Synopsis
Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) is back doing the recap page, this time in the form of an alert to staff of the Triskelion to abandon the building. The Ultimates brought the cosmically-powerful Anti-Man (Conner Sims) back from Neutral Space (#6) and he submitted to them putting him in an extremely secure cell. (But they inadvertently showed Thanos the way home too.) The Inhuman Ulysses predicted an attack by Thanos and they captured him and put him in a cell too. Unfortunately James Rhodes (War Machine) died in the fight. (And She-Hulk was put in a coma.) The use of Ulysses' predictions has caused a rift in the superhero community and among the Ultimates. But now Conner Sims has broken out of his cell and Thanos is probably free too.
She's right. Thanos had mentally encouraged Anti-Man to escape so that he could personally do something about the 'jailer' that he knows has all reality in chains. But his breakout caused a temporary power outage that allowed the Mad Titan to escape too. Now the MT has joined Sims physically where Conner is anguished over having accidentally killed his 2 guards. But Thanos revels in death whose personification he used to love. But since then he survived the end of the multiverse (in the Secret Wars event) and he's seen the perfect nothing outside of everything. And he wants everyone to know that perfection too. And now the time is ripe for him to take control of everything because in the new multiverse Galactus has been changed (#1-2), Order and Chaos are trying to stem the changes (#6), the Living Tribunal is still learning the ropes (he's an alternate Adam Warlock who in Thanos: The Infinity Finale replaced the version killed by the Beyonders in the lead-up to Secret Wars), Eternity is in chains (#5) and some others have died (eg the Shaper Of Worlds in Silver Surfer v7 #13-15 while the multiverse was gone).
Conner doesn't want to help him but Thanos points out that the Ultimates will never trust him now. Which seems to be true when they arrive via 1 of America Chavez' star-shaped portals and CM immediately assumes they're working together. Blue Marvel (Dr Adam Brashear) tries to reason with Conner (who used to be his best friend before he started suffering 'delusions') but Black Panther (T'Challa) is angry because 1 of the dead guards was Wakandan. Thanos is still urging Anti-Man to join him in 'freeing and saving' the multiverse, but Conner chooses to spirit himself away instead.
Now the Ultimates must fight the Titan. Carol Danvers wants to make a plan but America Chavez dives straight in with a rain of blows. But Thanos throws her aside. Adam tells Carol to close in so he can blast her as well as the foe. CM understands his plan. She absorbs all the energy he throws at her and ascends into Binary mode. And when she releases that it gets the Titan's attention. But as they square off Spectrum (Monica Rambeau) tries the trick she didn't think to try last time they fought (Free Comic Book Day 2016: Civil War II). She intends to turn into light and get to the enemy's brain via his eyes. Admittedly it didn't work against Chavez (last issue) but that's because America was able to turn her eyes into portals and send Monica elsewhere. This time it does work but she finds that she can't handle the sheer power of his mental energy and he ejects her ...
... as an eye-blast which hits BM. (But at least the fact that it didn't work might stop Monica blaming herself for Rhodey's death.) Adam is hardly damaged and feeds some energy back into his comrade to revive her. But she realises they're not going to win by fighting. Black Panther has been standing back surveying the situation and agrees that they must think their way out of this. Meanwhile Thanos is slowly choking Carol to death so America attacks him again saying nobody else is going to die on her watch. So the villain agrees that she can die 1st. Monica suggests that if they could block his mental powers then they *could* defeat him, and this gives T'Challa an idea.
While CM and AC continue the fight the other 3 retrieve stuff from the ruins of Conner's cell and reassemble the tech which kept him confined. He burnt the power cells out but Spectrum can power it. While they work America creates 1 of he portals behind the Titan and CapM tries to force him through. But another blast hurts Carol and Thanos turns to the other assailant. He tells Chavez he'll solve her problem of watching people die by gouging her eyes out. But the other 3 have got the projector of energy-opaque fields working. Thanos boasts that he'll break through any field they can generate. But they don't project it to surround him but inside his head where it stops his brain functioning and he collapses.
BP says that would have killed a normal being but he's beginning to think Thanos is unkillable. BM says they'll reconfine him even more securely. But then they'll have to deal with the Alison Green problem. (Last issue Ulysses predicted that the contents of her briefcase would destroy the NY Stock Exchange. The Ultimates apprehended her but the briefcase was empty.) CM says SHIELD is investigating her and they'll find proof that she's guilty. But AC's opinion is that there's no evidence of Green's guilt and Carol has stepped over the line, which is why she turned on her last issue before the Thanos problem started. Danvers still believes that Ulysses' warnings are necessary. If they ignore him or take his powers away then many more people will die. She knows that's what Tony Stark is going to propose at an upcoming meeting. She knows it's a difficult problem but that's the kind of thing they set up the Ultimates to solve (like changing Galactus from Destroyer to Lifebringer in #1-2).