scans_daily

104 of 108. Warning: I get cute with this one, forgive me.

Dormammu rules supreme. Everything is Dormammu. Dormammu is all. Dormammu Dormammu Dormammu Dormammu Dormammu Dormammu Dormammu.

Dormammu Dormammu Dormammu Dormammu Dormammu Dormammu Dormammu Umar. Dormammu Dormammu Dormammu Dormammu Mamm. ”MAMM DORMAMMU” 😬? Dormammu Dormammu ”MAMM DORMAMMU.” 😴

Dormammu Dormammu Dormammu…

Dormammu, Dormammu Dormammu Dormammu Dormammu... Dormammu Dormammufied Dr. Dormammu!

Dormammu, Dormammu Dormammu Dormammu Dormammu Dormammu Dormammu Dormammu...

Dormammu-Dormammu Dormammu Dormammu Dormammu Dormammu...

Dr. Dormammu Dormammu Dormammu Dormammu (but you see what I mean about the sarcasm falling away? Dormammufied Dr. Strange practically hits his counterpart with the “Real people don’t talk like that” line that others have used on him in this series already. But Strange just uses that as an incentive to bounce back, with a faith that was touching in 2005 and is even more so now). Dormammu Dormammu Dormammu: Dormammu, Dormammu, Dormammu, Dormammu, Dormammu…

…Dormammu, @#$%.

#Dormammu:

Dormammu Dormammu Dormammu Dormammu Dormammu, but then Dormammu stops Dormammuing EVERYthing and starts just Dormammuing DormammuSELF. Dormammu? Well, Dormammu does it at the Dormammu of Dormammufied Dr. Strange, because won’t it be much more satisfying if UN-Dormammufied Dr. Strange died at the hands of Dormammu alone and only Dormammu?

HELL YEAH. Even the mistimed charge of the Defenders can’t altogether derail how great Strange looks there.

Earlier in this volume, Dormammu complained that it wasn’t FAAAIR how Strange always TRICKED him, and Umar replied, “And who would ever expect a MAGICIAN to use TRICKS?”

Dormammu starts…losing? That can’t be right. How could he lose? How? How how HOW?

Umar hasn’t just been feeding Strange power, she’s been sucking out all of Dormammu’s through their mystical bond, even the power he stole from Eternity. Ordinarily, Dormammu would have spotted this early and fried her for the attempt, but he’s been too obsessed with Strange/confident in his invincibility to notice. Maybe he should’ve suspected something was up when Umar started dissing him and telling Bruce to beat him up, but then again, that’s almost indistinguishable from her behavior toward him when they were nominal allies, so whatever.

Surprising everyone, maybe even herself, Umar declines to betray the Defenders. “Unlike my brother, I have no interest in your unenlightened and unpalatable little universe.”

She restores the Defenders’ world to be as it was, which means that the alternate versions of Namor and Bruce pass out of existence…but they do so without regret. They were always willing to die if it meant bringing about a world where they never suffered under Dormammu’s thumb-claw. Even Namor is a little disturbed by their willingness to go.

Strange is more worried about what Umar’s going to do with her divine power: even if she’ll keep her word and leave Universe 616 be, there are still lots more worlds to worry about. His priorities and Namor’s are so far apart that what happens next is no surprise at all.

I’d say it’s a bit crass to kiss and tell, Bruce, especially after you’ve just said you don’t…but this is Umar we’re talking about. If she knew you were spreading tales of her sexual prowess behind her back, she’d probably be delighted.

In point of fact, this series is not the end of Umar’s libidinous interest in the Hulk, and things would work out a lot better for both of them when they found each other again. Either the slight variety in the Hulk's forms over the years increased his endurance between their first and second encounter, or else Umar decided it'd be easier to invest in the Enchantment of Erectile Enhancement than to keep hoping for the best. She doesn't even mind too much when their second liaison reaches its natural end (Incredible Hulks #633-635).

Umar continues to be a figure of rewarding complexity in 2020s comics, ruthless in ensuring her survival or dispatching old enemies one moment, prepared to beg for her daughter's life the next (Doctor Strange v6 #5, #9).

And Dormammu? Well, he’s gotten…a little smarter, at least (ibid., #3).

Oh, and as this miniseries wraps up, the Silver Surfer never joins up with the Defenders or obtains any of the enlightenment he was seeking. But he does learn something that I, as a Virginia Beach native, could have told him at the start of this series: surf culture is annoying as hell.

Saturday: One final Giffen-DeMatteis-Maguire JLI collab brings back most of their greatest hits…out of strict chronological order, but by now, you’re probably used to that.