Warning: spoilers for Savage Avengers #15!
A team of Marvel’s most hardcore heroes just took a serious beating. The evil sorcerer, Kulan Gath, is preparing to destroy reality and Doctor Strange cannot stop him alone. In order to save the world, the Sorcerer Supreme decided to call in a group of other heroes to help, forming the Savage Avengers. Unfortunately, some members of this newly formed team are running into quite a bit of trouble on their first mission.
After gathering together his team, Doctor Strange decides to split the heroes up into two groups. The first group, consisting of Conan the Barbarian, Magik, Juggernaut, and the Black Knight, is tasked with retrieving the powerful second Eye of Agamoto. The only problem is that the current holder of the mystical artifact is Sadurang, a dragon from Asgard. Savage Avengers #14 showed the team travelling to the city of Bruges, where the dragon had chosen to rest. The heroes wasted no time in making a memorable first impression, as Magik teleported Juggernaut thousands of feet into the sky above the dragon. Just as Sadurang angrily awoke from his slumber, he received a devastating blow from the plummeting Juggernaut, reverting the shapeshifting dragon into his human form.
Savage Avengers #15, by Gerry Duggan, Patch Zircher, and Java Tartaglia, follows the second squad of heroes who are taking out Kulan Gath’s acolytes. Wolverine, Elektra, Daimon Hellstrom, Black Widow, and the Punisher easily mow through Kulan Gath’s priests in a particularly gory fashion. With their success, Wolverine turns to the rest of his allies and says, “I hope Conan and the other squad had as much luck as we did.” Readers quickly learn, however, that this optimism is a bit misplaced.
On the final page of the book, Sadurang stands over Magik, as Juggernaut, the Black Knight, and Conan all lay unconscious behind him. Looking down at the mutant, Sadurang taunts, “You fought well, girl.” Always the headstrong warrior, Magik replies, “The fight’s not over yet.” Maybe the young sorceress has a few tricks left up her sleeve, but this isn’t how readers might have assumed the second stage of last issue’s fight would go.
Magik and the rest of her teammates are incredibly tough on their own, so defeating the combined forces of all four of them is a tremendous feat. A victory like this proves that Sadurang is an adversary to be feared. While the second Eye of Agamoto is probably giving Sadurang a bit of a power boost, it is still bewildering to see these powerful heroes go down without much of a fight. If the Savage Avengers are to succeed, Magik and the rest of her team are going to need to get back into the fight. While an attack from above is not as likely to work a second time, creative attacks like their initial one might be their only hope as the Savage Avengers enter Round Three against this terrifying foe.
