As Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme, I've heard whispers of the Times Before Time, from scholars who were dust when the ancients were born. It's said that the Third Cosmos was the first to be born from the multiversal cycle--the first rebirth after cosmic all-death. We're so far back that Science and Magic haven't been invented yet. Even Narrative is just a twinkle in a future narrator's eye. The drama above us is not a battle between "Good" and "Evil"--but between "Is" and "Is Not." Creation versus Negation. Existence versus Nothingness. 
Appearing in "3rd Cosmos - The Hierophant"
Featured Characters:
- Defenders
- Masked Raider (Dr. Carlo Zota) (Name revealed) (Main story and flashback) (Death)
- Taaia
- Doctor Strange (Dr. Stephen Strange)
- Red Harpy (Betty Ross-Banner)
Supporting Characters:
- Lifebringer One
- Eternity
- Blind Justice (Dr. Jerome Hamilton) (Only in flashback)
- Wong
Antagonists:
- The Anti-All (Death)
- Masked Raider (Dr. Carlo Zota) (Apparent death)
Other Characters:
- Multiversal Eternity (Mentioned)
- Masked Raider (Jim Gardley) (Mentioned)
- Hulk (Bruce Banner) (Photo)
- Namor McKenzie (Photo)
- Valkyrie (Brunnhilde) (Statue)
- Beast (Photo)
- Angel (Photo)
- Moondragon (Photo)
- Ice Man (Photo)
- Gargoyle (Statue)
Races and Species:
- Humans (Main story and flashback)
- Taa-ans
- Abstract Entities
Locations:
- Multiverse (As the Third Cosmos and Eighth Cosmos)
- Earth (Main story and flashback)
- United States of America (Main story and flashback)
- Earth (Main story and flashback)
Items:
- Eternity Mask (Main story and flashback)
- Cloak of Levitation
- Taaia's Scienti-Suit
- Lifebriger One's Sword
- Loki's helmet
Events:
- Death of Doctor Strange (Referenced)
Synopsis for "3rd Cosmos - The Hierophant"
In the Third Cosmos, the Defenders are stranded on a small white sphere drifting through the Void, orbiting a battle for the fate of existence between the golden Lifebringer One and his nemesis, the eldritch dark dragon Anti-All. Doctor Strange marvels that are witnessing the first instance of a cycle of multiversal creation and destruction. Marvelling at witnessing the mythology of her people come to life, Taaia laments that her Scienti-Suit is unable to get a reading on the two cosmic entities. Doctor Strange remarks that magic and science don't exist, as they've gone so far back into the history of the Multiverse that even fundamental concepts like matter, time, and space are nascent to the point of being meaningless. Crawling up the side of the globe, Dr. Carlo Zota mumbles that time still exists, but is at such a rudimentary state that an hour of its passage seemed like an eternity; wondering if the Defenders are a hallucination. As the other Defenders prepare to attack him, Doctor Strange's warning for them to be cautious as Zota isn't in his right mind. Snarling that that makes him easy prey, Harpy lunges at him with her talons extended only for Zota to frantically summon a force-field. As Harpy angrily claws at it, Doctor Strange orders her to stop and look at the cosmic battle taking place overhead, where Anti-All has started gaining the upper hand against Lifebringer One. Doctor Strange urgently tells Zota to drop the forcefield, but he refuses saying Harpy will kill him the moment he does so. Doctor Strange retorts that while he no longer controls his magic, he is still a Master of the Mystic Arts and that Zota - as a Master of Science - should be aware that a fire, even a secret one like magic, cannot burn without fuel.
