Six-Armed Spider-Man

While I wanted to produce a post for this blog that in some way ties into Sony’s Morbius movie, I couldn’t find any direct connections to the MC2. So, instead I present the next best thing: an in-direct connection to Morbius’ first comic appearance within the MC2.

 

Some history for those who don’t know: In Amazing Spider-Man #100, Stan Lee’s last regular issue, Peter Parker uses a formula he had developed in an attempt to finally rid himself of his spider-powers. Untested, Peter takes a chance and tests it on himself, soon after becoming unwell and experiencing terrible nightmares. Upon waking, Peter is horrified to discover he has grown four extra arms.

 

In shock and forced to hide this latest unexpected development, Peter fobs off his then-girlfriend Gwen Stacy and an offer of work at the Daily Bugle, and desperate to find a place to hide and work on an antidote for his condition contacts Dr Curt Connors aka The Lizard. Connors allows Spider-Man to use his secluded place in South Hampton which included a fully-equipped laboratory in the basement, and Peter stealthily makes his way there under cover of darkness and spends two days frantically trying to cure himself to no avail (Amazing Spider-Man #101). 

 

Meanwhile, another Doctor, Michael Morbius makes his debut aboard a nearby anchored ship. Having killed the ship’s captain, Morbius is turned upon by the crew until nightfall allows him to regain his strength and make short work of them before leaping from the vessel with some remorse. Morbius seeks shelter and rest in the nearby house owned by Curt Connors, and soon encounters Spider-Man when night falls. Their battle is interrupted by the sudden arrival of Curt Connors himself and the shock triggers his own transformation into his more monstrous Lizard form (Amazing Spider-Man #101).

Morbius and the Lizard fight over who may lay claim to the Spider-Man until Morbius seizes an opportunity to bite the Lizard but is interrupted before fully feeding by Spider-Man and quickly departs. The bite causes the Lizard to partially revert to Connors, including the loss of his right arm, which leads Spider-Man and Connors/the Lizard to deduce they can utilize an enzyme from Morbius’ bite to cure themselves. After an extended exploration of Morbius’ origins, we pick up with Spider-Man and a Lizard who is quickly-reasserting control of his mind and body. The pair track down and add some of Morbius’ blood to their serum which fortunately proves to be the cure they needed, restoring Connors to human form and removing Spider-Man’s addition limbs. Naturally, Morbius escapes and is believed to have perished beneath the waves (Amazing Spider-Man #102).

 

Now, how does all this have any bearing on the MC2? Well, we know for sure these events transpired in the past of the MC2’s Peter Parker thanks to an unlikely source; Spider-Man Family Vol. 1 #1. Therein we have a story (seemingly) set during the mostly unexplored point in time after Baby May is rescued and returned to Peter and Mary Jane Parker by Kaine but before Peter loses his leg in his final battle with Norman Osborn aka the Green Goblin. Lured into a trap by the villain Jack O’ Lantern aka Maguire Beck, Spider-Man meets and teams-up with Araña and her *sidekick* Miguel as they battle a variety of museum like room full of Spider-Man robot’s designed to resemble various costumes and points in Peter’s career. Among these we see a Six-Armed Spider-Man robot which should reaffirm for anyone who may doubt the Main Marvel Universe and the MC2 share a common history (up to a point) and by extension, the existence of the living vampire Morbius.

 

Now for a little nit-pick! While I can understand how a villain like Jack O’ Lantern would confuse Ben Reilly or Miguel O’Hara with the original Spider-Man and include them when filling out her museum of various Spidey robots, the very existence of a Six-Armed Spider-Man was supposedly a secret. That said, I’d like to offer a No-Prize explanation, if I may. During the so-call ‘Six-Armed Spider-Man’ story arc, various phone calls are made to New York’s TV News Service and the Daily Bugle about the events that are transpiring, including Morbius’ attacks and a sighting of the Lizard and the extra-limbed Spider-Man, described as a ‘prowler’ with ‘the usual hundred arms.’ It’s conceivable that one of these witnesses managed to snap a photo of the arachnid hero amid all this confusion. Alternatively, any of the participants including Morbius or Connors may have later relayed this information to others. In fact, we know for certain that Spider-Man told the Human Torch about his encounter with Morbius, including mention of how he cured himself of his additional limbs (Marvel Team-Up #3). Problem patched?

 

Well, that’s the closest you’ll get to an MC2-related Morbius tie-in post from me, I hope it was worth the read. Let me know if you think I’ve missed some super-obvious connection!

 

Until I start producing my own unique enzyme that’s capable of removing entire limbs while cursed to crave the blood of others, I remain

 

frogoat

Doc Magus: Who's Your Daddy?!

 

I must admit I’ve been devoting a fair bit of time and thought to the MC2’s present Sorcerer Supreme, the youthful Doc Magus. With that being the case, today I’m going to take a look at Dormagus’ parentage. In particular this post will provide the answer to the question of just exactly who is Dormagus’ father.

