Synopsis
The Infinity Watch are in their castle base on Monster Island. Adam Warlock is brooding over a sense of an impending cosmic event, and ignoring the rest of the team. Their mysterious amnesiac guest Maxam (see Warlock & Infinity Watch #16-17) is testing his strength by lifting Drax over his head. Moondragon gauges him at Hulk-level. Gamora is still suspicious of him because of the vision she had of him standing over Adam's body (in WIW#12). Pip the Troll thinks he's faking amnesia.
Warlock leaves them to use the Orb that Eternity gave him (WIW#15) to contact that being. He hasn't done so before because he sensed that the cosmic being wouldn't like trivial interruptions. Floating in lotus position he concentrates and his room is replaced by a white void. Adam is tempted to abandon the problems of the world and just stay here in peace. But then Eternity manifests. Warlock tells him that he feels something is amiss in the universe. Eternity agrees but says it's not a big enough problem to merit his attention. Then he leaves to look after the rest of the universe.
Someone has been observing all this and now she too manifests as a spectral glowing body who calls herself the Goddess. Adam feels she is familiar and then realises she is the opposite of the Magus. (At the end of the Infinity Gauntlet event when Adam had the godlike power of the Infinity Gems he shed himself of both his bad and good sides so he could wield the power rationally. His bad side became a new version of his old foe Magus in the Infinity War event. And now he realises it's the turn of his good side.) The Goddess now banishes him to non-existence so he can't interfere with her plans.
Next we witness various religiously-minded superheroes seeing golden symbols in the sky. Living Lightning of the West Coast Avengers sees a cross. Sasquatch of Alpha Flight sees a star of David. Black Knight sees a chalice. Namorita of the New Warriors sees a trident. For Hercules of the Avengers it's a lightning bolt. For Storm of the X-Men it's an ankh. For the Avenger Sersi of the Eternals it seems to be a Möbius strip. Then the visions vanish.
Goddess then pops up in a darkened room where a gem is kept in a transparent sealed case. She deliberately touches the case to set off an alarm. She confront the off-panel guardian of the gem and condemns him to eternal damnation for his sins and banishes him to another realm.
Mephisto in Hell has also detected a dangerous force in the universe which might even destroy his own realm. He decides he needs to recruit some allies to combat this menace.
Now Goddess reveals to us she has been collecting Cosmic Containment Units (Cosmic Cubes to us) from various dimensions. (So she is the 1 who spirited away Magus' 5 CCUs at the end of Infinity War.) Now she surrounded by about 20 of them. She uses their power to transform herself into a physical body which is effectively a female version of Adam clad in golden armour and a Warlock-style cloak.
In another reality Adam Warlock is floating inert when a purple hand touches him.
Back on Earth about a quarter of the world's population get a mystical epiphany. The Goddess personally appears to some superheroes although their companions wonder who they're talking too. She gives a speech which is tailored to their individual personalities. They are Storm + Jean Grey + Archangel, Invisible Woman, Daredevil, Namorita + Silhouette, Spider-Man, Quicksilver, Dr Strange, Wonder Man, Captain America, Puck + Shaman + Talisman + Windshear + Sasquatch, Silver Surfer, Thor, Sersi, Sleepwalker, Crystal, Hercules, Firelord, Moondragon, US Agent, Wolfsbane + Multiple Man, Scarlet Witch, Black Knight, Gamora, Living Lightning and Moon Knight. She asks them all if they will join her Infinity Crusade and they all reply "Yes". Then their companions (if any) see them go through portals.
On Monster Island Drax, Maxam and Pip see Gamora disappear. Pip goes to alert Moondragon but she's gone from her room. He then goes to Adam's room and finds it's been replaced by the white void, but the Orb Of Eternity is still there. The Fantastic Four contact the Avengers and learn that Vision is compiling a list of the missing. He asks if Sue Richards is religious, and Human Torch assents that she is. Vizh invites them to a big superhero gathering at Avengers Mansion. But then a voice says "Reed Richards, you are needed" and Mr Fantastic disappears (but not through a portal).
At the meeting images of most of the missing are posted on a screen. They don't include Gamora and Moondragon because they don't know how to contact the Watch. Nor Firelord, Silver Surfer and Sleepwalker for similar reasons. They also mention that Quasar is off in space and they haven't been able to contact Excalibur or X-Force. (However we haven't seen any of these in Goddess' army.) Vision proposes his theory that the abductees all have deep religious or moral convictions, or have had after-death experiences. They decide that Mr Fantastic was taken by someone else. The Professor Green Hulk suggests that it's maybe Thanos behind the disappearances like he was in Infinity Gauntlet, but Cyclops points out the current situation is different, and Prof X *hopes* it's not him.
Meanwhile Goddess has gone to the far side of the Sun and assembles rocky matter into a new Earth. She makes it a green paradises and then brings in her chosen heroes. Cap notes that there are no animals here. And then the ground trembles as a cathedral rises up from the ground. And Goddess welcomes them to Paradise Omega.