Synopsis
Last issue Mantis overheard the plan of the Elders Of The Universe on Earth to gather the 6 Soul Gems to kill Galactus which would end the universe and create a new 1 where they would be Galacti. They now had 5 of the 6. But they discovered her and killed her current plant body, causing her to send her soul to the plants on Zenn-La. Meanwhile Silver Surfer went to Kree-Lar to get the Supreme Intelligence to keep Zenn-La out of the Kree/Skrull War. He agreed but refused to also spare Earth, and used the 6th Soul Gem to absorb Norrin Radd into his combined consciousness.
Now SS is lost in a dream where he's sitting in a hat and trenchcoat in a suburban house where Shalla-Bal (his love, the Empress of Zenn-La) in a Fantastic Four uniform suggests he look for his pipe and slippers in the pile of objects under the pet white rat. While he searches she uses the Power Cosmic he gave her to make flowers sprout in the middle of the floor. He finds a tiny slipper, puts it between his lips and smokes it, while behind him Shalla transmutes into his other love Mantis. He answers a knock on the door where some Blue Kree soldiers attack him because of the way he thinks. The rat intervenes and Norrin escapes outside losing his coat and hat.
In the real world the Supremor is having difficulty concentrating but tells his Chief Coordinator Nenora to get on with the tasks she's already been given. She slips away and makes a secret communication identifying herself as Agent K6@ calling an alien-looking Agent S3% who is with Skrull Emperor Krylor who calls her Aptak. Nenora reports what happened between the Intelligence and Surfer, and also that the EOTU Contemplator is here asking for the Soul Gem but the Supremor won't give it to him because he needs it to keep the Blue and Pink Kree minds within him from fighting a race war. Krylor orders her to steal the Gem, but she has to ring off. Aptak's thoughts remind us of how the shape-changing Skrulls are now stuck in whatever form they were in when a Hyper-Wave Bomb froze them (Avengers Annual #14/FF Annual #19). Nenora and Aptak used to be lovers before she got stuck as a Blue Kree and he was frozen as a Waziliah female. Meanwhile Nenora learns from Master Pap-Tonn that all scientific experiments on Surfer's Cosmic Surfboard are failing.
Inside the SI Norrin Radd has found himself on a plain. His house and Shalla-Mantis are gone. He realises that he's naked (but only in the way that Silver Surfer always is) and tries to hide his embarrassment despite there being no-one in sight apart from a talking white dog who advises him to listen to the plants on the ground, which in turn tell him that the Elders have captured Mantis. They know because the Contemplator told the Supremor last issue. And the astral form of the Elder appears, which the dog doesn't like. Outside the Contemplator reports that Norrin's soul is free, but the SI prefers to say that his soul hasn't yet been assimilated. And inside he sends a horde of Blue and Pink soldiers to dog-pile on SS who's still complaining that he has no pants. But vegetation carries him up into the air saying he does have *plants*, and the dog tells him he's never been alone. Until the Kree blast the base of the plant tower and Norrin falls. But the dog leaps so that Surfer can use him as a springboard to get to an elastic pillar that bounces him back to land on top of the now-arguing soldiers. He announces that he now remembers who he is - the Silver Surfer, creation of Galactus, who they cannot harm even though he hasn't got his Power Cosmic. He fights through them helped by the dog and entangling plant, both of whom repeat that he's not alone as Norrin runs off.
On Zenn-La confused Shalla-Bal heard her plants whispering the name Mantis at the end of last issue. She remembers how Galactus turned the planet into a wasteland but Norrin gave her the Power Cosmic to restore life to it, and the grateful populace made her Empress. (All this in the SS 1-shot.) Last issue Norrin told her he no longer loved her and he had a new love Mantis (since #3). But she realises that she drove him away because of her Empress responsibility. However she used the Power Cosmic to contact him in #6 so maybe now she can contact Mantis through her plants. When she tries there's a sort-of lighting blast and strange plants spring up around her.
Inside the Supreme Intelligence's mind Silver Surfer (without the white dog) reaches the end of the plain and enters a wood where he's not surprised to find a large talking white bird. But they are attacked by the giant creature on the cover which speaks to them as the Supremor. SS leaps on the back of the bird and they soar into the air where a dogfight ensues. But eventually Norrin is ensnared by a multitude of tentacles and the SI declares that he is unbeatable inside his own mind.
Outside the scientists see the Surfer's Board hover in the air. They think they've at last got a reaction but don't know how they did it. They hang on to the board to stop it floating away but it shakes them off and zooms out of the lab and into the Supremor's audience chamber. And then it enters his head through the Soul Gem and reunites with its master. They fly around the tentacled monster and then into *its* brain, which is of course the Supremor's brain, and out through the Gem - taking it with them.
Without the Gem to pacify them the opposing Pink/Blue factions of the SI's constituent minds split and he's left a babbling idiot. Nenora is aghast (but probably more because she can't follow her orders to take the Gem). The Contemplator is openly dismayed at what this means for the Elders' plan.
And on Zenn-La it turns out that it's not Mantis who's answered Shalla-Bal's call but Gardener of the Elders.
Characters:
Plus: Contemplator (
Tath Ki), Elders Of The Universe, Nenora.