You abandoned your home, and the elemental magic that courses through your veins has abandoned you in turn. But you can get it back.
Elemental magic? What are you talking about?
The doors of my domus lead to many places, but only one will lead you where you need to go. Down the Witches' Road!
Appearing in 1st story
Featured Characters:
- Wiccan (Billy Kaplan) (Main story and flashback)
Supporting Characters:
- Hulkling (Teddy Altman)
- Katerina (First appearance)
- Katerina's father (First appearance)
Antagonists:
- A Leshy
- Sluga (First appearance)
- Baba Yaga
Other Characters:
- Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff) (Only in recap)
- Billy Maximoff (Only in recap)
- Tommy Maximoff (Referenced)
- Mephisto (Only in recap)
- Young Avengers (Only in recap)
- America Chavez (Only in recap) (Shadow only)
- Patriot (Elijah Bradley) (Only in recap) (Shadow only)
- Hawkeye (Kate Bishop) (Only in flashback)
- Speed (Tommy Shepherd) (Only in recap) (Shadow only)
- Kree/Skrull Alliance (Referenced)
- Jeff Kaplan (Referenced)
- Rebecca Kaplan (Referenced)
- Roxxon (Mentioned)
- Chitauri Armada (Mentioned)
- Demiurge (Mentioned)
- Yorick (Mentioned)
- Merlin (Mentioned)
Races and Species:
- Mutants (Main story and recap)
- Humans (Main story and recap)
- Demons (Only in recap)
- Skrull-Kree Hybrids
- Leshies (First appearance)
- Chickens
- Chitauri (Mentioned)
- Foxes
- Mindless Ones
- Dievas
Realities:
Locations:
Items:
- Excelsior
- Alice in Wonderland (Mentioned)
Events:
- Imperial (Mentioned)
Synopsis for 1st story
The story opened with Billy Kaplan reflecting on how his life kept being given different "beginnings," from his connection to the Scarlet Witch to his time with the Young Avengers, before deciding that whatever his true origin was, it would have to wait while he dealt with the crisis in front of him. He and his husband Hulkling were hurled out of the sky in the wake of the Imperial Event and crashed back to Earth, leaving Teddy gravely wounded and their former imperial home in ruins behind them. Billy staggered to his feet in a dense, unfamiliar forest and discovered that his magic felt strangely numb now that he was back on his home planet, his usual spoken spells fizzling or refusing to answer him as he tried to stabilize Teddy.
With limited spellcasting to rely on, Billy fell back on practical survival skills he had picked up while camping with Kate Bishop, improvising first aid and fashioning a makeshift stretcher so he could drag Teddy through the woods in search of help. The forest was thick, gloomy, and unsettling, and Billy pushed himself close to collapse as he hauled Hulkling’s unconscious body toward any sign of civilization, trying to keep their spirits up with gallows humour and affectionate banter whenever Teddy briefly woke. As he struggled onward, he sensed that something was wrong with the land itself, the air heavy with a kind of sick magic that his dulled senses could still barely detect. Their path was violently interrupted when twisted tree spirits known as Leshy rose from the surrounding woods. Traditionally understood as healing forest guardians, these Leshy were hostile and warped, lashing out with roots and branches that threatened to crush the couple. With his magic still misfiring, Billy was forced into direct combat and seized Teddy’s star-sword, Excelsior, fighting back in a panic as he dodged grasping limbs and hacked through animated wood. He managed to drive the Leshy off through determination and swordplay rather than sorcery, though the effort left him exhausted and further convinced that something had poisoned the local spirits.
Eventually Billy stumbled into a small, isolated village on the forest’s edge and collapsed at the feet of its startled inhabitants. The townsfolk rushed Teddy to a local doctor, who treated Hulkling’s injuries and got him stable. While Billy recovered his breath and tried again, unsuccessfully, to coax his magic back to full strength, he questioned the villagers about the forest. They explained that Leshy were not supposed to behave like monsters, and that their recent attacks were the fault of a witch who lived deeper in the woods and, according to local belief, controlled the spirits. Fearful and superstitious, they warned Billy not to go anywhere near her, insisting that she was to blame for the blight on their land. Desperate for a solution that could restore his powers, heal Teddy, and stop the Leshy from tearing the village apart, Billy refused to be dissuaded. Reasoning that any witch powerful enough to command forest spirits might also understand what had gone wrong with his magic, he demanded directions to her home despite Teddy’s misgivings. After a brief rest, the couple headed back into the woods, following the villagers' instructions until the trees grew tighter and the atmosphere more oppressive, as if the forest itself was watching them approach.
At the heart of the woods they found a crooked hut that seemed almost alive, its structure suggestive of the folkloric houses that stood on clawed legs. The air was thick with magic that Billy could feel even through the numbness in his power, and before he could prepare a defense the so-called forest witch sprang her trap. She disabled Billy and Teddy with frightening ease using simple spells and enchanted bindings, demonstrating that his current state left him badly outmatched. It became clear that she had been expecting him for some time, her wards and spells calibrated specifically to catch Wiccan off guard when he finally appeared at her door. Once she had them at her mercy, the witch calmly lectured Billy about why his magic had gone quiet on Earth. She told him that he had spent too long chasing battles among the stars and presiding over cosmic affairs at Hulkling’s side, neglecting his role as a witch bound to Earth’s elemental forces. In her view, his abandonment of Earth had allowed elemental magic to slip away from him, which was why his power felt hollow and unreliable now that he had returned. She insisted that the damage was not permanent, but that he would have to reclaim his birthright and rekindle that connection if he wanted to wield his full strength again.
Only then did the witch fully reveal herself as Baba Yaga, the legendary Mother of All Witches. She showed Billy that the doors of her uncanny hut could open onto many destinations, each one a different path of power and possibility, but insisted that only one was truly his. Opening a final doorway, she unveiled a luminous, perilous path winding through a void of raw, churning magic and named it the Witches’ Road. She told Billy that walking this road would force him to confront who he was as a witch and as the would-be Demiurge, and that his choices there would reshape both himself and the wider balance of magic. Standing before the threshold with Teddy still vulnerable and Earth’s elemental currents in crisis, Billy was left with the daunting knowledge that the only way to fix what was broken was to step onto the Witches’ Road and begin his journey.
Solicit Synopsis
SOMETHING WICCAN THIS WAY COMES!
A dark, macabre adventure awaits down the Witches’ Road that will reshape Wiccan – and the magical fabric of the Marvel Universe – forever…
Wiccan and Hulkling arrive back on Earth…but nothing can ever be easy for Marvel’s favorite (former) space emperors! With Hulkling grievously wounded, it’s up to Wiccan to save the day – but what lengths will he be willing to go to do so?Notes
- Because of miscommunication between creative teams, the events of this contradicts the ending of Imperial #4, with America Chavez not being present, while Wiccan was mostly uninjured.
- Hulkling's comment about Baba Yaga's Hut not being "gingerbready" is likely a reference to witch's gingerbread house from the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale.