Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Loki has used the Infinity Stones to break through the bottom of the God Quarry to the Quarry Of Creation beneath seeking answers to who or what controls his life. Inside he found that the Stones no longer worked, and the place was littered with them. And floating above were giant space aliens (who may or may not be Celestials).
Loki asks 1 of them if they are the gods who rule the multiverse. In answer he points to a patch of darkness, and when Loki approaches it he sees himself reflected within. And the Trickster God laughs at the cosmic joke. With a final suggestion to the space-gods that they stop throwing rocks at the universe he parts the curtain(?) and steps into the glow ...
... and returns to his companions (Ant-Man, Emma Frost, Hulk, Kang and Ms. Marvel) in the God Quarry. Emma, Hulk and Kang have just found that their Infinity Stone copies from the Soul/Warp World have stopped working. Loki says he used *his* Infinity Stones (which now function again in their home universe) to delete the rivals. Scott Lang accuses him of wanting all the power for himself, but Loki hands the Stones over to his team so they can save the universe. (It seems from later events that they each take the Stone they had earlier.)
He himself rejoins his companion Flowa on the Asgardian ship Skipbladnir. He tells her he's figured out who has been messing with his recent past (arranging for Wolverine to come back from the dead to stop him getting the Space Stone, removing important pages from a book in Flowa's library). He thinks he himself came back from the future to change his own past. So now they'll return to her library in Omnipotence City.
In Soul World the assembled heroes are still fighting the monster Devondra to stop her devouring all the souls in Soul World and Warp World within it. We see merged heroes Ghost Panther (with his Black Panther spirit guide) and Green Widow attacking her with Adam Warlock.
Meanwhile Soldier Supreme faces Gamora, who Loki sent here at the end of last issue. She still has 3 of the original Infinity Stones and he wants them to use against Devondra. But at that point they go dead due to Loki's action above. So Stephen Rogers is easily able to defeat her and demand to know how to stop Devondra. She says there's no way to stop her destroying the universe and creating a new 1. And without the Stones Gamora can't control how the new universe will turn out. So he punches her into the maw of the enemy ...
... but flying Peet (merged Star-Lord and Groot) swoops in to save her, still carrying Art Douglas (the earlier incarnation of Drax the Destroyer) in his other hand. He announces they are the Guardians Of The Galaxy.
Warlock can't understand how the Infinity Stones can be inert because the universe wouldn't exist without them. But then Loki's team arrive with the working set and give him the Soul Gem. Adam says they can use them together to kill Devondra, but Gamora repeats that she's unstoppable in Soul World. And in her head dead Thanos comments that Gamora's the wimp she's always been.
Warlock's alternate plan is to use the Stones to de-merge all the people in Warp World and take them back to the Prime universe where they'll be safe. But Soldier Supreme (merged Captain America and Dr Strange) doesn't want to de-merge and doesn't want his world to die. He says they've got to save both universes. Adam thinks he might be able to *copy* all the souls back to de-merged bodies in the main universe. But Devondra would still be a threat to Warp World.
Hulk is tired of all this talking. He uses the Space Stone and Bruce Banner's Physics knowledge to create a black hole in the middle of the monster. And it swallows Devondra just like that, allowing the heroes to move on to the next problem. But of course it will eventually swallow Warp World too.
Warlock separates Star-Lord and Groot, and also Drax and Arthur Douglas. Drax comments that he always had 2 souls. And Rocket Raccoon bursts out of Groot's wooden body where it appears he's slept through the whole thing. Now the Guardians gang is all here.
For the next part of Adam's plan Ms Marvel uses the Mind Stone to imagine an empty new world. Then all the Stone-holders combine to drag the souls from Warp World back to the original universe but leave merged copies behind while creating a universe for them to occupy. We see Iron Hammer there, joined by Soldier Supreme and Arachknight.
Meanwhile Drax has a mini-reunion with his daughter Moondragon and her lover Phyla-Vell (Captain Marvel). (We skip over the fact that the last 2 are alternate versions from a different timeline.) There's no time to explain to Art how Moondragon is his daughter from the main universe (or in this case an alternate version of her) whereas in Warp World he never had a daughter, because the black hole has finished with Devondra and has started on the rest of the place.
The Stone-wielders find that they can only form 1 portal to send souls through, so they'd have to choose which universe to save. But Art and Drax grab the portal and twist it into an infinity shape dividing it into 2. Adam Warlock sends the various souls through to their destinations. But in order for the remaining heroes to escape Art and Drax will have to stay behind to keep the portals open, which they elect to do.
The heroes hide within the Soul Gem which then flies through the portal to take them to Prime Earth, leaving Devondra's world to self-destruct. Allegedly that was just a *section* of the Soul Gem, and Warp World is now in another section. (My mind is twisted in knots. Warlock carries the Soul Gem and he is in Devondra's world which is inside it. But he and the others enter the Gem which then takes them out of Devondra's world.)
They end up next to the Pyramids at Giza. When they wake up Gamora makes a grab for the Infinity Stones but Moondragon and Captain Marvel stop her. They want revenge for her destroying *their* universe (even though that was a different Gamora, the 1 from their universe). Star-Lord steps in between them. Moondragon holds her friend back saying that *their* Star-Lord died in the Cancerverse, and maybe him being here will restrain Gamora.
Meanwhile Emma Frost suggests they divide the Stones up to stop anyone combining them in the future (as if that's worked well in the past). Kang offers to take them all to the end of time, but Hulk doesn't trust him. Peter Quill warns Warlock not to take the Soul Stone, but Adam instead picks up the Time Stone and freezes time to take them all.
He contemplates going back in time to change what happened, but knows that making 1 aspect better will invariably make something else worse. He wants to protect Gamora but he decides to leave it up to the Stones to decide how. When he lets time flow again she's gone. He says he asked the Stones to send her somewhere where she could do the most good. And then he gave the power of the Stones to the Stones themselves. Each Stone now has a soul and they fly off to live their own lives. Even the Soul Gem goes, which Adam wasn't actually expecting.
Heather Douglas and Phyla-Vell fly off into space to explore *this* universe. Warlock too goes his own way, and the rest off the heroes walk off to find a way home from Egypt.
Arthur Douglas is back in Warp World with the 2 loves of his life, his wife Yvette and his saxophone. Iron Hammer, Soldier Supreme and Weapon Hex unite to form the World Defenders. And Gamora finds a cocoon which opens to disgorge Magus, Warlock's evil self, who she takes under her wing much to Thanos' amusement. In Omnipotence City Flowa finishes her account of this adventure, but leaves some space for late additions. She declines Loki's offer to accompany him on his next quest. And Adam Warlock says he feels like a piece of himself is missing.