7

I've been catching up on my Marvel Unlimited reading and noticed several people saying that "magic has changed." I've mostly noticed Dr. Strange saying it*, but I think the Scarlet Witch has mentioned it a few times as well, and possibly Magik.

These are all semi-current issues (6-12 months old), so I think the "change" must have been fairly recent.

What was the change? What caused it?

*Page 15 of Old Man Logan #19 is one example

enter image description here

Improve this question
6
  • 3
    In the comics it was always mystical and weird. Infinite possibilities! Then the Doctor Strange movie came along and it was mostly just kung fu. So I guess the movie messed it up for everybody.
    – J Doe
    Sep 14 '17 at 6:29
  • The panel you've referenced says that it's less prevalent.
    – Valorum
    Sep 14 '17 at 6:51
  • @Valorum Thanks for adding the panel! But why is it less prevalent than it used to be?
    – miltonaut
    Sep 14 '17 at 21:58
  • @miltonaut - Dunno
    – Valorum
    Sep 14 '17 at 22:00
  • There was recently a similar situation in All-New X-Men: Inevitable; in the eight issue, after saving Cyclops from Toad in the previous issue, the time-displaced Beast goes to Dr. Strange in the hopes that he can send him and his friends back to their original timeline, but Strange tells Hank pretty much the same thing he told Old Man Logan above. This is odd, so if somebody can post a list of the Marvel comics currently employing magic, I'd be more than happy to look into it.
    – Gothamite24
    Sep 25 '17 at 21:46
7

tl;dr: Magic is gone. Well, almost.

In March 2016, a story arc began in issue 6 of Doctor Strange. In this arc, a group of badguys named the Empirikul came to the Marvel 616 dimension to strip that reality of all known magic.

From Marvel Wikia:

When they reached the dimension of Doctor Strange, the Empirikul assaulted several magical landmarks of the Earth until they reached the strongest of them all, Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum. The Imperator confronted Doctor Strange himself and defeated him even after the sorcerer had siphoned all of Earth's magic to empower himself. The most prominent magic users of this dimension were defeated and brought to the front of the Sanctum Sanctorum to be sacrificed.

This has been collected in Doctor Stange Volume 2: The Last Days of Magic. In lieu of screenshots, I recommend reading through the first few pages of this (which you can do for free on Amazon) to get a good breakdown of all of the above.

In the aftermath of this arc, magic is said to be all but gone from our reality. Then begins some time travel shenanigans (because comic books), but when you hear people (especially Doctor Strange) talking about a change in magic, they're talking about it being gone as a result of the fight with the Empirikul.

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.