 

So, this one is easier than you might think. Let’s take a look at the not so subtle and numerous clues from throughout Doc Magus’ appearances: Firstly in his debut in A-Next #3, the former Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Strange refers to Doc Magus by his real name Dormagus upon his encountering him. The pair are on very familiar, albeit somewhat antagonistic or strained terms with one another. Doc Magus refers to Stephen Strange as ‘Old Man’ and is well aware that the Doctor was ‘fired’ as the MC2’s current Sorcerer Supreme. Dormagus refers to Doctor Strange as ‘the Old Man’ a few more times and later states he’s become ‘more ruthless and bitter with age’, meanwhile Stephen reminds the young Sorcerer Supreme that his ‘skills were honed in this realm long before [Dormagus’] birth' so evidently, they have a pretty personal knowledge of one another’s history.

 

While in an unknown dimension alongside the Avenger J2 battles a Darkling posing as the original Juggernaut, the dark lord Nemesus taunts Dormagus’ about the mystic’s strained and dysfunctional relationship with his own father. When he is thwarted and retreats, Nemesus’ parting words to Dormagus are ‘give my regards to your own dear father!’ (J2 #4).

 

Doc Magus later summons Zane and informs him he has found his father being held in a small, unexplored pocket dimension for years. Ignoring a protective warning from Doctor Strange (whom Dormagus calls ‘Old Man’) to wait for reinforcements, Dormagus and Zane make their way to the pocket dimension to rescue Cain Marko aka Juggernaut. Despite reuniting Zane with his father, Nemesus appears and reveals Doc Magus had fallen into his trap and closed the heroes gateway home, trapping them. Fortunately, Doctor Strange appears alongside his fellow Defenders the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner to help the others escape from Nemesus’ dimension. Nemesus comments ‘I should have known you wouldn’t let Dormagus fall into my hands without a fight’. With their escape route seemingly blocked, Dormagus begins what he believes may be his final words with ‘We may have had our differences over the years, but I want you to know that I’ve always been real proud of the fact the you’re my—’ before he is interrupted. With their escape secured, Dormagus responds to Doctor Strange’s comment about closing the door behind him with the quip ‘Really? My father must have skipped that lesson.’ I think these *ahem* clues are adding up now (J2 #12).

 

Around this time, Doctor Strange made an appearance in Wild Thing #0 where he makes a knowing comment to Wolverine: ‘Independent children can be such a trial, eh, Wolverine?’ This is remark is not well received by Logan, but it’s also very telling of Doctor Strange.

 

When next he appears, Doctor Strange is greeted by Doc Magus with far more appreciation due to his lack of expertise when attempting to save the demonic hero Darkdevil. Even so, Dormagus still calls Strange ‘Old Man’ and when asked for help, Stephen responds ‘And you shall have it, my boy!’ (Spider-Girl #83)

 

Let’s finish this out, shall we? When Doc Magus rebuffs Doctor Strange’s offer to work together to solve the mystery of various kidnapped heroes, Strange quips ‘You certainly have the arrogance of youth, my son.’ Yet again, Dormagus calls Stephen ‘Old Man’ (Last Hero Standing #2).

 

By now it should be pretty darn clear that Doc Magus aka Dormagus’ father is none other than Doctor Stephen Strange. The real mystery is what has transpired between the two that makes them so often unkind to one another. It’s obvious that Stephen keeps an eye on his son and is prepared to jump in to protect him despite all their animosity. For a future post I’ll be covering the inevitable follow up question of who Dormagus’ mother could be...

 

Until I stop pointing out the obvious, albeit not explicitly stated, I remain

 

frogoat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doc Magus: Sorcerer Supreme of the MC2

 

As I recently covered the MC2’s resident Sorcerer Supreme, the youthful Dormagus aka Doc Magus, in his cameo appearance alongside various other Sorcerers Supreme from throughout time and across the multiverse in Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme, I thought now might be a great time to take a proper look at the character. So, today’s post is all about Doc Magus.

 

Dormagus makes his debut in the pages of A-Next #3, when he sends his astral form to former Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Stephen Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum home. A lot of interesting pieces of information come to light in this introduction: for starters Doc Magus’s real name, the fact that he is the current Sorcerer Supreme and that there is evidently a lot of unspoken resentment, familiarity and history between Doctor Strange. More on their dynamic in another post someday soon.

 

Having foreseen a world-threatening tragedy that will unfold in the near future, Doctor Strange takes matters into his own hands and recruits his former Defenders teammates Namor the Sub-Mariner and the Incredible Hulk in an apparent attempt to save the day using extreme measures. Doc Magus attempts to warn off Strange and when this fails, he takes his mentor Deacon’s advice and approaches the newly formed Avengers team for help. Soon enough the two teams clash in Arizona until Dormagus uses the Eye of Agamotto to uncover Doctor Strange’s true motives were three-fold: to make Namor proactive once more, ensure the Hulk is able to fulfill his destiny and provide the new Avengers team a ‘baptism of fire’.

