Vera Cantor receives a present in the mail: a pair of flowers and a love poem from Hank “The Beast” McCoy but it only makes her angry. She is fed up that her putative boyfriend keeps breaking dates, chasing other women, and lately moving to New Mexico without telling her. Yet looking at the flowers and poem soften her heart and she forgives him….
At the Defenders’ mountain HQ, Moondragon, having been freed of her headband last issue, has adopted a black-and-white outfit with a cape to reflect her changed status. Gargoyle is having trouble eating while lacking a right hand; Moondragon gives him a psychic assist to demonstrate her new kinder nature which sees the value in even the most humble of beings (which Beast and Iceman find patronizing but they make a joke out of it)….
Later, Cloud visits Moondragon in her room, expressing her love for her teammate, whether as a girl or a boy. Moondragon tries to explain the attraction as a side effect of her psychic battles with her headband, which Cloud brushes off, asking if MD loves her. Moondragon hides behind the vague definition of love, regretting her words when Cloud departs….
In Abbottsford, a nearby small town, Daniel Shepard is in jail, accused of a dire deed which his father, the Sheriff, tries to understand, slapping his son over it. The boy responds that he did it because he hates his father. Later, Sheriff Shepard and his wife Louise receive a visit from Edna May Terry, Daniel’s victim, who wants to see the boy to try to understand what he did. Shepard takes her to the jailhouse where she asks Daniel why he did what he did to her and he responds it was because she was available and because she was a Negro, shocking her….
At the Aerie, Moondragon picks up psychic emanations from the incident and she alerts the others, telling them that she has detected a strange source of power and believes they should investigate it. Beast finds this description too vague too act on and refuses to go. Iceman chooses to stay behind too (later suggesting it’s because the gender-swapping Cloud gives him the creeps), and Gargoyle pleads his missing hand as a handicap. So the others (Moondragon, Angel, Valkyrie, and Cloud) take a jet to Abbottsford….
In a nearby farm, a cow gives birth but the result is a deformed man covered with sores and green slime, shocking the farmers…and then it rises up and kills them….
The Defenders half-team arrives in Abbottsford to discover a band of White Supremacists kicking up a ruckus by defending Danny Shepard as a victim of Black people’s political agenda; a Black man hurls a rock at the speaker and the Whites go to open fire but the Defenders swoop in to stop the violence with Moondragon manipulating everyone to be calm and peaceful….
At Danny’s trial, Edna May Terry takes the stand to describe how her student Danny approached her after class and [the implication is rape though they can’t say that in a Comics Code-approved story]. Danny takes the stand and calmly describes how he feels no remorse, that Miss Terry is worthless and deserved what happened to her, that evil happens everywhere and he would do it again, his only crime was being caught. An angry man in the courtroom, draws a gun and fires at Danny but Moondragon uses her power to halt the bullet in midair and then compels Danny to tell the truth—that he wanted to break everyone’s heart. Moondragon then asks Miss Terry to explain what really happened in the classroom. This time she reveals that Danny forced her to recall her darkest secret—how she fell in love with a white man, bore his child and was then forced to give it up for adoption—and reliving the memory felt like rape to her. The big question now is why did Danny do it? He explains that he felt her deep heartbreak for the first time so that he knew he had t break the hearts of everyone in town so he could use his power to take it all away. And so with a wave of his hand Danny empties everyone in court of their sorrows, freeing them to be happy. And then he leaves. The Defenders ask why Moondragon doesn’t stop him; she replies that there is a lot of heartbreak in the world….
Back in the valley below Defenders HQ some strange plants grow tendrils that resemble human hands, all reaching for the Aerie….
Excelsioring your collection