Marvel Destroys One of the Most Powerful Weapons in History (And Replaces It With the Doomblade)

Is Reed Richards foredoomed to failure? Ever since Victor von Doom declared himself the new superior Sorcerer Supreme and magically sealed off his nation of Latveria, Reed has been on a mission to discover a scientific approach to Doom’s mystical defenses. One of the world’s most brilliant but obsessive minds, Mister Fantastic sequestered himself for weeks but has failed to progress his understanding of his archenemy’s most dangerous advantage: magic.

“I know that magic is keeping us out,” a perplexed Reed says in Fantastic Four #28, “ergo, understanding magic may get us in.” So Reed’s wife, Susan, arranges a meeting with a man of magic and science: Dane Whitman, the Black Knight.

RELATED: One World Under Doom, Explained: How Doctor Doom Became Marvel’s New Sorcerer Supreme

Recalling how Dane’s predecessor, Nathan Garrett, used the Black Knight’s Ebony Blade to slice through her invisible force fields during their wedding (in 1965’s classic Fantastic Four Annual #3), Sue suspects that the magical sword can penetrate Doom’s force fields around Latveria. Reed and Sue find Dane sat upon his Ebon Siege, made from smelted Ebony Artifacts like the Ebony Chalice, the Ebony Crown — and the cursed Ebony Blade.

Because Dane’s darkness fuels the sword’s power, he decided to put an end to the line of cursed weapons and ancient kingdoms made out of hate in 2021’s Black Knight: Curse of the Ebony Blade #5. (While Dane has since shared the mantle of the Black Knight with his daughter, Jackie Chopra, it would be without the Ebony Blade that has been passed down through the centuries since the time of Merlin in 1955’s Black Knight Comics #1.)

Nearly indestructible and able to cleave through virtually any substance, the Ebony Blade could cut into the magical dome around Latveria — if Dane hadn’t destroyed it. The Blade is more useful as part of the Siege, which he uses to see hidden truths and other times.

Dane explains that the Richards seek the Fated Blade, which could slice through anything — even time, making it so that whatever is cut is never repaired. But the long-lost blade is one of legends, disappearing after it was forged in the 1300s. Reed admits that he’s been struggling to reconcile the reproducible facts of science with the nondeterminism of magic as he tries to build a practical theory of anti-magic, so Dane scribbles down an equation of magic and physics that Reed identifies as gibberish.

Using the Ebon Siege to travel through time, Dane transports Reed and Sue to 1915 and the Western Front of World War I. He explains that point in time is their best chance of tracking down the lost Fated Blade, which they can use to free Earth from Doctor Doom’s control. Once the trio deduces the location of the Fated Blade in the past, they unearth the magical sword just in time for Sorcerer Supreme Doom to reveal himself through the Astral Plane.

Doom explains he used Dane’s contact with the Ebon Siege to influence the Black Knight upon learning that magical beings residing in the Astral Plane conspired to move against him. Doom used his newfound powers to destroy them, but not before they hid the Fated Blade in the past so that someone could find it and wield it against the Sorcerer Supreme. Doom’s manipulations sent Reed and Sue to the past to find the “Fated Blade” forged in the 1300s, revealing its true name.

RELATED: Four No More: Marvel Renames the Fantastic Four

In Middle English, the word for “fate” is: “DOOM.” The Doomsword was the one magical weapon that could hurt Sorcerer Supreme Doom, and Doom has destroyed it with the help of his oldest enemy. He’s outsmarted Reed Richards. Doom gloats that he’s finally taken over the world as he begins to crush Reed and Sue to death in magical spheres that are suffocating on Doom’s turf in the Astral Plane.

Sue and Reed realize that Dane’s equations were his attempts to break free of Doom’s influence as someone with a graduate degree in physics would never make improbable errors. Dane hid a message in the mathematics, slipping them past Doom by encoding them in a way only a physicist could see. Dane’s “equation” was actually magic words to trigger a spell. All Reed would have to do is cast it. After months of studying magic, Reed Richards says the magic words that transport them from the Astral Plane to New York City.

It’s there that Reed and Sue are greeted by a televised announcement: Emperor Doom’s global “United Latveria.” Doom’s domination continues in One World Under Doom #1, on sale Feb. 12.