With the Multiverse threatened by a series of cosmic incursions caused by the enigmatic Beyonders, Earth-616’s secretive Illuminati, a grouping of great superhuman minds, came together to destroy alternate Earths before they could collide with their own. Although, another group formed in secret. Dubbed the Cabal and led by Atlantean King Namor McKenzie, Namor the Sub-Mariner, they set out to destroy that which would destroy them.
Secret Formation
When it comes time for the Illuminati to destroy the inhabited Earth-4290001, only Namor is willing to follow through. He spurns the group and secretly forms a new one. The mad Inhuman Maximus Boltagon, AKA Maximus, and several Illuminati prisoners join him, including the death-worshiping Titan Thanos, Thanos’ generals Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight, Terrax the Truly Enlightened (the herald of Earth-13054’s Galaktus) and the enigmatic Black Swan. Together, they devastate and destroy Earth-9004 before it could collide with Earth-616.
Hostile Takeover
Unlike the Illuminati, who had intended to destroy worlds humanely, the unscrupulous Cabal ravaged Earths, slaying their citizens and their superhuman defenders, before destroying the planets with the Illuminati’s world-killing anti-matter bombs.
Namor leads the charge, but begins to hesitate after seeing his teammates kill world after world. He turns his back on the Cabal, seeking help from Victor von Doom, AKA Doctor Doom and the Illuminati, but ultimately ends up the one betrayed by those he seeks aid from, and back in business with the Cabal.
Incursion Threats
The Cabal’s primary enemies include any universe that threatens to destroy Earth-616 and the Illuminati, who fail to take action to protect their world. Their most notable superhuman foes include Illuminati members Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man and T'Challa, AKA Black Panther, who vows to kill Namor after the Atlantean king destroys Earth-4290001.
Few Friends
The Cabal do not often ally with anyone but themselves and even experience dissent within their ranks. Despite the betrayal within, they ultimately join up with Reed Richards, AKA the Maker of Earth-1610 who destroys alternate worlds to protect his own.
Savage Actions
In order to prevent their actions from being impeded, Terrax addressed Earth-616’s United Nations, promising to keep the Earth safe by destroying alternate Earths—in exchange for granting the Cabal control of the nation of Wakanda, homeland of Illuminati member the Black Panther. The UN, learning of the threat posed by the incursions for the first time, agreed. Soon, the Cabal turned Wakanda into a wasteland, and took the Necropolis, the Wakandan city of the dead that had formerly served as the Illuminati’s headquarters, as their base. Illuminati member Iron Man, launched a revenge attack on the Cabal, but they defeated and captured him.
Meanwhile, Namor began to question the Cabal’s savagery, although he maintained a façade of amorality. During an attack on the feudal world Earth-47385383, he slew that world’s Reed Richards while storming Castle Fantastic, and tried to grant Reed’s wife, Susan, a merciful death; he was horrified when Proxima Midnight unceremoniously impaled her. He made a stand on the peaceful Earth-28744923048932, delaying the rest of the Cabal long enough for that Earth’s Reed Richards to destroy his planet; the Cabal escaped, but sadistically allowed Namor to live.
Namor was further disillusioned when the Cabal humiliated and slaughtered the Squadron Supreme of Earth-31916 before destroying their world. Upon his return to Earth-616, he sought Doctor Doom’s aid in finding a solution to the incursions; Doom declined, now seeing Namor as a broken failure. In Namor’s absence, Corvus Glaive, Thanos, and Terrax attacked Earth-71202, killing that Earth’s X-Men and making their leader, Charles Xavier, beg for a merciful death before destroying his world. Anticipating an attack, Proxima Midnight and Maximus remained in the Necropolis and faced an assault from the Black Panther, his sister, Shuri, and a team of Wakandan soldiers. While T’Challa escaped, Shuri remained behind and apparently died battling Proxima Midnight.
Overwrought, Namor returned to the remaining Illuminati and plotted with them to destroy the Cabal. They planned to trap the Cabal on their next target world, Earth-15340, with Advanced Ideas Mechanics’ (A.I.M.) Escutcheon force-field generator preventing them from escaping before the world exploded. The plan initially succeeded; the Cabal was too distracted by a battle with the robotic world-harvesting Sidera Maris to notice the Escutcheon’s activation. At the last minute, T’Challa and Inhuman king Blackagar Boltagon, AKA Black Bolt, double-crossed Namor as revenge for his crimes against them, leaving him trapped with the rest of the Cabal on the doomed world; on Earth-616, the Illuminati subsequently freed Stark.
However, Earth15340 experienced a second simultaneous incursion event, allowing Namor and the Cabal to escape to Earth-1610, where the Maker (that reality’s insane Reed Richards) had also been destroying alternate Earths to save his own. They allied with him, and as Earth-1610 began an incursion with Earth-616, the Cabal stole Reed Richards-616’s design for an escape craft and made their own. Crafts from -616 and -1610 survived the destruction of both worlds and crashed on Battleworld, a planet Doom had cobbled together using the Beyonders’ stolen power and the remnants of reality.
