Agents of A.R.C.A.N.A. (Vol. 1)

AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A.
Plotter: nX01a
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Jerome Opena
Location: Armageddon, Israel; Limbo; Negative Zone
Concept:remise: The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. may protect the world from mundane or even extraterrestrial threats, but the Agents of A.R.C.A.N.A. defend mankind from the eschaton! Every culture has its end times myths but a few are more than mere stories. Our Agents of A.R.C.A.N.A don't just stop doomsday, they stop every doomsday!
Starring:
1. Magik
2. Doctor Voodoo
3. Man-Thing
4. Elsa Bloodstone
5. Scarlet Witch
6. Dr. Strange
Supporting Cast: Vision (Aarkus); Clea; Rick Jones
Antagonists: Shuma Gorath, Set (Serpent Society), Ragnarok, Agatha Harkness, Belasco, Apocalypse (Horsemen), Annihilus, Marvel Zombies, Psycho Man, Diablo; Blackheart; Sise-Neg, Nebulos, Doctor Druid, The Glob, Dreamqueen, Quan-St'ar, Woodgod, Witchfire, Bi-Beast
==Solicitations==
===#0-12===
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #0
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Plot by nx01a
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
'Har Megiddo'
•As demons pour through a portal on the hills of Megiddo National Park in Israel, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are slaughtered by the dozens. A red-skinned, one-armed devil and his blonde, eldritch armor-clad handmaiden command the armies of Limbo to establish a permanent base on the Earth as the first stage in an all out invasion.
•Old witch AGATHA HARKNESS is not at her Salem home to answer the frantic calls of a S.H.I.E.L.D. metahuman liaison. She's already in Israel with monster hunter ELSA BLOODSTONE and mystic physician DOCTOR VOODOO but their firepower won't be enough to turn back BELASCO's brimstone siege engines.
•If only they can get through to the young woman at Belasco's side, the Russian whose mutant teleportation disc is letting Limbo's legions bypass Earth's dimensional defenses. The Right Hand of Belasco was a girl named ILLYANA RASPUTIN before he kidnapped and raised her in his version of Hell, her sorcery and mutant power now his to command. Agatha realizes the girl may be gone but appealing to the entity created in her place and its dark desires just might work. Bloodstone and Voodoo are skeptical but if there's one thing Harkness knows, it's MAGIK!
40 PGs./ Rated T+...FREE!
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #1
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Plot by nx01a
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
'The Scarlet Swamp'
•Stopping BELASCO's demonic invasion was simple enough: figure out what his handmaiden truly wanted, and AGATHA HARKNESS correctly surmised that MAGIK's ultimate goal was freedom from Belasco's yoke. MAGIK teleports the fiendish hordes and Belasco back to and seals them in Limbo in exchange for DOCTOR VOODOO retrieving the Beatrix Medallion whose five bloodstones manifest the continuing darkening of Illyana's soul. Four down, one to go.
•Monster hunter ELSA BLOODSTONE's extreme reservations about Magik are put on hold when the teleportation disc intended to send them to Agatha's Salem sanctum instead literally drops them into the swamp outside Citrusville, Florida.
•Running through the swamp is a young woman dressed in tattered red and black robes. WANDA MAXIMOFF ran from her father before his militant group attacked a nearby military base. Now she runs with tangible randomness roiling around her to slay serpentine stalkers. She does not know the OPHIDIAN ORDER hunting her but her chaotic mutant power is central to their sinuous schemes!
32 PGs./Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #2
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Plot by nx01a
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
'GIANT-SIZE'
•There is a point in the swamp outside Citrusville, Florida where every universe, every reality, every impossibility converges. The OPHIDIAN ORDER want to harness the chaotic hex bolts of the mutant SCARLET WITCH to rip that singularity wide open to usher in the second coming of their imprisoned sidewinding saviour! DOCTOR VOODOO communes with his own snake loa but DANBALA warns not to let this serpent society succeed!
•While AGATHA HARKNESS tries to help Wanda focus her chaos blasts, the unlikely duo of ELSA BLOODSTONE and a strangely magic-less MAGIK fend off wave after slithering wave of serpentine assailants! SNAKE CHARMER, SIDEWINDER, BLACK MAMBA, CALIFORNIA MOUNTAIN SNAKE, COTTONMOUTH, COPPERHEAD... The duo will soon be constricted and consumed by the eldritch-enhanced mercenaries!
•From the murky muck, a moss man materializes. He senses evil. He senses fear. And whatever knows fear burns at the MAN-THING's touch!
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #3
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Plot by nx01a
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
"ANTIVENOM"
Theme Song: Nicki Minaj - Anaconda
•With the lives of her would-be saviours on the line, WANDA MAXIMOFF is forced to use her hex powers on the Nexus of Realities to summon the Cobra Crown for the OPHIDIAN ORDER! But this crown is imperfect, and its effects on the sinuous miscreants as they try to unleash their snake god and reptile religion upon the Earth may prove fatal!
•MAGIK is cut off from her arcane abilities which were honed for Limbo. AGATHA HARKNESS takes on Wanda and Illyana as apprentices to train both their mutant and magic powers before S.H.I.E.L.D. drafts them directly.
•She may not trust Magik but ELSA BLOODSTONE finds herself drawn to DOCTOR VOODOO, a feeling that is quite mutual.
•The MAN-THING is largely confused by these strange humans but he feels the good and fearlessness in them, traits necessary to stand against the rising tide of malevolence murdering lovers in Paris. Valentine's Day this year will have a BLACKHEART!
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #4
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Plot by nx01a
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: David Usher - Black Black Heart
“BLOOD SUGAR SEX MAGIK”
•Anything would be an improvement over watching MAN-THING wrestling giant-size snakes in a swamp, right?
•It's a post-Saint Valentine's Day massacre as DOCTOR VOODOO and the SCARLET WITCH must stop hundreds of lovers' murder/suicides in the streets of gay Paree!
•MAGIK has been relearning the basics of, well, magic from AGATHA HARKNESS but Illyana's frustration is growing. She used to be the second most powerful sorcerer in Limbo but now she has trouble summoning her eldritch armour. Can BLACKHEART, the demonic source of the Parisian mariticides, restore Illyana's full arcane might? The cost is only her heart.
•And should Magik fall to the dark side, ELSA BLOODSTONE's suspicions will be confirmed, and the monster huntress has been preparing to kill Illyana since their first meeting.
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #5
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Plot by NX01A
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Flo Rida ft. David Guetta - Club Can't Handle Me
“FLORIDA MAN”
•Jesus-fueled property damage. Shirtless arson. Drunken mass murder. Incestuous extraplanar portals. There are few things that men in Florida won't do. The question is: Why?! ELSA BLOODSTONE believes the phenomenon is due to demonic possession. With her new arcana-erasing Soul Sword, MAGIK is eager to perform forceful exorcisms, especially after she used it to banish BLACKHEART in Paris.
•While DOCTOR VOODOO and MAN-THING try to stop one Florida Man from performing a live streamed bestiality-driven summoning, Elsa and Magik track another Florida Man intent on turning his fast food customers into zombies by lacing their burgers with synthetic cathinone bath salts so they will eat his brains.
•And has AGATHA HARKNESS found the heart of darkness in the Florida Woman holding a preschool hostage by reciting Coldplay lyrics backwards, thereby inadvertently incanting some of the most vile spells from the Book of Sins: the Darkhold?
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #6
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Plot by N.X.0.1.A.
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: The Supremes - Love Child
”LES ENFANTS TERRIBLES”
•Portals to the Darkforce Dimension are opening across the world, spewing shadow-spawned toddlers!
•AGATHA HARKNESS sees what BLACKHEART was doing on Valentine’s Day in Paris before being banished by MAGIK: siring offspring to be raised in his home plane!
•What can be done about adorable half-demon babies whose very touch brings instant and painful death? Even ELSA BLOODSTONE isn’t comfortable with killing younglings.
•MAN-THING and DOCTOR VOODOO may have a solution but the emotional trauma it will cause Magik may be irreversible.
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #7
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Plot by NX01A
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magic
“WITH THIS RING, I THEE DREAD”
•CLEA and DOCTOR STRANGE plan a private ceremony to reassert their love for each other at Stephen's sanctum sanctorum.
•AGATHA HARKNESS and DOCTOR VOODOO believe it is a ritual to merge the material plane and the Dark Dimension!
•Why not both? With all the chakra, prana, kundalini, and merkaba energies emanating from the light matrices of their bodies and the auric fields of their souls, it's easy to mistake the two. Is Earth's Sorcerer Supreme so blinded by love that he doesn't realize his big day is possibly being usurped for nefarious ends?
•After sending dozens of half-demon toddlers to Limbo to be raised by her kidnapper, BELASCO, so they wouldn't kill or be killed, MAGIK has had enough of portals and human contact. Will she carefully help undo the eldritch marital bindings or slash them to ribbons with her Soul Sword?
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #8
Plot by NX01a
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary
“X-CULT part 1: ONE NIGHT IN SAITAMA”
•After communing with Goetian Spirits, DOCTOR VOODOO determines that the attack on DOCTOR STRANGE and CLEA's wedding came from Saitama, Japan.
