Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Warlock and the Infinity Watch #27 Synopsis by
Rob Johnson
The Avengers (Captain America, Black Widow, Giant-Man, Hercules and Thunderstrike) are attacking the Infinity Watch (Adam Warlock, Drax The Destroyer, Moondragon, Pip The Troll and their ally Maxam) on Monster Island. The Avengers are fixated on killing Warlock. The foes match up in pairs:- Warlock vs Giant-Man, Moondragon vs Captain America, Drax vs Thunderstrike (mistaking him for his recent enemy Thor), Pip vs Black Widow and Maxam vs Hercules.
Pip teleports around with his Space Gem, avoiding all BW's attacks until he gets behind her and brains her with his mace. Moondragon matches her martial arts against Cap's fighting skills while they 'reminisce' about when *she* was an Avenger (their #133-151). Maxam and Herc replay the fight they had Infinity Crusade #5 where M threw H into an ocean. M had previously done the same thing to Drax (in our #17). Now H drags D away from Thunderstrike and throws *him* into the ocean, freeing H and TS to team-up against M. M calls for help so Warlock takes Giant-Man out with a karmic blast and turns to his aid, but he in turn is downed by a large flying boulder (that comes from I know not where). Pip thinks it's now up to him to save Maxam and he teleports away to try out a new trick. And a green-cloaked figure watches from the shadows.
We interrupt the fight to see Senator Munson in his UN office gloating to his bodyguard Shaw over the battle he initiated. He doesn't need to know what's happening because whatever the result he'll achieve his ends. Either the Avengers will succeed in killing Warlock or they'll fail and 1 or more of *them* will die (because that's the only thing that will stop them). In that case the Infinity Watch will be branded murderous villains hated and hunted by the whole world.
Maxam's still getting beaten up by Hercules and Thunderstrike. This time he calls for help from Moondragon. She brings her long fight with Captain America to a conclusion by KOing him. (An editorial comment points out that Cap's Super Soldier Serum has been wearing out recently.) And then she mind-blasts TS to give M a more even match against H. But meanwhile Pip has got an *enormous* boulder and teleports it to the scene and drops it on the combatants. H manages to get out of the way but it buries Max and TS. The dust blinds MD allowing H to swat her. P tries his more standard approach of hitting Herc on the head with his mace but to little effect. So now H battles a recovered Warlock - over several pages. Herc appears to win ...
... but then Vision ghosts in and does his arm through the chest move on Hercules and the battle is over. While various chars recover with aching heads and stuff, the synthezoid explains the plot. The other Avengers were telepathically enthralled to kill Adam, but his androidness made him immune. Moondragon frees their 'foes' from their geas while Vizh continues to expound that he played along and pretended to be easily defeated by Gamora last issue. He bided his time until the IW whittled the Avengers down (presumably expecting the Watch to win because heroes under compulsion never fight at their best).
Drax returns from the ocean and Gamora has now recovered from last issue too. V reveals that the villain behind it all is US Senator Munson at the UN and both teams vow to confront him. But 1st they hear Maxam and Thunderstrike calling for help from under Pip's huge rock.