How Malekith Started 'War of the Realms'

Witness the ins and outs of the Dark Elf's march towards the cosmic conflagration!

Every Friday, we use the powers of Marvel Unlimited to look back at the most notable appearances of a character that made waves this week.

WAR OF THE REALMS is finally upon us! The first issue of the epic series, by Jason Aaron, Russell Dauterman, and Matthew Wilson may have hit this week, but the main force behind the conflict, Malekith, has been working towards this very goal for years!

Truth be told, while the Dark Elf may be driving the conflicts between the Ten Realms, writer Aaron has actually been planning the whole thing going way back to his first series with the Odinson in THOR: GOD OF THUNDER which ran from 2012 through 2014!

Malekith made his monstrous return in issues #13-17 with a story entitled THE ACCURSED! In that tale, Dark Elves freed their former king from his prison in Niffleheim and returned him to their home realm of Svartalfheim. There, he decided to kill any Dark Elves he considered weak in an effort to retake his throne from Queen Alfyse who hid with the Dwarves in Nidavellir.

Thor intended to hunt Malekith down with some help from his fellow Asgardians, but All-Mother Freyja informed him that such an action had been forbidden by the Congress of Worlds, which resulted in the formation of the League of Realms! The group fought their quarry for the first time in Nidavellir, but he escaped.

Malekith's larger plans started coming to light when he and his forces invaded the Light Elf world of Alfheim and then the Land of Giants, Jotunheim, where the League attacked him once again. The heroes then found themselves facing potential all-out war when the Accursed one revealed that he'd allied himself with the Frost Giants! The League battled Malekith's forces soon after, but the immediate hostilities came to an end when the evil one became king of his people once again!

The re-established King of the Dark Elves briefly held some of the Mandarin's rings and even mixed it up with Tony Stark in the pages of IRON MAN #22-28, but quickly returned to menace wielders of Mjolnir—this time during Jane Foster's tenure—first in THOR and then in MIGHTY THOR.

In the pages of THOR, Malekith began working with Dario "the Minotaur" Agger of Roxxon and resurrected Laufey of the Frost Giants to plot alongside him in his desire to plunge all of the realms into bloody conflict. In the process he made a quick enemy of the new Thor who soon began working with a reconstituted League of Realms.

The Dark King's next moves involved dropping hundreds of dead Light Elves on Midgard, starting his own Dark Council and brainwashing the Queen of the Light Elves so he could marry her, thus uniting their realms officially. From there he allied himself with Sindr, Queen of Muspelheim and made a deal with the angels of Heven.

With Roxxon forces attacking the Old Gods of Vanaheim and Mangog tearing Old Asgard and Asgardia apart, Malekith seemed perfectly poised to bring his war to all the realms, but first he reveled in the fact that Jane Foster had died as Thor, but had also been brought back to her human form, which still suffered from the cancer that threatened her life.

After securing aid from Niffleheim, the land of the dead, Malekith had but one realm that he hadn't already conquered: Midgard. So, with this week's WAR OF THE REALMS #1, the Dark Elf invades the final piece of his putrid puzzle. However, as we all know, Earth comes with its fair share of inhabitants who don't take kindly to invaders bent on their death and destruction...