WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Avengers Annual #1, available now from Marvel Comics.
Throughout Marvel's "Infinite Destinies" crossover event, the most recent hunt for the Infinity Stones has featured high-flying adventure, superspy intrigue and an old-fashioned heist to top things off. But now, the story of the Soul Stone and the young android Ward has turned it into a horror show. On the surface, Ward seems like a good-natured synthezoid, but the Soul Stone's possession transforms him into the horrifying entity called Multitude.
Avengers Annual #1 by Jed MacKay, Travel Foreman, Jim Campbell and VC's Cory Petit opens with Ward sitting in a diner explaining what kind of synthetic being he actually is. Of course, none of this matters much to the belligerent bigots harassing him, who soon enough drag him out back for a beating. Not a moment too soon Ward is saved by a friendly trucker sporting a cybernetic arm named John Cray. John makes short work of Ward's assailants before offering the young synthezoid a ride down the road, although he doesn't take the threat of the Sapien League nearly as seriously as he should have. A few miles away, the Sapien League arrives with guns drawn. And when that happens. the Soul Stone takes control of Ward's body to unleash a horrifying attack on his assailants.
Like several other minor heroes in Infinite Destinies, Ward has become host to one of the Infinity Stones. The Soul Stone has long been a foreboding source of power in the Marvel Universe, but it has a mind of its own, one that can take hold of Ward's body when it wants. When the Stone begins to go farther than Ward is comfortable with, he demands to be put back in control so that he can try to help his friend. Once the Stone finally spells things out, Ward doesn't have any time to process the matter before he is confronted by Iron Man and Captain America. The two Avengers have come to claim the Stone at exactly the wrong time, however, and the Soul Stone once again takes over to unleash its might upon them when they stand in his way.
Calling itself Multitude, the Stone releases the souls that it has touched to battle its heroic antagonists. Rather than unleashing an army of threats to battle the Avengers, Multitude scales things back to only a couple of constructs of the assembled heroes themselves. Even if they aren't losing the fight anymore, Ward is still worried about Cray, and continuing the battle doesn't do him any favors while he is bleeding out on the ground. It takes some convincing on his part to get the Soul Stone to negotiate a cease-fire with Cap and Iron Man, but Ward proves able to get through to the Stone before escaping. This might seem like an uplifting ending in which the heroes come together to save a man in need, but that only casts a dim light over the horror that has been uncovered.
If Ward can't keep his control over the Soul Stone, then he has a potentially unhinged cosmic artifact piloting his body towards something that even it can't identify. There is still no telling why the Infinity Stones have chosen new hosts, but the Stones seem set on a direct course to their brethren. Now, Ward has effectively been reduced to a passenger in his own body, and he's weidling a horrifying power that's corrupted some of the strongest minds in the Marvel Universe.