BIOGRAPHY - Page 7
After the defeat of Hydra and the fall of the Darkforce dome, the Unity Division struggled to find their footing. The Scarlet Witch was ready to return to the Avengers, but she had been possessed by Chthon and served on Hydra’s Avengers the past few weeks, leaving many hesitant in her presence. Having recently been possessed by shadow parasites himself, Jericho spoke up for Wanda and championed her addition to their unit. That evening, the two magic practitioners had a long discussion about their craft. Jericho explained his feelings about the separation of the spirit and the body, drawn from his history with necromantic forces, confronting ghosts and zombies where the spirit and body walked separately. In the mind of Doctor Voodoo, his body had become merely a shell in the service of the spirit.
Their talk was interrupted by the arrival of the Avengers’ old foe, Graviton. A nihilist in command of the fundamental force, Graviton showed his power and madness by launching Scarlet Witch into orbit. Doctor Voodoo conferred with the Loa, sending elemental spirits of air after Wanda to keep her alive in the near-vacuum. Once Graviton was defeated, Jericho and Wanda combined their magicks to summon the Cyttora and rebuild Avengers Mansion. As they grew closer in the days 
that followed, Wanda made the first move and passionately embraced Jericho during one of their talks. The witch thought the houngan had grown too removed from the physical and thought that was a connection the two of them could share. Voodoo was surprised, but certainly willing to explore Wanda’s idea, and they grew ever closer still. [Uncanny Avengers (3rd series) #26-30]
The three active Avengers rosters faced a great threat when the Grandmaster and the Challenger moved the entire Earth for their Game of the Galaxies. Their players, the Black Order vs. the Lethal Legion, fought to score points by capturing pyramoids. The Grandmaster froze the majority of Earth’s heroes and villains into stasis but allowed a select number of Avengers to remain active as “obstacles” for the two teams. While away teams were deployed to intercept the players, Doctor Voodoo and the Scarlet Witch worked back at Avengers headquarters to devise a spell which would release the heroes in stasis. Unfortunately, by releasing Vision from stasis, they inadvertently cast Quicksilver into stasis in his place, leading to Pietro being injured in the field.
As the game progressed, the Challenger discovered the Grandmaster had been cheating and turned his rage against the Earth itself. As Quicksilver recovered, his senses focused on a faster-than-light beacon moving beyond human perception to maintain the stasis. With the help of Wanda and Synapse, he accelerated his perceptions enough to lock onto the beacon and snare it. The assembled heroes were released from stasis as reinforcements against the Challenger, but Pietro vanished into a dimension beyond space and time. After the climax of the battle, the 
Avengers decided to disband temporarily and recover from their collective ordeal. Voodoo, Wanda and Synapse made plans to work together and search the higher dimensions until they found where Quicksilver had gone. [Avengers (1st series) #675-690] In time, their efforts were successful. Jericho’s magic helped Wanda reach out to her missing brother, and they eventually brought him home safe and sound. [Quicksilver: No Surrender #1-5]
Doctor Voodoo retreated into meditation for a time, renewing his connection to the Earth’s magicks in the Everglades swamp, alongside the Man-Thing. He was there when Wong sought his aid. Las Vegas had been wiped out by Hydra during their American takeover and, in his hubris, Doctor Strange cast a massive spell to resurrect the city and its former inhabitants. This inadvertently brought a slice of Hell to Earth, giving Mephisto a grip on the living world. With Strange captured, Wong assembled a new team of Midnight Sons including Blade, Iron Fist, Moon Knight, Bloodstone and Ghost Rider to restore order. Through some heavy-lifting and sleight-of-hand, Johnny Blaze was killed but then claimed the empty throne of Hell while Mephisto was in Las Vegas, a quiet coup which cost the Lord of Hell his powers. [Doctor Strange: Damnation crossover]
Jericho continued searching for signs of Daniel and the Hand faction to whom he was now sworn to obey. In time, however, the Hand found him. The Hyborean Age sorcerer known as Kulan Gath brought the City of Sickles to the modern age, hidden away in the Savage Land. He brought together a sect of the Hand and other death cults to serve him and summon Jhoatun Lau, the Marrow God. These blood sacrifices focused on the blood of great warriors, whose own body count was endemic in their veins and made the sacrifices that much sweeter. Jericho was taken by the Hand, but others were also lured to the city, including Wolverine, Elektra, Punisher and even the time-tossed Conan the Barbarian, Gath’s ancient foe.
