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The Masked Raider’s identity has finally been revealed, and it nearly cost the Marvel Universe every single iteration of itself that fans have ever seen.
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Defenders #5, available now from Marvel.
The latest lineup of Defenders have travelled across space, time, and nearly every iteration of the Multiverse in their pursuit of the mad scientist Carlo Zota. Now that the heroes have reached their final destination, the time has come for the Masked Raider to finally confront the man he has been chasing, and come unmasked in the process. As shocking as the revelation of the Masked Raider’s identity is, it somehow manages to pale in comparison to the fact that he is the only reason reality still exists as we know it.
The Defenders have finally crossed into the Third Cosmos. After traversing the mind-boggling reaches of the Fourth Cosmos, the heroes have come to an even stranger sight. Like with every Multiverse they have traveled before, their nemesis Carlo Zota is there waiting for them. Unfortunately, the Defenders are unable to touch their foe through the force field Zota has created. Even worse, the concepts of magic and science don’t even exist in this Multiverse, meaning that wherever Zota is drawing his powers from is also driving the Third Cosmos towards destruction. Thankfully, the Masked Raider and his Eternity Mask are able to step through the barrier and confront Zota directly. Once Zota gets the upper hand, he is quick to end the Masked Raider’s life, finally claiming victory over his pursuer as well as the chance to unmask him. As glorious as the moment might be, nothing could prepare Carlo Zota for staring into the face of the man he has just killed, especially not when that man is himself.
Carlo Zota never realized that he was his own worst enemy figuratively, but the revelation that he has been filling that role literally is made clear enough in the pages of Defenders #5 by Al Ewing, Javier Rodriguez, and VC’s Joe Caramagna. Clutching the Eternity Mask, Zota is overwhelmed by visions of Eternity itself, as well as with the understanding of what has to come next. Rather than usher in the end of all things, Zota dons the Eternity Mask and rises up as a giant to aid Lifebringer One, the very first hero, in its battle against the monstrous void that would otherwise consume it. In the final moments of the conflict, Zota let himself be dragged down into nothingness so long as it meant bringing the Anti-All with him. In an instant, Carlo Zota went from the man who would singlehandedly doom all of existence to the one responsible for ensuring its survival at his own expense. Of course, nothing has been that simple over the course of the series so far, and neither is Zota’s story.
What should have ended with his demise alongside the Anti-All instead continued on into the far away future of Zota’s own faraway past to the very moment when his former colleague turned enemy Blind Justice first gave him the Eternity Mask. While Jerome Hamilton aka Blind Justice would still go on to be killed by Carlo, Zota himself finally got the opportunity to put an end to his own schemes before they ever would ever get off the ground. What had already come to pass would never happen again, and the myriad of awe inspiring, fear inducing Multiverses would come and go as they always had.
The winding story that has brought Carlo Zota’s life full-circle at least a couple of times may be over, but the impact of it is one that will both never be forgotten nor ever widely be known by those whose lives it preserved. For two such vastly different yet similarly unsung characters to be tied together as two iterations of the same person was shocking enough, though that pales in comparison to the idea that the Masked Raider was the Marvel Universe’s ultimate salvation by dismantling his own worst laid plans. If nothing else, fans can rest easy knowing that particular threat will never emerge again, even if that also means losing one of the most astonishing heroes of all time.
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