Synopsis
Defenders (2021 series) #1 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
Dr Strange is levitating in an upside down lotus position considering the possible meanings of the card his tarot deck has given him - the Magician reversed. At which point the Masked Raider enters the room though a portal and announces himself while pointing a gun at the back of the Sorcerer Supreme's head. (His pistol arm passes through 2 more portals en route.) Strange responds with the fiery Bolts Of Baltakk, which the intruder effortlessly defends against. He's astonished at the level of magic skill used, and also how the black mask the foe wears shows up as blinding white to his 3rd eye. The mage invokes the Onyx King to stop magic functioning for both opponents (including the mask) for 30 sec, and defeats the Raider with martial arts ...
... and then Stephen Strange offers his assailant tea, while noting that the Eye Of Agamotto can't see who's under the mask. But he recognises it as the Eternity Mask, created by rebel wizards in Camelot to overthrow kings. Later it helped win the American Revolution and stayed here to be worn by heroes like the original Western Masked Raider. But the original wizard guild evolved into scientists calling themselves the Enclave who themselves sought power to rule. The wearers of the Mask fought against them and many died. Now all that remains is Carlo Zota of the Enclave and the current Masked Raider. (All this and more we learned in Marvel Comics #1000.)
The Raider explains that he tried to stop Zota's latest project creating his latest android Adam-IV, who like most of the Enclave's creations rebelled and went its own way. MR arrived too late but in time to see Adam plough unscathed through Enclave soldiers. Zota invoked the Reset Protocol which MR knew was a time-travel spell which he read from a spellbook intending to go back and get it right this time. Raider shot the book, freeing all its magic to run wild, and his foe vanished randomly into the timestream. MR says he recognised the book as that of Sise-Neg, a future mage who travelled to the past and left written records there. DrS remembers him well (from Marvel Premiere #13-14) as the man who went all the way back to the Big Bang and became creator of the universe. The dangerous thing about magical time-travel is that it can *change* history (whereas scientific time-travel causes alternate timelines). Sise-Neg was wise enough to create the universe as it always was, but Zota may not do the same.
Dr Strange decides he needs to convene a team of Defenders. He brings out the Tarot Of The Secret Flame which he used to pick teams in the Secret Defenders series. He used it then because his magic was weakened. But now that his magic is at full strength he has to use it more carefully. He deliberately asks for 2 cards to represent him (the Magician reversed) and Masked Raider (the Hierophant reversed), and the pictures morph to show those chars. The next card is Judgement reversed depicting the Silver Surfer, 1 of the original Defenders, who now appears from space on his Cosmic Surfboard. The 4th card is the High Priestess reversed and it summons forth the Red Harpy (Betty Banner, who as Red She-Hulk was briefly a Defender in their 2012 series in an adventure which DrS relegated to an alternate timeline). The last card is the Lovers, also reversed, which brings in another ex-Defender Cloud. Unfortunately they are a sentient nebula and the 1st time they appeared on Earth they were reduced to human size by a Cosmic Cube. But without that they start to manifest in the room as a star, which will destroy the Earth.
Stephen Strange has to think fast. To learn the mystic arts the surgeon that he had been had to sacrifice his ego. (We see figures representing many stages of his life.) Now in order to gain magic strong enough to prevent this disaster he must sacrifice his ego again and allow the cosmos and its magic to do whatever is necessary. He sees Cloud take human form again, but all the Defenders are sucked up through the roof of his Sanctum to go where?
When they recover their senses they find themselves lying in an alley and being accosted by a woman who tells them to get up because Taa is being evacuated. Surfer recognises that name as the planet where Galactus The Devourer was born as Galan, which means they've gone way back in time to the 6th Cosmos. The woman doesn't know what they're talking about but does confirm that this is the 6th Infinity and they have their own 'Devourer' called Omnimax. And they see a Galactus-sized being wrecking the place.
CharactersGood (or All)Plus: Cloud, Masked Raider, Taaia.
Enemies
Moridun.
FlashbacksPlus: Carlo Zota.