Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Silver Surfer has come to Titan where he meets Firelord and Eros and they show him Nebula in a catatonic state. Eros tells him that they brought Nebula to Titan (after the Infinity Gauntlet event) and put her on trial and imprisoned her, but then she had a psychotic episode and she's been like this ever since (see a backup tale in SS Annual #5). Eros reminds us that she claims to be Thanos' granddaughter but the Titanians can find no genetic evidence of this.
A thickset figure approaches and we are supposed to think it's Thanos. But it's really Nebula's 2nd-in-command Geatar who was altered by Thanos to resemble him and his remains left in #44 to make Surfer think the Titan was dead. Now it appears that Mentor (father of Eros and Thanos) has reconstructed him and he is now her simple-minded servant. They leave him to try and feed her.
Norrin Radd wants to see Mentor so Eros sends him down to the catacombs where his father is holding a vigil at his wife's tomb on the anniversary of her death. Mentor reveals that Thanos was more directly involved in Sui-San's death than he has allowed Eros and others to believe. The accepted story is that she died in a nuclear 'accident' caused by their son which killed many others too. But actually young Thanos set off the 'accident' as a diversion while he killed his mother personally. He wanted to know why he had been born different to other Titanians, and cut her open to try to discover the reason.
Then a messenger rushes in to tell Mentor that Galactus is once more on Earth, in Greenwich Village in New York. SS zooms off on his cosmic surfboard to confront his ex-master ...
... and then we see him facing Big G and an unconscious Dr Strange telling him to release the Sorcerer Supreme, which is where we left them all at the end of DrS, Sorcerer Supreme #42. Galactus just tells him to mind his own business and takes the Doctor into his spherical spaceship. Surfer follows and catches up with them and G's current Herald Nova (Frankie Raye) inside. The boss orders her to 'dispatch' SS, and she reluctantly obeys. 1st she tries asking him to leave nicely. Neither want to fight but they do. But while duelling Frankie tells Norrin what's going on, as far as she understands it.
In Infinity War #1 they found Eternity comatose. Galactus tried to trace who did it but was stopped by a mystical barrier. In DrSSS#42 they came to recruit Strange's help. Stephen Strange didn't like Big G's peremptory tone and said he'd investigate on his own. Galactus 'persuaded' him to come along but on the way to the ship he mentally showed DrS the state of Eternity, and the powerful contact was too much for the Earthman's brain.
Luckily Stephen wakes up now and magically separates the combatants. He asks Galactus why *he* didn't stop the fight, but the cosmic being just shrugs the question off. So now they *all* agree to team up against the big bad unknown menace.
And that menace Magus is watching it all.
This story continues in DrSSS#43 before Infinity War #2 (which will include our #68-69 and DrSSS#44).