Dark Angel!

Having come to Los Angeles to help Spider-Woman, who is in a coma, the Avengers have enlisted the aid of Doctor Strange and Hank Pym.[1] They discovered that Jessica Drew’s soul had been separated from her body and some mystical force is keeping her out. Suddenly, a mystical barrier appears outside Jessica’s room that keeps everyone but the Wasp, She-Hulk, Tigra, Starfox, and the Shroud out of the room. Inside the room they find Doctor Strange fighting with dark magics that threaten to cause Jessica Drew’s spirit to fade away into nothingness. Worse, Hank Pym reports that Strange’s mystical struggle is threatening to cause Jessica’s body to become brain dead.

That’s when the astral image of Morgan le Fay appears before them and reveals that she is behind all of this. She explains that she wanted the ultimate revenge against her mortal enemy by stealing her body and conquering the present day. She explains how Jessica’s spirit was kept alive in the Astral Plane by her former disciple, Magnus, until she ambushed him mere moments earlier. Then, opening a portal between the physical world and the Astral Plane, Morgan unleashes powerful mystical attacks. Doctor Strange warns the Avengers that he needs to focus on his spell and asks that they keep Morgan busy. While the Scarlet Witch, She-Hulk, Starfox and the Shroud cross the threshold into the Astral Plane to fight le Fay there, the rest of the team remains behind to protect Jessica’s body and Doctor Strange. While everyone fights for their lives, Hank Pym tries whatever he can to keep Jessica’s body alive.

Back on the East Coast, Captain America returns to Avengers Mansion and is surprised to find a holographic projection of the Vision running things there. He is also greeted by Hawkeye and he is quickly brought up to speed on how the Vision has been remotely hooked up to the mansion’s computers.[2] When one of the computer monitors shorts out, the Vision assures Cap and Hawkeye that it was nothing, but is secretly concerned because this is the same energy signature he picked up earlier.[3] Hawkeye dismisses the incident outright because he is excited to introduce Captain America to his new wife.[4]

While back in the Astral Plane, Morgan le Fay has begin absorbing the physical matter of the Astral Plane to turn herself into a indestructible giant to fight back against the Avengers. While she is distracted, Magnus wakes up and sees the state of things. With Jessica Drew’s life on the line the centuries old sorcerer realizes what he must do. While back in the phystical world the battle continues. Doctor Strange finally manages to free Jessica’s soul from Morgan’s magic with the Eye of Agamotto and instructs her to return to the Astral Plane to help the others. There she is reunited with Magnus who apologizes for everything since this was his own fault. He tells her that over 14 centuries earlier he was a disciple of Morgan le Fay, and even became her lover. However, he realized that she was a threat to all life when he discovered that she had obtained the Book of Darkhold. In order to keep Morgan from using its spells, he hid within a tower on the Isle of Wright. When Morgan learned what happened she slew his physical body, but Magnus’ soul managed to flee to the Astral Plane where he continued to live on. He explains that he was able to interact with the physical world only when the proper alignments were met and by possessing someone else’s body, hence explaining his brief time living with Spider-Woman.[5]

Concluding his story, Magnus realizes that even though he loves Jessica and wants to be with her, he needs to sacrifice his life by using up the last of his magic to help defeat Morgan le Fay so Jessica can live. After kissing Jessica goodbye, Magnus’ astral form fades away. Suddenly, there is a mystical bolt and Jessica’s spirit is returned to her physical body. At that same moment, Morgan le Fay feels her connection to Jessica Drew being severed allowing the Avengers to start shattering her stone form. When Morgan’s spirit tries to escape, Doctor Strange casts a spell trapping her within the stone.[6]

With the battle over and Jessica now awake, Hank Pym has some bad news. Although Jessica now has a clean bill of health, the process of bringing her spirit back into her body has come at the expense of her spider-powers. Jessica doesn’t see this as a big loss since she can still continue her career as a private eye and everyone celebrates her recovery.[7]

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Captain America, Wasp, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Starfox, Captain Marvel), Spider-Woman, Tigra, Shroud, Doctor Strange, Magnus, Morgan le Fay

Continuity Notes

1. Spider-Woman has been in a near death state since Spider-Woman #50. The Avengers got involved in Avengers #238 and last issue.

2. The Vision was knocked into a coma in Avengers #233, and was hooked into the Avengers computer with an uplink to the Titan world-mind known as ISAAC in issue #238. He will regain his mobility in Avengers #242.

3. This is another one of the Beyonder’s probes of Earth. The Vision picked up the first one last issue. This is a lead up to Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars #1-12.

4. Hawkeye had just recently gotten married to Mockingbird. See Hawkeye #1-4.

5. Lots of stuff going on here. Some details:

   • Magnus’ relationship with Morgan and the whole Darkhold incident was explored in more detail in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #22.

   • The Darkhold remained on the Isle of Wright until another sorcerer named Modred was tricked by Chthon into obtaining it, as seen in Marvel Chillers #1. Not long after that Merlin and Brendan combined their mystical might to spread the pages of the Darkhold across the Earth, as explained in Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #11.

   • What Magnus doesn’t reveal here is that he spent the centuries monitoring for Chthon’s return, and briefly possessed the body of Jessica’s father, Jonathan Drew. This was detailed in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #22, Uncanny X-Men Annual #12, and Web of Spider-Man Annual #4.

   • Magnus’ time with Spider-Woman was chronicled from Spider-Woman #2 through 13. Presumably because Jessica’s own partial connection to Chthon, as she was later targeted by the demon in Spider-Woman #42-44 — presumably — since later, Captain America #282 and the Viper profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition #14 state that the whole Chthon thing was a mind fuck put in place by Morgan le Fay. What I’m saying is that not a lot about these early Spider-Woman stories make a lot of sense.

6. This is not the end of Morgan le Fay, chronologically her spirit will turn up again in Iron Man #209.

7. Although Jessica’s powers are stated to have been lost here, they will fluctuate over the years, notably during her appearances in Spider-Woman (vol. 3) #1-11 and Alias #19-21. Her powers will end up getting fully restored in Giant-Size Spider-Woman #1, however, she ended up as a prisoner of the Skrulls… it was a whole thing, see Secret Invasion #8.