THE DEFENDERS: AFTER THE EVIL EYE STORY

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at the Defenders tales following the Evil Eye of Avalon story.  

DEFENDERS Vol 1 #12 (February 1974)

Title: The Titan Strikes Back

Villain: Xemnu

Defenders Roster: Dr Strange, Hulk, Valkyrie

Synopsis: We pick up an unknown amount of time after the previous story. Dr Strange gives Valkyrie a mystic sword called Dragonfang to make up for her giving the Ebony Blade back to the Black Knight.

Xemnu is back on Earth, having reassembled his scattered atoms once again. He has taken over the town of Plucketville in the American Midwest. He again plans to repopulate his home planet of Xem at the expense of Earth’s life-forms.

Dr Strange, Hulk and Valkyrie are the only Defenders available who can be rallied to save the world from Xemnu. (I’d have thrown in Clea, too, myself.) Our heroes battle the alien, who is defeated and again seems to be destroyed in the explosion of a spaceship he made the enthralled citizens of Plucketville construct for him.

NOTE: Decades later, Xemnu would play a huge part in Hulk stories, even possessing his body at one point.

GIANT-SIZE DEFENDERS Vol 1 #1 (July 1974)

Title: The Way They Were

Villains: QuasiMoD.O. , Mr Rasputin and Nazis

Defenders Roster: Dr Strange, Sub-Mariner, Hulk, Clea, Silver Surfer and Valkyrie

NOTE: For a time in 1974 and 1975 Marvel Comics tried adding quarterly-published Giant-Size editions of many of their titles, like Giant-Size Fantastic Four and Giant-Size Spider-Man, etc. Like the special Annual editions of their best-selling characters of the moment, these Giant-Size editions might have one NEW story but the rest of the issue would be reprints. 

Synopsis: Promotional material of the time indicated that this story took place in between Defenders #12 & 13. At Dr Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum, Clea and Valkyrie are just hanging out together. Valkyrie wants to know more about the past escapades of some of her fellow Defenders, so Clea accommodates her by conjuring up visions from Doc’s, Hulk’s, Sub-Mariner’s and the Silver Surfer’s past.

Because she is still learning, Clea’s spell gets out of control and locks Dr. Strange, Sub-Mariner, Hulk and the Silver Surfer in repeating time loops battling old foes like Nazis (Sub-Mariner), the evil mystic Mr. Rasputin (Dr. Strange), “Thunderbolt” Ross (Hulk) and for the Silver Surfer, the Mad Thinker’s AI construct QuasiMoD.O. (Quasi-Motivational Destruct Organism).

Clea and Valkyrie work to save them, the other Defenders are freed, and Clea (played by Charlize Theron in the movies) learns a sort of Sorcerer’s Apprentice lesson.

DEFENDERS Vol 1 #13 (May 1974)

Title: For Sale: One Planet … Slightly Used

Villains: Nebulon and the Squadron Sinister

Defenders Roster: Dr Strange, Sub-Mariner, Hulk, Valkyrie and Nighthawk (Kyle Richmond)

Synopsis: One night the supervillain Nighthawk, in his original black & gray costume with the ridiculous beak-nose, shows up at the door of the Sanctum Sanctorum in a trenchcoat which covers most of his costume. When the door is opened by Wong Nighthawk fights his way inside, where he is attacked by Valkyrie and the Hulk.

After a brief battle in which Nighthawk shows off his incredible agility and his doubled-by-night strength (later retconned to tripled-by-night), Nighthawk convinces Doc, Hulk and Valkyrie that the world needs the Defenders’ help. They agree to listen to his story.

He recounts how, years earlier, the universe-roaming alien called the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldbum in the movies) transformed himself (Kyle) and three other Earthlings into their super-powered parallel universe counterparts.

In that parallel universe those figures – Nighthawk, Hyperion, Dr Spectrum and the Whizzer (later renamed the Speed Demon) – were superheroes, but the Grandmaster pitted OUR universe’s version of the four against the Avengers as supervillains in another of his countless competitions.

NOTE: The inside joke inherent in the Squadron Sinister (and Squadron Supreme) is that Hyperion, the sole survivor of his sub-atomic planet in the Microverse (now called the Quantum Realm) was a pastiche of Superman … Dr Spectrum, wielder of a “Power Prism,” was a pastiche of Green Lantern … Whizzer (no relation to Marvel Comics’ World War Two hero of the same name), was a pastiche of the Flash … and Nighthawk, with his name inspired by a creature of the night, his wealth and items like his Hawk-Plane, was a pastiche of Batman.

