Oh, we got battle here. You'll be glad you brought those thigh-highs, pretty boy, because that's how far you'll be wading in gore. What you don't get is a victory. Your best day is a Monday when you hit them hard enough they don't come back on Tuesday. But make no mistake, they'll be back on Wednesday. There is no "win" here. We just can't fail. 
Appearing in "They Can't Ever Win. They Can't Afford To Lose."
Featured Characters:
- The Shield's Hel-Rangers
- Commander Abigail Brand (Main story and flashback)
- Leah (First appearance)
- Vitruvian Man (Leo da Vinci)
- Endless Summers Legion (Name first revealed)
- Major Summers (First appearance)
- Unnamed clones (First appearance)
- 🢐 Lady Katherine of Bishop (Joins group)
- 🢐 Ms. America (America Chavez) (Joins group)
- The Thing (Ben Grimm) (First appearance) (Main story and flashback)
- 🢐 Kang the Conqueror (Nathaniel Richards) (Joins group)
Antagonists:
- Zombies
- Zombie Giant Ant-Men (First and only known appearance)
- Ultron Drones (Only in flashback)
- Annihilation Wave (Mentioned)
Other Characters:
- Ord (First and only known appearance; dies) (Only in flashback)
- God Emperor Doom (Victor von Doom) (Mentioned)
- Pym-Phalanx (Mentioned)
- Commander Fury (Mentioned)
- Magik (Illyana Rasputina) (Mentioned)
- Beast (Hank McCoy) (Mentioned)
- Hulks of Greenland (Mentioned)
- Thanos (Mentioned)
Races and Species:
- Mutant-Alien Hybrids (Main story and flashback)
- Asgardians
- Humans
- Hulks (Mentioned)
- Mutants
- Zombies
- Robots (Only in flashback)
- Technarchy (Only in flashback)
- Titanian Eternals (Mentioned)
Locations:
- Earth-15513 (Main story and flashback)
- Battleworld (Main story and flashback)
- Doomstadt (Only in flashback)
- Killiseum (Only in flashback)
- Castle Doom (Mentioned)
- The Shield (Main story and flashback)
- Deadlands
- Wastelands (Mentioned)
- Perfection (Only in flashback)
- Breakland (First appearance) (Only in flashback) (Destruction)
- Greenland (Mentioned)
- Doomstadt (Only in flashback)
- Knowhere
- Battleworld (Main story and flashback)
Items:
Synopsis for "They Can't Ever Win. They Can't Afford To Lose."
- Synopsis not yet written
Solicit Synopsis
THEY CAN’T EVER WIN. THEY CAN’T AFFORD TO LOSE.
• THE SHIELD is the only thing that protects the more civilized areas of Battleworld from the ZOMBIE HORDES, DEATH MACHINES, AND ANNIHILATION WAVES.
• Anyone who annoys Doom gets sent to The Shield. Anyone who gets sent to the Shield deals with ABIGAIL BRAND.
• Miss America, Lady Katherine, Kang the Conqueror, Leah Shieldmen, the Endless Summers Company, Leonardo Da Vinci and a cast of thousands will fight to the death to keep Battleworld safe. But don’t worry, Kieron Gillen is writing this book, so I’m sure everything will end happily for everyone.
• “Imagine NextWave as a tragedy,” says Kieron, if anyone asks him about it.
