Synopsis
For the past few issues Silver Surfer has been trapped in Dynamo City. Meanwhile Drax The Destroyer has gone to Titan to view the corpse of his fated foe Thanos, who SS supposedly killed in #38. And he has declared it a fake.
Now free from the City, Norrin Radd has joined Drax with Thanos' father Mentor and brother Eros to examine the skeleton in detail. And they have discovered it has cybernetic enhancements which the Mad Titan would never have needed. Surfer remembers Thanos was defeated too easily, and he should have known it was a trick to lull him into a false sense of security. Drax gets angry and demands they join him in hunting his enemy down. But Surfer points out they don't know where he is, and Drax's new incarnation (reborn in #35) can no longer automatically sense where his foe is. So they'll have to wait for him to make a move.
On the other side of the Galaxy Thanos contemplates a red giant star. Using the power of the 6 Infinity Gems (which he gained in the Thanos Quest mini-series while SS was otherwise engaged) he breaks the sun into pieces and then reassembles it. We see that he has affixed the Gems to a gauntlet (which will become known as the Infinity Gauntlet). He repeats what he discovered (in Thanos Quest) that there was once a being who was the whole of his universe. In his loneliness he committed suicide, but from that death sprang the (Marvel) universe and everything within it. But his heart and soul was recreated as the 6 Gems which Thanos now possesses.
Channelling his inner Spider-Man he realises that with great power comes great responsibility. However he comes to a very different conclusion - his 1st responsibility is to make sure no-one can take the power away from him. His cosmic senses had warned him that Silver Surfer was the greatest threat so he creates a viewing portal and sees the gathering around his 'corpse' (which he and we know is that of a being named Geatar). He of course recognises them all, including Drax who he remembers was created by the ascended spirit of his grandfather Kronos to be his nemesis. But he also senses that this resurrected Drax is diminished. The Titan could erase them all with a thought. But as the universe's now-supreme being he can afford to take his time. He decides to deal with the Surfer and Destroyer now and save his family for later.
Drax senses something Thanosy as a trans-dimensional conduit appears and sucks 2 of the 4 into it. Eros and Mentor save themselves but then realise they survive really because the vortex didn't want them.
Norrin and Drax find themselves on a dead world in the ruins of a civilisation and faced with Thanos. The Destroyer immediately leaps to the attack but the Mad God freezes him in time. Thanos then transports the 3 of them back to the planet's prehistoric past (complete with dinosaur analogues), and then to it's future as it's about to be consumed by its sun, now a red giant. He shows Surfer the Infinity Gems in the Gauntlet and says 1 of them has given him mastery of time.
He then takes them to modern-day New York, and then back to the dead planet where he frees Drax from his stasis. He also demonstrates that he can be in multiple places at once by forming a circle around the 2 heroes. This is because 1 of the Gems has made him master of space.
Drax now attacks Surfer, and Thanos explains that his control of souls has allowed him to redirect the Destroyer's obsession.
As Drax chokes the life out of him Norrin Radd's life flashes before his eyes (with lots of cameos by Marvel chars). But Thanos says he's controlling the display via his mastery of minds.
Then Drax's grip on Surfer is broken as the duo find their reality warped - the effect of another Infinity Gem.
Finally an enormous Thanos holds each of them in the grip of a fist, demonstrating the effect of the Power Gem.
Surfer at last recognises the Infinity Gems as the Soul Gems and leaps to try and wrest the Gauntlet from Thanos' hand. But the Mad Titan easily bats him away and says he wanted Surfer to realise who now controls the universe before he kills him. Surfer and Drax attack as 1 but Thanos exerts the power of the Gems and the pair fall lifeless at his feet. The Mad God claims to have stolen their souls and now none dare challenge him.
But we see Mephisto scheming to acquire the Infinity Gems for himself.