Crown of Wolves

The Crown of Wolves was part of a set of three crowns created by the Martians who had been touched by the Abyss to channel the power of his Dark Children. Under the influence of the crowns, these Martians tried to break their own world apart to awaken the Darkest Child, who would in turn awaken his brothers to free their nameless father from his prison. However, their plan was thwarted by the Archons, a race of constructs created by the Watchers to guard the Abyss and wait for his eventual return. The nearly destroyed planet was eventually abandoned, with the only Archon who managed to survive the ordeal remaining behind to guard the crowns.^[2]

A millennia later,^[2] the Crown of Wolves was found on Earth by an archeologist and his son, who were subsequently killed (presumably) by Taskmaster.^[1] After Taskmaster delivered him the Crown of Wolves, Shadow Council leader Max Fury merged it to the other two crowns he had previously acquired and donned the merged crown to become the Abyss' vessel, but that didn't work as he was a Life-Model Decoy. The merged crown was then donned by Taskmaster, who proceeded to spread the Abyss' influence to the new Masters of Evil assembled by Fury to serve as an army for the dark entity, and the Secret Avengers who tried in vain to prevent Fury from acquiring the three crowns.^[4] The Secret Avengers Agent Venom and Ant-Man, who weren't affected by the Abyss' influence due to one being a symbiote host and the other secretly a Life-Model Decoy, fought against the Abyss as he tried to spread his influence beyond Bagalia and managed to severe his connection to Earth by bonding the Venom symbiote to Taskmaster and unmerging the three crowns.^[5] The crowns were then confiscated by the Secret Avengers, who tucked them away, separated in remote vaults across the Microverse.^[6]

• Despite its existence being mentioned in Secret Avengers #3, the Crown of Wolves' name is only revealed in Secret Avengers #29, with its first full appearance happening an issue later.