Synopsis
Ultraforce/Avengers Prelude #1 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
In ULtraforce #10 Black Knight was lured into the Drunken Knight pub, a gateway to the Dark Shoppe, and Topaz followed him. There a mystery sorceress warned him that Loki had gathered the 6 Infinity Gems. (All 6 of them had like BK arrived in the Ultraverse from the Marvel Universe in various ways.) She allowed him to contact his old team the Avengers for help, but the contact was cut off by the arrival of his love Sersi who has gained another Gem. However that Gem wanted to unite with the 6 and it took over Sersi and made her kill the sorceress who it saw as an enemy. Topaz attacked Sersi and Dane Whitman tried to intervene.
This issue opens with a slightly different portrayal of that last sentence. Then they hear the sound of more conflict approaching. The Knight removes his helmet and the sight of her love's face brings Sersi back to her senses, appalled at what she's done. Dane suggests that it might be the Mahd Wy'ry (a madness that afflicts the Eternal) that has caused her to kill their hostess. But the question becomes moot when the sorceress reappears alive. (Dane calls her Diane although she never gave a name last issue.)
Then something punches Prime through a wall, and through the hole they see that the bar of the Drunken Knight is a battle scene. BK's Ultraforce companions (Contrary, Ghoul, Prototype and Siren) along with Hardcase are fighting some demonic-looking figures. Whitman calls to them to stop fighting, to no avail until Prime slams his fist on the floor to cause a shockwave which upskittles all the combatants. Contrary asks Hardcase why he didn't do that earlier. Tom Hawke says he and Prime (after he got back from the Godwheel (in the Power Of Prime mini-series)) only just saw their fight with the Frost Giant on the news (UF#10). They got here just in time to see the team follow Topaz into the pub. And then everything happened so quickly. Diane apologises for the regulars of the Drunken Knight who are her defenders. Dane only cares that he's got Sersi back again after they were separated in the dimensional rift that brought them to the Ultraverse. Diane reminds them all about Loki and the Infinity Gems. But then the other Gem retakes control of Sersi and makes the heroes vanish, and kills Diane again.
The next scene takes place within Sersi's soulscape, where she has the heroes (except for Topaz) in glass cases. The voice of her Gem speaks to her from a black mirror congratulating her on taking another step towards godhood. They can have everything with just a few sacrifices. And what seems like the 6 Infinity Gems streak out of the mirror towards the 6 encased heroes. Sersi objects (because of course 1 of them is Dane). Then everything explodes.
We see Prime and Prototype together with 2 of the Gems now bigger than them. The duo somehow know that they are the Mind Gem and the Power Gem, and what they can do. Proto approaches the Power Gem and gets bigger and stronger, but simultaneously Prime grows weak and falls towards the ground. His teammate abandons the Gem to save him and they both return to normal. Then Prime has a go but sees Jimmy Ruiz' bootjets fail. So now it's his turn to do the rescue. They realise that either of them could gain immense power but at the cost of the other's life. They can't approach the Power Gem but what about the Mind Gem?
Meanwhile Topaz has awakened in her own palace as Queen of Gwendor on the Godwheel (but it seems otherwise deserted). She weeps tears of joy to be home. Then she realises that she has the Space Gem on her brow, and deduces that it enabled her to travel the many light years here. But it was dishonourable to abandon her teammates.
In Vahdala hovering above the Godwheel Loki has welcomed Contrary to his throneroom. But we see that he has the actual Infinity Gems embedded in a sword, except the Reality Gem which he holds in his hand. And Siren is chained to a wall. The Asgardian expects the cold and calculating leader of Ultraforce to readily agree to serve him, and she appears to ignore Siren. But it's really a distraction to allow the thief to pick the locks of her chains. He gloats that the rest of her team are trapped on parts of the Godwheel, and the only way any of them will escape is by succumbing to the temptation of the Gems. Siren breaks free ...
... but we go to a far edge of the Godwheel where Ghoul and Hardcase are looking for the Soul Gem and the Time Gem. They are in a graveyard where they find headstones for past teammates. The 2 Gems are hovering above them. Then corpses of the Exiles and the Squad rise up to attack them, and the heroes try not to fight back. Hawke tells Jonathan Martin to use his power to talk to the corpses but Ghoul says they are too far gone for that. Instead he leaps up from a tomb and grabs the Time Gem, throwing the Soul Gem down to HC. Then he uses the TG to wind back time until all the corpses have reverted to whole bodies. But HC can't stand to see the Squad again, especially his old love Linda Warren (Starburst). (In his #23 he used the real Time Gem to go back in time to (unsuccessfully) try to prevent their deaths.) But Ghoul is happy to see the Exiles again, especially Tinsel (Melissa Scott). He remembers when she died (Exiles #4) and he had to talk to her corpse to find out who killed her. He says here that she begged him to let her pass on (which isn't what she said in #4). But Tom uses the Soul Gem to determine that there are no souls in these bodies.
The scenes we have seen appear in crystalline fragments in Sersi's soulscape. Dane Whitman approaches her and urges her to fight whatever's happening to her. We see Hardcase crush the Soul Gem in his fist and Ghoul stamp on the Time Gem causing the corpses to wither to dust. This destruction also tells them that these weren't the real Infinity Gems. Topaz decides that the honour of her people means that she must leave Gwendor again and go back to help her comrades. She tosses the Space Gem into the air and destroys it with a blast of her staff. The 2 P's jointly hit the giant Mind Gem and drive it into the Power Gem, obliterating them both. The only shard Sersi has left shows Contrary and Loki with the Reality Gem ...
... through which he's watching them and gloating that Black Knight doesn't know who/what he's dealing with. He refuses to elaborate further for Contrary. Meanwhile Siren creeps up and makes a grab for the RG. She thinks she's got it but Loki sends both women back to the Dark Shoppe without it, where all the other UF members are also assembled. BK thinks it was Sersi who brought them all back. But now she's gone.