Synopsis
Last issue Thanos shanghaied 5 villains and sent them to planet H'aarg to kidnap the Oracle Of Ancient Knowledge from his monastery. But the monks are well-armed fanatics who are overwhelming them. Nitro does his blowing up trick to take some of them out. Team leader Geatar tells Rhino, Super-Skrull and Titanium Man to keep fighting individually until they can clear a space to regroup in. The head of the cult rants that they will defend the Oracle to the death from the hands of unbelievers, as will his 'guardian'.
The 5 do manage to get together in a cul de sac and Rhino smashes through a wall to a corridor free of cultists. Luckily they are next to a double door which Geatar recognises from Thanos' instructions as the entrance to the inner sanctum. They go in and Rhino and T-Man shut the doors while SS uses Invisible Woman's force field power to hold it shut. Nitro splits off from the others to go look for the Oracle himself but instead runs into the 'guardian' which turns out to be a large powerful robot. It easily bats away Nitro, Super-Skrull (in Human Torch mode) and Titanium Man, and shrugs off Geatar's big gun. Nitro is still groggy but then SS wraps it up in Mr Fantastic's flexible arms while charging Rhino knocks its legs from under it. However it still slams Geatar and Rhino aside. But T-Man blasts it in the back and it falls.
Now the team, Nitro included, find the Oracle who ignores their approach. But then he turns and pushes back the hood of his robe to reveal that he is also a robot. But he is a robot that believes himself a god who is necessary for the survival of his worshippers and their planet. Nitro gets zapped again. Rhino charges and grabs him, pulling the robot free from his power connections, which makes him more docile.
At that point Thanos arrives in his teleporting chair/throne. Super-Skrull protests that he told them the planet was shielded against teleportation. The Titan says that's no longer true now that they've disconnected the robot from controlling things like the defence system. He condescends to tell them what's really been going on. The Oracle is truly the storehouse of vast knowledge as he said last issue. But Geatar guesses that the galactic holy war the Oracle was going to start and the wealth here for them to steal weren't real. Thanos admits that he overstated things somewhat. And he also tells them that the spaceship they arrived in has self-destructed so they're trapped here. And then he teleports away with the Oracle.
Geatar stops them from bickering among themselves and tells them they're going to fight their way out of the monastery and check if their ship is really dead. And if it is then they're going to steal another 1. They exit the Oracle's chambers, Rhino carrying Nitro. But the well-armed cultists are waiting for them.