Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Thanos stands on a plain filled with slain alien warriors. Just 1 turns out to be still alive and he struggles to his feet and charges at the Titan with his axe. Thanos batters him down with his fists but not before the axe draws blood on his arm. The Titan responds with a blast of energy from a fist and then continues the beating with now-energised fists until the foe is down. And then he slits his throat with a dagger.
He calls for his spaceship Demeter to beam him aboard. The ship is run by robots whose leader asks if the master's trip was satisfactory. Thanos replies that it wasn't. He faced the Ovin Mercenary Army because he'd heard they were the deadliest force in the universe, but killing them turned out to be hardly worth the small effort (but he's still dripping blood).
He retires to his chamber to contemplate his life. He used to have a purpose, courting his love Death and even becoming a god for her (in the Infinity Gauntlet event). But she spurned him and he relinquished godhood. Since then he has been adrift, mainly aiding heroes defeat other menaces to the universe (and therefore also to him) (in the Infinity War and Infinity Crusade events). But now he's actively seeking opponents worthy of his attention, which the Ovin Mercenary Army wasn't. He tells his robot crew to take him home ...
... which is a farm on an unknown planet. (At the end of Infinity Gauntlet he was depicted as doing the farming himself alone. But now his home is high-tech and he probably gets robots to do the farmwork.) His AI informs him that "all is in readiness" and he descends into a deep cavern below his base and into a secure room where we see a robot that thinks it's a holy man that he acquired from a cult of alien monks (in Secret Defenders #13). It's really a storehouse of information from past millennia but the 'bot swears that Thanos can't make him divulge any of it. However the Mad Titan dons a wired-up helmet which allows him to enter the robot's mind-space ...
... where he appears as a vaguely Samurai avatar. He's confronted by a barrier represented by a tall wall. 'Luckily' his avatar's gloves have spikes on the palms so he's able to scale it. But when he reaches the top he's attacked by a very big samurai warrior. They both draw swords and battle until the foe breaks the Titan's weapon. But then Thanos stabs him through the heart with the broken hilt. He uses the enemy's body to smash through 2 doors to gain entrance to the treasure house of the holy robot's information, which appropriately appears as actual treasure. The (consciousness of) the robot is seated within and declares that this knowledge is the sum of all he has recorded over millennia and it is what he *is*. As such it must remain only his. The Titan replies that he takes whatever he wants, and what he wants is knowledge because knowledge is power. And he strangles the avatar of the robot to death and withdraws from the mindscape.
Back home he downloads all the data into his computer system, and tells his AI to scan it for pertinent info. Later he consults his boss robot who tells him that there is 1 particular item that might be of interest to his master. The 'bot shows him (and us) a pictorial summary of a powerful being of unknown origin called Tyrant whose robot armies were opposed by woman warriors called the Spinsterhood. He was eventually driven off into uncharted space. The Spinsters claimed the victory but it was really Galactus. He recently returned and this time his opponents were Silver Surfer, Gladiator of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard, former Heralds of Galactus Morg and Terrax, Beta Ray Bill, Jack Of Hearts and the last of the Spinsterhood revived for the occasion. Tyrant beat them all but again Galactus intervened to force him to retreat, but taking Morg as a hostage against Big G.
Thanos does consider Tyrant a worthwhile opponent. But he wants to learn more about him before committing to conflict. He considers the above list of Tyrant's former opponents as a source of info. He doesn't think Gladiator, Surfer and Beta Ray Bill would want to help him. He doesn't know enough about Jack or the Spinster to trust their insights. Morg is a prisoner of Tyrant himself. That leaves Terrax who the Titan thinks he can manipulate. The top robot urges caution but Thanos blasts it to bits for daring to question his intentions. And the Demeter sets off on the search for Terrax.