Warning: contains preview pages for Defenders #4!
Thanks to the mysterious Eternity Mask, the Masked Raider has become one of Marvel’s most powerful heroes, but he may have just met his match in an early version of the the Masked Raider and his teammates find themselves stranded in an earlier incarnation of the Marvel Universe, and face to face with an eerie, proto-Hulk with four faces!
Although the current incarnation of the Masked Raider is a recent character, having only first appeared in 2019’s Marvel Comics #1000, the name has a history stretching back to the company’s founding. The new Masked Raider uses a mysterious object called the Eternity Mask, allegedly created from a sliver of the cosmic being. This Mask “levels the playing field” for the Raider, giving him strength and powers equal to his opponent—this also makes him one of Marvel’s strongest characters. The new Masked Raider was summoned by Doctor Strange to his new incarnation of the Defenders. Doctor Zota, an old foe of Strange’s, is traveling back through time, through previous incarnations of the Marvel Universe, back to the beginning of all creation to remake it in his image. As the Defenders hurl through time, they have met the first Sorcerer Supreme and Galactus’ mother. Now, they have arrived in a bizarre universe full of strange versions of Marvel’s greatest heroes, such as the Hulk. The issue is written by Al Ewing with art by Javier Rodriguez.
In a preview provided by Marvel to universe’s version of the Hulk, calling itself “The One is Four,” in relation to the creature’s four heads. The One is Four attacks the Defenders. Doctor Strange asks the Masked Raider for help, but he informs Strange that the Mask cannot get a lock on the creature---and is thus useless.
The preview ends with the Defenders finally able to communicate with the creature, but fans must wait until December 15 to see the rest of the Fourth Cosmos and the creatures that inhabit it, but this the stakes for the Defenders even more.
Over the past two years, the enigmatic Masked Raider has emerged as one of Marvel’s most powerful heroes, but this power has limits and weaknesses, and readers see it when the Raider confronts an early version of the Hulk.
Source: AIPT
