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While the first trailer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness avoided showing the repercussions of Scarlet Witch obtaining the Darkhold, a preview for January 5's The Darkhold Omega comic book delves right into it - including with a 'defiled' team of Marvel heroes twisted evil by the dark book of magic.
Check out this preview of The Darkhold Omega:
So how did this all come about? As revealed in The Darkhold Alpha, Doctor Doom uncovered the original copy of the Darkhold - revealing the others to be cheap knock-offs. The iron-clad mage begins using the book, and inadvertently opens the extra-dimensional prison door keeping the Darkhold's author, Cthton, imprisoned in an alternate dimension called Other-Realm.
That's when the magic-savvy Scarlet Witch steps in, offering to help Doom fend off Cthton - but Doom spirits himself away, leaving Wanda to handle the problem. In turn, she summons a group of fellow heroes - Iron Man, Blade, Wasp, Black Bolt, and Spider-Man - as a new version of the Defenders to defend against Cthton. They decide to venture to Other-Realm to fight Cthton before he can make his way to the 616, but to do so they must read from the Darkhold to gird themselves against the dark magic its author has permeated through the Other-Realm.
And that's where the real problem arises.
Whereas Scarlet Witch has built up some resiliency from magic attacks, her fellow Marvel heroes aren't prepared for how dark the Darkhold is , and it promptly turns them evil - from Defenders to the Defiled, as Marvel describes it - and they attack Wanda.
And that's where The Darkhold Omega begins.
Marvel has confirmed that this The Darkhold event takes place before the events of the current Death of Doctor Strange and the recently-concluded X-Men: The Trial of Magneto.
The Darkhold Omega is written by Steve Orlando, and drawn by Cian Tormey. Former Doctor Strange artist Chris Bachalo has drawn the primary cover for The Darkhold Omega, with variants by Scott Hepburn, and two 'spoiler' variants by Tormey and Gary Frank/Brad Anderson.
The Darkhold Omega goes on sale on January 5, with a The Darkhold collection due out February 15.
Scarlet Witch is ranked high on our list of the best supernatural superheroes in comic books.
