WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Phoenix Song: Echo #5, now on sale from Marvel Comics
The Marvel Universe has a handful of beings, entities, and forces capable of rewriting reality if given the chance. While some show restraint with this power, others — like the Adversary — have been dedicated to doing so maliciously for years. But the heroes might have finally resolved the threat of that particular force permanently.
Phoenix Song: Echo #5 by Rebecca Roanhorse, Luca Maresca, Carlos Lopez, and VC’s Ariana Maher saw Echo and Forge team up to destroy the Adversary once and for all, eliminating one of Marvel’s most dangerous magical threats.
The Adversary debuted in Uncanny X-Men #188 by Chris Claremont and John Romita, Jr. A primordial mystical threat, the Adversary has spent centuries using magical deception and deals to try and remake the universe in his image. A truly ethereal being, he was eventually drawn into the orbit of the mutant nation by their shared connection to Forge. Having encountered the Adversary after summoning demons to slaughter the soldiers who killed his friends in wartime, Forge (and his newfound allies in the X-Men) became crucial to closing the rift and preventing the Adversary’s plans. At his height, the Adversary is a potent force, capable of even contending with the god-like sorceress Roma.
The adversary’s pursuit of power to complete his reconstruction of the universe is even what led him directly to Phoenix and into the path of her cleansing flames. Phoenix Song: Echo has largely focused on the Adversary’s attempts to steal the Phoenix Force from the inexperienced Echo by eliminating the lineage that led to her in the first place. But thanks to the timely arrival of Forge and the assistance of her newfound romantic interest River, Echo was able to break free of the illusions the Adversary was using to pacify her. Still, the magical threat wasn’t dealt with, forcing Echo to fully embrace her power as the new Phoenix host to defeat him.
Using his powers to access ancestral lines, River was able to give Phoenix an opening to drag the Adversary to the beginning of time. Although the Adversary was able to fully unleash his powers and assume his true form in this era, the Phoenix simply used this as a chance to wipe out his influence at the source. Blasting through the Adversary, Echo’s Phoenix fire seemed to incinerate the entity until nothing remains. Returning to the present, Echo revealed that she didn’t just kill the entity. She’d used her cosmic powers to wipe out his very essence itself, preventing him from ever reforming into a singular entity. In effect, his influence on the timeline has been negated, and the Adversary has been destroyed once and for all.
This is a big deal, as the Adversary had been one of the fundamental supernatural threats that posed danger to the entire world. As the magical community of the modern Marvel Universe is still very much in flux in light of Johnny Blaze’s return in Ghost Rider and Clea assuming the station of Sorceror Supreme in Stephen Strange’s absence, the destruction of a powerhouse threat like the Adversary is a big deal. While on the bright side it eliminates the kind of monster that has endangered countless lives over the year out of sheer cruel intent, it also leaves the door open that other mystical threats could use to further their own goals (such as the teased ascent of the Goblyn Queen in Limbo or the ever lingering threat of the Hell Bride).
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