Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Flashback to a time long ago when Gamora was a young girl being 'tutored' by Thanos. He's just slaughtered a planet's inhabitants (including someone who looks suspiciously like a Carol Danvers Captain Marvel) and she asks why. He says the universe is using him to separate the weak from the strong. But somewhere the universe is creating the person who will kill *him*.
Then a flashback to the end of Infinity Wars Prime where Gamora killed Thanos. His head continues talking even after she's chopped it off with an Asgardian sword powered by the Power Stone. He says he's glad that *she* was the 1 to kill him - his favourite 'daughter'. After she kills all his Chitauri servants too the head still keeps chatting to her (unless it's all in her head) as she pops it in her bag.
Now a flashback to the end of last issue. Requiem had revealed herself as Gamora to the Infinity Watch and demanded the other Infinity Stones. As the Watch fought among themselves (everyone else against Turk Barrett and his gang of villains) Star-Lord told her she'd have to kill *him*, so she thrust the sword through his vitals.
But now we see that Doctor Strange uses the Time Stone to go back in time a bit and freeze the action. He pulls Peter Quill off the tip of the sword, which has still cut him a bit, and mends that wound with a spell, saying that in another timeline he's dead.
Meanwhile the fight continues. Giant Sandman knocks giant Groot backwards towards Turk when Stephen Strange whisks Barrett into a mystic realm for another attempt to persuade him to hand over the Mind Stone. A tentacled thing grabs Turk (to eat his joy) but Strange casually expels it. He congratulates Turk for using the Stone to amass a fortune on the stock market (by 'overhearing' financial secrets). But he shows Barrett Gamora attacking the others and says she and other opponents will kill him to get his Stone - and all his money won't save him. Turk agrees to quit while he's ahead and give DrS the Mind Stone, but only if Strange will owe him a favour to be named later. Desperate times call for desperate measures so DrS agrees.
Turk finds himself in an apartment facing Central Park without the Stone, and an explosion blows the window in. It's Rocket Raccoon firing a big gun in the air to get the attention of his Guardians Of The Galaxy (ex-)teammates. But Gamora is trying to persuade Drax and Adam Warlock to give up the Soul Gem. And Star-Lord is under attack from Spot, 1 of Turk's gang who wants to know where his boss is. Rocket shoots a load of bullets at Spot but they enter 1 of the spots on his costume and exit through various others, menacing folks at random - which Rocket finds hilarious. Until Iron Man chops the end of his gun off and demands to know what they've done with Dr Strange.
Drax counter-demands that Gamora gives up the Power Stone, so she slashes his chest. Thanos appears whole-bodied to suggest she "put Drax out of his misery" since the only purpose in his life was to kill *him*. This time it's definitely in her head as she swings her blade at nothing. Her other friends figure she's possessed by the Mad Titan.
Black Widow uses the Space Stone to 'pop' into the fray and whacks Bullseye across the head with the rifle she used last issue. Captain Marvel lands on him from a great height to make sure he's down. But then Gamora punches both of them and sends Carol Danvers flying into Warlock. He chooses to take the Soul Gem safely far away but Gamora makes to hurl her sword at him until she's simultaneously hit with Captain America's shield and Thor's hammer. The assembled heroes face her, including returned Strange and Warlock plus Spider-Man and the rest of the latest Avengers team:- Black Panther, Ghost Rider and She-Hulk.
Captain Marvel gets revenge by zooming Gamora up where the air is thin. Cap suggests Turk's mob (also including Tombstone and Typhoid Mary) beat a strategic retreat. They do, with Spot carrying Bullseye. Gamora's sword lands at the feet of Cap and Quill. Marvel lands carrying the unconscious body of Gamora who ran out of oxygen. DrS wraps her up in the Crimson Bands Of Cyttorak. CM pockets the Power Stone.
The Guardians want to take Gamora with them but Stephen Strange thinks she should pay for her actions. Star-Lord says she killed Thanos so she should be thanked. But CA notices Gamora tapping her finger on the ground (a message? morse code?). He looks at CM who realises the game's up. *She* is Gamora and she now has Carol's Reality Stone. Steve Rogers tries to warn everyone but he's too late.
Gamora slams Strange into Rogers and a lot of blood flows. A foot clad in Asgardian armour knocks Iron Man down and she steals the Time and Mind Stones from DrS. Then her flung sword decapitates Warlock. He drops the Soul Gem and is encased in the cocoon that will eventually bring him back to life as usual. Black Widow tries to use the Space Stone against her, exhorting the others to take the Soul Gem away. (I don't know why she didn't just teleport away with it herself.) But Gamora stops time and relieves her of the Space Stone.
Now only the Soul Gem remains - the 1 she wanted all along to open Soul World and release the trapped fragment of herself. She hesitates because of all the dire warnings the others gave her about this, including the suggestion this issue that she was still doing what Thanos wanted. But imaginary Thanos urges her on - if anything bad happens she can always undo it with the power of the Infinity Stones.
She takes the Gem and opens the way to Soul World. The aged Gamora fragment steps through and they merge. And now Gamora the heroine intends to restore the lost balance to the Soul Gem and the World it contains. To do so Devondra must feed.
But before she can act she is interrupted by the arrival of Loki and Flowa in the Asgardian ship Skidbladnir. Loki says there may be another way.