•How is the Gallio Foundation, a personal development company with a main mission to have people experience more joy in their lives, involved? MAGIK and the SCARLET WITCH will find out as AGATHA HARKNESS sends them in undercover to take part in one of its X-ecutive Success Programs.
•Will Illyana find wellness and self-improvement, ways to accept and move past the traumas of being literally raised in a version of Hell? Will Wanda be able to cope with her own traumatic upbringing? Are two troubled, mutant sorceresses exactly what the powers behind the Gallio Foundation have been after all along?
•The story continues in UNCANNY X-MEN #8 on sale now!
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #9
Plot by nx01a
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Jimmy Cliff - Wonderful World, Beautiful People
“X-CULT part 3: I Surround Myself With Loving People”
•Singers, social media influencers, actors, corporate financiers, trust fund babies... MAGIK and the SCARLET WITCH encounter them all as the mutant sorceresses go undercover at the Gallio Foundation's Saitama Commune in Japan. After undergoing genetic lifestyle analysis, Wanda enjoys theracoustic therapy in the Harmony Suite while Illyana tries to work through her PTSD via intravenous infusion therapy in the Hope Suite.
•As his astral form tries to breach the vast apotropaic wards keeping the Commune safe from arcane eavesdropping and intrusion, DOCTOR STRANGE crashes into another powerful mind scanning the Commune!
•After much research, AGATHA HARKNESS uncovers the centuries-old history of the Gallio Foundation: from its earliest mention in 3rd century Roman annals as a hot spring inn to a 21st century multinational cosmetics, leisure, and wellness conglomerate. ELSA BLOODSTONE and DOCTOR VOODOO pose as a fitness instructor/psychologist duo offering their services to the latest in a 1800 year-long line of Gallios to run the Foundation, but Selena Gallio may have other uses for them.
•The story continues in UNCANNY X-MEN #9 on sale now!
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #10
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Plot by NX01A
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Mariah Carey - Fantasy
“X-CULT PART 5: I HAVE THE POWER TO CREATE CHANGE”
•ELSA BLOODSTONE and DOCTOR VOODOO continue to work out their marital issues and seem finally close to a breakthr... No. That's not right. Or is that just the discomfort of the Saitama Commune's couples meta-cognitive therapy talking?
•MAGIK and the SCARLET WITCH feel more at peace than ever, as though the trials and tribulations occasioned by being mutant sorceresses are being blissfully drained away in the heat of a psychic sauna.
•And at the center of this Centre sits SELENE. Mogul. Immortal. Mutant. Magician. Vampire. It takes a bit of everything to look this good at 18,000 years old, but the signs of advancing age are showing more and more, and what it takes to banish them increases with each passing millennium.
•DOCTOR STRANGE and PROFESSOR X can surely put a stop to whatever Selene is doing... if only their astral bodies can escape the psionic pleasure and pain webs they're become stuck in while trying to enter the Commune!
•The story concludes in UNCANNY X-MEN #10 on sale now!
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #11
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Plot by nx01a
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Fiona Apple - Across The Universe
“MULTIVERSAL MADNESS” part 1 “WE ARE FAMILY”
•Two lost children have requested help from the SCARLET WITCH, so she and DOCTOR STRANGE must figure out how to get the twins back home to another reality where Wanda is their mother!
•After SELENE's mental manipulation, ELSA BLOODSTONE and DOCTOR VOODOO's feelings for each other are very confused, and previous attraction has been mixed with slowly fading yet still bewildering true love. Perhaps MAGIK's Soul Sword can sever the lingering erophilic magic binding them... but do they want it to?
•AGATHA HARKNESS is quite pleased with the team she's put together. They do good work without the need for annoying oversight. Of course, S.H.I.E.L.D. thinks they're the reason this team exists, and wants these magicians fully accountable and answerable to S.H.I.E.L.D. authority and standards. Agatha will have to remind the poor dears that the baddest witch of them all answers to no one.
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #12
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Rob Zombie - Living Dead Girl
“MULTIVERSAL MADNESS” part 2 “THANKSLIVING”
•Remember the lost trick-or-treating twins who entreated our reality's version of their mother, the SCARLET WITCH, to help them get home? Deep fakes. DOCTOR STRANGE realizes too late that the boys share a single soul tethered to a dying universe overrun by famished undead! The MARVEL ZOMBIES want to come to our home for the holidays and for our brains, and they're using the last flesh in their reality as lures to make others open doorways to their rancid Earth!
•All those who know fear burn at the touch of the MAN-THING... but what do the metabolically challenged fear? ELSA BLOODSTONE was born to fight monsters... but can she fight a monstrous universe? DOCTOR VOODOO knows more about zombies than anyone... but what will he do against zombies immune to his control? MAGIK can close the portal to the Zombieverse with a slash of her Soulsword... but can she be sure they won't find another way out?
•On the bureaucratic front lines of eschatonic warfare... Little did AGATHA HARKNESS know that freeing herself and her team from S.H.I.E.L.D. interference would leave her Agents open to assaults from other far darker organizations.
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
===#13-24===
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #13
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: All I Want For Christmas - MINOR KEY! ft. Chase Holfelder
“MULTIVERSAL MADNESS” part 3/finale “GHOULTIDE”
•All they want for Christmas... is YOU! And your brains. As our heroes face their zombified counterparts, previously unrealized truths occur to each of them in true holiday fashion.
•The OCCIPITAL OCCULTIST makes the SCARLET WITCH realize that she might come across as a bit unhinged.
•Until he met The CORONER, DOCTOR STRANGE never knew how insufferable he sounded.
•MAGIK loves how sexy her zombie self's Soul Sword looks so much that she'll take it off ZOMAGIK's cold, decapitated body. Can you say 'dual wield'?
•ELSA BLOODSTONE is jealous of RED ELSA's ability to freeze everything in crimson crystal but, after killing her double, she learns how to let it go. The cold never bothered her anyway.
•The MAN-THING realizes that GIANT-SIZE is afraid of the same thing he is: shrinkage.
•HOUNGAN HOODOO's ability to control zombies is immense but DOCTOR VOODOO must trust fully in his natural talent and arcane training to succeed. He's not calling himself 'Brother' anymore, so it's time to prove what he can really do against the undead!
•While her Agents fight against unlife, AGATHA HARKNESS fights for her life against a nefarious paranormal agency. Who or what are D.O.A., and what is Operation 2020?!
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #14
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Matthew Good - Weapon
“D.O.A.” Part 1 “OPERATION 2020”
•The DEPARTMENT OF OCCULT ARMAMENTS holds AGATHA HARKNESS hostage deep in her Salem sanctum sanctorum, and it's up to her magical mercen... er... arcana acquaintances to free her! The previously unknown organization's access to powerful artifacts will make this a top gun fight!
•AGENT MAVERICK soars between dark dimensions in a Shadow Cloak, sees the world through the Evil Eye of Watoomb, and generates mass suicide surges with his Wings of Needless Sorrow. It is all DOCTOR STRANGE can do to keep the euthenasia energies from driving everyone within a hundred miles to self destruction.
•MAGIK is no stranger to pain and fear and self hatred. She revels in it now, dual wielding Soul Swords against lycanthropes WOLFMAN with his Jarnbjorn battleaxe and COUGAR swinging the Axe of Angarrumus!
•While they fight above, the other Agents of A.R.C.A.N.A. encounter more D.O.A. Agents below in Agatha's library... and their battle will rock the magical foundations of the multiverse!
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #15
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
“D.O.A.” Part 2 “BIBLIOTHECA PSEUDOPODIA”
Theme Song: The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets - Coelacanthem
•In the sanctum sanctorum of AGATHA HARKNESS, DOCTOR STRANGE and MAGIK fight upstairs while their friends in the Salem home's interstitial bowels also battle the DEPARTMENT OF OCCULT ARMAMENTS!
•Agent GOOSE is a juggernaut of strength empowered by the Amulet of Cyttorak, and he'll use the dread sword Dragonfang to prune MAN-THING down to size!
•"Ka nama kaa lajerama!" That's what DOCTOR VOODOO hears before Agent VIPER's Serpent Tiara turns into a 30 foot golden snake and attacks him! Good thing Voodoo just banished Agent SLIDER somewhere unpleasant and taken his Staff of Moses. Cue snake on snake action!
•Agent MERLIN wants to add the Bloodgem Fragment on the choker around ELSA BLOODSTONE's neck to the Stones of Merlin that empower his spells. Elsa's over her jealousy of her now decapitated Zombieverse doppelganger who could encase food aka people in red crystal, and she's learned how to turn her bullets and arrows and knives and [insert all other monster-killing things here] into the same magic Bloodgem crystal, too. Merlin is about to get more Bloodgem than he wanted in places he didn't want or expect, and Elsa may soon crush his tender Stones in her hand.
•And in her darkest dungeon, Agatha's body is restrained by Enchanto-shackles while her mind is probed by Enchanto-scan! Will she reveal to Agent HOLLYWOOD the location of and how to access the most vile library in New England: the Bibliotheca Pseudopodia?!
