ISO-Sphere

Origins

ISO-Spheres were forged by the mysterious population that inhabited the Battlerealm prior to Ægon's race.^[5] The first of these ISO-Spheres was forged into the Master's ISO-Belt, later claimed by Ægon when he won the first Contest of Champions.^[1] Another of these ISO-Spheres came into the Collector's possession.^[5]

The Contest's ISO-Sphere

With the Collector

The Collector used his ISO-Sphere to assist him in capturing Champions from across the Multiverse for the seventh Contest of Champions.^[6] When the Contest began, his ISO-Sphere was offered as the prize that Kang the Conqueror and the Summoner competed for.^[7] When Thanos was introduced to the Contest, he allied with the Summoner against the threat of Kang wielding the ISO-Sphere. Following Kang's subsequent defeat and elimination,^[8] Thanos took his place in the Contest. Given ISO-8's abundance across the Battlerealm, Thanos saw the ISO-Sphere as a facade and sought to challenge the Maestro's dominance over the realm before being defeated by the Summoner's Champions.^[9]

After using most of the ISO-Sphere's power in his struggle against the Maestro,^[10] the Collector's vulnerability triggered the Cosmic Civil War between the Iron and Blue Factions. Both groups sought to escape the Battlerealm but had conflicting plans; the Blue Faction believed in overpowering the Collector in his moment of weakness, while the Iron Faction believed in rightfully winning the ISO-Sphere.^[11] Before ending, the war generated enough ISO-8 to repower the Collector and his ISO-Sphere.^[12]

With the Grandmaster

When the Grandmaster challenged the Collector's dominion over the Contest, he swiftly outmaneuvered the Collector by siphoning power from his ISO-Sphere. Upon the Collector's defeat, the Grandmaster gained full control of the ISO-Sphere's power at the expense of the Battlerealm's stability. Collaborating through a covert network, the Summoner and Champions discovered crystalline fragments that seemed to be the Battlerealm's foundational Cornerstone, which would hypothetically drain the ISO-Sphere's energy and prevent the Battlerealm from collapsing if reconstructed. Although the Cornerstone was reconstructed and revealed to be Carina Tivan, it was missing one final piece and had no impact on the ISO-Sphere or the Battlerealm's stability.^[13]

With all the Infinity Stones, Thanos superseded the Grandmaster as the most powerful being in the Battlerealm. When the Grandmaster pleaded for the Contest's continuation, Thanos drained the ISO-Sphere with the Infinity Gauntlet in response.^[14] Following Thanos' death,^[15] the Grandmaster partnered with the Champion to restore his authority and repower his ISO-Sphere using ISO taken from the Champion's victims. This plan threatened Carina's essence that was scattered across the Battlerealm, prompting Ægon to return and subdue the Champion. Now driven to heal rather than fight, Ægon used the power within his ISO-Belt to resurrect Carina, who had been previously reunited with her last piece.^[1] The cumulative circumstances that lead up to Carina's rebirth granted her a unique connection to the Battlerealm and the ability to manipulate ISO-8.^[16]

With Carina

Carina secured the ISO-Sphere after the Grandmaster's defeat. Despite that, the ISO-Sphere was taken by Kang the Conqueror and sent to Gwenpool, prompting Carina and the Summoner to investigate its whereabouts. When they found Gwenpool, she created the Wyrd Realm and proclaimed herself its God-Empress, Gwenmaster, in an attempt to create the "perfect quest" for the Summoner. When Gwenpool depleted her power fighting the Summoner, Carina seized the ISO-Sphere from her and the Wyrd Realm ceased to exist. Unfortunately, Gwenpool's misuse of the ISO-Sphere created tears in reality that Kang exploited to quickly dominate the Battlerealm until he was outmaneuvered by the Summoner.^[17]

Project Rheingold

As part of Project Rheingold, the Masters of Evil copied the Collector's research on ISO-Spheres^[5] and distilled stolen ISO-8 shipments to forge the ISO-Core, a primitive recreation of the ISO-Sphere. While investigating the ISO-8 thefts, the Avengers were put under Baron Zemo's control through the ISO-Spell to protect his ISO-Core. After the Avengers were freed by the Summoner working with the Young Avengers and the Champions, Zemo briefly subjugated the Summoner's allies before setting the distillation station to self-destruct and escaping. Before the station detonated, the Summoner and all three teams evacuated themselves.^[2]

Using the ISO-Core, Baron Zemo controlled the Avengers again, leaving Iron Man, Gladiator and the Summoner to assault the Masters of Evil's ship. When they made it to the ship's control room, Gladiator destroyed Zemo's ISO-Core, absorbing the bulk of the resulting explosion onto himself.^[18]

Battlerealm (Earth-15513)

In Earth-15513, the Iso-Sphere is the most potent form of the Neutronium in its Iso-8 form.^[4] The Elders of the Universe waged in a Contest of Champions for its possession, a game in which different individuals they abducted from across the Multiverse fought to the death of behalf of each Elder.^[3]

Near the end of the contest, only two contestants remained, Maestro and the Punisher, representing the Collector and the Grandmaster, respectively. As part of a secret scheme to acquire the entire power of the Iso-Sphere for himself, Maestro proposed the idea of a refined and new Contest of Champions, in which Maestro and the Punisher would act as summoners and choose several new players to play on each Elder's behalf.^[3]

With each battle the new players fought, the percentage of the Iso-Sphere each of the remaining two Elders possessed varied.^[4] When the Grandmaster found himself with only a sliver of the Iso-Sphere, Maestro attacked him and stole his portion, which still didn't rival in power the amount of Iso-Sphere the Collector possessed. However, the two portions of the Iso-Sphere desired to be with each other, prevented only by their owner's will. In a battle of minds, Maestro trumped the Collector's desire to possess the Iso-Sphere and acquired its entirety.^[3]

The Iso-Sphere was snatched from the Maestro by Outlaw when he was distracted fighting other contestants. Outlaw's desire to use the Iso-Sphere to return everyone to their normal lives and end the contest overpowered Maestro's, and the Iso-Sphere shattered as it teleported the contestants to wherever they wanted to be, and Maestro to a cell in the Collector's Museum.^[19]

• ISO-Sphere has been spelled without the hyphen as "Isosphere".
• Since Ægon's ISO-Belt was forged from an ISO-Sphere,^[1] this page assumes the ISO-Belt is an alternate, yet functionally identical, form of the ISO-Sphere.