Synopsis / Summary / Plot
An armoured and cloaked figure walks down a passage in what looks like an ancient Egyptian ruin and starts to use a knife to deface a sarcophagus with a word beginning 'sept'.
Now we continue from the end of last issue where Conan and Dr Strange returned from mercy killing Shuma-Gorath to find Kulan Gath's City Of Sickles transported from the Savage Land to hover over New York City whose inhabitants have been possessed by him. The Priest Of Sickles has been partially resurrected to preside over the situation.
Gath descends from on high to tell the 2 heroes to submit to him or suffer eternal torment. They both tell him where to go and Strange mystically summons allies the Avengers (Black Panther, Blade, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Ghost Rider, Iron Man, She-Hulk and Thor), some X-Men (Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Polaris, Rogue, Sunfire, Synch and Wolverine (Laura Kinney)) plus Spider-Man (Peter Parker). They attack. Gath catches Cap's shield and takes a bite out of it. He easily kills She-Hulk and then starts to strangle Conan.
Then he's hit in the back by a blast from a big gun held by Dr Doom, who's arrived with another motley crew consisting of Black Knight, Black Widow, Daimon Hellstrom, Daredevil (Elektra), Dr Voodoo, Juggernaut, Magik and Wolverine (Logan).
KG kills nearly all of them.
Years later Gath rules the world. He has the Hulk at his feet trapped as Bruce Banner by Wolverine's adamantium bones. The Sickle Priest and his other minions scour the planet for remaining heroes and wiping out humanity as they go. The Priest has been promised that his resurrection will be completed once humanity is no more. Dr Strange is also a prisoner but Conan and Dr Doom have evaded capture.
Strange is attached to a wooden X-frame with his hands and feet embedded in the wood. KG's priests taunt him by killing the last living horse in front of him. They also bring in the armoured corpse of Dr Doom. Who turns out not to be actually dead and kills the priests with a sword and then their own sickles. And he wasn't actually Doom because he removes his facemask to reveal Conan with his left eye missing. The Cimmerian reports that Doom has just died in battle in Latveria but his last 2 acts were to enchant his armour to hide Conan from Gath, and to send his surviving people to Mole Man's Subterrania. Conan took a drug to slow his heartbeat and Gath's minions brought him here.
The Barbarian starts to cut Strange free of the wood. But DrS whispers a way to defeat the Wizard and tells him to go immediately. Kulan Gath arrives to find Conan gone. Stephen Strange won't tell him anything so the Wizard burns him alive.
Still-armoured Conan goes to a ruined museum and descends into its depths and the passageway we saw at the beginning. It turns out that Strange had forestalled madness by keeping track of the date in his head. Conan now scratches September 15 2043 on the side of the sarcophagus. And Kang The Conqueror appears and angrily wants to know why he's desecrating the tomb of Rama-Tut.