THE INFINITY CRUSADE (MARVEL, 1993)
Author: Jim Starlin (writer), Ron Lim (artist)
Synopsis: As you recall, Infinity War ended whit the “Cosmic Containment Units” used by the Magus being stolen by Adam Warlock’s good side, which was female (!) Infinity Crusade shows us what we she was up to with them.
Calling herself “The Goddess” this (supposed) being of pure goodness (see my comments below) had one goal: to destroy ALL EVIL! This made sense for someone like her, especially when she had so much power. She had gone on to find more CCUs from various universes, until she had 30 (!) There was a problem, though: the Units were actually the “egg” forms of certain Cosmic Entities, and while their reality-changing power could be used by anyone who touched them, they still had certain self-imposed limits. However, it would be possible to overcome those limits if enough will was applied against them. But it would take the combined will of ALL beings in the universe to do so! Thus, the Goddess set out to obtain just that.
First, she eliminated a potential threat, by stealing Thanos’ Reality Gem (the Infinity Gem Warlock had given him for safekeeping) AND using it to trap him into a kind of “reality warp.” She also sent Warlock to another dimension.
Then she used the units to create “Paradise Omega” a planet located on Earth’s orbit but on the opposite side of the sun. (Note: this is the same location where, years before, the planet Counter-Earth had been created by the High Evolutionary. It had since been removed by Cosmic Beings who put it in a museum (!) Counter Earth had been the location of Warlock’s first adventures, which were suspiciously similar to the life of a certain Messiah. He was even crucified there! It makes sense that his god-complex side would create her base there.) Then she began luring Earth’s heroes –those who had religious beliefs- to her side, telling them her goal and convincing them to join her cause. Most accepted, apparently of their own free will. However, actually they were being influenced by an effect generated by the Goddess using the CCUs, that caused those with religious faith to become fanatically devoted to her. This same effect was causing people to become non-violent on Earth, and some villains actually surrendered to the authorities! (Apparently, how much you were affected depended on your personal strength of will; the Nazi villain Baron Strucker, for example, was able to resist.)
Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four) was able to detect this effect (using his inventions) and correctly deduced that it was the cause of two of the team’s members (Invisible Woman, who is a Christian, and The Thing, who is Jewish) joining the Crusade. By following the superheroine Aurora (of the Canadian superteam Alpha Flight) whose split personality as a nun was attracted to the Goddess, he was able to find Paradise Omega. Despite the planet’s heavy defenses, he was allowed to land there. He asked to join the Crusade, but the Goddess realized he did not really trust her and she transported him back to Earth. Reed then began organizing Earth’s heroes against the Goddess’.
The Goddess nominated Moondragon (of the Infinity Watch, who, along with Gamora, also of the Watch, had also “joined” the Goddess) to lead the heroes while she retreated into the Cosmic Egg (formed from the combined CCUs) to begin spreading its influence across the universe. Moondragon proved to be a fanatical leader; using her telepathic powers –greatly increased by the Mind Gem- to both spy on Earth’s heroes (She struck down Professor X when he tried to telepathically contact her, leaving him in a coma) and to force those members of the Goddess’ army who were staring to show doubts –such as Spider-Man- back in line.
Meanwhile, Warlock returned to the universe and sought out Thanos, rescuing him from the trap Goddess had put him in. They started to plan what to do, when the demon lord Mephisto –an old acquaintance of Thanos- showed up and offered to share the information he had on the Goddess’ plans with them IF they swore to give him one of the CCUs after the battle was done. Warlock disagreed but Thanos accepted. (You know, they could have pointed out that, since the Goddess was planning to destroy ALL evil, Mephisto had no choice but to help them, or his goose was cooked. 
Mephisto then revealed the part about the Goddess needing the combined will of all the universe’s thinking beings –which she was slowly getting by spreading her “good” effect across space- to force the CCUs to do her will. However, since evil is a result of free will (as is good) the only way to end it would be the END the choice- which the Goddess intended to do by DESTROYING ALL LIFE IN ALL UNIVERSES!! (Geez, talk about fanatical!) THAT was her ultimate plan, which of course she hadn’t told her anyone. Not that they were likely to believe Thanos and Adam, especially if they told the heroes they had found out from Mephisto.
