Defenders: Beyond (2022 series) #1

Dr Strange is dead (since the Death Of Dr Strange event of course) but a last spell is contacting Dr Adam Brashear (Blue Marvel) in DrS's name in his undersea Kadesh Base in the Mariana Trench. Adam has also received a box containing the Masked Raider's Eternity Mask, a metal tiara and a pack of tarot cards. The spell explains that the Mask was created by sorcerers in the time of King Arthur as a tool to introduce democracy - it gives its wearer power equal to whoever they're fighting. The spell confirms what BM and Dwayne Taylor suspected in Marvel Comics #1000, that the Mask was worn by Carlo Zota in a time travel loop fighting himself (as revealed in the Defenders (2021) series). The headpiece belongs to Taaia of the 6th Cosmos, mother of Galan who became Galactus in the 7th Cosmos, and can be used to contact her. Brashear comments that Galactus is dead too (Thor (2020) #6).

The tarot deck is also special. When Adam draws a random card it's the 10 of Wands reversed signifying additional responsibilities, but the person depicted is himself. He suspects trickery but the spell reminds him that he's spent his life exploring fringe ideas, and he's confronted cosmic beings and saved all reality. Behind him we see images of Anti-Man, Evald Scorpion, Jason Quantrell, Infinaut and the 1st Firmament. The spell claims that Reality needs Defenders and it needs him to lead them. Blue Marvel declines to be pushed into anything. If the multiverse needs defending he'll form his own team.

But then he sees another card has been turned over, the 10 of Swords reversed signifying time to move on from loss, and the victim pierced by the swords is America Chavez who used to be 1 of his Ultimates team. Then he hears her asking to come in. He runs to the portal room, pausing only to make sure the door to the Neutral Zone is locked, and greets her as she steps through from New York. He'd heard that she was having trouble with her own powers including teleportation (since the AC: Made In The USA series). But she says she's here because that series revealed that her childhood memories were false and she has a sister who's now lost in the multiverse. And she needs his help to find her. He says he will but right now she needs to leave because his home is infected with wild magic that Dr Strange let loose.

Then the spell joins them and confirms that Strange did indeed let loose wild magic. (In the Defenders (2021) series) he cast a spell to summon Defenders with tarot cards and gifted it to the Cosmos. And the Cosmos never gave it back. Now it produces the 10 of Cups reversed, family bonds broken. The figures on the card are Taaia and Galactus, and the headpiece in the box pulses. Then the 10 of Coins reversed, material success and a kingdom both unwanted, shows multiple versions of Loki. Then the word 'NEXT' appears written backwards in letters of fire. And Taaia grabs her helmet as she falls through a glowing door accompanied by a barefoot female Loki with 1 horn broken off *her* helmet and a missing tooth (the appearance she left Thor (2020) #24 with).

Brashear assumes Loki is the current ruler of Jotunheim (since his father Laufey died in War Of The Realms #6) but the Asgardian says she's from the end of the previous Cosmos (Loki-Agent Of Asgard #17) who picked up Taaia after a detour through the 6th Cosmos (Thor (2020) #24). But Chavez remembers Loki as a trickster (from Young Avengers vol 2) and assumes she's responsible for the rogue magic. So she hits her. Adam tries to cool things down and Taaia does so more aggressively. Loki comments that Chavez doesn't hit as hard as she used to but America responds that the God Of Lies turning up when she's just found out that her past was a lie is too much of a coincidence. Loki says she's just the God Of Stories now, and anyway she just literally broke the troublesome spell when she fell on it.

But the dissolving spell says 1 more Defender is required. Loki says that's the Cosmos itself speaking through a spell that is maintained by the power of the tarot cards, which she just happened to pick up when she fell. Now the trickster can't resist tossing them in the air and juggling them. She points out that she didn't choose to be *here* the Cosmos did, just as it sent her to Taaia. But now she's been given a time out from her 8th Cosmos fate as whatever the current Loki is. And she intends to make it a memorable adventure. Blue Marvel leads the charge to stop her choosing a last card but she says that to face a threat to the *multiverse* they need to go outside it, into the mystery. And 5 is the most magical number - 5 lines in a pentagram and 5 magical elements - so they need 5 Defenders. The 10 of Crowns (an impossible 5th suit) shows Tigra reversed. And she emerges through Brashear's portal protesting that she was just out for a walk in the park. She looks round and figures she must be having a team-up.

Now that all 5 are present the universe throws them through the portal into the Neutral Zone. Loki uses his scepter to give them a breathable atmosphere. Eternity (probably the multiversal version) greets them and shows them the way outside his own being to where they will find his enemy. He advises them to seek the higher knowledge and let no power bar their way. They travel through blackness for an unmeasurable time and hear a voice saying "I am from beyond" and they see the Beyonder.