Secret Wars #4
When The Cabal looked up at the end of issue #3, they saw the full weight of the Thors coming down on them. And when this issue starts, the Thors clearly didn’t stand a chance. Then things go from bad to worse, so they decide to go running to God Doom for help.
Things aren’t going so well, huh?
Leave it to Sheriff (Doctor) Strange to have to keep explaining how the old Multiverse is gone and that he and Doom killed the Beyonders in order to save what was left of the destroyed worlds. Strange couldn’t take the power required to become a god, but Doom relished it. Of course, this revelation and shift in perspective wasn’t limited to Doom. Cyclops took the Phoenix into himself just before the end and he’s developed something of a god complex.
Really? REALLY? This was a good idea, Scott?
And you thought he was pompous before. At this point even Strange is starting to get a little worried about the former leader of the X-Men. Of course, it doesn’t last long because the Thor who’s been with this little group the whole time is being summoned to action as The Cabal is proving too much for the rest of the Thors. So, off they go to provide some backup.
Doom meanwhile, has heard the prayers of his Thors and is looking in on the situation. At first he’s content to let it all be dealt with by Strange and the crew he’s seemingly assembled, but then…a familiar face appears and Doom is compelled to intervene in this situation himself. Reed Richards has arrived and it’s just not possible. In all of Battleworld no Reed Richards has ever manifested and it’s been to Doom’s benefit. Susan is his now and it’s all because Reed has never been there. But this could change everything…
And Doom makes quite an entrance. He finds out all about the ships the survivors used to get through the final incursion and then he meets something he didn’t expect…
Oh…maybe it was a good idea.
How’s that feel big fella?
Tell ’em Ric!
Uh oh…
Ummmm…
This isn’t going to end well for Cyke…Look away, Tim.
Welp. Spoke too soon.
Welp. Breaking News, looks like Cyclops Was Wrong.
Sorry, Tim. But it was.
Then, Strange not being able to leave well-enough alone, whisks every one of the incursion survivors off to undisclosed and separate locations. He tries to talk reason to Doom. Surely all that power didn’t wipe away every bit of reason left him…
Man, Doom is just killing everybody today.
Huh. Looks like we may have an idea about why certain characters are absent from the launch titles of the new Marvel Universe in October. Maybe Strange isn’t fully gone, but it sure looks like it here. Maybe a new version of him is about to appear and that would fit with some of the things Jason Aaron (writer of the new Doctor Strange series in October) has said. We’ll all see together, but it’s looking like the incursion survivors don’t have much going for them at the moment.
