The
IC sequence continues the storyline from
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #150. There
Adam Warlock was resurrected by
Kang the Conqueror in the far future, and in
IC:AW he was sent back in time to confront
Thanos in the present (via Ancient Egypt). Meanwhile in
GotG#150 The
Guardians had found the
Power Stone and were looking for the other
Infinity Stones.
This issue assembles all the players and lets us know where all the Infinity Stones are.
Our 1st stop is the Canadian wilderness where
Wolverine is attacked by 5
Ultron-infected aliens because he has the blue
Space Stone (which he got in the
Marvel Legacy 1-shot after his own resurrection).
Logan easily beats them, especially with the added teleportation ability the Stone gives him.
But then he's accosted by
Loki who slashes his face with a knife just to check that he's the real self-healing deal. So Wolverine slams a claw up through Loki's jaw and pulls out an eyeball - just to check if Loki's really a god. The Asgardian binds up his eye-socket and offers to take the Infinity Stone off Logan's hands. He claims that more threats like Ultron are after the Stones and it will only endanger Earth and people Logan cares for. And whoever gets them all could endanger the whole multiverse. Logan agrees that he's not the best person to hold a Stone but he's certainly better than Loki. And if any other Stone-wielders come after him he'll just take theirs off them. And he teleports away from the
Trickster God.
There's another Infinity Stone on Earth.
Turk Barrett walks into a casino with the yellow
Mind Stone atop his walking cane. He is confidant of winning at blackjack because the Stone's gift of telepathy tells him what cards the dealer has and Stone-enhanced intelligence helps him gauge the odds. (It shouldn't allow him to predict cards.)
The 3rd
Stone, red for
Reality, is just off Earth in space in the hand of
Captain Marvel (
Carol Danvers) who found it in alternate reality
Earth-Zeta in her
Legacy issues
#125-129. But we also see Reality Stones in the hands of alternate-reality versions of the
Monica Rambeau and
Mar-Vell Captain Marvels. (And a hint of the Captain Marvel of
DC and previously
Fawcett Comics.)
The purple Power Stone has featured in the
Legacy issues of
GotG (
#146-150). It is the size of a (small) mountain and is guarded by the
Nova Corps on a secluded planetoid, but the
Chitauri and the
Fraternity of Raptors are coming to take it. Meanwhile the
Guardians of the Galaxy are in the Nova Corps HQ the
Rock.
Star-Lord wants them to go to
Telferina where giant trees cloned from
Groot by the
Gardener are killing people, but
Gamora wants them to go seeking the
Soul Stone to free a fragment of herself trapped in it. (This takes place just before the end of
GotG#150 because they head for Telferina but drop
Drax off to help guard the Power Stone on the way.)
There is an unidentified voiceover throwing in bits of narration. At this point it tells us that it doesn't know where the Time Stone is, but there are places where things are not what they should be and they seem likely places to look.
1 such place is the planet
Sakaar (which was destroyed by
Galactus in the pre-
Secret Wars III universe). It was seen back in the new universe when
Hulk (
Amadeus Cho) went there in
#709-713 of his
Legacy series. (Of course Sakaar is where
Hulk (
Bruce Banner) was exiled to before
Civil War I.) A last page epilogue to
#713 showed
Super-Skrull finding the
Time Stone deep inside the planet. That scene is expanded on here where he swears to use it to restore the status of the
Skrull Empire.
Next we get a replay of the end of
IC: Adam Warlock as Adam bursts free of the Egyptian sarcophagus where he was placed in suspended animation by Kang's earlier identity Pharaoh
Rama-Tut.
Then we see Thanos ruling over the Chitauri homeworld ...
... and we learn that the voiceover is the severed head of the
Elder of the Universe Contemplator talking to
Magus, Warlock's evil self on the surface of
Ego the Living Planet. Magus has forced Contemplator to find the
Soul Gem for him (on Ego). (Is it significant that they refer to the Gem rather than the Soul Stone?) But the Elder now says he made sure others could track them. And now
Ultron/
Hank Pym sneaks up behind Magus and punches his heart out.
Contemplator warns Ultron not to touch the Gem but of course the robot ignores him. A shock sends him reeling when he picks 1st it up, but then he can handle it easily and he rewards the Elder by disintegrating the head. (But Elders don't die that easily.)
But
Henry Pym's soul finds itself detached from Ultron and inside the Soul Gem where he is greeted by the aged fragment of Gamora (as seen in recent issues of
GotG).
Follow Turk and the Mind Stone in
IC: Daredevil, Carol Danvers and the other Captain Marvels with the Reality Stone(s) in
IC: Captain Marvel, Super-Skrull and the Time Stone in
Dr Strange #3, and everybody else in
IC #1.
This story is followed by a potted history of the Infinity Stones.
An omnipotent being in the
7th Cosmos became 6 gems in the
8th Cosmos, which contained
Marvel Comics history up to
Secret Wars III. Initially they were known as the
Soul Gems. The
High Evolutionary had 1 which he gave to Adam Warlock to defend his creation
Counter-Earth. Later Thanos gathered the 6 together and was going to use their energy to destroy all the stars in the universe for his lover
Death. But Warlock and the
Avengers killed him, and Warlock died too - his soul joining Gamora and others in his Soul Gem.
Some of the Elders of the Universe located the Gems. But Death resurrected Thanos, who learned that the 6 Gems were the
Infinity Gems - each with a different power. He took them from the Elders and put them in the
Infinity Gauntlet. He used them to kill half the beings in the universe for Death. Then he ascended to godhood leaving his body behind. But this allowed
Nebula, his alleged grandaughter (in the Comics universe) to take the Gauntlet and bring everyone back to life (and Thanos back to his body). However Warlock and Gamora had been resurrected too, and Adam took the Gauntlet for himself.
Adam got rid of both his good and evil sides in order to be an objective wielder of the Gems. But the
Living Tribunal wasn't satisfied and decreed that the gems should be entrusted to a 6 member group the
Infinity Watch. Warlock and Gamora were 2 of them, and the 6th was Thanos who had renounced his lust for power. Warlock's evil side manifested as the Magus who used
Cosmic Cubes to try to get the Infinity Gems. He was defeated by Warlock and allies including Thanos in the 1st
Infinity War. (And Adam's good side became
Goddess in the
Infinity Crusade which didn't involve the Gems.)
Later the Gems were scattered again until the secret
Illuminati (
Black Bolt,
Dr Strange,
Iron Man,
Mr Fantastic,
Prof X and
Sub-Mariner) located them and each hid 1. But the
Hood found them and the Illuminati had to reveal themselves to the Avengers in order to defeat him. The Illuminati then pretended to destroy the Gauntlet and Gems, and to disband. But secretly they continued with
Captain America replacing Black Bolt and the Gems in their hands again.
As the multiverse started to collapse by colliding alternate realities the Illuminati used the Infinity Gems to stop their reality dying in 1 such collision. But 5 of the Gems shattered and the Time Gem disappeared. Later the Time Gem took some Avengers on a tour of the future and then it too self-destructed.
After the multiverse was destroyed,
Secret Wars III ended with the creation of a new multiverse, the
9th Cosmos. The Infinity Gems were recreated and called the
Infinity Stones (with swapped colours). Gamora learned that a fragment of her soul still resided in the Soul Gem/Stone from her previous time in there. Her fellow Guardians of the Galaxy helped her look for it and the other Stones.
The resurrected Wolverine gained the Space Stone, and the Nova Corps found and guarded the giant Power Stone. Captain Marvel and Super-Skrull found the Reality and Time Stones. And this issue reveals the whereabouts of the Mind and Soul Stones.