Synopsis / Summary / Plot
In #61 Her abducted Thing's girlfriend Alicia Masters to help her find Him. Starhawk and Moondragon sensed Her's cosmic power and involved themselves. Moondragon told Her that Him became Adam Warlock, but died and is buried on Counter-Earth. So Moondragon flew Her and Alicia to Counter-Earth in her spaceship.
In #62 Thing and Starhawk followed in the Fantastic Four's Skrull saucer. But they all found Counter-Earth missing and only its artificial Moon remained. And inside they discovered the lifeless body of the High Evolutionary (who created the planet and moon). In the middle of all this male Starhawk transformed into his female version Aleta. Her revived HE and he told them how Warlock had turned up 1 day and accused *him* of destroying Counter-Earth, although at that time the Evolutionary could plainly see that the planet was still there. But Adam 'killed' him and left (to meet Thanos and his death in Avengers Annual #7 and our Annual #2). But now it seemed Counter-Earth really has gone, and HE detected the trail of someone taking it away.
In this issue they've used High Evolutionary's moon base to follow the trail across the Galaxy and found Counter-Earth surrounded by linked 'moons' which are the towing ships. HE's sensors detect life in all of the moons. Then Aleta reverts to Starhawk and declares, as the 'One Who Knows', that the moon over the North Pole is the command ship. He also 'recommends' that Evolutionary stay behind as backup while the other 5 go investigate. But Thing won't let Alicia go into more danger, and he's staying with her. So only Her, Moondragon and Starhawk get teleported into the moon.
Inside they run into 3 giant aliens and impulsive Her leaps to the attack, forcing the other 2 to follow because Moondragon's telepathy fails to tell whether or not they are hostile. Her and Starhawk take down 1 each and Moondragon's psionic blast deals with the other, which boosts Heather Douglas' ego a little bit. The haughty Titan priestess has been feeling inferior to Her, which she definitely isn't used to. Her and Starhawk zoom through the rest of the ship blasting more aliens, with Moondragon racing to keep up.
Thing is feeling guilty about not helping the others when it's taken out of his hands as he, Alicia and Herbert George Wyndham are teleported to the same moon. The giant who greets them announces he is Sphinxor, boss of the Prime Movers of Tarkus. HGW expands to the same size to talk to the guy who says he learned his English from transmissions of TV sitcoms. The other 3 finally make it to the control room but Wyndham tells them to stand down.
Sphinxor explains that they were contracted to deliver Counter-Earth to beings called the Beyonders. They detected the planet as High Evolutionary was building it, and sent him to monitor proceedings. When Sphinxor saw Warlock get involved (Marvel Premiere #1) he knew he'd have to get Adam out of the way before they could steal the place. So when Warlock was killed and resurrected (Hulk #177-178) he took the opportunity to unleash the Adam's Soul Gem's soul-stealing appetite. Warlock left the Solar System and Sphinxor went to bring in his Prime Movers. But when they got here they found Adam was returning, so the alien tweaked the Gem again so that Warlock *thought* he was now larger than the Solar System, and left again (Warlock #14-15). But the effect wore off as Adam returned again (Marvel Team-Up #55) so Sphinxor tried another illusion, that Counter-Earth was already gone (last issue's flashback) which had the bonus effect of Warlock 'killing' Wyndham before leaving again. With both chars out of the way The Prime Movers could start the move.
Sphinxor also claims that he doesn't know what the Beyonders want with the world, but he's not going to cross someone as powerful as they are. At this point HGW says he wants his planet delivered to the Beyonders. He now admits that his creation is flawed and unstable, but maybe these super-powerful guys can fix it. And in addition he wants to go with it to meet these supreme beings, to satisfy his scientific curiosity.
HGW also stipulates that his companions be allowed to beam down to the planet to do what they came for. Sphinxor is reluctant because he'd have to switch off part of the stasis field which keeps all life down there in suspended animation, and that would slow them down. So Ben Grimm persuades him to change his mind. Moondragon provides the coordinates and the 5 are ported down to the graves of Adam and his friends Gamora and Pip the Troll.
Her exerts her power and raises Warlock's body from the grave. He is the only other member of her 'race' (both created by the same process), and she expects him to be her mate. But then she realises he is nothing without his soul, and she returns him to peace. (An editorial comment reminds us that Adam's soul is now inside the Soul Gem, and tells us that the Gardener now has the Gem. This has only just been seen in Hulk #247 out the same month as this issue, and in #248 Gardener will reveal that he took it from Warlock's grave.)
Grieving Her flies off into space, and the others prepare to return home.