Meanwhile, Earth’s “unconverted” heroes attacked Paradise Omega. With help from the Silver Surfer (who had been converted, but eventually managed to throw off the control) they broke past its defenses and battled the controlled heroes. Pip the Troll (of the Infinity Watch) using the Space Gem, teleported to the Cosmic Egg, and actually managed to use it to turn the Goddess into a pillar of salt! (How Biblical.) Unfortunately, he spent too much time thinking what he would do with his new near-infinite power, and the heroine Silhouette (of the New warriors) who can also teleport, sneaked on him and knocked him out, restoring the Goddess to normal.
Meanwhile, Thanos, using the comatose body of Professor X as a conduit, tried to attack the Goddess mentally, but she resisted the attack. However, Warlock had come up with a plan. Since one of the taboos of the Cosmic Units was that they would not directly affect souls, Warlock had given his Soul Gem to Thanos and told him to use it to absorb Adam’s soul with it (he did not tell Thanos his full plan, probably so that the Goddess or Moondragon would not find it out.) Within the Gem, Warlock encountered his evil side, the Magus, who you might recall was imprisoned there at the end of “Infinity War”. Warlock asked for his help but Magus just attacked him. Thanos later used the Gem to send Adam’s soul against the Goddess, since the CCU power would not stop it. However, it seemed too late- a Cosmic Flame came out of the Goddess, consuming EVERYTHING in all realities- (even, supposedly, the people reading the comic itself! 
) BUT, it proved to be only an illusion, caused by Adam using the Cosmic Units, in order to reveal the Goddess’ plan to everyone. This shocked everybody back to normal. Warlock then fought with his “good” side in the Astral plane, defeated her, and imprisoned her within the gem as well (where she, like Magus, could not be seen or heard by the other spirits inside- except, ironically, Magus, though even he couldn’t touch her.)
Warlock’s spirit returned to his body, and everybody returned home (with the formerly converted heroes hugely disappointed, I imagine.) Thanos then used the CCUs to destroy Paradise Omega (and the units themselves). Oh, he DID keep one, to give it to Mephisto as promised. Naturally, the first thing the demon did with it was to wish Thanos dead, but nothing happened- the cube was drained of all power! “You did not specify you wanted a WORKING unit” Thanos mocked. Mephisto departed swearing vengeance, not that Thanos was intimidated at all.
My Opinion: I was partially let down by this story. The idea of an utterly-good being on a quest to rid ALL universes of evil was an interesting one. But it was obvious from the start that the Goddess was just played as a villain, from the way most of her thralls acted. Besides, in my opinion, Goddess could NOT possibly include all of Warlock’s good- if she did, not only she would never have considered destroying all Creation, but if Warlock had no good left within him, he wouldn’t have cared about anybody, either. That was obviously not the case. (Warlock did find out during the story that Goddess was actually insane, as a result of his repressing his feminine side all those years. Ouch.) Still, IC was good in that it helped us find out the religious beliefs of many of Marvel’s characters, some of which had not even been hinted at before. The individual tie-in issues also played with the story’s events fairly well, for example, in Iron Man, who had a back-from-the-dead experience once, which made him more spiritual, but ultimately he was too materialistic to follow Goddess. Of course, everybody just went back to their lives soon afterwards, as if nothing had happened. You’d think they would dedicate a few issues to dealing with this kind of deep spiritual disappointment -for some of the characters, this was The Rapture taking place- but then again, this kind of thing doesn’t really work well in superhero comics, who tend to resolve everything with force.
My Rating: Average, which, it being another Infinity Gauntlet spinoff, was disappointing.
Next: DC tries to create several new heroes AND introduce a (disgusting) new menace (think: Aliens) in the crossover series, “Bloodlines!”
