Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Adam Warlock's good side has taken the name Goddess and a collection of Cosmic Containment Units (or Cosmic Cubes) with which she intends to eradicate evil and spread peace throughout the universe. To that end she has recruited (brainwashed) many heroes who have deep beliefs and taken them to her cathedral on Paradise Omega, the planet she created on the far side of the Sun from Earth. The heroes left behind have assembled in Avengers Mansion to oppose her. Last issue Mr Fantastic, Iron Man and Vision flew a quinjet to Omega to talk to her but she teleported them back to Earth space where they went instead to see the Watcher in the Blue Area of the Moon.
Now he tells them what he has seen of her activities. She is sending telepathic waves out into the Galaxy and he witnessed 1 effect 1st hand as he saw Shi'ar and Skrull forces fighting 30 light years away until they suddenly laid down their weapons and left. He detected changes in their brainwaves. Iron Man wonders why Earth isn't affected. (But it is, because we have seen armies stopping fighting and crime ceasing. It only seems to be the heroes that are still planning violence.) Vision guesses that her transmission is long-range and so Earth and Moon are too close. They saw that she's heavily defended her planet so she knows trouble can arise nearby. Watcher refuses to speculate whether the results of her actions will be good or bad for the universe, and he too teleports them away, back to the Mansion. But privately he admits that her plan is perilous.
Meanwhile Dr Strange is letting Moondragon and others on Planet Omega undetectably watch the meeting in Avengers Mansion (with no sound). Moondragon mentally reports the continuing conspiracy to Goddess at the centre of the planet in her Cosmic Egg which she constructed from the CCUs. Goddess tells her to deal with it while she continues to expand her influence. We see Hepzibah and Raza (of the Starjammers) on the Shi'ar throneworld discard their guns.
Back in the Mansion there is some continuing disagreement. Prof X, Guardian (Heather Hudson) and Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter) aren't sure that Goddess' plan would be bad for the universe. Professor Hulk angrily contests this. They are interrupted by the villain Absorbing Man breaking in. But he's not here to fight, he wants to surrender and accept punishment for his past misdeeds (I told you Earth was affected by the Goddess).
On Omega DrS manages to get sound to go with the picture. But they're more worried by the fact that 1 of the faithful disappears. They don't realise that Sleepwalker automatically returns to Rick Sheridan's mind (on Earth) when the boy wakes up.
In the Mansion Mr Fantastic has organised an official meeting to decide what to do. Pip The Troll tells them that Goddess is Adam Warlock's good side, just as Magus in Infinity War was his evil side. When Warlock had the Infinity Gauntlet he expelled good and evil from himself.
Warlock himself is back in the Infinity Watch's (otherwise currently empty) castle on Monster Island. He teleports to Thanos' spaceship which has just arrived. Mephisto joins them to say that they'll need his help against Goddess. He and Thanos agree that evil can't be deleted without good going too. And unlike Adam most people can't manage without them. The devil tells the duo that he knows things about the CCUs that they need to understand.
Reed Richards wants to put things to a vote. But Prof X asks for a delay while he mentally contacts Moondragon to talk things out. He initiates contact while Pip surreptitiously touches his arm. Charles Xavier tells Heather Douglas that if she explained exactly what the Goddess' plan was then it could persuade some doubters here on Earth to help her, and avert conflict. MD replies that Goddess doesn't need their help, and no unbelievers will be allowed to thwart her holy cause. And she mind-blasts PX into a coma. The heroes no longer need a vote to know that they must act.
While Vision tries to diagnose what's wrong with Prof X, Pip asks him about the Cosmic Containment Units. The synthezoid explains that they grant the wishes of anyone who in physical contact with 1. This confirms Pip's plan. His physical contact with PX allowed him to get a mental fix on Moondragon's location, and from MD's mind also a fix on the Goddess. So now his Space Gem will enable him to teleport to either of them. He's going to be the hero who saves the universe! His bubble is popped a little when Warlock mentally contacts him to ask for details of the current situation ...
... this includes the fact that Moondragon and Gamora are now part of Goddess' flock on Paradise Omega (Drax and Maxam are here with the good guys). Mephisto now names his price for the info he has on the Cosmic Cubes. When everything's over he wants 1 of the CCUs.
The good guys have 2 interstellar mark V quinjets created by Tony Stark, and a harmonic disruptor gun tuned to the frequency of the Cosmic Egg's energy (which MrF detected while they were on Omega). Moondragon of course hears all of this via Strange's viewer and reports to Goddess who changes the harmonic frequency so that the plan won't work. She advises MD to go on the offensive. The heroes board the quinjets but the believers prepare to send an atomic bomb to New York. Mystics DrS, Scarlet Witch, Shaman and Talisman will disrupt comms during the attack.
Moondragon mentally calls Silver Surfer in from space patrol to help with the attack. But he queries the righteousness of killing their previous friends given that they present no real threat. But to MD any questioning of Goddess' orders is blasphemy so she mind-blasts *him*. However the Surfer is not so easily defeated, and now he is free of Goddess' spell. But Heather Douglas has also contacted Firelord, another ex-Herald Of Galactus, who viciously attacks him.
On board 1 of the quinjets Hulk senses that Pip is up to something, which is confirmed when the Troll teleports away. He, Drax and Maxam figure out what Pip has done and think he's gone to betray them to Goddess. But we see him land on the Cosmic Egg and make a wish. And Goddess is turned to salt.