Synopsis / Summary / Plot
In Infinity Crusade #1 the Goddess sent Adam Warlock into a far dimension to keep him out of the way. Last issue he discovered a rupture in reality which will spread and destroy all realities. He surmised that it was caused by the Reality Gem and he dived into it to undo it at source and rescue the Gem's as-yet-unrevealed guardian.
Now Lord Chaos and Master Order watch his progress through the rift. Eternity and Infinity have declared that no cosmic being should interfere with the Goddess' plans so they can only watch and hope because they don't think they'd like the universe she will create.
Warlock believes that his 'good' side Goddess caused this, but he can't help wondering if it was the guardian himself. Adam trusts him but he know Eternity doesn't. He remembers back to Warlock & Infinity Watch #1 where Living Tribunal persuaded him to relinquish the Infinity Gems and the godhood they provided. The deal was that he could keep the Soul Gem but must hand the other 5 Gems to guardians of his choosing. We now see an added memory where Eternity came to oversee the dispersal and question some of his choices. He's fine with Adam keeping the Soul Gem and Gamora having the Time Gem. He's rather worried about Drax, Moondragon and Pip The Troll having the Power, Mind and Space Gems but is willing to go along with it. However the guardian of the Reality Gem is unacceptable. He can protect it but could also misuse it to gain power as he has in the past. Warlock says his choices were made through his still-godlike infallibility unaffected by his evil and good sides which he had dispensed with.
Now he finds his path along the reality rift blocked by a distortion layer. As he passes through it he experiences total distortion of reality and has to use his Soul Gem to locate the direction to go towards the Reality Gem's guardian, who he now also senses still lives. He breaks through the distortion layer only to find more layers beyond it. We see 1 where his body starts to unravel. Another where some of the living appear as skeletons while some of the dead (like Elvis) seem alive. A 3rd where energy and matter are interchangeable. In the 4th he is everyone and everyone is him. The 5th is filled with him and his Magus/Goddess aspects. Many more get mentioned but eventually he's through them all except a protective sphere of untruth which encloses the Reality Gem. He enters that and clutches the Gem. Everything explodes ....
.... and he's in a room with Thanos who thanks him for the rescue. They're in the room in Thanos' sanctum which held the Reality Gem, and from whence Goddess banished him in IC#1 (but we didn't know it was him then). Thanos gets Adam to admit that Goddess is his good feminine side. He teleports Warlock to Monster Island to recruit the rest of the Infinity Watch but says he needs to gather more intelligence before he joins them. Adam finds the Watch absent from the castle while Thanos' scanners show him meeting Mole Man there and many heroes (including the Watch's guest Maxam) conferring in Avengers Mansion.
Warlock and Thanos will meet on Monster Island in IC#3. But before that we'll see them separately in Warlock & Infinity Watch #19.