Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Thanos, with the aid of his newly-created godlings, firebeing Primo and saurian Reptyl, has captured his target Quoi, the human/plant hybrid Celestial Messiah, along with saurian Raptra, synthezoid Avenger Vision and his current lover and Quoi's mother Mantis. He sums up their situation from last issue:- Eternity refused to help them, the other Avengers are with Raptra's ship but he has teleported his captives to his Sanctuary ship on the far side of the Rot, a darkness that is spreading through space. Now he'll kill his 'rival' Quoi, but 1st he'll get Mantis to tell him the best way to do it. Then he'll make Vision his permanent recorder. And as an afterthought he'll kill Raptra.
But for now he and his godlings leave his prisoners in their cages. Raptra tries to persuade Quoi that she only pretended to give him to Thanos last issue to give her time to save now. (After all Thanos had already captured them, so she wasn't giving him anything.) And she starts to cut her arm with her own fingernail, which will eventually show she meant what she said. Vision can't phase through the energy field of their bars, but he's working on it. Then Thanos comes back and takes Mantis away.
Mantis is taken to what looks like a torture dungeon, complete with Trollish minions. Primo and Reptyl fasten her down to a table. But as with the Priest Of Pama in #2 the torture is to be more of a mental invasion. Except when Thanos touches his hand to her head, instead of giving her pain and insanity he finds both of them transported to the realm of the gods (the astral plane?). Conjuring up a giant axe with but a thought the mad god splits the Celestial Madonna in twain. But she heals up again saying that her perfect human/plant mental unity makes her his equal in power. He responds that it is *will* not power that counts as he tries to crush her skull. But Mantis holds him at bay with inner meditative stillness.
The Titan abandons the struggle and they both return to the mortal plane. He says he'll turn his attention instead to the boy, who won't have the experience to resist him. He's not fazed by a sudden attack by the Avengers quinjet, which has arrived much quicker than he expected. He sends Reptyl to deal with them while he and Primo attend to Quoi. Mantis (probably correctly) deduces that they must have added Scarlet Witch's magic to Thor's hammer to get the extra speed. And, left alone, she sees the figure of Death hovering over her before moving away.
Thor is attacking Sanctuary alongside the Witch in an armoured spacesuit. Wanda Maximoff uses a hex through a 'window' to fuse Reptyl's legs together. But his hands can still work controls that fire blasts at them and the quinjet piloted by Haywire and Silverclaw. Thor has nearly cracked the 'window' with Mjolnir, but the nearby Rot is drawing closer.
Raptra's scratching at her skin bears fruit, exposing acid capsules embedded in her arm. She uses them to dissolve some of her bars, taking their energy field with them. She has no more acid to free Vision but instead calls to the Troll guard outside. After a brief fight she defeats him and uses his keys to let Vizh out. They know where Thanos took Quoi so the synthezoid phases through the door.
Meanwhile with Quoi strapped down before Thanos, Primo is sent away to join the defence. Thanos seeks to weaken the boy's confidence by telling him that his mother broke down and told him what he wanted to know. Quoi says he doesn't believe that. And they too have to fight on the god-plane. This time the axe doesn't even dent the Celestial Messiah. It turns out he shared Mantis' experiences here. He claims to be stronger than his mother because what she *became* he was born as. And he magics up an even bigger axe to attack Thanos with. The Titan god blusters but fears he can't win here, so he returns to the mortal plane where he is in control ...
... just in time to see Vision coming through the door. But he ignores the android, *opens* the door and storms out past Reptyl. Vision frees Quoi and they all set out to find Mantis. Which they do.
Thor has broken in to Sanctuary, but Scarlet Witch warns him that the Rot has almost surrounded the quinjet. He finds a way to fly there, telling Haywire and Silverclaw to don their spacesuits. They abandon the quinjet to its fate and make it back to Sanctuary, where everyone assembles to face Thanos, Reptyl and Primo. Thanos tries to teleport away, leaving his godlings to face the music, but he finds that he can't because they are completely surrounded by the Rot.
And then Death shows up again and speaks, telling them they are trapped in here with *her*.