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #16
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
“D.O.A.” Part 3 “UNREAL HOUSEWIVES OF MISKATONIC”
Theme Song: Metallica - All Nightmare Long
•Wanda Lipton is living her best housewife life in the suburbs of New England. She deeply loves her twins and her husband, Vishon Lipton, though his life's work as a Miskatonic University artificial intelligence researcher keeps him very busy. Or is it just his work? The beautiful Jocasta Pym, Miskatonic's head librarian, has been calling the house regularly these past few weeks, and Vishon has been working very late ever since.
•Desperate to find the truth, Wanda leaves her twins with neighbour Martin Preston, then barges into Miskatonic's Rare Books Library. No Entry signs, locked doors, and security guards won't stop her from discovering what hidden, illicit things are going on within!
•As Wanda's idyllic vision crumbles around her, so do the real apotropaic barriers around and within the Bibliotheca Pseudopodia. Under the expert manipulation of Agent HOLLYWOOD's Technowand and Warlock's Eye, the SCARLET WITCH will soon unknowingly and violently grant the DEPARTMENT OF OCCULT ARMAMENTS access to the most unspeakably vile tomes on the US eastern seaboard!
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #17
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
“D.O.A.” Part 4 “THE HOUSE OF STARRY WISDOM”
Theme Song: Metallica - Dream No More
•Welcome to Arkham in Essex County, Massachusetts. Arkham is home to Miskatonic University, best known for its winning water polo team, costly research expeditions, and rare books collection. What happens when you combine those three?
•The DEPARTMENT OF OCCULT ARMAMENTS has gained access to the most unspeakably vile tomes on the US eastern seaboard thanks to unhinging the SCARLET WITCH's mind. Now the only thing that stands between them and works like Friedrich von Junzt's Unaussprechlichen Kulten and the fragmentary Book of Eibon is a team of fish-man hybrids wearing speedos and wielding electrified tridents.
•While the D.O.A. deal with the Fighting Cephalopods, DOCTOR STRANGE deals with Wanda's broken probability ability. What if MAGIK forgot magic, AGATHA HARKNESS was burned at the stake 400 years ago, ELSA BLOODSTONE was a pacifist, and DOCTOR VOODOO was only a doctor of psychiatry? If Stephen can't contain the chaos, he'll find out what it's like to have lost his head in a certain car accident.
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #18
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Demons & Wizards - Fiddler On The Green
“D.O.A.” Part 5 “ALONE AND DAZED ON THE EDGE OF THE SWAMP”
•The DEPARTMENT OF OCCULT ARMAMENTS has defeated Miskatonic University's winning water polo team/security service to get their hands on grimy, grim grimoires.
•Made of palm leaves bound in ancient, now-extinct cycadean wood, the Ponape Scripture contained a spell necessary to turn the remaining Deep One hybrids and their electrified tridents into the D.O.A.'s servants.
•Most thaumaturgic tomes are eldritch enchantments and evil equations written on dead plants. The MAN-THING is a living eldritch plant. Can he hold off the D.O.A. and their Fighting Cephalopods until the other AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. arrive? Will they arrive?
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #19
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Demons & Wizards - Wicked Witch
'D.O.A.' Part 6/Finale 'SO DARKLY PROBABLE'
•After besting the MAN-THING at the cost of Miskatonic University's Fighting Cephalopods, the DEPARTMENT OF OCCULT ARMAMENTS begins its endgame!
•Agent HOLLYWOOD chants from De Vermis Mysteriis, "Tibi Magnum Innominandum signa stellarum nigrarum et bufaniformus Sadoquae sigillum!"
Agent STINGER recites from the Celaeno Fragments, "Come forth, Shambler from the Stars!"
Agent CHIPPER refrains from the Book of Eibon, "Come forth, White Worm of Zhothaqquah!"
Agent SUNDOWN shouts from the Eltdown Shards, "Come forth, Warder of Knowledge!" Agent CHARLIE sings from the Pnakotic Manuscripts, "Awake, Watcher of the Cold Waste, now the spheres six and twenty thousand years have revolv'd, and I return to the spot where I now burn!"
•As the stars whirl overhead and the ground shakes, a stepping disk teleports a lightly scorched AGATHA HARKNESS to Miskatonic's Rare Books Library with an open tome in her own hands. After passing her fingers over Braille-like patterns imbued with arcane energy, the swirling space and shaking time invert to converge on and consume the Agents.
•"This? Don't be silly, dears," the smiling witch says as she reads the Agents' dying thoughts then closes the Book of Azathoth which turns into a green-eyed black cat. "Everyone knows the Necronomicon isn't real."
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #20 *Civil War Tie-In*
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Demons & Wizards - Beneath These Waves
“RELEASE THE KRAKEN!” part 1 “THE ISLAND IN THE MIST”
•While AGATHA HARKNESS secures Miskatonic University's terrible tomes and the DEPARTMENT OF OCCULT ARMAMENTS' arcane artifacts, the rest of her team lick their wounds.
•The MAN-THING is looking far less than giant-size after his encounter with Miskatonic's FIGHTING CEPHALOPODS. To be fair, the group is barely holding on after defeating the D.O.A. but DOCTOR STRANGE opens a portal back to the Man-Thing's Florida swamp so the muck monster can rest and regenerate. Where he, Man-Thing, DOCTOR VOODOO, and ELSA BLOODSTONE end up is a misty forest on the banks of a chilly island in the middle of an arctic sea.
•Doctor Voodoo has more to worry about than Elsa being far too chipper for a Brit who hasn't had a cup of tea in over a day. The Norse algiz and elhaz runes carved into the trees, heather bushes, and standing stones have the signature of white supremacist wizard OGMUND TUSSOCK, and the Man-Thing refuses to bond with the island to heal.
•When something massive yet still wreathed in mist rises out of the water and heads for land, it's time to leave but neither Strange nor Voodoo can teleport away. As if on cue, the island itself starts to shake. Perhaps it wants to leave, too.
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #21 *Civil War Tie-In*
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Demons & Wizards - Down Where I Am
“RELEASE THE KRAKENS!” part 2 “CLASH OF THE TITANS”
•In the middle of an enchanted arctic sea, white supremacist wizard OGMUND TUSSOCK rides HAFGUFA the Sea Mist, largest monster in the sea!
•DOCTOR STRANGE, DOCTOR VOODOO, ELSA BLOODSTONE, and a gravely weakened MAN-THING are nearby on the rapidly sinking not-island LYNGBAKR the Heather-Back, largest whale in the world! Voodoo has clashed with Tussock a few times but never on this scale. How did the White Wizard gain control of these leviathans?
•When Elsa cheerfully begins shotgun blasting Ogmund's signature Norse algiz and elhaz runes carved into the trees, heather bushes, and standing stones, Man-Thing feels the great whale beneath them coming free of the White Wizard's geas.
•And so, with their puny humans atop them, the titans tussle!
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #22 *Civil War Tie-In*
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Demons & Wizards - Wolves in Winter
"RELEASE THE KRAKENS!" part 3/finale "BLOOD WINTER"
•In the icy ocean of Mímisbrunnr, well of wisdom, near Jotunheim, land of the Frost Giants, DOCTOR STRANGE, DOCTOR VOODOO, ELSA BLOODSTONE, and MAN-THING ride LYNGBAKR the Heather-Back, largest whale in the world, into battle against white supremacist wizard OGMUND TUSSOCK atop HAFGUFA the Sea Mist, largest monster in the sea!
•Strange and Voodoo are barely holding their own against Tussock, unable to decide which spell to counter his intuitive incantations. It seems the White Wizard is channeling all the wisdom from the waters of Mímisbrunnr for himself. Perhaps this wisdom drain is why the two doctors don't notice the shards of the Stones of Merlin embedded in Elsa's palms (see Agents of A.R.C.A.N.A. #15) glowing like Asgard's Rainbow Bridge before settling on a pulsing crimson to match her burning Bloodstone Choker.
•In a flash, the clashing titans are silenced, the warring wizards are muted, and everything for miles around is encased in gleaming red ice. All that can be heard is a mournful wind carrying soft tones of distant carnage elsewhere in the Realms.
•Wisdom always takes sacrifice.
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #23
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Demons & Wizards - Crimson King
”TOUCHED BY THE CRIMSON QUEEN” part 1 ”NEVER MADE IT AS A WISE MAN”
•Mímisbrunnr, the well of wisdom, has frozen over in crimson crystal.
•White supremacist wizard OGMUND TUSSOCK and his titans are dead, and ELSA BLOODSTONE sits upon a throne of their cold blood, the acuity of the ages jutting through her skin as she herself begins to crystallize.
•DOCTOR STRANGE and DOCTOR VOODOO can barely think, much less form spells. Can the child-like intelligence of MAN-THING find a way to free Elsa of whatever has possessed her before her freezing of insight and understanding spreads inexorably across all ten realms?
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #24
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Demons & Wizards - Seize The Day
”TOUCHED BY THE CRIMSON QUEEN” Part 2/finale ”ACE OF WANDS”
• As MAN-THING helps ELSA BLOODSTONE reject the shards of the Stones of Merlin embedded in her, she pulls the Bloodstone back into her. Mímisbrunnr, frozen over in the crimson crystal, finally thaws to release its wisdom across the Ten Realms again.
• The remnants of the Stones of Merlin form themselves into a crystal shard which STRANGE and VOODOO identify as a Wand of the Wise: a powerful artifact said to only manifest before the End Times to point the way to avoiding certain doom.
