Warning: spoilers for The Death of Doctor Strange: White Fox #1 are ahead. 

Over the course of several decades, Marvel Comics has crafted and perfected its own definition of the heroic. Characters like Spider-Man, Captain America, The Hulk, and Ms. Marvel have all produced distinct identities as superheroes that dramatically pushed the genre forwards. Each specific era of Marvel Comics can be roughly defined by a few different traits shared by its principal players, and with The Death of Doctor Strange: White Fox #1, writer Alyssa Wong succinctly wraps up what makes this emergent generation of heroes so different from their forebears (art by Andie Tong and Luciano Vecchio, colors by Arif Prianto, letters by VC's Travis Lanham).

In the issue, two Agents of Atlas, White Fox and Sword Master, work to investigate the appearance of a kumiho, a Korean fox demon in a remote village in Korea. As they near the location of a reported attack, White Fox, a kumiho herself, reminisces on how she never learned how to fully shapeshift because her mother was killed before she could properly teach her. Sword Master relates to White Fox's experiences, as he himself was bequeathed the Sword of Fu Xi, an ancestral weapon used to fight the demons of Chiyou, an ancient Chinese god of war. Like White Fox, Sword Master lost his family before he could learn how to properly wield his weapon, saying that, "I'm trying my best, but most days it feels like I have no idea what I'm doing. Like I'm playing hero instead of being one." In response, White Fox says, "Heroism isn't an identity–it's a process."

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The ethos behind White Fox's words captures the essence of Marvel's current generation of superheroes, who, like Sword Master and White Fox, spend just as much time learning how to be superheroes as they do fighting bad guys. Characters like Ms. Marvel, Miles Morales, Silk, and Amadeus Cho stumbled into being a superhero, as opposed to being born with their powers or being trained in how to use them. As a result, part of their journey lies in overcoming their limited view of what a superhero can look and act like. So by framing heroism as a "process" rather than an innate quality, Wong summarizes everything that makes Marvel's newest heroes so relatable.

Sword Master and White Fox in The Death of Doctor Strange: White Fox #1.

What works so well about approaching heroism as a "process" instead of an "identity" is that it leans into the comics medium itself. As a serialized format, superhero comics are already built to capture the "process" in which a character comes into their own. This is what makes Kamala Khan's first appearance in her homemade costume in Ms. Marvel #4 so satisfying–readers had already seen her struggling to accept that she, too, could be a hero in the previous issues (written by G. Willow Wilson, art by Adrian Alphona, colors by Ian Herring, letters by VC's Joe Caramagna). In this sense, Marvel's newer heroes have reimagined the genre and medium as a space for self discovery.

The death of Doctor Strange has reverberated across the Marvel Universe, providing an opportunity to explore the event from the perspectives of newer and lesser known characters. Sword Master and White Fox's conversation reveals how both characters fit perfectly into the brand of heroism that Marvel has championed for decades, with their cultural specificities offering a new spin on familiar themes. With Sword Master's fate left open-ended with the issue's conclusion, fans are now left with wondering what the next step in his heroic process in Marvel Comics could be.

Next: Marvel Comics is One Step Away From Confirming the Next Iron Fist