Synopsis
Silver Surfer/Warlock: Resurrection #3 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
The Infinity Watch are trying to help Silver Surfer find the soul of his 'dead' love Shalla Bal. Last issue they managed to retrieve/recreate her body. But then Surfer, Adam Warlock and Pip The Troll got separated from Drax, Gamora and Moondragon and wound up in Death's realm where her soul *wasn't*. However Death sent them to Mephisto's Hades where he *does* have the soul trapped in a gem.
Warlock demands that the demon release Shalla Bal. In reply Mephisto encases him in solid hellfire ash. Cowardly Pip teleports out of Hades to safety, leaving Norrin Radd to face his arch-foe alone. From his 1st app in SS#3 the devil has been trying to corrupt Norrin's purity. He now shrugs off a blast of the Power Cosmic and starts to toy with the Surfer, appearing 1st as a little char perched on Norrin's shoulder and then as a huge head which eats him. Surfer is sent into possibly a representation of Mephisto's stomach before being vomited out again.
The demon dangles Shalla's soul before him and warns him that her body won't survive long without it. He makes Norrin beg and offer his own soul as a replacement. And then says he doesn't want it because it's no longer pure. While SS was the Herald Of Galactus his boss made him supply sometimes-inhabited planets as food by tampering with his conscience (as revealed in SS#48), enabling his soul to remain unsullied. But since that same issue Norrin knows the full extent of his misdeeds and so is no longer an innocent. Mephisto no longer feels the overwhelming desire to corrupt him. Instead he'll keep Shalla to torture and leave Norrin to suffer with that knowledge.
But now it turns out that Pip didn't just run away. He's back and he's brought help. He, Drax and Gamora successively hit the villain until he drops Shalla's soul gem. Surfer reaches for it but Mephisto plucks it from his grasp. But then Moondragon fries his brain and telekinetically drops a large chunk of rock on him. She retrieves the gem ...
... but Mephisto clicks his fingers and the 4 Watch members are encased in rock with only their heads free. He throws Shalla's gem onto a fire until she screams. Then he adds Surfer to a rock sculpture with the other 4. But a voice interrupts him, and the only possible source is the ash-frozen Warlock. The devil approaches the 'statue' as it begins to split apart emitting light. And then Adam Warlock is free.
The 2 opponents face each other. Adam knows that the whole of Hell is but an extension of Mephisto's soul, and obeys his every whim. But Warlock has the Soul Gem which gives him mastery over all souls, possibly even Mephisto's. So begins a battle between the Infinity Gem and the devil's realm.