• While she waits for her various agents to return from across the Ten Realms, AGATHA HARKNESS reads the Tarot. The card defining the present is the Ace of Wands: birth, commencement, new beginnings. The card defining the future is the Ten of Wands: burdens, intense pressure, oppression. And then the old witch gets a call from the director of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s new Wizardry Alchemy Necromancy Department...
• Next month: X OF WANDS!
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
===#25-36===
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #25 *25th Anniversary Issue!* *One More Day Tie-In*
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: LL Cool J - Mama Said Knock You Out
'X OF WANDS' Part 1/4 'MINOR ARCANA'
•When BLACKHEART spawned dozens of half-human, half-demon toddlers with death touches, MAGIK reluctantly sent them to be raised in Limbo by her kidnapper, BELASCO, rather than have them loose on Earth or killed (Agents of A.R.C.A.N.A. #6-7). Time works differently in Limbo, and it turns out those toddlers are half-mutant, not toddlers anymore, and definitely not staying in Hell!
•S.H.I.E.L.D.'s new Wizardry Alchemy Necromancy Department has been informed by Belasco's infernal lawyer that the Limbo Lord intends another hostile takeover of Earth. Pursuant to the Hell Lord Accord 2020, champions from both planes must choose their warriors, weapons, and where duels will take place over the course of a single day to decide if the takeover will be successful. For some reason, W.A.N.D. wants AGATHA HARKNESS' help in choosing the warriors. Perhaps that has something to do with PROFESSOR X's subtle psionic suggestions. With mutant warriors selected by Agatha (and Charles) and wands chosen by Belasco, the first battle begins on the fiery plane of Gehenna!
•Tall, dark, and handsome KIMARIS wields his psionic energy whips, demonic death touch, and the Wand of Xyggondo against MAGIK and her stepping disks, Soul Sword, and the Wand of the Wise. Magik is weary of the Wand of Xyggondo since it was crafted by her ancestor, GRIGORI RASPUTIN, and his dark power still haunts the shaft. She is more weary of falling into the clutches of Belasco again... and she should be.
•The magic continues in UNCANNY X-MEN #25!
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #26
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Beastie Boys - (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)
“X OF WANDS” Part 3/4 “THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE”
•Limbo: 2 | Earth: 1
•In the legally and infernally binding contest to see if the duly appointed ruler of Limbo will gain ownership of Earth, CYCLOPS won his match while WOLVERINE and MAGIK lost their matches. It's a nailbiter but this hostile takeover isn't over yet!
•GÄAP, Limbo's next champion, doesn't need to use his demonic death touch to kill X-23 on the Planes of Pohldahk. His mutant power makes the very air around her caustic and toxic while his Wand of Satannish traps her within an arcane bubble! Laura's healing factor won't last long in conditions like the surface of Venus but it gives her enough time to use the Wand of the Molecule Man to purify the air, disrupt the magic field with the metal of her adamantium claws, and take the fight to Gäap! Can her healing factor survive his death touch? Can he survive the touch of her claws?
•As with anything involving attorneys and demons, this isn't a fair fight. AMY is one such Limbo Lawyer, and she will use her good luck mutant ability to make sure Limbo wins. While Amy tries to turn the tide of the remaining matches, the SCARLET WITCH and NIGHTCRAWLER try to stop her in the Realm of the Crimson Dawn.
•The magic concludes in UNCANNY X-MEN #26!
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #27
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: The Lovin' Spoonful - Do You Believe in Magic?
“ONCE & FUTURE QUEEN”
•MAGIK, Mistress of the Ten Wands, is handling being the new Queen of Earth and Limbo as well as Limbo's Sorceress Supreme surprisingly well. While DOCTOR STRANGE and AGATHA HARKNESS remain skeptical, Illyana's new provisos to the Hell Lord Accords make invasions of other realms far less draconian... but still possible.
•PROFESSOR X tries to maintain order on Krakatoa as the 72 demon-mutant hybrids from Limbo take up residence there as part of Magik's efforts to acclimatize them to Earth. Perhaps they can experience better lives on an island of mutants rather than an infernal realm but will the other mutants survive the experience?
•While MAN-THING enjoys the Krakatoan flora and fauna in a big way, the SCARLET WITCH and NIGHTCRAWLER drink cocktails under a palm tree on Valentine's Day. Seeing the two of them together in the twilight is quite the vision.
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #28
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Deep Purple - Smoke On The Water
"IF I BE WASPISH, BEST BEWARE MY STING."
•Everyone in the US wondered where the murder hornets disappered to back in 2020. When a small swarm of them appears in Saitama, the locals aren't worried by these familiar so-called 'sparrow insects'. But when the swarm takes the shape of a hornet which grows to the size of a skyscraper? If anyone knows how to flee from giant monsters, it's the Japanese.
•After a quick X-Jet jaunt from the mutant-run island of Krakatoa, the SCARLET WITCH hexes NIGHTCRAWLER's brimstone to envelop and placate the murder swarm but it only makes the hornets more agitated. Luckily, her hex inadvertently opens a portal to another dimension! Enter THE VISION! Generating his own smoke, the entity known as AARKUS calms the swarm before freezing its constituent hornets solid. As they fall and shatter like hail, Nightcrawler realizes he may have competition for the Scarlet Witch's affections.
•Who would weaponize murder hornets? As DOCTOR STRANGE investigates, it may be the same people who made them disappear from America in the first place... and they may make him disappear, too!
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #29
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Sound: Stylized Sound Of A Jail Cell Locking by Mike Post
”AoA: AVU”
•In the karmic justice system, magic-based offenses are considered especially heinous. On the material plane, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Arcane Victims Unit. These are their stories.
•177A Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, New York City
Detectives MAXIMOFF and VISION look around the home of STEPHEN STRANGE after an attempt was made on his life using eldritch wasps. Wanda confirms something tried to breach the wards protecting Stephen's sanctum sanctorum, and Aarkus notices a smiling neighbour watching them too intently.
•Benjamin Franklin Parker Memorial Hospital
Doctor DRUMM and Nurse BLOODSTONE believe they've stabilized Strange's arcanaphylaxis but the next 24 hours will be crucial.
•666th Precinct
Captain RASPUTIN interrogates friendy neighbourhood witch AGATHA HARKNESS and her service cats, Ebony and Señor Scratchy. The smiling old woman thinks this reality is twisted somehow, and Illyana calls in station psychologist SALLIS for a consult. Is Agatha senile or mentally ill, is something deeply wrong with existence, or has it been Agatha all along?
•To Be Continued!
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #30
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Whitney Houston - So Emotional
”LOVE IS HOPE WITHOUT DOUBT. HATE IS FEAR TURNED OUT.”
•Fear. Ted Sallis is terrified he'll never be human again, only the MAN-THING. All who know fear burn at the Man-Thing's touch... and Ted is the Man-Thing. Thus the Man-Thing burns.
•Doubt. DOCTOR STRANGE once lost what made him the best surgeon in the world: his hands. Can he hold onto what makes him the best sorcerer in the world: his mind?
•Hate. DOCTOR VOODOO and ELSA BLOODSTONE's relationship started with an enchantment but does that mean what came after isn't really love? It must be, for isn't the hate driving each to murder the other fueled by true love?
•Fear. AGATHA HARKNESS has been maneuvering things from the shadows all along, afraid to show herself lest she end up here again where it all started: being burned at the stake. Does the smoke truly look otherworldly or is she having a VISION?
•Doubt. MAGIK's cunning and thirst for revenge drove her to become the Queen of Earth & Limbo. Even when she had nothing else as a little girl alone in Hell, Illyana had her will, but now she has doubts... and those doubts are slowly unmaking the basic forces holding Earth and Limbo together.
•Hate. The SCARLET WITCH? No. More. No! More! NO!!! MORE!!!
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #31
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Mariah Carey - Emotions
“YOU KNOW THE WAY TO MAKE ME LOSE CONTROL”
•Fear. The terrified MAN-THING burns at his own touch until nothing but human Ted Sallis bravely remains.
•Doubt. With Ted as a focus, DOCTOR STRANGE regains his confidence.
•Hate. DOCTOR VOODOO and ELSA BLOODSTONE's murderous relationship needs a magically-enforced time out so they can focus on their love.
•Fear. Burning at the stake, AGATHA HARKNESS feel the flames for an instant before she phases through them thanks to VISION but what he tells her of her last two agents leaves her terrified.
•Doubt. MAGIK's uncertain grip on Earth and Limbo is slipping as both realms spiral into nothingness. Her magical power and eldritch authority are being drained, pulled away by the grip of another's hatred.
•Hate. The SCARLET WITCH absorbs Magik's eldritch energies but are they enough? No. More. No! More! NO!!! MORE!!!
•Psycho. Make them feel.
•Man. Watch them fall.
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #32 *Negation Tie-In*
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Black Sabbath - Psycho Man
'Playing In His Twilight Zone'
•The imaginary world melts, bitter ice cream dripping into the gutter of reality under the relentless intensity of an alien sun. Can the real world be far behind?
•PSYCHO-MAN, emotional vampire refugee from the Microverse, faces off against three alien LAWBRINGERS who breached his twisted playground. He drowns ROFL in the depths of despair but NSFW and NSFL seem immune to his feeling filters.
