Marvel Announces Darkhold With Doctor Doom, Scarlet Witch, and More

Apollo and Midnighter and Gotham City Monsters writer Steve Orlando is making a big splash at Marvel later this year with Darkhold Alpha #1, horror-tinged superhero epic that will focus, among others, on Doctor Doom and the Scarlet Witch. Cian Tormey (Batgirl) will draw the interiors of the book, which will feature a cover by Greg Smallwood. The issue will mark Orlando’s Marvel debut after a long period of DC exclusivity during which he also wrote for Wonder Woman and Justice League International. Tormey has done work for DC, Marvel, Millarworld, and Dynamite, including some sequential work as well as covers for the acclaimed Silver Surfer Black.

The Darkhold in Marvel’s mythology is an ancient and powerful Book of the Damned. It first appeared in a ’70s Werewolf By Night story, but has since become a recurring part of the marvel Universe.

“The Elder God has awoken!” Tormey tweeted earlier today. “Steve Orlando and I are opening the Darkhold, and who knows what might happen when we do…?”

The Darkhold actually had its own series in the ’90s. Darkhold: Pages from the Book of Sin ran for 16 issues, from 1992 to 1994. The book has also (technically) made an appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, popping up on both Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD and Marvel’s Runaways.

For his part, Doctor Doom is famously one of the most brilliant and dangerous scientific minds in the Marvel Universe, but he tends to get really scary when he dips his toes into magic a bit and brings the two seemingly-disparate sources of power in the universe together. Scarlet Witch, one of the most powerful mages in the Marvel Universe, is an obvious choice for inclusion in such a book, not just for her magical prowess but because her role on WandaVision and in the forthcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness means she is due for an increased profile in the comics.

You can check out the official solicitation text below.

DARKHOLD ALPHA #1

Written by STEVE ORLANDO
Art by CIAN TORMEY
Cover by GREG SMALLWOOD

ENTER THE PAGES OF THE DARKHOLD —AND LOSE YOUR MIND IN MIGHTY MARVEL FASHION!

Critically acclaimed writer Steve Orlando makes his Marvel debut with a story that will delight and terrify! For hundreds of years, scholars and heroes alike have searched for the complete text of the Darkhold—AKA the Book of the Damned, written by the elder god Chthon. Now one of the greatest sorcerers in the Multiverse has found it—and Chthon has found him. To save them all, the Scarlet Witch must gather the world’s greatest heroes…and unleash their inner darkness.

Darkhold Alpha #1 will be on sale at comic shops and on digital platforms in June.