Metamorphosis Odyssey is a lengthy allegorical story told in several distinct parts in several formats, from illustrated magazines to graphic novels to comic books.

The story begins with an immortal mystic named Aknaton, whose Osirosian race was the ancestor of all humanoid life in the Milky Way galaxy.

Running the Zygotean blockade of his homeworld, Aknaton set various events in motion to mature over time into the elements he needed for their final plan.

Aknaton returned to the worlds he had visited a hundred thousand years previously, taking a single native from each one to fulfill their part in the plan: Za, the first of his cannibal race to achieve intelligence; Juliet, a fifteen-year-old girl from Kansas; and Whis'Par, the culmination of the artificial life Aknaton had created on the forest world.

Having gathered the three he needed, Aknaton returned to Byfrexia, where the icy sword had been found by a young Byfrexian named Vanth, who stumbled across it in the Arctic wilderness after ice bears devoured his family.

The other Byfrexians, who depended on the bears for food, eventually leagued against Vanth and drove him offworld, where he spent some unspecified time as a mercenary.

Aknaton had reasoned that since the Zygoteans were undefeatable, and the death of the galaxy could not be prevented, the only remaining kindness was to make the end as quick and painless as possible.

Fighting their way past an army of Zygoteans and their slaves (who had become aware of the plan and fought desperately to stop it), they returned to the cavern on the planet Dreamsend.

As Aknaton and Vanth held off the Zygoteans outside, Za, Juliet, and Whis'Par entered the cavern and sounded the Infinity Horn, destroying the entire Milky Way in an instant.

Dreadstar married a human scientist and lived quietly for some decades, but this ends shortly after the arrival of Darklock when a fleet of Monarchy ships destroys his home village, killing his wife and all his friends.

The series has been collected into various trade paperbacks and hardcovers over the years: Note: The full title of all volumes listed here, except the Dynamite Entertainment and Ominous Press editions, start with "Dreadstar: ".