•AARKUS the VISION and former MAN-THING Ted Sallis help DOCTOR STRANGE, DOCTOR VOODOO, ELSA BLOODSTONE, AGATHA HARKNESS, and unconscious MAGIK from the almost-alive proto-matter chambers that imprisoned them to see an enraged SCARLET WITCH unmake NSFW and NSFL at the conceptual level.
•When Psycho-Man shrinks back to the Microverse, ROLF regains his senses, his distress call summoning ASAP and TTYL. Wanda needed Magik's power to destroy two of the elder Lawbringers, and as she begins to drain and focus the magical energies of the other Agents, an approaching Lawbringer's aura makes her know fear far deeper than anything Psycho-Man could.
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #33 *Negation Tie-In*
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: The All-American Rejects - Gives You Hell
“DENEGATION”
•ROLF, ASAP, and TTYL are alien LAWBRINGERS bent on subjugating Earth. Luckily, the SCARLET WITCH has the full stolen power of the Limbo dimension to call on to vanquish them. Unfortunately, there isn't much energy left to stop an even more powerful elder Lawbringer: AARP!
•Her allies beaten around her, armoured MAGIK stands with her Soulsword in hand and a teleporting stepping disc under AARP and everyone else. Next stop: Limbo!
•Time works differently in Limbo, sometimes in many different ways at once. The Scarlet Witch's purloined power drain was a long time ago, and there's a new ruler on the throne of a lush and green Limbo. Will the new head honcho help the former ruler against AARP or simply send demon hordes to eviscerate them all?
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #34
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Sting & Cheb Mami - Desert Rose
'Project Sulfur' Part 1 'Diabolique'
•Limbo is an Eden where happy demons frolic and play in meadow and forests with the entrails of their new master's victims, the newest being the late elder alien LAWBRINGER formerly known as AARP.
•Limbo's throne burns with alchemical fire, and upon it sits Esteban Corazón de Ablo. The power vacuum and time dilation created with the SCARLET WITCH stole MAGIK's power to fight off the Lawbringers created an opportunity, one which DIABLO couldn't resist!
•Naked with their arcana inhibited by magicalchemical agents in the garden of Limbo, AARKUS the VISION, DOCTOR STRANGE, DOCTOR VOODOO, ELSA BLOODSTONE, and AGATHA HARKNESS must find some way to dethrone Diablo before the next part of his nefarious plan begins. He didn't leave them alive for nothing.
•Illyana and Wanda finally throw down with fists and feet!
•Dr. Ted Sallis sacrificed his MAN-THING abilities in PSYCHO-MAN's weird-world to save his friends but he feels something similar to his former power in the plants of the garden. Out of a stream rises a voluptuous mass of moss and muck which claims to be his dead wife, Dr. Ellen Brandt... the WOMAN-THING!
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #35
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Faster Pussycat - Poison Ivy
'Project Sulfur' Part 2 'Attack of The Giant-Size Woman-Things!'
•With the help of the resurrected ex-wife of former MAN-THING Ted Sallis, dread DIABLO recreated the SO-2 Serum which made Ted into a shambling horror. Esteban Corazón de Ablo didn't stop there, amplifying SO-2 with his abstruse alchemy to create an invasive floral species able to swallow an entire ecosystem... or dimension. And so Diablo became the ruler of Limbo, its now sylvan demons at his command.
•Dr. Ellen Brandt awoke in muck, a vegetable monster who knew itself to be human, whose will and genius were suborned to those of Diablo. She is no more able to help Ted and his companions than she is able to stop herself from helping Diablo in the next step of his plan.
•Every garden has a serpent. After beating each other senseless, MAGIK and the SCARLET WITCH are approached by two serpents! S'YM and N'ASTIRH may be infected with Diablo's verdant agent but they're still demons, and they offer the powerless heroes a chance to free themselves and damn themselves at the same time. While N'astirh works with AARKUS the VISION, DOCTOR STRANGE, and DOCTOR VOODOO on the base spell for a paranormal paraquat, S'ym infects Wanda, Illyana, ELSA BLOODSTONE, and AGATHA HARKNESS with a weakened version of the SO-2 Serum not bound to Diablo's will.
•While the sorcerers work, the denizens of Limbo and Diablo himself must brace themselves for the attack of the GIANT-SIZE WOMAN-THINGS!
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #36 *Giant-Size 3rd Anniversary Issue!*
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: The Charlie Daniels Band - The Legend Of Wooley Swamp
“PROJECT SULFUR” Part 3 “WHAT IS A MAN-THING?”
• Three GIANT-SIZE WOMAN-THINGS knock around plant-demons.
• Naked sorcerers battle a mad alchemist for his Philosopher's Stone.
• In the midst of this war for Limbo, Ted Sallis is human once more but his ex-wife is now a monstrosity of muck and mire. Her will is not her own as she submerges him in her bountiful bush, drowns him in her green depths. Ted feels the call of his old curse. Can he take this burgeoning burden from her or is it too late for everyone in this Hell?
64 PGs./ Rated M...$5.99
===#37-50===
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #37
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Rosemary Phillips - What Child Is This?
"PROJECT SULFUR" Part 4 "WHAT CHILD IS THIS?!"
•Diablo is dethroned, his Philsopher's Stone destroyed, and Limbo is a desolate hellscape populated by defoliated demons ruled by MAGIK once more.
•Ted Sallis saved his ex-wife from the curse of the MAN-THING by accepting the mantle himself again, a process which left a thankful Ellen Brandt nothing but a skeleton. But why is this expanding bump on Man-Thing's stomach squirming?
•An elemental spirit yearns within Man-Thing to be born but can anything birthed in Limbo be anything other than evil? With AGATHA HARKNESS and the SCARLET WITCH as midwives, DOCTOR STRANGE uses the fragments of the Philosopher's Stone to transmute muck and mire to flesh and bone while DOCTOR VOODOO calms the unborn spirit. Magik makes sure her demons don't interfere with an innocent soul manifesting in Limbo but ELSA BLOODSTONE and AARKUS the VISION stand ready to dispatch any who would try... or end the newborn should it prove monstrous and the others too soft-hearted to let fall the axe.
•Meanwhile on Earth... The DEPARTMENT OF OCCULT ARMAMENTS lies in ruins, most of its agents slain, none of its artifacts taken except the Gauntlet of Shuma-Gorath.
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #38
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Tonic - Flower Man
“INFINITIVE GAUNTLET” Part 1 “BOG BOY”
•As MAN-THING deals with having given birth to a healthy son able to shift from flesh and blood to muck and back, psychic outrage from GHAUR of the DEVIANTS makes MAGIK realize she's put off fully embracing her role as Queen of Earth & Limbo far too long.
•A being calling itself THANATOS attacked Found Lemuria, taking a meteoric Star Stone from the Deviants to integrate into the Gauntlet of Shuma-Gorath, and the resultant chaos may plunge the Deviants into civil war! (See Deviant #1 on sale now!) The ruler of Earth and Limbo was supposed to protect the sacred Star Stones, and now someone has begun collecting them.
•Magik and DOCTOR STRANGE send off their forces to secure the other Star Stones while trying to figure out who this Thanatos is.
•DOCTOR VOODOO and ELSA BLOODSTONE teleport to the Nordic cairn of Sharkosh the Shaman to secure the Star Stone entombed within but find renegade K'un-Lun mystic QUAN-ST'AR and succubus illusionist DREAMQUEEN already there.
•And on the edge of the Sol system, a green planet rolls in its horror unheeded toward Earth.
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #39
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Iron Maiden - The Wicker Man
"INFINITIVE GAUNTLET" Part 2 "EFFIGY"
•The scramble for the Star Stones continues!
•DOCTOR VOODOO and ELSA BLOODSTONE haven't checked in but DOCTOR STRANGE and CLEA can't wait for word on their success of failure in collecting the Sharkosh Star Stone. They teleport via the Dark Dimension to Brú na Bóinne to search several Irish passage tombs for the the Star Stone of Xander. They didn't expect to find DOCTOR DRUID and the Druids of Black Moors already looking!
•Older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids, the Brú na Bóinne tombs' archaeoastronomical alignments may be key to discerning which tomb contains the Star Stone. Newgrange and Dowth have winter solstice solar alignments while Knowth is oriented towards the spring and autumn equinox. The druids had no success at Newgrange and were on to sack Dowth, so Clea presumes they'll come up short at the other Winter tomb, too. While the druids search, their giant effigies of wood and vine containing drugged men and women guard the Knowth tomb. Can Clea and Stephen untangle the subtle and slippery nature magic empowering these Wicker Men before the constructs awaken to their presence and burst into arcane flame, roasting those inside for fuel as they charge into battle with the divining duo?
•With no sign of the Star Stone-stealing THANATOS and no insight into its true identity, MAGIK's annoyance increases when she receives a summons from NEBULOS, Lord of the Planets Perilous, to appear before an emergency meeting of the dimensional lords! Her neglect of station as the Queen of Earth and Limbo has not gone unnoticed.