As Doctor Strange asks where Zota thinks their power is coming from, Zota screams that he doesn't care as long as he can take down the Defenders. Taaia calls their attention to the Void above, where Anti-All has overpowered and is attempting to devour Lifebringer One; Doctor Strange surmising that as magic and science are products of future iterations of the Multiverse, the fuel for his spells, Zota's forcefield, and Taaia's Scienti-Suit is coming from the avatar of existence, Lifebringer One, weakening him in the process. Doctor Strange grimly states that if Anti-All eats Lifebringer One than the Void will triumph and the Multiverse will cease to exist, the Masked Raider saying that it's time for him to do his job. Phasing through Zota's forcefield, the Masked Raider pulls a revolver on his nemesis. As Zota incredulously wonders how that was possible, the Masked Raider states that he tried to stop Zota before it came to this point, not out of hatred but because he wanted to save Zota from himself. Remarking that it was always down to this choice, the Masked Raider raises the revolver and says that the choice isn't his to make but Zota's. Zota tackles him and grapples for the gun, the Eternity Mask making them evenly matched. With his allies powerless to help him due to Zota's forcefield, the Masked Raider is knocked to the ground, Zota shooting him in cold blood. Dying, the Masked Raider tells Zota that he could have walked away and lived; Zota triumphantly gloating before unmasking his nemesis - recoiling in shock and horror when he sees his own face beneath the Eternity Mask. As Zota stammers that this is impossible, Eternity speaks to him through the mask, explaining the mask's nature to him and that he has been chosen to fulfil a task. Overwhelmed by cosmic knowledge, Zota stands in a trance until Doctor Strange snaps him to his senses, berating him for dooming all of existence. Turning to watch as Anti-All pulls Lifebringer One into its gaping maw, Zota refutes his statement that things didn't have to end this way and puts on the Eternity Mask. Shattering his forcefield, Zota grows in size to match Lifebringer One and - taking up Lifebringer One's shield - grapples with Anti-All, forcing it to release its prey. Realizing that despite having become a borderline cosmic entity Zota could still lose, Doctor Strange helps Taaia and Harpy to channel their connections to the Eighth, Sixth, Fifth Cosmoses into Lifebringer One, restoring him to full power. As Anti-All overpowers and tries to devour Zota, Lifebringer One retrieves his sword and impales both of them. Doctor Strange notes that Zota could have released Anti-All at the last moment and escaped, but that he chose to sacrifice himself to ensure its defeat.
A blinding flash lights up the Third Cosmos, the eternal darkness of the Void giving way to a vast white expanse. Watching Anti-All's corpse crumble into fragments of red crystal containing shards of its essence, Doctor Strange speculates that these fragments will scatter across the nascent Multiverse and that the various dark gods and cosmic entities embodying non-existence, most recently Knull, are incarnations of Anti-All. Harpy snarks that Doctor Strange would sound smarter if he just admitted he didn't know what they just witnessed, but Doctor Strange notifies the Eternity Mask floating towards them and wonders if Zota could have survived his apparent death. Taaia protests that they all saw him get impaled by Lifebringer One's sword, but Strange points out that Zota and the Masked Ranger were one-and-the-same, and that this time loop now has to play out once again.
In the past of the Eighth Cosmos, Carlo Zota - clad in a suit, black trench coat, and cowboy hat - approaches Blind Justice, who is baffled as to why the Eternity Mask chose him as its next bearer before asking if Zota found the costume he laid out. Zota asks why Blind Justice picked the identity of the Masked Raider for him, Blind Justice replying that he remembered Zota was a fan of Westerns. Zota asks why his old friend chose him given that he killed him - or rather, Zota's past self will do so in the near future - and Blind Justice replies that Eternity is the one who chose him; adding that he nonetheless gets some satisfaction in knowing this is how Zota meets his end. Accepting the Eternity Mask and with it the identity of the Masked Raider, Zota vows to find a way to break the time loop he's trapped himself in.
In the Third Cosmos, the Defenders are pulled back to their native multiverses, Taaia offering Doctor Strange a keepsake and telling him to stay in touch before vanishing. As they are pulled back to the Eighth Cosmos, Harpy wryly tells Doctor Strange to wait a day before doing so... and to never get in touch with her again. Returning to the Sanctum Sanctorum, Doctor Strange puts his feet up and marvels that there's no telling what the future holds. Wong checks in on him, Doctor Strange assuring him that everything is fine for the time being.
Solicit Synopsis
Trivia
- Doctor Strange's library includes copies of
- Words and Music: A History of Pop in the Shape of a City by Paul Morley (2004)
- Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970—1979 by Tim Lawrence (2003)
- Love Goes To Buildings On Fire: Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever by Will Hermes (2011)
- The Faber Book of Pop by Hanif Kureishi (1995)
- 24 Hour Party People by Tony Wilson (2002)
- All of the Marvels: A Journey to the Ends of the Biggest Story Ever Told by Douglas Wolk (2021)
- A Garden of Earthly Demise by Steve Gerber (i.e. Defenders #36) (1976)