Nighthawk/ Batman fought Captain America in the Grandmasters’ tournament and tried to steal the Statue of Liberty via his Hawk-Plane. (Nighthawk could not fly until a few issues down the road.) He later clashed with Daredevil but escaped again.  

Kyle Richmond returned to his rich playboy lifestyle, leaving his Nighthawk identity in the past, until recently. An interstellar geologist called Nebulon (FIRST APPEARANCE) happened to save Hyperion/ Superman, who was still drifting through space after his defeat by Thor in the Grandmaster’s tournament. Hyperion convinced Nebulon he and his friends “owned” a planet that was rich in varied minerals and offered to sell it to Nebulon. Earth, of course, was that planet.

Nebulon, with his massive cosmic powers, rounded up the other three Squadron Sinister members at Hyperion’s request and a deal was negotiated. In exchange for the Earth, Nebulon would teleport each of the Squadron members to a parallel universe of their choosing. But on one condition. Nebulon wanted the Earth entirely underwater to make his geological studies easier for himself.

His survey of the Earth after Hyperion led him to it showed multiple super-powered beings who might interfere with the planet being submerged so the Squadron would have to flood the Earth FOR Nebulon first.

Using Kyle Richmond’s wealth plus the superpowers of the Squadron combined with alien technology provided by Nebulon himself, the Squadron spent several weeks secretly constructing a machine capable of melting Earth’s North and South Poles, flooding the world.

As the project moved along, Nighthawk alone of the Squadron members found himself unable to go through with the horrible deed. He secretly went in search of the Fantastic Four, X-Men and Avengers but found that, as a precaution, Nebulon’s powers had made it so that he could not be heard or seen or felt by any of Earth’s publicly known teams of superheroes.

While futilely trying to communicate with the Avengers at Avengers Mansion, Nighthawk at last gave up trying, but heard the Avengers mentioning the Defenders, whom they had met a few months back. They talked about how the Defenders’ existence was kept secret from the world at large, so Nighthawk knew they would likely not be covered by Nebulon’s powers. And so he came to Dr Strange’s mansion this night.

Dr Strange rounds up the Sub-Mariner, given the toughness of the Squadron Sinister AND the unknown quantity called Nebulon. Namor was busy helping out the Hydro-People, human guinea pig victims of Namor’s recurring supervillain Dr. Dorcas, and didn’t want to come along. He pointed out to Strange that this menace – flooding the Earth – would pose no danger to his undersea realm, so the selfish and destructive surface world could just fend for itself without him.

Doc refuses to take no for an answer and teleports Namor to his side with the other Defenders. Promising to settle things with Strange after the upcoming battle is over, Sub-Mariner goes with the others to the North Pole with Nighthawk’s Hawk-Plane.

Once there they attack Hyperion, Dr Spectrum and the Whizzer, who are using the Pole-melting device on the Arctic ice, already causing a slight rise in the sea levels. In a less than suspenseful battle, the five Defenders (Nighthawk is now a member) defeat the three villains and shut off the Pole-melting device.

Nebulon strikes out of nowhere, using his cosmic/ geoplanetary powers to entrap the Defenders in a transparent pinkish bubble of energy. He announces that the melting of the Earth’s Polar ice will now continue without interruption.

DEFENDERS Vol 1 #14 (July 1974)

Title: The Man Who Bought the Earth

Defenders Roster: Dr Strange, Sub-Mariner, Hulk, Valkyrie and Nighthawk

Synopsis: Nebulon the Celestial Man converses with the imprisoned Defenders in their bubble. He demands an explanation from the still-free Nighthawk regarding what is going on. The defeated members of the Squadron Sinister regain consciousness and underscore Nighthawk’s treachery to Nebulon. The immensely powerful alien teleports Kyle into the bubble with the Defenders so he can share their fate. 

The Defenders escape and once again trounce the Squadron Sinister. Nebulon proves to be a much tougher foe, and his strength plus his energy projecting powers make him a powerful match for the five Defenders.

After awhile, Nebulon is so tired from the lengthy battle that he loses enough concentration that he drops the illusion in which the Celestial Man has cloaked himself. Instead of a bipedal humanoid of almost angelic appearance, Nebulon is really a hideous, scaly, tentacled being who is clearly intended for an underwater habitat, hence his demand to flood the world.