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #40
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Twisted Sister - Burn in Hell
'INFINITIVE GAUNTLET' Part 3 'WELCOME TO THE ABANDONED LAND'
•At the summons of NEBULOS, Lord of the Planets Perilous, MAGIK has come before an impromptu meeting of the Dimensional Lords on KATHULOS the Living Planet! Illyana takes her place beside ARIOCH of the 998th Plane, KHOON the Conqueror, Sorcerer Supreme AGGAMON of the Purple Dimension, and Nebulos himself as her fitness to watch over Earth and Limbo is questioned by a demonic half-breed who looks disturbingly like...
•Her secret name is Ananym but her chosen title reflects her goals and what burns within her: WITCHFIRE! She will have Limbo for her protectorate as her dead father once did. Magik goes pale at the mention of her kidnapper and tormentor BELASCO! Illyana beheaded Limbo's former Lord and took his place as Limbo's Sorceror Supreme and Lord of the hellscape but superheroics kept her from fully securing and defending its borders from usurpers like DIABLO. Protecting Earth hasn't gone much better with the mysterious THANATOS and his servitors stealing Star Stones previously put on Earth for safekeeping. Will the Dimensional Lords put Magik's rulership to a vote or have Witchfire put Magik to the sword?
•AGATHA HARKNESS believes she has identified Thanatos but her Salem sanctum sanctorum comes under arcane assault! Will she, weakened MAN-THING, and newborn BOG BOY survive?
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #41
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Loreena McKennitt - The Mummers' Dance
“INFINITIVE GAUNTLET” Part 4 “AND SO THE JOURNEY OF THE NIGHT DESCENDS”
•AGATHA HARKNESS has many secrets, one of which is a fragment of the original Starstone which MERLIN forged into far too many ebony artifacts. She's used this evil-attracting Starstone shard as a burglar alarm, its pull drawing most intruders to it and its entrapping wards first instead of her other items of power. This time, however, that's exactly what the mercenaries who break in are after.
•They're called SHADOWFORCE ALPHA: heavily warded humans armed with mundane munitions and Breathing Guns able to kill mystical entities. This thirteen member special magic unit know their way around Agatha's Salem sanctum sanctorum far too well, probably from stolen DEPARTMENT OF OCCULT ARMAMENTS files. She ponders on possible remodeling options while siccing a geased DIABLO on them! He's been dutifully put to work cleaning Agatha's house since being deposed as interloping ruler of Limbo but he's also part of the house's defense system. Shadowforce Alpha is good at killing magical and mortal threats, and Diablo's transmutations keep them on edge with their dual alchemical and arcane nature while Agatha picks off any scragglers.
•MAGIK's appearance before an impromptu meeting of the Dimensional Lords on KATHULOS the Living Planet took a turn when dead BELASCO's daughter, WITCHFIRE, demanded rulership of her father's former realm be turned over to her. To be fair, Magik admits to being a bit negligent as Queen of Earth and Limbo but promises to do better. Now the turn keeps getting worse as the other Dimensional Lords vote for trial by combat to determine who will be Liege of Limbo!
•And in the darkness between dimensions, a figure watches the match with little interest, its attention firmly focused on the plant-animal-mineral avatar of Kathulos and the Starstone embedded in its forehead!
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #42 *Fear Itself Tie-In*
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Coldplay - 42
“INFINITIVE GAUNTLET” Part 5 “LIFE, THE UNIVERSE, AND EVERYTHING”
•Giant-size movie tie-in!
•DOCTOR STRANGE and CLEA escaped from DOCTOR DRUID and his Druids of Black Moors but they and two dozen Irish men and women they saved from flaming Wicker Men have been transported by the Star Stone of Xander to a bizarre realm the spellslingers know far too well.
•Life, the universe, and everything in the Chaos Dimension *is* SHUMA-GORATH! The gauntlet bearing his name is part of a still unknown plot by a still unknown enemy which requires it and the Star Stones but what does The Unclosing Eye know of this? Shuma-Gorath is willing to tell... if Stephen and Clea surrender the humans to Devourer-God of the Eternal Ever-Was in body, mind, and soul!
•The SCARLET WITCH and AARKUS the VISION's search for DOCTOR VOODOO and ELSA BLOODSTONE has also led to another dimension: a pocket reality of nightmares created by K'un-Lun mystic QUAN-ST'AR and succubus illusionist DREAMQUEEN!
•Aarkus is smoke trapped in a bottle forever drifting on an endless sea!
•Wanda: trapped in a fantas... Wait. She's been here before, done this before. Being trapped in a nightmare is sadly nothing new for the her or Elsa and Jericho, the pair having already broken free of the delusion. Now it's time for them to break Quan-St'ar and Dreamqueen!
•As MAGIK gains the upper hand in a Soulsword fight with WITCHFIRE for the lordship of Limbo, the being known as THANATOS finally reveals himself! As even the Dimensional Lords are caught off guard, Thanatos kills the plant-animal-mineral avatar of KATHULOS the Living Planet and steals its Starstone before disappearing! Illyana can't worry about that, though. Witchfire used to distraction to gain the upper hand, and she intends to plunge the Soulsword it holds down into the current Queen of Earth and Limbo's heart!
•With the few surviving members of SHADOWFORCE ALPHA added to the ranks of DIABLO and her other geased house staff tasked with cleaning up their invasion's mess, AGATHA HARKNESS finds MAN-THING and newborn BOG BOY watching a bad monster movie. If only Ted Sallis had the heart to tell her it isn't a movie; it's the news.
42 PGs./ Rated M...$4.20
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #43 *Fear Itself Tie-In*
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Bobby Pickett - Monster Mash
'INFINITIVE GAUNTLET' Part 6 'MONSTER TRASH'
•DOCTOR STRANGE, Sorcerer Supreme of Earth, isn't willing to trade dozens of innocent human lives to SHUMA-GORATH for information on the mysterious entity collecting Star Stones.
•CLEA, Sorceress Supreme of the Dark Dimension, is.
•As the victrix of the Soulsword fight between MAGIK and WITCHFIRE goes to receive her rightful title as ruler of Limbo, the sentient world beneath her feet shudders. Saprotrophic extensions of K’Lay try to wrest control of the plant part of KATHULOS the Living Planet's plant-animal-mineral gestalt! Will the Queen of Limbo help the assembled Dimensional Lords fight off the Dark World Tree or will she throw in her lot with its darkness?
•MAN-THING searches for toddler BOG BOY after the little tyke teleports through the wood of his crib into the hedge maze outside, beyond the sanctum wards of AGATHA HARKNESS. In the midst of a monstrous invasion, the power of black lagoon Yacuran infuses many Earth creatures who frequent morasses, sumps, and fens. Some of these monsters wouldn't mind getting their hands on a young elemental for their new masters... or for dessert.
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #44 *Fear Itself Tie-In*
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Richard Delvy - Green Slime
“INFINITIVE GAUNTLET” Part 7 “GOB GOD”
•K’Lay, the Dark World Tree, has warped AGATHA HARKNESS' hedge maze into an extension of itself, trapping toddler BOG BOY in its sinister twists and turns.
•MAN-THING must figure out the maze's new secret paths while fending off attack from the GLOBS! Convict JOE TIMMS and geneticist SUMNER BECKWITH are composed of swamp matter like Man-Thing, and they've suddenly developed a hunger for young elemental flesh. Even if he can get past them, Man-Thing will have to deal with another Glob: a salvaged alien biomachine whose programming is also driving it to consume the child. Man-Things collide and things get messy!
•With K'un-Lun mystic QUAN-ST'AR and succubus illusionist DREAMQUEEN trapped and tormented in their own nightmare dimension, the SCARLET WITCH, AARKUS the VISION, DOCTOR VOODOO, and ELSA BLOODSTONE return to a nightmare Earth overrun by CHTHON's nightmares! Horror and terror are highest when dealing with the unknown, the unseen, and there's an entire realm of invisible monsters roaming Earth. The GYGES are one race of these cloaked devils, their touch drains body, soul, and eldritch power, and they've set their hungry eyes on the recently returned foursome.
•SHUMA-GORATH has revealed that masked THANATOS is really a wizard named ABDUL ALHAZRED, a mad mage following instructions in the Thanatosian Tomes on how to summon the MANY-ANGLED ONES from their extradimensinal homes to Earth! DOCTOR STRANGE finds it hard to think about that possible eschaton while wondering if his relationship with CLEA can survive after she gave Shuma-Gorath the bodies and souls of dozens of innocent humans in exchange for Abdul's identity and goals.
•All this and the dual Soul Sword-wielding Queen of Limbo takes her throne!
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #45 *Fear Itself Tie-In*
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Jinkx Monsoon - Strange Magic
'INFINITIVE GAUNTLET' Part 8 'QUEEN SAVE THE GODS'
•There's one Queen of Limbo... and she's MAGIK! Illyana now wields both her own Soulsword and a Soulsword she carved from the twisted essence of BELSACO's daughter, WITCHFIRE! Magik is also the Queen of Earth, and those invading it from the dark realms of K’Lay will fall before her spirit scythes!
•CLEA shocked DOCTOR STRANGE when she gave innocent souls to SHUMA GORATH in exchange for information about mad mage ABDUL ALHAZRED. What Stephen didn't know was that the souls were already taken. Her part-Faltine nature showed Clea the aetheric ties binding the souls to another plane, to another god, and Shuma Gorath won't be able to consume them unless the other entity relinquishes ownership. While Shuma Gorath and the other god wrangle, Clea and Stephen still have a chance to save the innocents!
