This tale is epic in reach and consequence, therefore the review must be as well! SPOILERS ABOUND.... (and thanks to the Marvel Wiki for helping me with this review)
Loki embarks on a journey to the God Quarry with Flowa, in order to investigate a book with a story involving him. When he reaches the God Quarry, its guardians, The Coven, burst into flames announcing that "infinity's end is here!" Just then, a portal hurls a counterpart of Loki (who is worthy of Mjolnir and possesses the Infinity Stones of his reality), who warns him that he won't be able to breach into the "original universe" without them, or have any hopes of winning against Requiem and Devondra. Though confused, Loki sets out to find the Infinity Stones.
On Earth, Doctor Strange (holding the Time Stone) convenes the Infinity Watch: Warlock (Soul), Turk Barrett (Mind), Black Widow (Space), Star-Lord (Power, or so he thinks), Captain Marvel (Reality) to arrange the safekeeping of the Infinity Stones. Strange attempts to observe Thanos' whereabouts (knowing that where the Infinity Stones are, he’s there causing trouble) and is surprised to find him dead. Requiem arrives and demands the Infinity Stones. Carrying a sword with the real Power Stone on the hilt, Requiem reveals herself to be Gamora, who also is the murderer of Thanos. Surprised by Gamora's behavior, Star-Lord tries to reason with her, but she “kills him” (he's actually saved from dead by Doctor Strange, using the Time Stone). Strange gets the Mind Stone from Turk Barrett, promising riches and power.
Captain Marvel flies away with Gamora to try to stop her, but Gamora steals the Reality Stone from her and uses it to trick the heroes into believing she's Captain Marvel and that Marvel is Gamora. Captain America notices the ruse after Doctor Strange restrains Captain Marvel, but Gamora uses Reality to fuse him and Strange together, claiming both the Time and Mind Stones. Gamora then decapitates Warlock, and the heroes try to get the Soul Gem. However, she uses the Time Stone to freeze time, grabs the Soul Stone, and steals the Space Stone from Black Widow, completing the collection. Gamora then sets out to rebalance the Soul Gem (after collecting the missing piece of herself, making her whole again), declaring that Devondra, the devouring creature at the heart of Soul World, must feed.
At this point, Loki approaches Gamora with Flowa, and offers her his counsel. Reading his mind, she learns of his visit to the God Quarry and sets out (with Flowa) to investigate the boundary at the Quarry of Creation. As a means to neutralize any possible opposition, and to feed Davondra, Gamora uses the Infinity Stones to trap all the inhabitants of the universe in a pocket universe called Warp World (I’ll call WW) located inside Soul Gem, merging every person with another, effectively cutting down the number of souls in the universe by half. This results in the creation of many particular inhabitants inside WW, including Iron Hammer, Soldier Supreme, Weapon Hex, Arachknight, and Ghost Panther (See my review of Infinity Warps).
Loki is also trapped inside WW, so he tries to enlist the help of Diamond Patch (Wolverine/Emma Frost) to find Adam Warlock to prevent the doom of both Warp World and the real world. He deduces that if Gamora has copied the entire universe and installed it into the Soul Stone, Diamond Patch theorizes a set of Infinity Stones must also exist in Soul World. Since he has the knowledge he will one day wield the Phoenix Force, Diamond Patch sends his future self a telepathic message in a bottle, resulting in the Phoenix-empowered Wolverine from The End of Time arriving to help Loki and Diamond Patch. He gives them the WW Power Stone, and splits Diamond Patch back into Logan and Emma Frost before leaving. In an adjacent reality, WW Phyla-Vell and WW Moondragon confront Requiem and escape to the Prime Marvel Universe after failing to take her down.
