Synopsis / Summary / Plot
This issue begins by reminding us of some past relevant events. At the end of #50 Silver Surfer crashed through the roof window of Dr Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum. (In last issue which starred Galactus and Nova (Frankie Raye), SS only featured in a lengthy flashback to many weeks previously.) In Infinity Gauntlet #1 Stephen Strange found him and the exhausted Norrin Radd managed to warn him of the threat of Thanos. Later in IG#1 we were on Titan with Drax The Destroyer, Eros and Firelord when Mentor (father of Eros and Thanos) vanished. The super-computer ISAAC informed them that half the population of the universe was gone, and Thanos was to blame. (We know that it was to please Death and win her favour - it didn't work.) In IG#2 Eros disappeared too (we know that he was separately taken by his brother for personal attention).
Now Drax and Firelord are left to sort things out, and neither of them know how to use the computer system. And simple-minded Drax wants Pyreus Kril to bring his friends back, assuming that the recent arrival of Firelord was the cause of the disappearances. On the way to find help they meet a young boy named Tycho whose parents vanished. He leads them to ISAAC's central control room but doesn't know the entry code, so Drax breaks the door down.
Inside they find it empty but among the display screens 1 of them is showing a video-only recording of a recent event on the the Moon which shows Silver Surfer fighting and destroying Thanos. (From #50 but we know it was only Thanos' reanimated old body which was turned to stone back in Marvel Two-In_One Annual #2.) Firelord assumes that the Thanos-crisis is over and learns from the computer that SS is now somewhere in New York. But Drax's damaged brain has at last remembered what Surfer sent him to Titan to tell them. Thanos can't be dead because the Infinity Gauntlet has made him a god.
Unfortunately Firelord thinks dumb Drax doesn't know what he's talking about. Drax thinks Kril is making fun of him and he gets very angry and starts a fight. The ex-Herald Of Galactus fights back as little as possible while trying to talk Drax down. But eventually he too loses his temper and manifests/summons his Cosmic Fire Staff to blast his opponent with. Tycho calls for them to stop but Drax picks up a large statue of Mentor which the boy is standing on and prepares to swat Firelord with it. Pyreus calls out a warning and Drax gently lowers the statue to the ground, racked with remorse.
The Destroyer remembers that he used to be reasonably smart in a previous life. But then his daughter killed him with a mental blast. Lately he was recreated when his sworn foe Thanos came back to life (but he's brain damaged). Now he accepts Firelord's help, and they agree to go to Earth to find the Surfer to learn what's going on. But 1st they hand Tycho into the temporary care of a Titanian couple who've lost their son in the great vanishing.
The duo fly out of the underground city into space. As they travel along Pyreus Kril wonders what he's getting into. Then a portal opens up in front of them and delivers them to Avengers HQ to be greeted by Dr Strange and Surfer alongside Captain America, Cloak, Iron Man, She-Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor (Eric Masterson) and Wolverine with Adam Warlock and Pip The Troll. Then Strange brings Nova (Richard Rider) and Sub-Mariner through 2 more portals.