Story continued from SILVER SURFER: THE BEST DEFENSE.
The Train makes its way through the cosmos, an unending line
of planets, destroying each world in its path to be fueled by its energy; the
Conductor, guiding the Train on its way, is controlled by the being Nebulon and
steered in his own desired route, straight at Earth....
The Defenders arrive: The Silver Surfer arrives to challenge Nebulon but he is weak
and is easily snatched up and held immobile by his cosmic foe. On Earth, the
astral form of the dying Doctor Strange requests Hulk's aid in stopping the Train
from reaching Earth; Hulk suggests just blowing up the train but that's what
they did in Strange's timeline and it resulted in the radiation from the
explosion turning many worlds, including Earth, into desolate wastes. Hulk
declines to join him but Strange offers help in dealing with the demon that
infects Hulk, so the big green guy goes along....
In Hell, a pair of leopard-headed and business-suited demons,
Borss and Mog'rys, are worried about a business deal they've made; they had
borrowed two billion souls from Mephisto and sold them to the Spirit-Flayers of
Carcosa but Mephisto will want them back so they have arranged with Nebulon to
guide the train toward Earth and so release seven billion dead souls onto the
market and they will make a huge profit and repay Mephisto....
As the Train continues to snatch up worlds, and Nebulon mocks
the Surfer for his impotence, Namor the Sub-Mariner enters the scene silvered
up and riding the Silver Surfboard. Meanwhile in Hell, Hulk enters via a magic
portal and eats the faces of Borss and Mog'rys which destroys their physical
forms and releases their essence into Hell. Nebulon smacks Namor out into
space, Surfer mounts his board to rescue him but Hulk steps through a portal
and seizes the board, hurling SS out after Namor. While Hulk uses the board as
a weapon to clobber Nebulon, SS finds he is able to duplicate the board's power
and allow Namor to surf on his back and return to safety (and he thinks it's
ridiculous). Meanwhile, the Conductor snatches up the water planet Vodan (see
the Namor issue in this miniseries) to feed on next; Dr. Strange is able to
cause the Conductor to spasm, setting Vodan free but hurling it off into an icy
void. Silver Surfer, knowing of orphan suns, can send Vodan into orbit around
one thus saving it but he hasn't the power and Galactus is too far away to
allow him to recharge. Namor has an idea....
Namor and Surfer arrive on Vodan and face Queen Kataw. Namor
offers to sacrifice himself by offering up (part of) his life force to power
the Surfer to save her people as he is their king; she balks at this as he is
an interloper and she is the true ruler—so she allows Surfer to drain her life,
killing her but empowering him to push the planet through a wormhole to its new
sun....
As Hulk continues to battle Nebulon, Dr. Strange informs the
giant alien that he has lost: the spasm that
pushed Vodan away moved the Train away from the path to Earth (Newton's
Third Law). Mephisto arrives and snatches up Nebulon; Strange asks Mephisto to
send Hulk home and cure him of his spiritual infection. Mephisto can't do the
latter but offers to do the former for a small consideration....
On Vodan, Namor heads for the magic tunnel that will return
him to Earth—and he confesses to Surfer that he wanted to sacrifice himself to
undermine Kataw's rule and force an alliance between Atlantis and Vodan, and he
was arrogant as usual....
Surfer returns to Galactus and agonizes over how Queen
Kataw's death restored his power against his will as though he were only a deus
ex machina. And so he and his master go off....
As for Doctor Strange, the consideration Mephisto asked for
returning Hulk home was that Strange would be in his power for eternity—but
Strange has a plan....