Guardians Of The Galaxy (2020 series) #17

Continued from SWORD #7.

Dormammu has invaded from his Dark Dimension by replacing Ego The Living Planet with his own giant flaming head. And then he sent an army of Mindless Ones (and related things) to attack various planets (not Earth).

1 of those planets was the Kree Throneworld II (being rebuilt from the ruins of Hala) where in SWORD #7 the Kree hero Captain Glory was killed and Hulkling, the Emperor of the Kree/Skrull Alliance, was severely wounded and his magic Star-Sword was broken. Abigail Brand and her SWORD troop came to his rescue. Manifold portalled him to the SWORD medics and the team stayed behind to fight the foe.

In the Galactic Council's Proscenium diplomatic hub Rocket Raccoon and Dr Doom have gathered a group of other Guardians Of The Galaxy (Drax, Gamora, Groot, Moondragon, Nova and Star-Lord) to discuss the situation. Dormammu's forces have also hit Skrullos, Spartax and the Shi'ar's Aerie, but none of the 4 planets are really of strategic importance so there must be some other reason.

Doom suggests there might be a 5th world which would form a pentagram with these 4, and they might have mystic significance. Aerie of the avian Shi'ar represents the sky. Skrullos of the mutable Skrulls represents water. Hala is a world that died in fire. The Spartoi of Spartax have recently reverted to their ancient astrological beliefs. He reckons that the completed magic symbol will make Dormammu's presence in this universe even stronger. The planet occupying the right position is Chitauri Prime which Doom identifies with soil, and the proud non-Council Chitauri would never have asked the Council for help.

Rocket still fancies shooting Dormammu in the head - they've just got to build a big enough gun. But in the meantime he and Doom have come up with another plan. They're going to send a team to Chitauri Prime using a time machine to get there early enough. Rocket himself is going to rouse the Earth heroes. Nova will go to join Mantis, Quasar and Super-Skrull on Spartax while Drax, Doom, Gamora, Groot, Moondragon and Star-Lord head to the 5th planet. There Doom will use his magic to counter Dormammu's.

Richard Rider doesn't trust Doom and asks why Star-Lord isn't going to his own homeworld Spartax. But Peter Quill says Rocket's plan feels right to his new 'cosmic awareness', and Rocket asks Nova to trust *him*. Groot and Moondragon agree, but Rich still doesn't like leaving his old friends Pete and Gamora at Doom's mercy. However Gamora says she trusts *Richard*'s instincts so she's going with him to Spartax. They try to persuade Peter to come with them but he's adamant so that's how the team splits.

Doom's time platform takes them to a Rigellian spaceship hiding in an asteroid belt around the Chitauri homeworld. He reveals that while he was at the Hellfire Gala (in SWORD #6-7) on Mars, now called Arakko, he contacted a delegation of Rigellian Colonizers and made a deal with them.

But now Moondragon senses that Chitauri Prime has already fallen to Dormammu who now controls the whole population. Doom says he expected that - their hive social structure means that once he infected the Queen the rest were automatically his. But this Colonizer ship can create robotic units out of asteroid material, and he has adjusted it to spew out an army of Doombots slaved to his will. The Doombots rain down on the planet and start slaughtering the Chitauri. The Guardians begin to think that Rich Rider was right.

Meanwhile Gamora and Nova have arrived at Spartax in the GOTG ship the Somerville and contact Quasar (Avril Kincaid). She's been fighting Mindless Ones for an hour and now it's time to use her Quantum Wristbands to trade places with Quasar (Wendell Vaughn). There are also Rimworlder ships in the skies, and Mantis reports that traditional enemies the Kymellians and Zn'rx have joined forces and are on their way to help. SWORD forces are on Skrullos as well as Hala and apparently the Intergalactic Wakandan Empire is aiding the Shi'ar. Super-Skrull is here and has circumvented his vow to Emperor Hulkling never to kill in war by treating this as a diplomatic mission which falls outside his pledge.

As the 2 newcomers join the battle Gamora tells Mantis that she's tried contacting the Avengers but someone's blocking the signal (from SWORD #7 we know that it's Abigail Brand for her own devious reasons). But she can now hope that if Wakanda is involved then maybe Black Panther will bring them.

At that point an enormous version of 1 of Dormammu's magic gateways appears in space. Nova asks Quasar if he's in contact with Galactus but Wendell says Thor killed him for going back to his world-eating ways (in #6 of Thor's current series). Nova says he heard that Galactus and Ego once (Ultimates 2 (2016) #8-9&100) joined with some others as the Eternity Watch and that a boost of Galactus power enabled the Living Planet to grow a proportional body. Well it seems that Dormammu now has that power and his planetary head and body now step through the gateway.

To be continued in CABLE: RELOADED 1-shot.