WandaVision’s most powerful artifact, the Book of Darkhold, returns to comics this September in Darkhold: Alpha #1 by writer Steve Orlando and artist Cian Tormey. From there, the Darkhold Saga will unfold in a series of one-shots, each focusing on a different character ensnared in the Darkhold’s clutches.
Darkhold first appeared in 1972’s Marvel Premiere #4, created by writer Gerry Conway and artist Mike Ploog. Within the Marvel Universe, Darkhold is a book of ancient spells written down by the evil sorcerer Chthon and has been responsible for the creation of both vampires and werewolves. Darkhold even received its own book in 1992: Darkhold: Pages from the Book of Sin, which ran for 16 issues in the 1990s. The book made the leap into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2021’s WandaVision, where the witch Agatha Harkness sought the book for her own ends and there have been strong hints that it will return in the Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. In the meantime, the Darkhold returns to comics in a grand fashion, with an epic saga involving some of Marvel’s heaviest hitters.
A press release from Doctor Doom, no stranger to dark magic himself, has found the Darkhold and Chthon. It falls on the Scarlet Witch to bring together a team of heroes, including the Wasp, Iron Man, Black Bolt, Spider-Man, and Blade, to stop Doom and Chthon’s dark designs from coming to . Reading from the cursed book has been known to drive people mad—and each hero must read from it before entering Chthon’s dimension. Now forced to confront their inner demons, this rag-tag group must come together to stop an ancient evil.
Marvel began creating supernatural-themed characters in the early 1970s, starting with Dracula, Blade, and the Werewolf; Darkhold has been an integral part of that scene since its first appearance. Over the years, fans have been treated to glimpses of the book’s immense and evil power. Darkhold has been responsible for corrupting good people and creating monsters and starting this September Orlando and Tormey will show fans just how powerful, and terrifying, the Darkhold can truly be. And it is worth noting that Darkhold: Alpha marks the return of the Scarlet Witch to the Marvel Universe after a period of relative inactivity, as she gathers heroes to stop Chthon and the Darkhold once and for all.
Darkhold has played not only a huge role in WandaVision, but in the Marvel Universe as a whole and it returns to make life miserable once again in Darkhold: Alpha, on sale in print and digital September 22 with a cover by Greg Smallwood.
Source: Marvel