Doctor Voodoo was prepped for sacrifice by the Priest of Sickles, who slit Jericho’s throat over the pool of blood offerings, even as Wolverine tried to reach him first. In desperation, Logan cut open Jericho’s chest, pouring some of his own healing factor-enriched blood directly onto Jericho’s heart as he attempted manual palpitations. Somehow this worked, and Doctor Voodoo lived again 
before too long. As the warriors gathered, however, they found Kulan Gath immune to mortal injury as he survived a sword through the heart and a bullet through the head. Conan stole an amulet from Kulan Gath which resembled another Eye of Agamotto, but Gath plunged his fist through Conan’s chest to retrieve the amulet. Only a Klyntar symbiote from Gath’s menagerie bonding with him kept Conan alive. It was all too late, for Kulan Gath finally had enough blood to summon the Marrow God and deposit it on New York.
The warriors pursued Jhoatun Lau and were joined by Venom, but the Marrow God grew even larger as he fed. Voodoo found himself without a plan of attack and serving a support role with his magicks. The Hand stole the bodies of the Punisher’s family to lure him to the City of Sickles, and Gath made him believe they had been returned to life. Jericho regretfully revealed Castle’s wife and children were Xholtan skin-walkers who sought purchase on his soul, and severed their connection to Frank. Even with his symbiote, Conan’s life was fading. Doctor Voodoo regretfully used some of the Hand’s own magic to transfer the life essence of one of the ninja into Conan, the 
darkest of magicks which was necessary to save his ally. As the Marrow God died, the warriors were covered in its ichor as it exploded. Kulan Gath revealed this was his plan, for now they suffered the infection of the Marrow God and would come to serve him willingly within a year’s time. Jericho followed after Kulan Gath as he teleported away, leaving Elektra and the others with the mission of alerting Doctor Strange that Gath had returned. [Savage Avengers (1st series) #1-5]
Kulan Gath held Jericho as his “guest” and prisoner in the City of Sickles as he transported it to a pocket dimension none but he could access. He boasted of his great plans by giving Jericho a poison that brought him the brink of death. Jericho saw visions of how Kulan Gath, cannibal sorcerer and former servant of the elder demon Shuma-Gorath, was now consuming the flesh of Shuma-Gorath to increase his power even further. The essence of Shuma-Gorath was to be spread as an infection, disseminated throughout the world through tainted supplies of illegal drugs. Those who consumed the drugs became extensions of Shuma-Gorath’s power, and therefore Kulan Gath’s as well.
Conan had kept the Amulet of Agamotto after leaving the city, and it drew the attention of both Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom. It was cursed, deliberate set as a trap by Kulan Gath, for only the most dangerous sorcerer of modern Earth would seek it and try to use it. As Doom and Strange bartered with Conan for the amulet, the trio sought to free Voodoo from the City of Sickles when it next reappeared in Egypt. Gath’s poison to Voodoo had contained the essence of Shuma-
Gorath, however, and his body died as it became an avatar for the demon. Strange removed Shuma-Gorath’s physical manifestation from Voodoo’s body and evoked the Vodu aspect of Legba known as Kalfu to spirit them away. Safe in the Swamps of Ogun, Jericho Drumm still remained physically dead, his body and spirit separate from one another. Kalfu offered him sanctuary to convalesce without Kulan Gath’s interference, and the opportunity to make a bargain for his return to the living, if the offering suited the Loa. [Savage Avengers (1st series) #7-10]
Kalfu wanted “a life for a life” and his meaning was clear. Doctor Strange and Elektra finally located and captured Daniel Drumm, who had been on the run ever since his sect of the Hand was taken over by Kulan Gath. They met with Kalfu and Jericho at the Crossroads for a parley. To return Jericho Drumm to life, Kalfu demanded his payment. Doctor Strange tried to alter the bargain, offering to swear either his soul or Kulan Gath’s to Kalfu’s possession once the current conflict inevitably ended with one dead. Kalfu was unmoved, nor did he want Daniel Drumm in his current state, corrupted by the Hand through his resurrection. Elektra took the Vodu god’s cue and killed Daniel on the spot with her sai. Daniel Drumm’s soul was now purified of the Hand’s corrupted flesh, and as his spirit crossed over to the deadside, Jericho Drumm was free to return to the living. Daniel was once more bound to Jericho, sentenced to carry out his penance to the Loa at Doctor Voodoo’s side. [Savage Avengers (1st series) #12]
