Synopsis / Summary / Plot
On Elysion-3 there's a faction of the Kree who call themselves the Utopians. Klee-Varr and his wife are worried about their son who is having nightmares. They think it's about the Kree Civil War. Klee-Varr tries to reassure him that the Imperium has declared a ceasefire and anyway it's far away so they're safe. But the boy says it's something else, and nowhere is safe. Outside we see they are ruled by a Supreme Intelligence and they share a mission to create a Utopia. But they've heard rumours that the Imperium has new allies and a new Emperor. (For a brief description of recent Kree history see my Comments.)
But all this is moot because a city appears in the sky over the colony raining destruction upon them. A figure floats in the sky telling them that their universe has changed. The era of (relative?) peace has been replaced by a time of fire, lightning and monsters. And nowhere is safe.
The Guardians Of The Galaxy are on Rocket Raccoon's home Halfworld. Peter Quill has them celebrating the Earth harvest-time custom of Thanksgiving, and he's imported a turkey. Rocket has been cured of what was killing him in the previous series and he's now mellow. He wears a suit and has accepted the appellation Raccoon. Drax, Gamora, Groot and Peter are also ready to settle down here. But Moondragon and Phyla-Vell were warriors in their home universe and crave battle here.
Just then Nova (Richard Rider) arrives from space to ask for their help against the new threat who he says are the Gods Of Olympus reborn (after being killed in the Avengers: No Road Home mini-series) (and the floating guy was Zeus). Their New Olympus moves in and out of this dimension finding targets to loot of treasure and blood to fuel the city. The Nova Corps was wiped out (again) by the Universal Church Of Truth in our last series, leaving only himself and young Sam Alexander. So now he needs to recruit a new team to defeat this new menace.
Phyla and Heather Douglas are up for it, but Gamora says she and the others just need to rest. They're not a suicide squad anymore, they're a family who need some family time. Rocket contradicts her and volunteers but Drax and Groot try to talk him out of it. Richard has to concede the original group have saved the galaxy more than enough times so he agrees to take only Captain Marvel and Moondragon.
In bed with Gamora that night Peter can't sleep. He remembers the Master Of The Sun giving him the Star-Lord powers and a mission in life, and it affects him even though he knows it's a false memory. (Strictly speaking that origin in Marvel Preview #4 is attributed to another Peter Quill/Starlord in universe-791.) And he slips out to answer Nova's call ...
... where he finds Rocket waiting for him outside Quill's starship Bowie. RR reminds Peter that they 2 and Groot were the original partnership that led eventually to the Guardians. They broke out of galactic prison together (in the 2003 Thanos series) but Rocket doesn't think the reborn teen Groot remembers that so it's just them 2 now. And besides he doesn't sleep well either.
On the way to Nova Corps HQ the Rock Peter dictates a text message of apology to his lover. Rocket chides him for not at least sending a video message but Peter's excuse is that he's wearing his Star-Lord mask. And his reason for *that* is that he can now use it to fly the ship by remote. But he knows it's really so she can't talk him out of gallivanting off as a Guardian. His pal decides to give him some support - to paraphrase "We're Ranger Rocket and the Legendary Star-Lord. Who else can do the job?".
But when they get to the Rock they find that there's at least 1 other person who's joined the team - the alternate-timeline Kree Noh-Varr. Who, since there's already a Nova on the team, will use 1 of his earlier codenames Marvel Boy. He lists his amazing attributes (humility not being 1 of them) and says he feels responsible for their Utopian victims.
Rocket and Phyla ask Richard if he can't muster a bigger force, eg Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, Beta Ray Bill. Rider says he *did* get all those guys together but to beat back an invasion from the Cancerverse via the Negative Zone (Annihilation: Scourge event). Nova died there but Annihilus brought him back to life. He didn't call on the Guardians then because they were healing/recovering from last series, but now he's giving everyone else a break.
Richard adds that he's also worried about something bigger than the Olympian threat. The Kree Civil War may be paused but on the orders of an unknown new leader. The Skrulls are more active, again with no known reason. And the Shi'ar may be trying to replace their Majestor Gladiator with a younger version (Kid Gladiator of the X-School?). Nova thinks someone may be pulling the strings behind the scenes, but no-one but him seems to have noticed. (This is presumably a reference to Empyre.)
He's worried that nobody will stand against this if not them. Which brings us at last to the title (and the title page) of this issue as Peter Quill says "Then it's us".
The team make a plan. Rocket deduces where the Gods will strike next. He suggest that they attack New Olympus and destroy it's ability to dimension-hop. 1 of Marvel Boy's weapons is a 'pocket battlefield' which creates an area with different physics. He confirms that he can use it as a time-bomb that can create a black hole if necessary. Moondragon says she can mentally keep them hidden while they sneak in, but she'll need a distraction to make sure ...
... so Captain Marvel and Nova confront Zeus when he next appears, flanked by Apollo and Persephone(?). Nova as representative of the Law orders them to surrender and come quietly. Zeus of course refuses so battle commences. Nova socks Zeus, Peresephone blasts Phyla-Vell, and Apollo plays his lyre at them.
Moondragon concentrates as Quill lands the Bowie in New Olympus. She senses only 4 other Gods have yet returned to life:- Artemis, Athena, Hermes and Hephaestus. They arrive without being detected even by robot guards created by Hephaestus the metalsmith. Marvel Boy detects 2 power sources which might be what they're calling the Dimension Rotor. As the self-declared most powerful of the gang he'll take the most likely big source, and Moondragon goes with him to make sure he remains undetected. Rocket and Star-Lord can investigate the smaller source. But Peter tells Rocket to stay with the ship to guard the 'singularity bomb'. The Raccoon reluctantly agrees.
As things progress Hermes meets up with Artemis, Goddess Of The Hunt, whose highly-developed senses can detect no intruders but whose instincts tell her something's wrong. As God Of Boundaries (traditionally true but not mentioned by Marvel before) he too feels that a boundary has been crossed, and he zooms off to investigate. He quickly searches the whole city and literally runs into Marvel Boy and Moondragon knocking them down and out.
Without Heather Douglas' shielding Zeus immediately becomes aware of the trespassers in his city, but Captain Marvel grabs him to stop him going there. He responds by generating lightning at her. Apollo shoots solar fire at Nova, apparently via his lyre. Star-Lord is pinned down by Hephaestus' robots, and more of them converge on the Bowie. Hermes concentrates on stopping Moondragon from thinking, until Noh-Varr morphs a wristlet into a gun and blasts him with it. Then he and Heather limp towards their destination.
The robots break into the spaceship, and Hephaestus hears the Guardians talking about the singularity bomb and tells his 'children' to bring it to him. Rocket helplessly watches them carry it away. Marvel Boy and Moondragon finally reach the large power source and discover Hercules in shackles.