•After too many trials at the hands of the Dark World Tree's monsters, most of AGATHA HARKNESS' mystic marshals return to her sanctum sanctorum. The SCARLET WITCH, AARKUS the VISION, DOCTOR VOODOO, and ELSA BLOODSTONE find Agatha, MAN-THING, and newly rescued BOG-BOY watching Batgirl on HBO Max. Agatha wanted to watch a funny B movie. Considering the horrors outside, who can blame her?
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #46 *Fear Itself Aftermath*
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: The All-American Rejects - (Hope It) Gives You Hell
'INFINITIVE GAUNTLET' Part 9 'HOPE ITSELF'
•With Earth slowly recovering from the Horror God invasion, the most traumatized communities along the Aegean Sea find themselves optimistic and cheerful. Something sinister is obviously at work, and MAGIK won't let her responsibilities as Queen of Earth & Limbo lapse again.
•After millennia shackled, ELPISPES walks free, and where she walks blackened earth sprouts new life, hardened hearts become upbeat. The power that flows from her wormwood box soothes and regenerates but the hope contained in the Pyxis of Anesidora is finite, intended for all the world, not just where the minor goddess claims as her own. CHTHON's rampage freed her but she's locked in the same deific thinking that made ancient Augures imprison her: her chosen will not suffer, and she will drain hope from the rest of the planet to ensure it!
•Magik could merely cut Elpispes down with her twin Soulswords but gods are notoriously difficult to kill. Illyana may opt for making Elpispes someone else's problem. As Hesiod wrote, "Thus it is not possible to escape the mind of ZEUS!"
•In nearby dimensions, DOCTOR STRANGE and CLEA are entwined in other divine diplomatic wranglings. SHUMA-GORATH tussles over dozens of innocent souls with their other owner: the Elder God of All That Slithers, SET! This minor war of tentacles and scales may provide the chance to fray the weakened anagogic weave binding the innocents to the two evil entities. Even if successful, the souls gone to their true final destination won't be the ones to suffer the wrath of two dark gods; Doctor Strange and Clea will!
•ABDUL ALHAZRED has some of the Star Stones but some aren't enough to power the Gauntlet of Shuma-Gorath and open the way for the MANY-ANGLED ONES. AGATHA HARKNESS and her little coven have the remaining pearls of power, and the Mad Mage will have them!
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #47 *Marvel Studios' Werewolf by Night Tie-In!*
Plot by NX01A
Written by DENNIS O'NEIL
Art by NEAL ADAMS
Theme Song: Sea Wolf - You're A Wolf
“INFINITIVE GAUNTLET” Part 10 “WEREWOLVES BY DAY”
•A day in the lonesome October finds MAN-THING and BOG BOY relaxing in AGATHA HARKNESS' garden amidst the first leaf fall of autumn when evil befalls them! Claws and teeth and fur and fury swirl as werewolves attack at high noon! The lupine servants of insane wizard ABDUL ALHAZRED want the remaining Star Stones, and they'll rip through marrow, moss, mortar, and magic to get them!
•Regal yet feral LEONHARDT VON KÖNIGSBLUT and his pack rip through DIABLO, SHADOWFORCE ALPHA, and Agatha's other enthralled defenders while the mad mage's maleficium batters down the walls and stones themselves!
•It's all Man-Thing can do to keep the HUNTER IN DARKNESS from mauling Bog Boy while were-mutant FRIEDRICH VON ROEHM carves into Diablo!
•As Alhazred and his other lycanthropes storm the mansion, Agatha summon the full might of her Agents to stand between them and the last Star Stones!
•Marvel Studios' Werewolf by Night starts streaming exclusively on Disney+ on October 7!
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #48
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Johann Sebastian Bach w/ Richard Elliott - Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
'INFINITIVE GAUNTLET' Part 11 'VAMPIRES BY NIGHT'
•Killing monsters is what ELSA BLOODSTONE lives for, and she'd gotten her fill of putting down many of the werewolves attacking the sanctum sanctorum of AGATHA HARKNESS. How will she fare against hybrid NINA PRICE the VAMP-WERE?
•DOCTOR VOODOO's loa face the lycanomancy of werewolf warlock LORD VERMISKOWL!
•As they rush through the kitchen, the SCARLET WITCH and AARKUS the VISION are accosted by the Thanksgiving turducken leftovers of DARKHOLD DUCK; and he ain't happy about getting fridged!
•In the catacombs beneath her mansion, Agatha stands with DOCTOR STRANGE, CLEA, and MAGIK against ABDUL ALHAZRED and his Star Stone-encrusted Gauntlet of Shuma-Gorath! They think they stand between the mad wizard and the final Star Stone but little do they know that there is one more above them, and Vamp-Were plans to carve the so-called Bloodstone out of Elsa's neck!
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #49
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: All I Want For Christmas - MINOR KEY! ft. Chase Holfelder
'INFINITIVE GAUNTLET' Part 12 'ALL I WANT'
•It's a beautiful Christmas morning at snowy Manse Harnkess. BOG BOY rips open the presents proud MAN-THING got him. The SCARLET WITCH introduces AARKUS the VISION to the customs of mistletoe while DOCTOR VOODOO and ELSA BLOODSTONE enjoy eggnog and each other in a cozy corner. DOCTOR STRANGE can't keep CLEA and AGATHA HARKNESS from arguing whether to have a traditional Earth Christmas lunch or a Faltine Yule feast.
•It's a perfect Christmas. That's why it's wrong.
•Bog Boy may be the equivalent of six years old but children soon tire of perfection, and after playing with all his toys, he sees through the glamour cast over the adults by the bad man in smelly robes reading from a creepy book.
•The imaginary fir and holly and ivy and mistletoe and poinsettia feel real even to those creating them, and Bog Boy's plant army is all that stands between Earth and mad mage ABDUL ALHAZRED opening a gateway to the darkness between the stars!
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #50 *Grimoire-Size Milestone Issue!*
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by JEROME OPEÑA
Theme Song: Lana Del Rey - Born To Die
'INFINITIVE GAUNTLET' Part 13/Finale 'SPLITTING THE INFINITIVE'
•Mad Mage ABDUL ALHAZRED has succeeded in releasing SOH'CAH'TOA, a Great Old One bent on destroying Earth! No last ditch auguries show a future free of Soh'Cah'Toa wrath! It has to happen... but where?
•There must be a future where Soh'Cah'Toa destroys Earth, so why not create one? The only hope is to perform one of the most powerful spells in any dimension: an eschatonic scission. Once cast from the legendary chronopticon, a quantum divergence will duplicate the timeline and branch it away from the original, taking the inevitable world-ending threat with it. Soh'Cah'Toa will destroy an Earth, just not this Earth.
•There is no time to question the morality of creating eight billion people only to foist what would be your madness and suffering and death upon them. Will DOCTOR VOODOO, DOCTOR STRANGE, CLEA, AGATHA HARKNESS, the SCARLET WITCH, and MAGIK open the chronopticon and cast the spell?!
64 PGs./ Rated M...$5.99
===#51--===
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #51 *New Creative Team! Shocking New Direction!*
Plot by NX01A
Written by TODD McFARLANE
Art by MARC SILVESTRI
Theme Song: Onslaught - A Perfect Day To Die
'HEROES REBURN' Part 1 'YEAR OF HELLS'
•It didn't work.
•The eschatonic scission failed to banish SOH'CAH'TOA, the Great Old One summoned the rest of the Outer Gods to Earth, and the other Dimensional Lords have sealed off the mortal plane to contain the madness!
•ELSA BLOODSTONE's corpse serves as the vessel for the abominable ARCEXCOSEC while her dead lover DOCTOR VOODOO is animated by HACOVERCOS! Neverending waves of chaos and gibbering mania overtake humanity, and not every Agent is going to make it out of the former basement of AGATHA HARKNESS alive!
•Welcome to the murder of the Old World and the stillbirth of the New.
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #52
Plot by NX01A
Written by TODD McFARLANE
Art by MARC SILVESTRI
Theme Song: Nicki Minaj - Anaconda
“HEROES REBURN” Part 2 “THEN YOUR EYES SHALL BE OPENED, AND YE SHALL BE AS GODS”
•Mankind has become as the Great Old Ones: free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside, and all men shouting and killing and reveling in joy! The liberated Great Old Ones teach the rapidly dwindling population new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the Earth is aflame in a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom!
•Hell is quiet except for the weeping of the last humans still sane. MAGIK teleported as many as she could to the realm she controls, but mankind wasn't meant to live in Limbo. A million souls live or die by what she thinks and feels for Limbo is morphic, changing based on the state of its mistress, and it currently resembles Moscow under a cinder sky.
•Magik may rule Limbo but it was once the Great Old Ones' foothold in creation, and there are still dimensional cracks through which they can slither. It's through one of these cracks that XKA'AHK the SLITHERER enters Limbo to corrupt the hopeless people of a burning Eden, and it's twin Soulswords versus Venomblade for the fate of humanity!
•Even if Magik defeats Xka'Ahk the Slitherer, more Great Old Ones will come. A desperate plan and unlikely heroes may be all that stand between humanity and extinction.
