This October, two tie-in books for the upcoming Darkhold Marvel Comics event will be summoned to your local comic shop: The Darkhold: Iron Man #1 by Ryan North and Guillermo Sanna, with a cover by Valerio Giangiordano, and The Darkhold: Blade #1 by Daniel Kibblesmith and Federico Sabbatini, with a cover by Juan Ferreyra.

The Book of the Damned

Doom on the Darkhold Alpha #1 cover with the one-shot characters in the background.

On September 22nd, 2021, readers will finally get their hands on the grimoire they’ve been waiting for: The Darkhold Alpha #1 by Steve Orlando and Cian Tormey, with a main cover (and a Scarlet Witch variant) by Greg Smallwood.

Is that… vampire Dr. Strange? And… Deadpool???

The book was initially announced back in mid-March 2020, to be released in June 2020, but the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic caused a delay of the book until autumn 2021.

The Darkhold 

The event will take the form of a series of one-shots that pit the superheroes of Marvel Comics against the arcane knowledge within the Darkhold.

After The Darkhold Alpha #1 arrives on September 22nd, The Darkhold: Iron Man #1 will follow on October 13th (lucky Iron Man).

Iron Man Defiled!

Here’s the description of that story from the press release:

Ryan North, the brilliant mind behind The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, teams up with artist Guillermo Sanna to bring you the body-horror tale of the century in DARKHOLD: IRON MAN! Called forth to face the dread god Chthon, Iron Man reads from the ancient ill-fated text known as the Darkhold…and it changes the course of his entire life. The armor that has saved him countless times is about to become a prison — one whose only escape is a fate worse than death.

Then, The Darkhold: Blade #1 will be published on October 27th, sending Blade to a strange new world where he is the king of the vampires.

And the description of The Darkhold Blade #1 from the press release:

Emmy-nominated writer Daniel Kibblesmith, known for his bold work on the Loki comic book series, and artist Federico Sabbatini will bring Marvel’s resident vampire hunter into the action in DARKHOLD: BLADE! After reading from the cursed Darkhold, Blade attempts to enter Chthon’s dimension and stop the ancient god from destroying the Multiverse. But reading the book has changed all their lives and histories…and for Blade, the consequences are far-reaching. Vampires rule the world, and he rules over them all. But there are some heroes left—and Blade is not as omniscient as he thinks.

Judging from the preview images from The Darkhold Alpha #1, the Wasp, Black Bolt, and Peter Parker may also be getting their own one-shots in the months to come.

Doctor Strange (1988) #62 by Melvin Rubi & Fred Harper.

Arriving in October

Like so many of the other books we’ve been covering lately here at The Beat, the tie-in one-shots will be arriving at your LCS in October, making it an ideal seasonal event series (always assuming the books aren’t further delayed by a global pandemic).

Will you be picking up a copy of the long-anticipated The Darkhold Alpha #1 when it arrives at your LCS on September 22nd? You can take a look at some preview pages from that book below this article! And be sure and let The Beat know what you think, either here in the comment section or over on social media @comicsbeat.