Appearing in "The Swords Are Drawn..."
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Fire People
- Loki
- Nemesis (First full appearance) (Shadow only) (Unnamed)
Other Characters:
- Diane (Name revealed) (Revealed to be alive)
- UltraTech (Referenced)
- Infinity Watch (Mentioned)
- Adam Warlock (Mentioned)
- Exiles (Defunct)
- Tinsel (Melissa Scott) (Corpse, skeleton or other remains)
- Catapult (Kevin Albers) (Corpse, skeleton or other remains)
- Mustang (Roderick Hartley) (Corpse, skeleton or other remains)
- Trax (Judd Shepard) (Corpse, skeleton or other remains)
- Deadeye (Frank Hayes) (Corpse, skeleton or other remains)
- Squad (Defunct)
- Forsa (Carlos Jimenez) (Corpse, skeleton or other remains)
- Starburst (Linda Warren) (Corpse, skeleton or other remains)
- DJ Blast (Jamal Blass) (Corpse, skeleton or other remains)
Races and Species:
- Eternals
- Unidentified alien species
- Humans
- Ultras
- Frost Giants
- Cosmic Beings
- Alien Gods (Mentioned)
- Zombies
Locations:
- Earth-93060
- Earth-616 (Referenced)
Items:
Events:
- Infinity Gauntlet (Mentioned)
- MundiQuest (Mentioned)
Synopsis for "The Swords Are Drawn..."
Sersi, maddened by the influence of the seventh Infinity Gem, has killed Diane and is locked in battle with Topaz. The arrival of Black Knight, Ultraforce, and Diane revealing that she's fine calms down both sides, though the members of Ultraforce are wary that this dangerous woman who appeared is Black Knight's lost love. Diane shows everyone a vision of Loki with the Infinity Gems, something that Dane recognizes threatens the universe. It doesn't take much to convince the rest of the team that Loki needs to be stopped, and that convincing is all it takes for Sersi to magically whisk them away just before returning Diane to the ashes from which she briefly resurrected her.
Driven by the Gem's machinations, Sersi sends Ultraforce after Loki; however, with all of the power Loki now wields, there's little they can accomplish. Loki instantly senses them coming and diverts them into illusory scenarios within Soulworld where they think they're fighting for the Gems, but are really just wasting their energy or losing their sense of purpose. Prime and Prototype are forced to fight over the Power and Mind Gems until they decide to shatter them against each other. Topaz finds herself back on her homeworld with the Space Gem, but realizes none of what she sees is real and so destroys the Gem. Hardcase and Ghoul find the Soul and Time Gems in a graveyard of their former teammates. Ghoul wants to use the Time Gem to fix everything and bring the dead back, but Hardcase knows that won't work and uses the Soul Gem to prove their bodies are hollow. Accepting the way things are, they both break their Gems. Meanwhile, Loki takes Siren and Contrary before himself to taunt them with the Reality Gem, shackling Siren and letting Contrary fawn over him. While Contrary distracts him, Siren stealthily frees herself and tries to snatch the Gem, but that too was all Loki's illusion.
In Sersi's soulscape, she struggles with what's becoming of her. She only wanted to be reunited with Dane, but the Gem continues to push her towards its own reunion. Dane's spirit, the only one of the team she didn't send on the doomed quest, comes to her side to offer his support and convinces her to recall Ultraforce. With their attempt to face Loki a failure, Sersi reunites the team, but doesn't join them, instead vanishing to parts unknown leaving Dane worrying that her madness is about to reach a tipping point.
Notes
- This issue immediately followed UltraForce #10, which is why the indicia lists it as #11.
Trivia
- The resurrected corpse remains of the Exiles and Squad seems to be illusions, and shown Catapult as dead, but he would alive and comatose until his final death in All New Exiles Vol 1 4.