52 PGs./Rated M...$5.20
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #53
Plot by NX01A
Written by TODD McFARLANE
Art by MARC SILVESTRI
Theme Song: Jimmy Cliff - I Can See Clearly Now
'HEROES REBURN' Part 3 'THE ASSEMBLY'
•The GREAT OLD ONES and OUTER GODS roaming the burning Earth are unknowable and incomprehensible, but one must know and understand one's enemies in order to defeat them.
•Within the extradimensional Citadel of Light and Shadow lies the Crystal of Ultimate Vision, the key to final understanding. Only the strong and righteous can reach it, and they are in short supply among the million New Yorkers huddled in Limbo. Considering New York had the highest concentration of superheroes on Earth, MAGIK managed to save a few.
•MONICA RAMBEAU, D-MAN, STINGRAY, THUNDERSTRIKE, VISION, SERSI, and STARFOX must walk the winding ways between worlds, prove themselves worthy, and retrieve the Crystal of Ultimate Vision!
•While heroes fight, devils scheme. Magik conspires with BLACKHEART, ruler of Limbo's neighbouring Archipelago of Anguish, to assassinate his rival and Great Old One sympathizer MARDUK KURIOS. Will Blackheart honour his agreement to help Magik take the fight to the Outer Gods themselves?
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #54
Plot by NX01A
Written by TODD McFARLANE
Art by MARC SILVESTRI
Theme Song: Billy Talent - Hanging Out With All The Wrong People
“HEROES REBURN” Part 4 'GENTLEMEN ROGUES'
•While heroes quest to find clarity, it's up to the bad guys to find cover.
•New York had the highest concentration of superheroes on Earth, and it makes sense that it also had the highest concentration of supervillains. SCORPION, SHOCKER, MOLTEN MAN, the SPOT, and SPEED DEMON must steal the warped Shining Trapezohedron from heirophant SHAMASH-SHUM-UKIN in the depths of Lost Lemuria.
•The Shining Trapezohedron shows all of time and space for the right sacrifice, and it's needed to show the blind spots of the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods. As they lead their team through the Spot's portals, Scorpion and Shocker know their team is the required sacrifice but go ahead anyway. The last of humanity won't survive without villains.
•As per their Hell Lord agreement, MAGIK and BLACKHEART defend Limbo from its latest Great Old One invader: cosmic demon ASTEROTH. It doesn't help that she's one of Blackheart's exes. He broke her heart, now she'll break everyone's souls.
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #55
Plot by NX01A
Written by TODD McFARLANE
Art by MARC SILVESTRI
Theme Song: Blue Öyster Cult - The Old Gods Return
“HEROES REBURN” Part 5 'BERSERK'
•The heroic sacrifice of SCORPION, SHOCKER, MOLTEN MAN, the SPOT, and SPEED DEMON retrieved the Shining Trapezohedron. The similarly tragic sacrifice of MONICA RAMBEAU, D-MAN, STINGRAY, THUNDERSTRIKE, VISION, SERSI, and STARFOX retrieved the Crystal of Ultimate Vision.
•In another dimension, with voyeuristic intention, well secluded, Magik sees all. With a bit of a mind flip, she's into the time slip... and nothing can ever be the same.
•It worked. The eschatonic scission worked. This is the damned timeline, the one created to sequester and banish the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods. There is no escape for anything or anyone here. Either the eldritch abominations die or the last of humanity does.
•Magik's allies are few but at least her brother, COLOSSUS, stands by her side as she manifests her ultimate berserker armour. BLACKHEART fell in battle with ASTEROTH but Magik can still count on PHOENIX, LADY KWANNON, ARCHANGEL, SONGBIRD, and the Egyptian twins, APOCALYPSE and the SPHINX, for the final assault.
•The former basement of AGATHA HARKNESS holds the portal to the Outer Dark, home of the beings perverting existence. Guarding it are the abominable ARCEXCOSEC possessing ELSA BLOODSTONE's corpse plus Elsa's dead lover, DOCTOR VOODOO, animated by hated HACOVERCOS. Can Magik and humanity's last stand resist the alien geometries and mind-melting angles or is this the end of the Earth?
Arcana
MAGIK
Name: Illyana Rasputin
Affiliation: Agents of A.R.C.A.N.A.
Powers: •Magic: Sorceress Supreme of Limbo
•Stepping Discs: Space-Time teleportation
•Soulsword: Disrupts magic and kills magical beings
•Soul Armour: Physical and arcane protection
•Psionic Shields
Intelligence: ••••
Strength: ••
Speed: ••[••••• *Teleportation]
Durability: ••••
Energy Projection: ••••••
Fighting Skills: •••••
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #56
Plot by NX01A
Written by TODD McFARLANE
Art by MARC SILVESTRI
Theme Song: The Doors - The End
“HEROES REBURN” Part 6/finale 'THE END OF THE EARTH'
•At the end, her allies have fallen yet her two greatest enemies remain.
•In this sealed Hell, only MAGIK stands between half a million humans and the maliciousness of NYARLATHOTEP and the mad chaos of his master, ULUATH THE UNDERGOD!
•If she dies, Magik's pre-arranged death spell will kill what's left of humanity. Better to go peacefully in an instant than to suffer in madness forever at the hands of alien gods.
•The Queen of Earth and Limbo smiles as the ultimate monsters slither forth. At least she has a snowflake's chance in Hell.
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
AGENTS OF A.R.C.A.N.A. #57
Plot by NX01A
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by TRAVIS CHAREST
Theme Song: King Crimson - The Night Watch
'DEAD OF NIGHT' Part 1/3 'WARRIORS OF W.A.N.D.'
•S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Wizardry Alchemy Necromancy Department (Last seen during the X of Wands crossover event!) has a new director of necromancy... and her name is Harkness!
•AGNES HARKNESS claims to be the distant descendant of AGATHA HARKNESS, and she's after a pair of corpses very dear to her ancestor!
•ELSA BLOODSTONE and JERICHO DRUMM aka DOCTOR VOODOO fell in battle against Mad Mage ABDUL ALHAZRED and SOH'CAH'TOA, a Great Old One bent on destroying Earth! Only by creating an eschatonic scission using the legendary chronopticon, a quantum divergence to duplicate the timeline and branch it away from the original, was the inevitable world-ending threat of Soh'Cah'Toa banished to destroy an Earth, just not this Earth. While Agatha's team broke apart after condemning eight billion people to madness and death, Agnes assembles a team to retrieve those the bodies under S.H.I.E.L.D. rules requiring the isolation and study of all terrestrial materials exposed to extremely rare Lovecraftian wavelengths. Unfortunately, other forces try to bodysnatch the heroes from their resting places first.
•Gonaïves, Haiti is the first stop for a newly minted Warrior of W.A.N.D. as NIGHTWATCH tries to save Doctor Voodoo's body from N'GABTHOTH, the Shambler from the Sea!
•JAINE CUTTER and NATHAN GREAT OWL the GHOSTDANCER's trip to Bloodstone Curios in Boston, Massachusetts, to retrieve Elsa's body may prove even more challenging!
W.A.N.D. Profile
NIGHTWATCH
Name: Dr. David Trench
Affiliation: Warriors of W.A.N.D.
Powers: •Wings of Needless Sorrow: Absorbs and amplifies arcane energies and negative emotions to fuel various spells (necroplasmic blasts, force fields, empathic manipulation, regeneration, etc.)
•Shadow Cloak: Mys-Tech mantle allows flight; teleportation; extradimensional storage of magitech weapons; contains, torments, and drains the life forces of prisoners within to power itself.
Intelligence: ••••
Strength: ••••
Speed: •••[•••• *Teleportation]
Durability: •••••
Energy Projection: •••••
Fighting Skills: ••••
32 PGs./ Rated M...$3.99
==Ultimate A.R.C.A.N.A.==
ULTIMATE A.R.C.A.N.A. #1
Plot by NX01A
Written by SKOTTIE YOUNG
Art by DANIEL WARREN JOHNSON
“MAGICKAL MYSTERY TOUR” Part 1 'THE SHATTERER OF WORLDS'
•AGATHA HARKNESS and her Hellfire Cult have guarded the divide between Earth and the Realms Beyond since the death of the last Sorcerer Supreme and most mortal mages at the dawn of the Age of Reason. Magic slowly receded or was suppressed as science grew in strength but the old ghost roads had to be monitored and sealed... with the requisite sacrifices.
•The last sacrifice was an innocent Russian girl of immense genetic and arcane potential delivered to one of several Hells. Two decades later, the Russian is back, and she's bringing back all the magic with her!
•In the guise of gods and heroes and monsters, mutants saved and destroyed the world since the dawn of time. These titans now sleep thanks to the insidious spells of the Hellfire Cult but Agatha must wake the most dangerous ones to combat the coming invasion!
•The suicidal firebird called the PHOENIX! The siren of Death heralded as the BANSHEE! The wrathful weather elemental worshiped as the STORM! Even the galvanic monster who threatened to end all technology more advanced than a telegraph, the MAGNETO, has to be freed!
•Betrayed, abused, and stripped of her bothersome soul, the RASPUTIN rose to rule not just her personal Hell but all the adjacent ones. Now there's only one Hell left to conquer: Earth!
32 PGs./Rated T+...$3.99
Category:New Universe titles