Chasing a Dark Shadow

Previously…

A woman named Tess Black was making her way through Times Square when she happened upon the clash between Doctor Strange and Dormammu. Their mystical battle was interrupted by Spider-Man whose presence altered the nature of the spells being cast. This caused Strange, Spider-Man, and Dormammu to be sucked into a vortex with the army of Mindless Ones that were unleashed on the city.[1] Caught in the Malestrom, Tess is possessed by a strange black entity that escapes from the vortex, the possession knocks her out. When Tess wakes up a short time later, the chaos is over and she wanders off unaware how serious this was. However, this possession doesn’t go unnoticed as it attracts the attention of cosmic beings and gods alike. From the Grandmaster, the Gardener, to Asgard’s guardian Heimdall, to Loki, all the way down to celestial aspects like Lord Chaos and Death itself, they all detect the presence and recognize it as something incredibly old.

Now…

Tess Black fights to keep back the presence that possessed her. As she fights, Peter Parker wakes up in bed as his spider-sense goes off like crazy. Peter tries to get it to stop but it won’t. While at the same time, Tess Black cannot fight the presence anymore as it takes full control of her body. Peter’s spider-sense suddenly stops and when Mary Jane asks if he’s okay, Peter tells her he feels somehow worse, not better. While in the realm of Asgard, Loki approaches the Great Tree with a special ruin stone asking it to show him what he has sensed. At that same moment, the essence that has taken possession of Tess Black — Morwen the First Sorceress of Chaos — is now free. Before setting about her business, she uses her powers to transform Tess’s apartment to a matter befitting her. At that moment, Loki learns that the essence he feels is in New York and he must go there to get the answers he seeks. Needing to get to Midgard, Loki senses that while Heimdall is at his usual post on the Rainbow Bridge he is being distracted by Volstagg. Using another rune, Loki transforms himself into a spider so he can slip past Heimdall’s keen eyes. As he goes, he feels that the runes selected this form for a specific purpose.

Once on Earth, Loki disguises himself as a child to conduct his search. As he searches the city, he comes upon Spider-Man who is busting up some crooks and wonders if this is what the runes were telling him about earlier. Spider-Man chases one of the crooks into an dead-end alleyway. When the crook tries to run the opposite way he finds it webbed shut. That’s when Morwen dissolves the webbing to walk through. She then swats the crook aside with a single gesture but cares little when he gets back up and escapes. As Loki watches Morwen thanks Spider-Man for freeing her, saying that she was trapped until Spider-Man and Doctor Strange traveled through time.[2] She goes on to say that she wants to give Spider-Man her thanks. At first, Spider-Man refuses and is about to send her over to Doctor Strange, but decides against it and instead sees what she intends to offer. She offers to give him the world, but when Spider-Man refuses, she tells him that he will give him the night to think it over before vanishing into thin air.

Spider-Man realizes that he is in over his head and decides to pay a visit to Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum.[3] However, nobody answers when he comes knocking at the door. That’s when Loki, still disguised as a child, approaches Spider-Man and says he has been sent to bring the web-slinger to Doctor Strange. Loki lures Spider-Man to an empty warehouse where he drops his disguise, saying he needed the deception so he could talk to Spider-Man in private. Loki explains that Spider-Man was responsible for freeing Morwen during his recent encounter with Doctor Strange. Loki intends to keep Spider-Man prisoner until Morwen returns to him and tries to use his magic to ensnare the webhead. Spider-Man refuses to allow himself to get captured, and Loki refuses to tell him why the trickster god wants Morwen. When Spider-Man refuses to talk, Loki mortally wounds a man who comes into the warehouse to see what’s going on. Loki offers to save the man’s life if Spider-Man promises to stay by Loki’s side when Morwen returns. Spider-Man agrees and after them an is taken to a hospital, Loki decides to pass the time by answering Spider-Man’s questions about Morwen. Loki explains that she is a sorceress of great power. Not much is known about her, but it was said that wherever she went empires fell. That was until she ran afoul of the Ancient One who banished her to another dimension centuries before he trained Doctor Strange to take over his role of Sorcerer Supreme.[4] When Spider-Man asks what it will take to defeat her, Loki warns that to banish her once again could drive her host insane or kill her, an option that Spider-Man refuses to allow. Although he does not wish to work with Loki, Spider-Man agrees to let Loki deal with Morwen, but he only agrees to do so if Loki promises that nobody dies.

Meanwhile, in the South Bronx, Morwen witnesses two rival gangs in the middle of a gunfight and decides to use her powers to grand one side with weapons powerful enough to destroy the other. Watching these thugs use the enhanced weapons they provided, Morwen smiles as this is only the beginning of her plans for the planet Earth.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Loki, Morwen, Mary Jane Watson, Tess Black, Grandmaster, Gardener, Heimdall, Volstagg, Death, Lord Chaos, Ancient One (flashback)

Continuity Notes

1. This scene is from Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #58.

2. This is a reference to Amazing Spider-Man #500. She refers to Doctor Strange as the “other” Doctor Strange. What she means by this is that when Spider-Man and Doctor Strange were sent back in time in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #58, Spider-Man was sent to find Doctor Strange in the distant future by reliving every moment of his life. Instead, he stopped during the events of Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #57 and prevented Mister Fantastic from creating the accident that frees Dormammu and led to Strange and Spider-Man going back in time anyway. Amazing Spider-Man #500 ends with the events of issue #58 never happening on Earth-616 and creating a divergent reality of Earth-31228. It was left with a mystery as to what happened to the divergent Doctor Strange that ended up lost in the timestream with Spider-Man. At the time I’m writing this it’s a mystery that’s never solved. There was a Doctor Strange mini-series that was planned that probably explained all of it, but that series never materialized.

3. Spider-Man recounts his last encounter with the super-natural, referring to his battle against Shanthra in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #46-48.

4. It is mentioned here that the Ancient One trained Doctor Strange. We first saw this in Strange Tales #115.

Continuity Errors

1. As seen in Amazing Spider-Man #500, Spider-Man ends up going back in time ending up a few moments before Mister Fantastic uses a device to send the Mindless Ones back but instead accidentally reconstitutes Dormammu in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #57. Spider-Man prevents this, making the events of issue #58 (where Dormammu comes back and later kills everyone) occur in a divergent reality of Earth-31228. As such, Tess Black being possessed by Morwen would only have happened on Earth-31228 and not on Earth-616. Then again, magic works in very strange ways and perhaps Morwen/Tess were shunted back to Earth-616 when Spider-Man prevented the future where Dormammu destroys the Earth.