Still, his powers remain incredible, and he begins firing more of his pinkish energy blasts at the Defenders from his tentacles, staying in his real form rather than the humanoid form he adopted to mimic the being he rescued (Hyperion) and thus earn his confidence.

Realizing that he and his fellow Defenders are on the verge of defeat, Nighthawk climbs up the huge alien tech device. He knows how to maneuver it since he oversaw its construction (through Nebulon’s blueprints and technology) at Richmond Enterprises.

He rides it and redirects the beam melting the ice caps so that it hits Nebulon instead. This weapon of his own people’s tech is powerful enough to seriously harm the villain and seemingly kill him, taking Hyperion, Dr Spectrum and Whizzer with him.

The alien device, with Nighthawk still driving it, explodes from overheating. Kyle Richmond lies on the ice before the other Defenders, his life ebbing away quickly. He is so far gone that there is only one way to keep him alive.

Doc obtains permission from Sub-Mariner, Hulk and Valkyrie to join him in transferring a small fraction of their own life essence to Nighthawk. (He did, after all, save them and the world from Nebulon just now.)

That mystic ritual completed, Sub-Mariner now settles his argument with Dr Strange about shanghaiing him into this battle even though Atlantis was in no danger. He warns him that if he EVER again summons him to his side to serve as a Defender, he will instead come as an enemy.

Hulk watches Namor fly away and puts his arm around the recovering Nighthawk, saying “Let Fish-Face go. Bird-Nose (Nighthawk) can be Hulk’s new friend.” Kyle Richmond says he’ll be glad to keep being a Defender. It will help him make amends for his misspent life.

NOTE: Neither Nebulon nor the Squadron Sinister were dead, of course, and would return separately to fight the Defenders many times in the future.

Nebulon would continue to use his “body beautiful” form and eventually, in the 1980s, his own race would catch up with him, put him on trial and trap him in that humanoid form permanently as part of his punishment.  

DEFENDERS Vol 1 #15 (September 1974)

Title: Panic Beneath the Earth

Villains: Magneto and his Mutant Brotherhood

Defenders Roster: Dr Strange, Hulk, Valkyrie, Nighthawk and Professor X (Charles Xavier, PhD)

Synopsis: Nighthawk shows his fellow Defenders his new, blue, red and yellow costume, with jet-pack technology that will let him fly and WITHOUT the stupid bird nose. (Though “Bird Nose” will go on being the Hulk’s name for him.) Valkyrie, meanwhile, finds herself increasingly troubled by the random fragments of Barbara Norris’ memories which have begun surfacing within her.

Elsewhere, the X-Men’s archenemy Magneto has assembled the most powerful incarnation of his Mutant Brotherhood to date, consisting of Mastermind, the Blob, Unus the Untouchable and Lorelei. Their recent actions have alarmed Professor X, the behind the scenes head of the X-Men. His team of mutants are off on a secret mission, so he reaches out to his old friend Dr Strange about his concerns.

NOTE: This “secret mission” reference was simply to justify why Xavier wasn’t sending his X-Men after Magneto and company. The X-Men’s own comic book had been canceled and was relegated to reprints at this time.

References to teams like the Avengers or Fantastic Four, etc being “off on a mission” were often used for verisimilitude, to explain why whichever super-team was dealing with a world-ending threat couldn’t just rally the other teams to their side and had to handle the menace themselves. (“We tried to call in the Fantastic Four/ Avengers but they’re away on a mission” was a standard type of line used in Marvel Comics at the time.)

In 1975 this particular “mission” that the X-Men were supposedly off on was retconned as their investigation of and captivity on Krakoa the mutant colony creature when Xavier gathered the new team of X-Men to rescue them following their lengthy absence. 

At any rate, Dr Strange confides in Professor X about the existence of the Defenders, so Charles joins the group, hoping to take down the new Mutant Brotherhood. Out west, Magneto and his team have covertly seized part of Carlsbad Caverns to use as their headquarters.

They are using technology provided by an unknown alien benefactor to concoct a bio-chemically created “mutant.” (I think Marvel should have later said the Shi’Ar agent Eric the Red (costume at left) was the alien involved, to help justify that figure’s further assistance to Magneto in X-Men #104.)

Doc, Hulk, Valkyrie, Nighthawk and Professor X locate the Brotherhood’s Carlsbad Caverns lair and attack them. The team defeats Blob, Mastermind, Unus and Lorelei, leaving just Magneto still unconquered.

