You’ve got to feel a little sorry for the struggling magic acts of the Marvel Universe. There you are, the Criss Angel of Earth 616, just minding your own business and practicing your illusions, when along comes some cape-wearing, fireball-throwing Master of the Mystic Arts to send your Las Vegas ticket sales straight to hell. No wonder so many workaday magicians of Marvel have decided to dabble in just a little dark art, as a treat.
But consider this a public service announcement, fictional illusionists and variety show magic artists in the audience: A little bit of hardcore magic in your life is a lot more trouble than it’s worth. This week’s episode of She-Hulkis a case in point.
[Ed. note: This piece contains a couple spoilers for She-Hulk episode 4.]
Jen’s erstwhile antagonist Donny Blaze (who I can only assume is the Voltron combination of Ghost Riders Danny Ketch and Johnny Blaze) isn’t a bad fella, really. He’s just like the rest of us: He tried to coast his way through school (the magical graduate program at Doctor Strange’s Kamar-Taj), got in over his head, and bummed out. Who among us hasn’t tried to use our two semesters of college to pick up bar dates or summon a demon? He just wanted to sell some tickets for a struggling stage act — it’s not his fault things got a little out of hand.
Of course, he might have known better if he had access to a few more Marvel back issues. After all, stage magicians getting themselves into heaps of trouble is a tradition going back to the earliest days of the Marvel Age. In 1962’s Fantastic Four #3, dramatically titled “The Menace of the Miracle Man,” the titular foursome follows up its first battles against the Mole Man and the Skrulls by fighting… a tall man with a
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