 

Doc Magus also briefly appears in J2 #3 which retells the same events from the titular character’s own perspective, but he makes a far more substantial appearance in the very next issue. We see Dormagus unmasked for the first time here when J2 aka Zane Yama recruits the mystic’s help seeking his father, the original Juggernaut who was lost in a strange dimension on a mission with the X-Men. Following Zane into his recurring nightmare in his astral form, Dormagus finds himself alone in an unknown dimension confronting Darklings until Deacon manages to send J2 to aid the sorcerer. The two heroes discover the Darklings master is the dark lord Nemesus who reveals he plans to use Doc Magus’ point of entry into his dimension as a gateway to their plane of reality. While J2 battles a Darkling posing as his father, Nemesus drops hints about the real Juggernaut’s fate and taunts Dormagus’ about his strained relationship with his own father before retreating when temporarily thwarted. Doc Magus promises Zane they will eventually find his missing father (J2 #4).

 

True to his word, Doc Magus later summons Zane and informs him he has found his father being held in a small, unexplored pocket dimension for years. Ignoring a warning from Doctor Strange to wait for reinforcements, Dormagus and Zane make their way to the pocket dimension to rescue Cain Marko aka Juggernaut. Despite reuniting Zane with his father, Nemesus appears and reveals Doc Magus had fallen into his trap and closed the heroes gateway home, trapping them. Fortunately, Doctor Strange appears alongside his fellow Defenders the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner and aid in escaping from Nemesus’ dimension before they are all swarmed by legions of Darklings (J2 #12).

 

We don’t see the Sorcerer Supreme for quite some time, with only a brief appearance in Spider-Girl #58 before he makes a full-fledged return in Spider-Girl #71, once again teaming up with his buddy J2 alongside Spider-Girl for a trip to the nightmare dimension of Nemesus to close a rift Earth. While the magic of Dormagus and the helmet of J2 permit them to see through Nemesus’ invisibility spell, Spider-Girl was forced to rely entirely on her spider-sense as the trio sabotage the villain’s invisibility machine and ruin his plan with Doc Magus turning Nemesus’ magicks against him and his Darklings and folding the rift in upon itself. Sadly, the trio’s efforts go unappreciated.

 

 

When the demonically empowered vigilante Darkdevil is stabbed through the chest by the Venom Symbiote bonded with Normie Osborn, Doc Magus is called upon to save him. Struggling to save the hero, Dormagus admits he is out of his depth and accepts the help of Doctor Strange just as the demon Zarathos appears and warns the two mystics to leave Darkdevil’s body as he claimed it as his own. Unable to perform a conventional exorcism, the two are forced to journey into Darkdevil’s mindscape and restore the balance between the three vying avatars within the hero: the spirit of vengeance Zarathos, the ghostly spirt of the costumed hero Daredevil and the boy Reilly Tyne (Spider-Girl #83-#84).

 

Now that he’d been firmly reintroduced, Dormagus returns for the events of the Last Hero Standing mini-series. With a string of superheroes going missing, Doc Magus sets out to find them on his own, once again rejecting the aid of Doctor Strange, only to wind up defeated in his astral form by a disguised Loki and fall under the villain’s thrall immediately afterwards when reunited with his mortal form and abducted (Last Hero Standing #2).  

 

Returned to Earth alongside the other abducted heroes, Doc Magus is unable to recall who kidnapped him and compelled by Loki’s spell to become more violent leading to a clash with other heroes.Believing he knows who kidnapped him, Doc Magus falsely leads the other heroes to Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum only to be confronted by a Loki-controlled and enraged Hulk who makes short work of the assembled heroes indiscriminately. Upon finding Doctor Strange in a coma, Dormagus is unable to detect Loki’s handiwork thanks to the dark spell’s effect (Last Hero Standing #3-#4)

Thanks to the arrival of Thor and a small team of heroes led by Captain America, as well as the Grand Vizier of Asgard Eternal, Loki’s bewitchment is revealed and the day is saved, albeit at the cost of Captain America’s life. Doc Magus is among those who witness the hero’s passing and his spirit’s transformation into a new star by Thor (Last Hero Standing #5).

 

While not actually appearing on-panel himself, Doc Magus is among those who’s energy matrix duplicate (created by the magic of the Asgardian Sylene) makes an appearance in Avengers Next #4-#5, indicating that Dormagus fell victim to this spell before the Avengers managed to save the day.

 

Doc Magus briefly encounters Spider-Girl while trying to find the source of enormous discharges of psychic energy which are tampering with the astral plane. While he senses a connection to Spider-Girl’s search for a kidnapper, she fails to see how it’s possible. Later, Doc Magus is among the massive assembly of heroes who show up to aid Spider-Girl in her endeavour (Amazing Spider-Girl #15).

Finally, we have the cameo in Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme #12 mentioned at the start of this post, which brings us full circle for appearances of the young Dormagus. Doc Magus is a very fun and often arrogant character who tends to get himself into more trouble as a result of his hubris. As I mentioned above, I will likely delve into other aspects related to Dormagus in future posts.

 

Until I suddenly win the favour of the Vishanti and become the new Sorcerer Supreme, I remain

 

frogoat