↑ Silver Surfer (Vol. 7) #15
- ↑ Secret Wars #9
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Fantastic Four: Reckoning War Alpha #1
- ↑ Fantastic Four (Vol. 6) #44–45
- ↑ Scarlet Witch (Vol. 4) #1
- ↑ Scarlet Witch (Vol. 4) #4
- ↑ Defenders: Beyond #2
- ↑ Fantastic Four (Vol. 6) #44
- ↑ Silver Surfer (Vol. 8) #14