Synopsis
Silver Surfer had never met Thanos before, but last issue he had a dream about Death returning the villain to life with a mission, and the only hero standing in the way of that mission is the Surfer. And then he awoke to find Thanos there, alive and sitting on a hoverchair/throne.
Thanos explains that he's here to correct an imbalance in nature. If Norrin Radd will step from his hovering surfboard onto Thanos' hovering vehicle he'll demonstrate the problem. As soon as SS is aboard they teleport to a different planet. Surfer thinks this is a trick to separate him from his board and he attacks the fiend. But his cosmic blasts have no effect on the mad Titan.
Norrin decides to bide his time and listen to Thanos pontificating about the balance of life and death. It turns out this is Earth, and he explains how humankind have become 'criminally' overpopulated. He illustrates this by teleporting them to Tokyo in rush hour, mountains of garbage in the US, examples of industrial and nuclear pollution. Then he takes them to a future in ruins. Surfer refuses to believe this is inevitable, but Thanos claims no-one on Earth will prevent it.
Then they teleport to another planet, Salaria, inhabited by cute and peaceful little primitive creatures who don't fear them because they have no predators. But Thanos predicts that in 20(!) years they will have overrun the available space, and their paradise will become a hell of war and cannibalism.
Then they teleport to the pinnacle of a tall narrow rock outcrop somewhere else. Thanos sums up what they have seen as the balance of the universe swinging too far towards life over death. But the overabundance of life will cause massive die-offs, which he exaggerates as ending with no life at all. And this wouldn't suit his mistress Death because she prefers a continuous and endless stream of deaths. And that is why she has sent him to restore the balance. Norrin asks Thanos what his solution is. The simple answer is to kill 50% of the population of the Universe.
Surfer reminds the Titan that (in his dream) Death said that he would be an obstacle to their plan. He won't stand by and permit mass murder. Thanos replies instead that the Surfer will *help* him, and has already done so on Salaria. On Earth SS picked up some germs which would normally be killed by his journeys through space. But Thanos teleported them to Salaria where Norrin inadvertently infected friendly aliens. The villain also transported them back in time when they went to Salaria, so by now he figures half the population will be dead. At last Surfer's board catches up with them, and Thanos suggests SS hurry to save the other half, unless he'd rather stay to fight. As expected Surfer zooms off.
Thanos is left alone to gloat. But elsewhere Chronos hears the laughter and realises that the mad Titan lives again.
Surfer reaches Salaria and finds piles of bodies. He touches 1 of the sick but still alive creatures and generates a counter-agent to the germs. Then he sends the alien off to 'infect' others. As he surveys the harm that he has caused, Norrin Radd decides to stay to help clean up the mess. But then he swears to hunt down Thanos and stop his insane scheme.
In an epilogue Chronos, ancestor and god of the Titans, reaches forth from his higher plane of existence and reanimates a body which breaks free of the grave. Drax The Destroyer, sworn enemy of Thanos, lives again.