WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Secret Warps: Weapon Hex Annual #1, from Al Ewing, Carlos Villa, Juan Vlasco, Carlos Lopez and VC's Joe Caramagna, on sale now.
It's difficult to dispute the contributions Captain America, Iron Man and Thor have made over the decades, cementing themselves as Marvel's Trinity. We've seen them save the universe on countless occasions, in addition to the multiple Avengers arcs in which they battle large-scale threats.
In the Secret Warps: Weapon Hex annual, we see another pocket of the Marvel-616 with a Trinity that stands for freedom and justice in the same way as their counterparts do. However, this one proves to be far more powerful than heroes we know.
Steve Rogers as Captain America, Thor as the worthy Odinson and Tony Stark as Iron Man undoubtedly deliver the goods. But Steve is merely an enhanced soldier with a shield; Thor without Mjolnir or another enchanted weapon that makes him a powerful god-warrior can be beaten; and Tony, well, take away his armor and you know what you'll have. That isn't a knock against them, as they've certainly proved their mettle, but when you objectively look at their power set, the Marvel Trinity isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Thanks to Infinity Wars, we have another Trinity rising from the end of the Warp World created by Requiem (Gamora when she broke bad). To save that world, Adam Warlock and the Infinity Watch forged a new world within the Soul Stone called the Mergi-Verse, which brought over the individuals from the Warp World into this carbon copy of the place they called home. That was to ensure once the 616-Universe was restored, the Warps (combined forms of Marvel heroes and villains) wouldn't be wiped from existence. And so, the Trinity of Defenders that emerged consists of the Soldier Supreme (a mix of Cap and Doctor Strange), the Iron Hammer (Iron Man combined with Thor) and lastly, Weapon Hex (Scarlet Witch combined with X-23). As you can see from their names, magic is what gives them the edge.
Soldier Supreme and Weapon Hex, apart from being the best combatants in the world, draw power from the occult, especially the latter through her chaos magic. Iron Hammer blends the Norse energies with his suits, ensuring technology can harness, amplify and destroy anything in their way. They all display their might in this annual when Dormammu Red (Dormammu/Red Skull), Deathstrique (Mystique/Lady Deathstrike) and Herbert Wyndham (Blackheart/High Evolutionary) attack Earth from the pits of hell at the behest of Mephicthton (Mephisto/Cthton) to claim dominion.
Dormammu Red is the first to feel their brutal brand of justice when they arrive in New York as Weapon Hex summons Iron Hammer and the Soldier from a mini-civil war Deathstrique tricked them into by pretending to be Madame Hel (Madam Masque/Hela), aka Iron Hammer's girlfriend. She brings the warring duo to her side and along with Speed Weasel, her sister, a four-on-three occurs, albeit Weasel is a bit out of her league. When the Soldier taps into the arcane arts and throws up his magical shields, Iron Hammer calls the lightning down and uses his hammer to decapitate Dormammu Red. It's a perfect example of how tech and magic have been fused for something far more superior, which is further highlighted when the genetically engineered Weapon Hex slashes Deathstrique to death.
The crowning moment comes for these amalgamations when they team up in a big power move and combine teleporting spells to blast Herbert either to his death or some dark dimension we have no clue of. Each picks a different location to send him, and seeing as Herbert can't counter all three at one time, his Soul Sigil is destroyed and he's erased from this plane.
It's no surprise, though, because while the 616-Trinity is a bit one-dimensional, this Secret Warps trio is multifaceted in every aspect of the word. They're two heroes in one, but more so, they work as a well-oiled machine to show that when it comes to a trifecta of near-omega level power, they're pretty much untouchable, dispatching opponents in a matter of minutes rather than in a drawn out saga.
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