Synopsis
Last issue Shaman led Box, Diamond Lil, Nemesis and Wyre into the Sarcee Land Of The Dead to stop a threat to the universe (and hence to Goddess' plans). A demon Carcass was unleashing the Unmaking which would reduce everything to chaos. There they had to fight dead Sarcee under the demon's control. But Shaman lost his magic medicine pouch when he was faced with his own dead wife, and this caused the others to fall too. Then he revealed that he couldn't take them back home because they died in order to get here.
Understandably angry Wyre attacks Shaman who doesn't fight back. Diamond Lil tries to stop him because Michael Twoyoungmen is their only hope, while Nemesis looks after Madison Jeffries who has been forcibly pulled out of his Box armour without his usual phasing. Shaman admits that he didn't tell them the truth at the start because he couldn't risk them refusing the mission. But things aren't quite as bad as they seem. Their bodies are preserved until their spirits return. But because Carcass controls this realm they can't get back without defeating him.
Carcass himself is now with them so Wyre attacks him with a clawed hand - only to see it dissolve, and Carcass returns the attack. Diamond Lil tries next but the demon causes her to vomit he innards up out of her invulnerable skin. Jeffries leaps to protect his wife without his Box armour but the foe says that he knows that Madison is 'addicted' to his armour so he grants his fondest wish by permanently encasing him in metal. The he turns to Nemesis but Shaman asks him to torture him not the others. Carcass 'obligingly' returns the others to their previous states (including giving Nemesis her sorcerous sword back) before turning to Michael.
Shaman has aged through the effort of keeping the others alive here. Carcass now taunts him by turning his wife Katheryn from a corpse to a 'living' woman. But only briefly as she then reverts and attacks him. He gloats that Goddess chose the wrong champion to send against him, and now his chaos will prevent her dream of universal order.
But now Shaman does the last minute turnabout thing. He suddenly rejuvenates and blasts the demon. He reveals that he absorbed all the magic from his medicine bag before Katheryn destroyed it last issue. He's been playing weak since then until Carcass came close enough for him to attack. Carcass fights back by wrapping Michael in barbed wire, but Shaman keeps blasting away. He also knows that all the tortures have been mere illusions and now he fights back to the reality.
Unfortunately that reality still does include the reanimated Sarcee corpses who now mob him. But the other 4, including Box back in his armour, now attack the demon himself. They claim that they don't like the way Shaman tricked them but they understand why and will stand by him. Michael in turn admits that his deception was nearly their undoing by sowing doubt. But now he destroys the corpse of his beloved Katheryn and combats the chaos demon by encasing him in a structure of crystalline order. Carcass is defeated but tries to break out causing the mixture of chaos and order to explode, killing him.
The 5 find themselves alive back in their bodies on Earth. The others tell Shaman to *ask* for help next time. Michael says that they've also helped him finally come to terms with his wife's death. He's cut himself off from everyone including his daughter Elizabeth (Talisman) while he nursed his grief. Now he can reconnect with her.
2nd story:- Trial And Error, starring Feedback.
Penciller Manny Galan. Inker Mark Stegbauer.
Albert Louis is a mutant who previously appeared in #118-120 where Alpha Flight protected him from the Hardliners who captured superhumans for unrevealed purposes under the guise of the Canadian Super-Powers Registration Act.
Now he takes the codename Feedback and Beta Flight are training him to use his bioelectric powers. We see him battling human-size robotic beetles. He can blast them or channel his power into them by touch. He can also generate a defensive shield or a separate energy body to attack with. But still 1 of them blasts him from behind. Whitman Knapp (Manikin) terminates the training session but Albert is angry about the way his life has been disrupted and wants to take that anger out on more practice foes. Whit says he's progressing really quickly but he wants time to study telemetry from the test to try to work out where Feedback gets his energy from.
They join beta Flight's Goblyn, Pathway and Persuasion watching a pre-recorded interview with Albert about his experiences and the ongoing trial of the Hardliners. But then they hear that the charges against the Hardliners have been dropped after a mystery benefactor offered to pay for all the damages they did. Their leader Reginald Tork touts it as a victory. And we see that the benefactor is billionaire Joshua Lord who we saw in #119. And who now claims that time is nothing to him and his grand scheme.