He holds out long enough to finish the bio-chemical experiment and then unveils the creation. It is a 20-some foot tall cave-man looking brute in a loincloth, a being which Magneto introduces as Alpha, the Ultimate Mutant and says he will let Magneto conquer the world.

NOTE: This storyline is the last appearance of Magneto as he was originally written – as a typical, megalomaniacal supervillain who was using his claims of “protecting mutantkind” as a mere excuse to further his own ambitions of global conquest. Magneto hadn’t even been given a real name at this point.

After this two-part story, new X-Men writer Chris Claremont would go on to drastically retcon Magneto and his past, making him a Holocaust survivor and a true believer in his crusade on behalf of mutantkind.   

DEFENDERS Vol 1 #16 (October 1974)

Title: Alpha, The Ultimate Mutant

Villains: Alpha and the Mutant Brotherhood

Defenders Roster: Dr Strange, Hulk, Valkyrie, Nighthawk and Professor X

Synopsis: While the Mutant Brotherhood members regain consciousness, Magneto has Alpha demonstrate how powerful he is. He easily withstands anything that the Defenders try to do to him. Magneto then uses his magnetic powers to cause a massive cave-in, hoping to crush our heroes while he has Alpha teleport him and the Brotherhood away to an unknown destination.

The Defenders survive and break free, then track down Alpha and the others to New York, where Magneto, Alpha and the rest seize the U.N. building. Magneto insists that the representatives convey his demands for each of their governments to surrender their sovereignty to him. As an added threat, he orders Alpha to levitate the entire building plus its concrete surroundings high in the air over the city.

The Defenders fly up to the floating chunk of real estate in the sky, where Magneto orders Alpha to kill them. With each use of his powers, Alpha mutates further (hence the “ultimate mutant” designation), his powers and intelligence growing at a geometric rate. Alpha resists a little, then tries placating Magneto by animating huge stone monsters to attack our heroes.

They destroy those creations and barge into the General Assembly, where an increasingly recalcitrant Alpha reluctantly obeys Magneto’s orders to defeat the Defenders. It is clear he obeys him only out of sentimentality for this only “parent” he has ever known, albeit very briefly.

The battle goes on, and after Hulk, Valkyrie and Nighthawk have fallen in combat, Dr Strange and Professor X, noting how much more articulate Alpha has grown and how huge his ever-expanding cranium has gotten, stop fighting him and try to reason with him. They appeal to his obvious sense of decency and point out the vileness of the Mutant Brotherhood’s actions.

Magneto doesn’t help his own cause by throwing his typical (at the time) fits of anger, hatefully demanding that Alpha just shut up and obey him. Alpha orders both sides to be silent as he communes with each of their minds, to determine which team is pursuing the more virtuous cause.

The ultimate mutant determines that the Defenders are in the right and the Mutant Brotherhood is in the wrong. He uses his powers to punish them in a way that is at first kept hidden from the reader. Alpha restores the UN building to its foundation below, then, STILL mutating with each use of his powers, he departs for far-off galaxies to seek his future among the stars.

We now see what Alpha did to the Mutant Brotherhood. Killing was apparently against his nature so he reverted Magneto, Mastermind, Blob, Unus and Lorelei to infancy, to give them a second chance at life.

NOTE: As all X-Men fans know, Chris Claremont later made it so that Professor X had given the five “infants” to his old research colleague Moira MacTaggert. She was raising the babies on her research facility at Muir Isle, to give them a gentle upbringing in hopes that they would be much better people this time around.

Since it was a certainty that these five infants were mutants, it was also an unprecedented opportunity to study their physiology as they grew, since most mutants didn’t manifest themselves until puberty. Eventually, in X-Men #104, Eric the Red located Muir Isle and used Shi’Ar technology to restore Magneto to adulthood, keeping him in the prime of his 30s rather than his full old age in order to ensure Magneto had maximum power to kill the X-Men for him.

Eric the Red also restored Mastermind, Blob, Unus and Lorelei to adulthood, too. The events at the UN in this Defenders story were later cited at the trial of Magneto in X-Men #200 in 1985.

