Defenders, The (1972 series) #25

As the Defenders race to save Valkyrie from execution by the Sons of the Serpent, Son of Satan and Luke Cage are diverted by Clea to emerge from the Eye of Agamotto worn by Doctor Strange. They find themselves in the secret undersea prison where Strange and co. have been held by the bad guys. Hellstrom and Cage free Strange and Nighthawk and link up with Yellowjacket who had managed to free himself. Hellstrom is able to use his powers to locate the secret exit and they depart….

Meanwhile, Valkyrie is hung upon an inverted cross in a public square while Hulk and Daredevil battle the Sons of the Serpent. Hulk has been blinded and DD captured. The baddies are about to set fire to Val’s cross when Jack Norriss comes to her rescue, struggling with a Serpent. This spurs several onlookers to action, deciding that the Serpents are the kind of extremists they don’t need. DD joins in the battle, Hulk’s sight returns, the Serpents flee, the team heads back to the Sanctum Sanctorum….

The group escaping the undersea prison comes out of the tunnel into a plush office. Nighthawk recognizes it: it is the office of his business adviser, J.C. Pennysworth, who has been funding the Sons of the Serpent with Kyle Richmond’s money. An angry Nighthawk heads out followed by the others….

Interlude: A young couple in a California mobile home park hear a knock at their door one evening. The husband answers the knock to see an Elf with a Gun—who then shoots the man….

The Defenders find that Val has been rescued so the enraged Nighthawk heads to the home of J.C. Pennysworth, smashing through a window, unmasking and demanding Pennysworth explain himself—he is African America like the targets of the Sons of the Serpent. Pennysworth explains that he feels no kinship with his people, having fought to rise above their level. He also assumed that Kyle, who trusted JCP to invest his money with no questions asked, would not object to any investments so long as they made money. Nighthawk takes JCP to meet with the other Defenders. When Luke Cage sees that JCP is a Black man he goes berserk and has to be restrained from hitting the man a second time. JCP reveals the location of the Serpents’ secret base—it is under the building burned down earlier. The Defenders and their guests invade the place, beat them all up, and Nighthawk, blaming himself for not paying attention, flies off alone to battle his conscience….