Leaving Logan behind, Emma helps Loki recruit other individuals he deems uniquely suited to wield an WW Infinity Stone. When Gamora read Loki's mind before creating WW, Loki specifically imagined the people he needed in his journey mashed together so that she would subconsciously create them and unwittingly facilitate their location. These people are Ms. Kang (Ms. Marvel/Kang the Conquerer), and Little Monster (Ant-Man/Hulk). Using their combined powers, Emma and Loki split them into their original four. After assembling the team (unofficially called the Cosmic Avengers), Loki finds Adam Warlock (now resurrected) and attempts to get his help to escape Soul World, but he insists they need to fight Davondra. Emma rallies numerous merged heroes to help Warlock as the entirety of WW becomes infested by manifestations of the creature. One of the heroes that answers Emma's call is a seemingly normal saxophone player who is actually Drax the Destroyer (more about that later).
In the real world, Gamora finds an impenetrable barrier bellow the Quarry of Creation. She tries to breach out of the universe but she can't, and is soon confronted by the Council of Watchers.
While the heroes of WW fight Devondra, Loki's team find the rest of the WW Infinity Stones. Loki divides the stones between his team based on each person's individual talents, since a wielder's mastery over the aspect of a certain Infinity Stone allows them to unlock the full power of another.
WW Phyla-Vell and WW Moondragon confront Gamora for the actions of their universe's Requiem. Joined by Loki and his team, they use the WW Infinity Stones to defeat Gamora, snatching from her several of the Stones from the set in her possession. Then, Loki pickpockets Ant-Man and Ms. Marvel, making a complete set of Infinity Stones (although not all from the same universe). He sends Gamora, WW Phyla-Vell and WW Moondragon into Soul World and escapes through the barrier in the bottom of the Quarry of Creation. He finds himself in another universe, with Celestials being surrounded by countless Infinity Stones. In the meantime, in Soul World, Arthur Douglas (the saxophone player mentioned earlier) is recruited by Peet (Groot/Star-Lord) to join the battle against Devondra.
Loki confronts the Celestials and is directed to a mirror to see his future. He laughs and, disenchanted, returns to the Quarry of Creation. Having used the power of his merged set of Infinity Stones to render inert the surplus ones, he hands them over to the Cosmic Avengers and leaves with Flowa , deducing that it was the actions of his future self, who tried to change the past to prevent himself from breaching out of the universe.
In WW, Peet reunites the Guardians of the Galaxy. The Cosmic Avengers return to WW and Hulk uses the Space Stone to create a black hole to destroy Devondra. Warlock uses the Soul Stone to return the Guardians to normalcy, and splits WW's Arthur Douglas, revealing that he had already been merged with himself, possessing two souls, one corresponding to his human self and another to Drax the Destroyer. Warlock directs the stone-wielders to bring back the regular universe, while keeping Warp World intact in a facet of the Soul Stone per the wishes of Soldier Supreme. Arthur and Drax decide to sacrifice themselves, staying in WW to hold open a portal so that Warlock and the other heroes can safely return home. When they do, Warlock teleports Gamora somewhere she can start on a path of redemption, and she finds herself taking a younger and amnesiac Magus under her wing. Warlock makes a tough decision, deciding to give each Infinity Stone their own soul, allowing them to dictate their own destiny. All the stones fly away (reminded me of the Dragon Balls, including Soul, much to Warlock's surprise since he expected it to remain by his side.
In the aftermath, Arthur Douglas is living a happy life with his wife Yvette in WW, and the warped heroes that banded together to fight Devondra, officially joined forces to become the Defenders. Warlock ponders on the final fate of the Infinity Stones, expressing that he feels like a piece of himself is missing. AND… original Drax is back in 616, ready to reunite with Moondragon. (This finally solves the discrepancy that has been with Drax since the relaunch of the Guardians after the first movie became popular… and that had been bugging me!)
Will this live in infamy as much as the Original Infinity Gauntlet story? Probably not, but that doesn't make it any less amazing. A great crossover, and wrapped up a bunch of storylines, as well as started some new ones.
Strong Recommend.