You are in Soulworld now, interloper-- A world beyond the effects of time and the domain of Adam Warlock! 
Appearing in "Into Infinity"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Powderkeg (Apparent death)
Other Characters:
- Thor
- Mantra
- Gamora
- Maxam
- Living Tribunal
- Spider-Man (Cameo)
- Human Torch (Cameo)
- Storm (Cameo)
- Namor (Cameo)
- Captain America (Cameo)
- Bishop (Cameo)
- Wolverine (Cameo)
- Jean Grey (Cameo)
- Venom (Cameo)
- Beast (Cameo)
- Hulk (Cameo)
- Spider-Woman (Cameo)
- Pip the Troll (Cameo)
- Thanos (Cameo)
- Moondragon (Cameo)
- Drax (Cameo)
Locations:
Items:
- Time Gem
- Space Gem
- Reality Gem
- Mind Gem
- Power Gem
- Soul Gem
- Captain America's Shield
- Captain America's Uniform
- Venom Symbiote
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "Into Infinity"
After the Godwheel event, Thor is about to create a portal home when Rune attacks him trying to drain his power. Thor's retaliation knocks Rune through the rift, sending him to New York of Earth-616. Rune senses an abundance of Ultrahuman prey in this world, but he quickly becomes fixated on the energy signature of the Infinity Gems. He first finds Gamora and is able to entrance her, but he realizes she only emits an echo of the power he seeks. Rune compels Gamora to tell him everything she knows about the Gems and the Infinity Watch, giving him the information he needs to infiltrate Monster Isle. There, Rune gets the drop on Maxam and claims the Time Gem from him, allowing him to freeze the flow of time. With the rest of his targets immobilized, Rune quickly gathers up the rest of the Infinity Gems, finishing with Warlock's Soul Gem. Surprisingly, the final Gem reacts in the frozen time, drawing Rune into its inner Soulworld, where Warlock's soul confront's Rune's over the attempted theft. Unfortunately for Warlock, the consciousness of the Soul Gem picks this moment to rebel, giving itself over to Rune claiming to have been waiting for one such as him since the beginning. The Soul Gem places itself on Rune's forehead while the others are arranged on his right-hand knuckles in a pattern similar to the Infinity Gauntlet. Rune then wants to continue feeding on the Ultrahumans of this universe, but the Soul Gem has its own plans and reveals that it has the power to subvert its host's will, opening a rift back to Rune's home reality. At this point, the Silver Surfer, immune to the effects of the frozen time thanks to the Living Tribunal, finds and attacks Rune at the Tribunal's behest. Blasting Rune's hand with the Power Cosmic dislodges the five Gems and causes them to fall through the vortex, where they scatter throughout the Ultraverse. Rune falls through after them with the Soul Gem cursing his insolence.
Appearing in "If I Should Die--"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Galactus (Only in flashback)
- Nova (Illusion or holographic simulation)
- Mantis (Illusion or holographic simulation)
- Fennan Radd (Illusion or holographic simulation)
- Shalla-Bal (Illusion or holographic simulation)
Locations:
- The Omega Quadrant
- Monster Island
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "If I Should Die--"
The Silver Surfer is wandering the spaceways when he suddenly experiences a jarring shift in reality and finds the Living Tribunal before him. The Tribunal informs him that the flow of time for the rest of the universe has been halted by the effects of the Time Gem, and unless the Surfer acts as his enforcer, a rogue agent will soon gather the other Infinity Gems and violate the Tribunal's decree against their combined use. The Tribunal also warns Surfer that an agent of Oblivion has been dispatched to recover the Gems for their own nihilistic purposes. With little choice in the matter, the Surfer heads to Earth's Monster Isle to investigate but finds the Infinity Watch frozen with all their Gems already missing. He also runs into Deathurge, the agent of Oblivion, who does his best to get the Surfer off the trail and outrace him to the Gems. The Silver Surfer is ultimately victorious over Deathurge, but is a few moments too late to stop the Gems from being gathered by a vampiric invader from another universe. The invader is creating an extradimensional rift when the Surfer catches up to him and attacks, sending the Gems and the thief hurtling into the vortex where they become scattered throughout the other universe. When the Surfer reports back, the Living Tribunal expresses satisfaction that the gathering of the Gems was disrupted in this event, and that the normal flow of time has resumed with the thief's defeat. However, if the Gems should be gathered again in the other reality, then both universes could be doomed.
Notes
- This issue is a flip book. The two stories coincide and have a common climax. The center of the book, in between the ends of both stories is a promotion for the forthcoming Marvel/Malibu crossover.
- The events of this issue coincide with Warlock and the Infinity Watch #42, but as the stories were produced separately with minimal coordination between creative teams, there are multiple inconsistencies in the depicted events:
- In the Infinity Watch continuity, Maxam regains his memories upon equiping the Time Gem, consuming him with knowledge of his mission to kill Warlock. He proceeds to attack Warlock, and it's during their battle that the Time Gem vanishes from his forehead without explanation. This part is seemingly irreconcilable with the version of events here, where Rune takes Maxam's Gem while he's alone and off his guard.
- At this point in time, Moondragon has been seriously injured by a recent battle and should be bandaged and bedridden, but she appears here in good health.
- The events of Atlantis Rising cause a tropical storm that threaten Monster Isle, forcing Pip and Drax to relocate Moondragon to a hospital in Chicago. It's there that they lose their Gems, whereas in this story they're all still on Monster Isle.
- Thanos always kept his Reality Gem in a display case away from his person and it's shown vanishing from the case at this point. In this story, Thanos is shown wearing the Reality Gem on his forehead when Rune steals it.
- Warlock is shown losing his Gem with no awareness of the cause, same as his teammates. Here, he gets a chance to confront Rune before losing his Gem.
- The Living Tribunal's decree against the Infinity Gems working in unison had previously been depicted as fundamental; they would just not work if someone attempted to bring them together. Here, the ruling is treated as prescriptive; it is apparently possible for Rune to use the combined Infinity Gems and only the Living Tribunal sending an enforcer to intervene is meant to prevent it.
- Due to these contradictions, it's difficult to determine what actually happens to the Infinity Gems in this issue. In particular, the apparent key role of the Time Gem in allowing the other five to vanish undetected cannot be reconciled with the Time Gem's unexplained disappearance in Marvel's version of events. Regardless of the details, it can be taken as read that Rune somehow steals the six Infinity Gems before losing them through a rift into the Ultraverse.
- Maxam is mistakenly referred to as "Maxxam" in this issue.