Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Adam Warlock's 'good' side Goddess has gathered an army of superhero believers on the planet Paradise Omega which she created on the opposite side of the Sun to Earth. She also combined a load of Cosmic Cubes into a large Cosmic Egg which she now inhabits at the centre of that planet. From there she's been spreading her mental wave of 'peacefulness' across the Galaxy. But last issue ended with Pip The Troll using his Space Gem to teleport to the Egg and use its power to turn her into a pile of salt.
Now Thanos surveys the forces in play in the Infinity Crusade and notices that Goddess has vanished from the stage. And then just as abruptly she returns. (We know that in Warlock & Infinity Watch #20 Pip spent all his time imagining gratifying all his desires with the power of the Egg, while Silhouette crept out of the container we saw in the Egg in our #2 and took over control of the Egg and revived Goddess.)
So now Thanos has to continue with Warlock's war plan (which he learned of in Warlock Chronicles #3 but as per comics-usual we weren't given any details). He locates Silver Surfer flying through space on his board. Last issue Surfer broke free of Goddess' spell, and after fighting Firelord in his own #83 he's on his way to warn the unbeliever heroes that Goddess is aware of their plans. But now Thanos teleports him to his spaceship. SS expects to be attacked but Thanos surprises him by 'surrendering'. He also notices that Thanos has Adam's Soul Gem on his brow.
Meanwhile Goddess contacts Moondragon her spokeswoman to carry out their plans against to unbelievers. Dr Strange along with Scarlet Witch, Shaman and Talisman opens a mystic portal to Avengers Mansion. Hercules and Wonder Man carry a big bomb through accompanied by more believers. But they find the place empty, and MD deduces that they've already left for Paradise Omega (as we saw last issue).
Back in Thanos' spacecraft Silver Surfer is shown the comatose body of Warlock. Thanos explains that Adam gave him the Gem so he could use it to take Warlock's soul into Soul World within it. Norrin Radd of course doesn't believe or trust him. Thanos points out that Adam's body shows no sign of a fight. And that he himself helped defeat Magus in the Infinity War event. Surfer says that Thanos only did it for his own reasons, but Thanos says that the same is true now. And Warlock's plan needs Surfer's help.
Now we see that Adam Warlock is indeed in Soul World where he is greeted by Autolycus and Judge Kray-Torr (old enemies of his turned friends by Soul World). Adam says he's looking for someone, but it's not anyone they will know is here. (Spoiler for the end of the issue, it's Adam's 'bad' side Magus who he banished here at the end of Infinity War. But because Magus doesn't have a soul of his own he can't affect the souls here in any way, including being detected by them.)
The unbelieving heroes are travelling to Paradise Omega in 2 souped-up spaceworthy quinjets. Mr Fantastic and Iron Man are conferring between the 2 craft. MrF has improved their cloaking since their previous trip (#2) so Goddess and her followers won't be able to detect them this time. They *will* be visible when they get closer but they hope to get down on the planet before the defences can react. Then they will have to fight their friends, possibly with fatal casualties on both sides.
Holograms of Thanos and Silver Surfer appear on both ships. The heroes of course don't initially trust the villain and the believer. But Surfer assures them he has left the faith, and the Titan opposes the Goddess for his own reasons. Thanos proposes to stage a diversion to aid their attack, details of which he's fed into their computer. In turn that attack will be a diversion to cover his own actions which he won't tell them about lest telepath Moondragon and her Mind Gem learn of them. But he *does* need the help of Prof X. They tell him that unfortunately Charles Xavier was mind-blasted by MD in Avengers Mansion (last issue). However Thanos says that's irrelevant, and the holograms leave.
We now find that the Mansion isn't quite as deserted as Moondragon thought. Bishop is guarding Prof X's comatose body with a member of the Avengers support staff (Marvel Fandom Wiki suggests Zack Moonhunter). Then their charge disappears ...
... to reappear with Thanos, Surfer and Warlock's body. Thanos intends to use a headset to control Xavier's telepathic powers even while he's unconscious. He assures SS that it won't hurt X. Norrin wonders how much of a hero he really is. Thanos suggests they use the Soul Gem to temporarily merge souls and then Surfer can find out. SS declines the offer. Thanos sends him out to take up position for the diversion. Meanwhile he will wait for something he sent for that he stored a long way away.
Now we look in on Rick Sheridan taking a drink of orange juice which knocks him out and releases Sleepwalker. Sleepy comments that he'd fortuitously doctored the juice so now he can rejoin Goddess' flock. (Last issue he automatically left them when Rick woke up.) Moondragon welcomes him back. She also chivvies the 4 mystics to use their powers to find where the unbelievers are.
Silver Surfer tells Thanos that he's in place but is worried because he's never tried this before. The Titan assures him that he's calculated that he'll be able to survive it. Then he turns his attention to the spaceship that is approaching his. We know that Thanos' own ship is pretty big, but as it gets closer we realise that it easily fits in an entrance bay of the humongous Dreadnought 666 (previously mentioned in WIW#19 and WC#3). He signals Surfer to commence.
SS swoops into the Sun to steal some of its energy. Thanos thinks to himself that he really *should* have done the calculations to see if Surfer would survive. His action causes a solar flare that knocks out most of the believers' long-range scanners, but that's not the diversion. Then the Surfer emerges bulked up with energy and almost out of control. Drax and Hulk have been sent out to watch over his progress, Drax in space and Hulk on an asteroid. SS isn't heading in the right direction so Drax gives him a big punch to alter his course. He's still not quite right so Hulk (currently very intelligent) hurls a very large rock which completes the trajectory adjustment. The Surfer-bomb is now heading straight to Paradise Omega.
The believers can't tell what it is and panicked Moondragon mentally contacts Goddess for help. But Goddess is too busy bringing on Universal Rapture. So Heather Douglas sends Thor out to deal with it and orders all defence posts to fire on anything that moves. Now she gets reports that it's Silver Surfer and the defence satellites fire at him without any effect. And he hits the planet's moon turning it to rubble. We see 1 of the satellites damaged and Invisible Woman holding Crystal's body, calling for retrieval back to the Cathedral on the planet. They are teleported there as we learn that all the satellites are out of commission. They are now replaced by space mines and Moondragon orders everyone to prepare to hold the infidels off long enough for Goddess to complete her task.
The 2 quinjets are flying through the minefield. Cyclops and his brother Havok are standing on the hulls destroying mines in their path. Drax has picked up Hulk and they find Surfer's limp body. Thor arrives and sends Mjolnir punching through both quinjets. The hulls are breached so the heroes all get into 2-person escape pods. Meanwhile Drax and Hulk stop Thor from following them. After trading a few punches Thor smashes Hulk's jetpack and pushes him away to float helplessly in space, falling towards the planet. As the pods head towards planetfall too Thanos requests 1 of them to remain aloft to provide him with capability of scanning then planet's surface. Forge and Nomad are detailed the job.
Meanwhile in Soul World Warlock has located Magus. And on Paradise Omega the believers are sent out in pairs to await the escape pods. In space Drax and Thor continue to duke it out and Hulk and the pods continue to fall. And on the Dreadnought Thanos prepares his plan with comatose Prof X to aid him.