GIANT-SIZE DEFENDERS Vol 1 #2 (October 1974)

Title: H … As In Hulk … Hell … And Holocaust

Villain: Asmodeus

Defenders Roster: Dr Strange, Hulk, Valkyrie, Nighthawk and the Son of Satan (Daimon Hellstrom)

Synopsis: Asmodeus (Charles Benton), the late cult leader who died long ago in battle with Dr Strange, is suffering in Hell. He strikes a desperate bargain with the demon Satannish, who is NOT Satan himself, but a goofy-named subordinate demon. Asmodeus and his cult the Sons of Satannish once unleashed Ymir and Surtur on the world and it took Doc, the Black Knight and the Avengers to save the Earth.

Asmodeus/ Benton’s deal with Satannish goes like this: Asmodeus will be returned to the living if he can get 5 souls for Satannish in return. It’s apparently the kind of enterprising spirit that the actual Satan likes to see in his lesser demons so Satannish agrees, hoping to please his master Lucifer. He grants Asmodeus 12 hours, from Noon to Midnight, to pull this off. The dead cult leader will have his old mystical powers back for that period as well, to help him perform his task.

Using the form of an innocent blonde little girl, Asmodeus tricks the simple-minded Hulk into willingly entering Hell via a portal in a dark temple in the New York slums. As the Hulk suffers the torments of the damned, the ghostly, cloaked Asmodeus delivers a crystal ball to Dr Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum so his teammates can behold his suffering. Doc, Valkyrie and Nighthawk are appalled at the torments being endured by their fellow Defender.

The ghost of Asmodeus tells the Defenders that in order to free the Hulk from Hell they must submit to his demands, mysterious demands that he will reveal to them only if they agree to the exchange. Not trusting such an infernal bargain, the Defenders first try to rescue the Hulk themselves.

Our heroes scour New York City, which they recognized as the site of the portal that Hulk entered. Unable to find it after several hours, they meet back at Strange’s Greenwich Village mansion. Doc decides to consult the renowned exorcist and demonologist Daimon Hellstrom in Saint Louis.

Strange sends his astral form to Daimon’s office at Gateway University and, after introductions, he explains the problem to Daimon. Hellstrom confides to Dr Strange that the rumors in occult circles are true, he is the son of Satan and a mortal woman, but he opposes the forces of Hell. Daimon raises both hands in the Sign of the Trident (three fingers up), which gesture always transforms him into his Son of Satan costume complete with a trident made of Nethermetal from Hell.

Doc teleports the Son of Satan to his mansion. Daimon uses his trident to lead him to the conjured-up portal to Hell and flies off, using the trident like a divining rod. Doc, Valkyrie and Nighthawk fly along behind him.

The Son of Satan leads his fellow Defenders to what appears to be a litter-strewn vacant lot in the inner city. Hellstrom uses his trident’s Soulfire in combination with Dr Strange’s magic and the pair expose the now-invisible temple/ portal which Hulk entered.

The Defenders descend into Hell, where they get separated and each begin to suffer the torments of the damned. Those torments are tailored to each of their specific souls and some are fairly grim for a comic book of 1974.

At any rate, Son of Satan has battled demons in Hell before over in his own series so he at last prevails over his tormentors. Dr Strange, no newcomer to the kind of horrors unleashed on him, also survives on his own, but the other Defenders need help.

Daimon frees the Hulk from HIS tormenting demons, Dr Strange frees the Valkyrie from hers and she in turn frees Nighthawk from his. Before the five heroes can flee back to the world of the living the floor beneath them collapses and they fall into the presence of the dead cult leader Asmodeus.

He unleashes the mystical powers that Satannish temporarily restored to him and, as exhausted as the Defenders are from their ordeals this night, he is on the verge of being able to steal their souls to fulfill his bargain and return to life, leaving our heroes here in Hell to suffer in his place.

Only the Son of Satan is able to continue fighting him, because of his unique hybrid nature. He defeats Asmodeus then uses his Soulfire to fully restore the Defenders’ half-drained souls to them. When he’s done with that, Midnight tolls, officially ending Asmodeus’ allotted time. Satannish shows up to punish Asmodeus as Satan will no doubt punish HIM for this debacle.

The Defenders suddenly find themselves back in the world of the living, where the vacant lot is TRULY vacant now, and no longer a cover for a portal to Hell. After a post-mission conversation, the Defenders go their separate ways.

Daimon Hellstrom would serve as a Defender off and on over the years, helping them fight villains like the Sons of the Serpent, Chondu the Mystic, the Reverse-Defenders, the Six-Fingered Hand, the Overmind and others. He wound up marrying his fellow Defender, the superheroine called Hellcat.

NOTE: I did a Halloween Season look at the Son of Satan’s 1970s stories HERE.