Appearing in "Heart of the Matter"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Demonic counterparts of various Earth-616 heroes
- Doctor Doom (Victor von Doom)
- S'ym
Other Characters:
- Spider-Man (Peter Parker) (Mentioned)
- Daredevil (Matt Murdock) (Mentioned)
- Moon Knight (Marc Spector) (Mentioned)
- Magik (Illyana Rasputina) (Mentioned)
- Belasco (Mentioned)
- Colossus (Peter Rasputin) (Mentioned)
Races & Species:
Locations:
- Limbo (Demonic)
- England (Mentioned)
- Latveria (Mentioned)
Items:
Synopsis for "Heart of the Matter"
As Limbo begins to collapse on itself, Excalibur and the West Coast Avengers are rocked by fierce winds whipping out of it’s heart. However, Phoenix manages to stop the sword from moving, temporarily halting the dimension’s demise. As Iron Man knocks Doom to the ground, a horde of demons attacks. As the teams fight them off, Meggan is rocked by agony as the demon who threatened Doom transforms in response to the heart’s damage. She quickly realises that it isn’t a demon after all, as it begins to finish it’s change. As the fights continue, Dr Doom approaches Phoenix, hoping to destroy her while all her energy is concentrated on the sword. He is stopped by the demon, who tries to get Doom to remember him. He is named Darkoth, and he is no demon, but a man who Doom experimented on, covering his skeleton in Promethium which gave him a Demon’s form, before Doom knew of Promethium’s power as an energy supply. Having been killed, the promethium in his body led to his resurrection in Limbo. Doom is unimpressed, and destroys his own armour to get Darkoth to release him. The Promethium armour of the Soulsword then envelops him. The two battle, and knock into Phoenix, who loses concentration. The sword slips into the heart fully, and utterly obliterates it. Doom, satisfied with the outcome, returns to Earth through a portal, to wait for the dimension to collapse into a massive ball of Promethium. As Darkoth claims the Soulsword, his hate causes the demons to change into a swirling mass, that attack the heroes from everywhere. He plans to die in the collapse of Limbo, causing it to cease to be, rather than collapse into Promethium. Meggan, as an empath, manages to persuade him to stop, and suddenly, the dimension is empty as he finds peace with himself. He sends the heroes home, including a distraught Kitty, as Lockheed is seriously wounded. He keeps Meggan for a moment longer, thanking her for her help. He sends her home, and with the dimension purged of Promethium, he sits alone, ready to defend the dimension.