Synopsis
In #47 Silver Surfer and Drax the Destroyer escaped from Soul World. Last issue they set out to warn the Earth heroes about the threat of Thanos and the Infinity Gems. Drax headed for Titan and Surfer said he'd go to Earth. But 1st he took a side-trip to confront Galactus about tampering with his mind when he made Norrin Radd into his Herald. Big G undid the changes, which now allowed Surfer to feel guilt over all the populated worlds he'd led Galactus to feed on.
Now Drax has reached Titan, moon of Saturn and home to the Titanian Eternals and birthplace of Thanos. He's met up with Mentor and Eros, Thanos' father and brother, and told them to expect SS later but now he's got something important to tell them about Thanos, but in his current brain-damaged state he's forgotten what it is. He also doesn't know where Surfer's gone (but that's because Norrin didn't tell him).
Surfer is currently trying to make up for the time he squandered with Galactus by racing faster than ever before towards Earth. But omniscient Thanos is watching him. He comments to his current lackey Mephisto that he could of course just destroy his foe with a thought but he'd prefer to make his end more personal, so for now he'll just send someone to delay him even more.
The Titan teleports himself and the devil to a bucolic planet with primitive sentients. He chooses 1 example and transforms it into a large raging monster with a portion of his own power for a day. And he sends it off into space before taking Mephisto away to do something different.
As Silver Surfer races past a planet he detects an emergency beacon (which the rules of the sea, sorry space, say he can't ignore). He finds a totally destroyed Kree outpost, and is then attacked by Thanos' monster. Surfer is impressed by the creature's ferocity, power and speed. The beast wins the early encounters and proves immune to the Power Cosmic. Norrin deduces it must have an almost infinite power source. He lures his opponent into a large deep hole in the ground and then buries him there and seals the entrance. But the monster digs free and buries SS in the rubble up to his neck. He's about to bite Norrin's head off when his day of power is up, and the confused Surfer sees the monster shrink to a little furry creature.
With no more time to waste Silver Surfer flies away. Thanos and Mephisto materialise. Thanos rationalises that it's not worth his time delaying SS further because his quest is fruitless anyway - no assembly of Earth's heroes can stop him. He notes the pathetic creature at his feet pleading for help, and crushes it beneath his boot.
An epilogue leads into next issue as we see a lifesize statue of Thanos gathering cobwebs in a basement on Titan. And a glow of life appears in its eyes.