Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Human Torch and Thing are travelling the multiverse looking for *their* versions of Reed and Sue Richards and family. Rachna Koul has tagged along, promising to help them restore their failing powers. Victor Von Doom (in his recent Iron Man role) has come along for the ride also.
Rachna is working the Multisect which enables them to move between alternate Earths and home in on any Richards family there. We see some of the previous worlds they've visited. Some are new to us:- Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm fighting monsters, and greeting Atlantean versions of Reed and Sue. We see Victor confronting a villainous Dr Doom from Annual #1, and Rachna on her secret agenda confronting an invalid similar to the 1 in #5.
This time she has led them to a world of ruins and desert, and she says Invisible Woman and Mr Fantastic will be inside a tattered sports stadium in front of them. So they join a crowd heading there.
Grimm takes Doom aside and asks once again why Victor is helping them. Johnny expects to find his sister and brother-in-law but Ben and Victor 'know' they're dead - Ben lied to Johnny to give him hope. Victor reminds Ben that he's now good (as Iron Man) and as such he's here to see that Ben doesn't get Johnny killed so they can continue their heroic roles back home (albeit with their diminished powers).
Once inside the stadium they notice that Rachna Koul has slipped away. Doom casts a spell to reveal the recent history of this world. He learns that there was a (global?) war started by a conflict between Captain America and Iron Man. Someone stopped it by killing Tony Stark and imprisoning Steve Rogers.
Before he can learn more a version of Dr Strange (heavily bearded with the Eye Of Agamotto as an eyepatch) floats in with his Cloak Of Levitation and cancels all Doom's magic. He says that magic is banned here, except for his of course. He also disarms Doom by ageing his armour to rust, and captures Thing and Torch with (probably) the Crimson Bands Of Cyttorak.
Strange recognises that the visitors are from another Earth. He introduces them to the boss of this stadium - a version of Spider-Man (Peter Parker) with Captain America's cowl and Kraven's fur-topped waistcoat. The Spider welcomes them to the Battleworld arena. (Not I think from any Secret Wars.)
Meanwhile on Earth-Prime the 'real' Spider-Man drops in to see Alicia Masters to see if she's heard anything from Ben and Johnny - she hasn't. They know about the quest for Reed and Sue, and about Rachna Koul's promise to restore their powers - that's her day job.
Coincidentally Mad Thinker has just broken into Rachna's lab with the so-far undisclosed other members of his new 'Fantastic Four'.
On the other Earth the 3 nearly powerless heroes are in the arena. Jarviz the Spider's butler announces his master's arrival, and Spider announces the new contest - a reward for the week's hard work trying to scratch a living out of their ruined world. Facing our guys are a huge 6-legged 'tiger', a giant beetle and a large semi-armoured barbarian woman.
Thing leaps into the jaws of the beetle, but his waning strength can't keep them from closing. Torch grabs a broken sword to augment his flames and slashes at the beetle. Doom picks up a spear but has to dodge a large metal projectile fired from the woman's gun-arm.
Suddenly Rachna leaps from the audience with a cry and pleads with Victor not to harm the woman. Torch uses his flame as a jet to push Koul out of the way. Thing grabs the beetle by the tongue and judo-throws it. Doom hurls his spear into the barbarian's chest. (The tiger seems to have kept out of things so far.)
As the woman falls Rachna cries out "Disha!". She admits that this woman is this world's version of her sister. Victor reminds Ben that he suspected Ms Koul had her own reason for coming on this trip - and now it transpires she was looking for her sister. And he decides to bring out in the open that they're not really looking for Earth-Prime's Reed and Sue.
Johnny doesn't have time to digest this info as Rachna launches into her own explanation. *Her* Disha is a working mind trapped in a paralysed body. She's looking for an alternate Disha body to transfer her sister's mind into. Johnny is horrified that she would consider overwriting someone's mind. Rachna protests she wouldn't be harming anyone because all the Disha's she located were brain-dead. (The best sense I can make of this is that she can use the Multisect to detect brain-dead Disha's but the previous ones were also crippled like the (legless?) 1 in #3. But that should mean giant-Disha was also brain-dead?)
At this point the beetle and tiger make threatening moves. While Thing exchanges blows with both, Doom uses his unblocked mental powers to make Jarviz stab Stephen Strange in the neck. As Strange dies(?) Victor's magic returns and he teleports the 4 out of the arena. Johnny demands answers but Rachna runs off. Victor chases her because she has the Multisect. He caches up with her just as she activates it to find another world with another sister on. And Ben and Johnny are left alone in the wasteland.