Synopsis
In the modern era, human worshippers of Set became hosts for the spirits of the original Serpent Men. These Serpent Men, acting on the prophecy of the Age of Heroes, identified the Defenders (Doctor Strange, Clea, Hulk, Namor the Sub-Mariner, Valkyrie, Gargoyle, and Devil-Slayer) as the beings they needed to possess. However, the Serpent Men still had to reacquire the relic stolen by the Spider People. (The Spider People still existed in vastly diminished numbers, although their modern representatives had dramatically lower intelligence.) The Serpent Men knew that the remaining Spider People still had a powerful idol of the spider-god Omm guarding the relic, and knew that any non-arachnoid who tried to take it would be destroyed by the idol. So, one of their number devised a plan. He stole Devil-Slayer's enchanted cloak, and impersonated him. Reasoning that Spider-Man, with his arachnid-enhanced blood, would fool the spider-deity Omm if he tried to take it, this Devil-Slayer imposter set out to fool Spider-Man into doing just that. After recovering the relic, The Devil-Slayer imposter brought them back to New York. Claiming that telepathic probing had uncovered the whereabouts of the Defenders in the sewers, the imposter and his duped ally went to find them. The two encountered beings claiming to be the Defenders, who said that they had freed themselves and defeated the Serpent Men holding them and ended their Setian menace permanently. The Doctor Strange imposter asked Spider-Man for the statue taken from the Omm idol, ostensibly to study it for his mystical logs. Spider-Man, sensing something amiss, asked the "Defenders" to say "Ka nama kaa lajerama". They could not, so the Serpent Men discarded their disguises. Spider-Man managed to destroy the statue and free the true Defenders. Doctor Strange banished the Serpent Men to the limbo of their dead. The human followers of the Serpent Men were allowed to leave unmolested.