BIOGRAPHY page 3
Starhawk of the Guardians of the Galaxy detected Korvac's actions after they returned to their future, a blank spot in his knowledge as the One Who Knows which indicated Korvac's return. The Guardians traveled back to the Heroic Age and met with the Fantastic Four some time after Korvac's death. Starhawk and Reed Richards worked together to track Korvac's energies as they possessed his first ancestor, the Australian Jaboa Murphy. Jaboa fought the heroes as Korvac began influencing her actions, but Mister Fantastic used a time machine to retrieve the Ultimate Nullifier beams from the past and direct them at Korvac in the present. Korvac's sentient energy fled Jaboa to avoid the beams and continued its trek into the future. The Guardians tracked Korvac's energy to the 26th century where it possessed the maniacal Varney and then the peaceful Marshach. Each time, the power moved on before the Guardians could stop it.
In the year 2977, Michael Korvac was about to be born. The cosmic power had already reached his father Jordan, empowering him to protect his wife Myra as she prepared to give birth on the lunar colony. Believing only that he was protecting his unborn child from a great threat, Jordan Korvac fought the Guardians until Michael was born, and the power returned to him. The Enemy lived again, and Korvac callously killed his father while absorbing the cosmic force from him to regain his full power. The fully self-aware baby Korvac intended to kill Galactus before he could 
unleash the Ultimate Nullifier. He was stopped by the 30th century's Ancient One Stephen Strange and his pupil, Krugarr. A mystic Globe of Gazan proved suitable to contain the infant Korvac, allowing the Guardians to bring him before Galactus, where his power was stripped from him. The now normal infant Michael was returned to his mother, but Myra misunderstood the situation and blamed the Guardians for killing her husband and kidnapping her baby. And so the time loop was closed and Michael Korvac was raised in bitterness and hate. [Korvac Quest crossover]
Korvac's Minions of Menace, now known as the Intimidators, also had a plan for bringing back their master. Brahl had a computer chip encoded with the sum total of Korvac's knowledge and personality before he left for Galactus's worldship, and the Intimidators brought it to the living computers maintaining the world of Mainframe. Formerly known as the Vision, Mainframe was suffering from a computer virus at the time which left him unable to stop the Intimidators from 
draining his power and using it to resurrect a version of Korvac. The machine-man was virtually insane as a result of the conditions of his return, and struck out at Martinex and the new Galactic Guardians he had assembled to face the threat. Korvac's attack accidentally released Giraud of Haven, Phoenix IX, from stasis in Mainframe's systems. The power of the Phoenix proved too much for Korvac, and he was dispatched into another plane of reality by Giraud. [Guardians of the Galaxy Annual #2]
Through one of these efforts or another, Korvac eventually did return to life. Called the "Clockwork Lord," Korvac now existed as a cybernetic lifeform again but with a portion of the cosmic power he 
claimed towards the end of his life. Seeking to regain his full might, Korvac devised a plan to manipulate Captain America and the Red Skull to achieve his ends. The Red Skull was destined to return to life as the embodiment of the Cosmic Cube, possessing vast innate reality altering powers. In the moments of his restoration, Korvac appeared to the Skull disguised as Kang the Conqueror, and helped guide his resurrection. [Captain America (3rd series) #1, 10, 14]
"Kang" explained to the Skull that his powers would remain finite at his current levels -- the Red Skull could will anything into happening, but it would only last as long as he was in the immediate area and concentrated on it. To achieve permanent reality manipulation, "Kang" suggested calling the worldship of Galactus to Earth. By bathing in the infinite knowledge as Korvac once did, the Red Skull would achieve the infinite power he desired. Korvac claimed that allowing the Skull to dominate the present would make ruling the future easier for "Kang." [Captain America (3rd series) #15]
At the same time, Korvac appeared before Captain America and Sharon Carter disguised as Uatu the Watcher. Using partial truths to deceive the heroes, "Uatu" claimed it was necessary to violate his oath of non-interference to prevent the Red Skull from achieving ultimate power. He showed Captain America a genuine vision of the future of Earth under the Skull's control, and stated the only way to stop the Skull was to kill him. The Red Skull would be vulnerable at a key moment while basking in the radiant knowledge of Galactus' worldship. Captain America was desperate to find another way to win without resorting to premeditated murder but, in the final moments, he 
could not see another option. Cap stabbed the Skull with his energy shield's blade, interrupting the knowledge transfer. This was all as Korvac planned, and he dropped his disguise to claim his victory. Though powerful, Korvac had doubted his ability to defeat the cosmic-powered Red Skull in a straight fight. With the Red Skull dead, his power had to go somewhere, and Korvac's cosmic power allowed him to claim the Skull's Cosmic Cube energies and the renewed might of Galactus' worldship in one fell swoop. Korvac saluted Captain America for his success and returned to his home timeline of the 31st century to rule. [Captain America (3rd series) #16-17]
Korvac used his power to build a totalitarian state in the year 3007. He removed the Badoon conquerors from Earth and established his own empire, pressing humanity to work with clockwork precision towards his dream. Free will was sacrificed in order to achieve new heights of technology and progress. Korvac uplifted a human into becoming his major domo, the cybernetically-maintained Primax. Captain America was unwilling to abandon his responsibility for 
allowing Korvac to become all-powerful, and followed him into the future. He founded a resistance to Korvac's rule and led a small band of freedom fighters in striking back against the Clockwork Lord. Despite his efforts, Captain America failed because Korvac had the power to reverse time whenever the Captain's movement grew too disruptive. Korvac was amused by his enemy, and hoped to one day break his resistance, so he never killed the Captain permanently.
Captain America fought and lost against Korvac 72 times, and 73 times he rose again to lead free men and women in pursuit of their inalienable rights. Korvac became frustrated enough to open Captain America's mind as he had Primax, allowing the Captain to remember how many times he had failed to stop the Machine God. Korvac hoped to wear down Captain America's will to resist by exposing him to the futility of fighting back only to lose and have all his progress undone each 
time. Captain America did not yield, however, and he continued raising resistance movements against Korvac, spending years, even decades at a time to gather his forces and strike back against the tyrant in the name of free men. In the end, Captain America's plan was successful when his undying determination even infected Primax, causing Korvac's second to experience a change of heart after uncounted years watching Captain America fight for the rights of free-thinking individuals.
Captain America and Primax finally convinced Korvac that his perfect utopia would never be truly perfect because the Machine God himself was not. His own humanity would always be the first flaw at the core of the clockwork utopia he wanted to create. Korvac agreed to reset time to back before the Red Skull's death, so that he could fully remove his own humanity before using his power appropriately. He felt confident about his success, knowing Captain America still needed to kill the Red Skull in order to prevent the Skull's dark future. [Captain America (3rd series) #18]
This time, however, Captain America refused to play Korvac's game. He struck down the Red Skull with a non-fatal blow and forced Korvac to reveal himself early. Korvac thought his chance was lost, and he teleported aboard Galactus' worldship with Captain America and Sharon Carter, hoping to journey away from Earth and leave the planet to the Skull's mercies. Instead, Cap convinced Korvac to follow a plan of his own making. Fearing perfidy, the Red Skull followed them onto Galactus' ship where he believed Captain America intended to shut down the databeam of 
knowledge from the source. The cosmically-powered Skull disposed of Korvac with a blast of anti-matter, scattering his former ally across multiple dimensions. (In the end, Cap used the Skull's arrogance to trick him into the anti-matter engine core, thinking it was the datastream, and Red Skull suffered nearly the same fate as Korvac.) [Captain America (3rd series) #19]