That’s really just down to artistic depiction. Starlin typically uses universe to mean everything for some reason. Regardless, Thanos killing himself will take everything to Oblivion as stated in the story.
Regardless of where the omniverse is stated to be (it is probably fine as it currently is), it is what comes afterwards that is the problem. The Beyonders were created by the Celestials and are internal creations of Eternity. As such there CAN’T be any degree of transcendence between Eternity and The Beyonders and definitely not a Meta-Qualitative transcendence. Additionally, The Beyond Realm is literally made from the corpse of the second cosmos.The WHR is below the Never Queen who is directly comparable to The Griever at The End of All Things and who was killed as a result of the destruction of reality in Secret Wars. The Never Queen is the former Fourth Eternity. The Abstracts are also shown to be capable of killing The Phoenix while inside TWR and even destroying TWR. In an Al Ewing story, Resurrection of Magneto, Storm uses the symbolic power of magic to defeat several Dominions. Magic is a product of the Fifth Eternity.
The HOI and TOAA can remain a degree of transcendent to and above everything else. I agree on that.
Look at the end of this post to see the proposal.
1.) I don’t know if he saying that they were outdated or not. Especially as in his Ultimates stuff, Thanos directly refers to the ultimate nothingness behind everything.
“...But this was not sweet death's embrace. Instead, he was in exile. Outside all systems--old and new. Outside everything. Beyond life. Beyond death. The notion was grotesque--perverse. And yet... …the great nothing about him seemed infused with dark potential.”
“I glimpsed, behind her bone white smile the possibility of a greater perfection. A perfection that cannot exist as long as existence is even a concept. I've been outside conner. I've seen the face of pure and perfect nothing. And I want you to see it too. All of you.”
2.) Correct. Starlin never shows Oblivion because he uses Oblivion as a purely non physical transcendent entity. In the Infinity conflict and Infinity Ending, it is directly stated multiple times that, by killing himself who is now TOAA, he will be sending everything to Oblivion. Starlin’s edgy writings of Thanos’ obsession and worship of death find their ultimate conclusion when Thanos instead in a way now worships Oblivion, the ultimate embodiment of nihilism. By killing himself and taking creation with him he is providing the perfect sacrifice for his new god. In a way, Starlin never depicting Oblivion makes sense as there is nothing to depict. I don’t think this part of Starlin’s interpretation of Marvel contradicts anything. The primary former gripes about Starlin was his portrayal of TOAA, but now TOAA is depicted in the same non-omnipotent manner that Starlin described.
3.) I see it as a general framework. Phoenix defeating Beyonders in TWR is more just her being in her realm. Heck even Nightmare was shown to be capable of defeating Beyonders in his own realm. And, as shown, there is plenty of evidence that The Phoenix and Never Queen exist at the same level as the other Abstracts.
I do think there is plenty of evidence to show that Oblivion should have a key behind his normal abstract keys being the void from which TOAA emerged and to which he and all reality will eventually return. Additionally, any other cosmic being of darkness and absolute destruction from Amatsu Mikaboshi (Chaos King), Nyx, The Tiger God, The Anti-All, The Goblin Force, Knull, any of the residents of the Cold Dark Room such as The Adversary, and The Griever at The End of All Things should logically be seen as acolytes or representations of this Ultimate Oblivion.
As for the rest of The Abstracts, it is clear that from the level of Eternity to The Never Queen, they are all comparable in their fullest extent. To potentially get around this issue and the matter that The Beyonders have been consistently depicted as superior to the abstracts, another key can be added to some of the relevant abstrwcts beyond their Multi-Abstract forms. This true key will be above Multiversal Eternity and The Beyond realm and should be baseline High-1A. Those that would have this key would be The Phoenix Force, Eternity, The Never Queen, and The Griever at The End of All Things. The latter three form The Three Faces of Existence and The Phoenix Force is the embodiment of all life at all times on every level throughout all of Eternity being the concept of endless cycles of creation, destruction, resurrection, and rebirth. The lesser abstracts like The Inbetweener, Galactus, Love and Hate etc would not qualify. Additionally, The Phoenix Force and The Never Queen should have a Multi-Abstract tier key as well which should be comparable to Multi-Eternity. This would mean that there will be a Multi-Abstract equivalent of TWR and The Land of Can be Shall be. This will be the level at which the Abstracts confronted and threatened The Phoenix Force in the Latest Phoenix Comic arc.
This would just change the cosmology from being as it currently is:
- Multi-Eternity
- Beyond Realm
- TWR
- The Never Queen
- TOAA / HOI
Making it into this:
- 1A+ (baseline): Multi-Eternity (includes all the other Multi-Abstracts and their realms including the Multi-TWR.) and The Beyond Realm (While the Beyonders are definitely more powerful [no qualitative superiority] they exist at the same level as the Multi-Abstract and are depicted as creations of The Celestials or a creation of a creation (Cal-Horta) of the Celestials. Their realm is even formed from the remains of the corpse of Second Eternity)
- 1A+ (1 layer of transcendence): The Elder Gods could be placed here if they are determined to be more powerful than Multi-Abstracts (though this is dubious)
- High-1A (Baseline): True Eternity, True Never Queen, True Griever at The End of All Things (The Three Faces of Existence) and The True Phoenix Force / The White Hot Room. Additionally: the True Dominions, True Form Nyx, True Form Tiger God, and True Form Cold Dark Room.
- High-1A (1 level of transcendence): TOAA / HOI.
- High-1A (2 levels of transcendence): True Oblivion
