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The Shield was one of the most important structures of Battleworld. It was a giant wall that isolated the three deadliest domains of Battleworld (the Deadlands, Perfection, and New Xandar) from the rest of the planet.[1]

A group known as the Hel-Rangers worked under the supervision of Abigail Brand to protect the Shield against any kind of threat. Most of them were inhabitants from other domains sent there as punishment for breaking the laws of Battleworld. Such was the case of Ms. America of Arcadia, who threw a Megalodon over the Shield;[2] Janet Van Dyne of the Valley of Doom, who conspired against Governor Roxxon;[3] and Lady Katherine of King James' England, who tried to rob God Doom's Cathedral.[4]

History

Origin[]

In the early days of Battleworld, All-Father Doom convinced the Thing to become part of the Shield in order to protect the denizens of Battleworld from the horrors on the other side.[5]

Primary Function[]

At some point, the Punisher of Egyptia and Iron Fist from the Domain of Apocalypse were sent to the Shield for unknown crimes. On one of Iron Fist's first days, the Punisher discovered an Ultron Drones on the north side of the Shield. Curious about how that Ultron ended up there, the Punisher shot it, disabling it slightly, then went down from the Shield to investigate. Iron Fist was able to destroy the Ultron easily, which led the Punisher to believe it was modified. They decided to inspect a hole next to the Shield and discovered that the Mole Man of Technopolis had been modifying and using Ultrons to build his underground kingdom there. It was then that the Ultrons went rogue and started to attack them, but they were able to destroy them all. The Punisher allowed the Mole Man to go back to his kingdom, while he and Iron Fist returned to their post, watching over both sides of the Shield should something alike happen again.[6]

The Fall of the Shield[]

After another day of work at the Shield, Commander Brand bid her farewell to Leah of Hel as she prepared to go beyond the Shield to search for Illyana, her long lost lover. Kang approached Brand soon afterwards, boasting about his fighting skills and how he would subdue all the south of Battleworld to his will, which angered her. While she was telling him protecting the Shield wasn't that simple, Kang's wrist began to bleep and his future self suddenly appeared before them. Before fading away, future Kang told them the Shield would fall in twenty days, and that Thanos would doom them all.[7]

Fifteen days later, Commander Brand and her men still hadn't found Thanos. Desperate to find him before he could destroy the Shield, Brand resorted to the Unite, robots in love that betrayed Ultron and allied themselves with the Hel-Rangers of the Shield. But, as they spoke, the Unite detected a powerful army of the Ultron Engine (the greatest threat that faced the Shield which married up the technology of the Annihilation Wave with the unrelenting energy of the undead) heading towards the Shield. Brand then alerted everyone so they could prepare themselves to battle. As the Vitruvian Man prepared the Enlightment Cannon to shoot and Kang tried in vain to call chronoallies, Lady Katherine spotted someone on the front line of the Ultron Engine, which to Commander Brand's horror was none other than a monstrous Nick Fury, presumed dead commander of the Shield.[8]

Under siege and at risk of failing their duty, the Hel-Rangers of the Shield tried everything they could to stop Nick the Fury, as he was the reason why the Ultron Engine was advancing so viciously. With the Endless Summers being reduced to only one hundred men and Kang unable to navigate through the timestream thanks to chronomines, Brand sought the help of the Unite again. One of the Unite tried to use its ability to control robots to make Nick the Fury kill himself, but was killed instead. Using the remaining Unite as a distraction, Kang was able to take Nick the Fury into the timestream and pilot it into every chronomine he could.

Meanwhile, Leah returned with Magik and an undead army to assist Brand in her battle against the remaining enemies of the Ultron Engine. After the battle ended, Leah and Magik, who had planned since the beginning to hold a subdomain in the Deadlands to rule without submitting to God Emperor Doom, left the Hel-Rangers and returned to the Deadlands. As Brand grieved her army's death, a rift in reality opened above her, with Kang coming out of it alive, along with Nick the Fury's corpse. While they hugged, they were approached by Thanos,[9] who was teleported to the other side of the Shield by Sheriff Strange moments before Doom killed him.[10]

After turning himself in, Thanos revealed he had spent his time organising the denizens of Perfection, New Xandar, and the Deadlands into an army on its way to destroy the other domains. As the combined efforts of the south attacked the Shield and Brand and her dealt with it, Thanos told the Thing that Doom had lied to him, and that this world was merely an artificial creation of Doom's. Knowing this, the Thing rose up to confront Doom, thus removing a massive tract of the Shield and leaving.[11][5]

With the Shield fallen, Kang went back in time to try and prevent the Shield's collapse; meanwhile, Ms. America and Lady Katherine escaped. With the rest of her team dead, Brand and the last surviving member of the Endless Summers named Major Summers lost their lives standing against the incoming forces of the south.[11]

Residents

Notes

  • The Shield was originally going to be named the Wall.[18]
  • The Shield is 250 feet tall and 16,000 miles long.[1]

Trivia

  • The Shield may be based on "The Wall", a structure serving a similar purpose from the book series "A Song of Ice and Fire" by George R.R. Martin. The Shield may also be based on the Shield Wall," a natural defensive barrier in Frank Herbert's Dune that is finally breached by explosives in Paul Atreides' battle against the Baron and the Emperor.

See Also

Links and References

References

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