New Defenders, The (1983 series) #148

Daimon Hellstrom and his wife Patsy Walker arrive in San Francisco and take a taxi driven by the crazy cabbie Rufus T. Hackstabber, driving like a maniac and demanding $5000 for a fare. Daimon gives him $50 and the grumbling cabbie accompanies them into the sinister mansion of Captain Van Vliet who has summoned them. They enter the office to find Beast and Gargoyle of the Defenders; Van Vliet has gathered them to acquire an ancient artifact called the Lesser Grey God, which he believes is in San Francisco. Police Detective Henry Crun bursts in telling everyone to freeze and then Oliver Cutlass of Oriental Expediters is hurled through the window and tells everyone to flee as a grenade is tossed in after him. The grenade is lobbed from hand to hand until Hackstabber bats it out of the window with a tennis racket. Crun tries to arrest everyone but Cutlass sends him after whoever threw the grenade. Cutlass then introduces his wife Typhoon and explains they were searching for a crate labeled Kickshaws which had vanished before reaching its destination, the home of Minerva Bannister. They have traced it here and accuse Van Vliet of having stolen it. Van Vliet denies it and, pleading tiredness, he excuses himself. Daimon tries to explain the significance of the Lesser Grey God and then they hear a shot: they all dash upstairs to the Captain’s bedroom and break in to find him dead, smelling of cyanide with a knife wound in his chest but no gunshot wound and no knife; there’s also a cryptic note. Another gunshot from outside leads to another scramble and they see bad guys on a helicopter pursuing Detective Crun in his car. Gargoyle pursues the copter, using a bio-mystical blast to blow the copter’s rotor and nab the three baddies aboard. Meanwhile, Beast leaps on the top of the car and seizes the baddie on the roof, though Crun crashes upon sight of Beast atop his car. They try questioning the baddies but both Daimon and Cutlass claim to know what is going on, which no one else does, as Patsy and Hank keep pointing out….

Depositing the baddies with the police, the group visits Miss Minerva Bannister and Cutlass accuses her of faking the theft of the Kickshaws consignment, sending them to harass Van Vliet. They discover the Kickshaws crate in a hidden room with the Lesser Grey God. But Typhoon shoots the idol, proving it to be a fake. Cutlass explains that Bannister and Van Vliet each though the other one had the LGG so she sent Crun and her henchmen over to Van Vliet’s home while Van Vliet called in the Defenders. But Van Vliet, who was in love with Miss Bannister, learned she had sent the baddies to him and killed himself in a very complicated way. Hannibal King then enters, accompanied by Rufus T. Hackstabber, and explains that Bannister’s plans were thwarted when Dr. Strange cast the spell that eliminated all vampires. She was hoping that the Lesser Grey God could restore the vampires and Van Vliet, fearing she would become a vampire, left a lot of obscure clues. She calls in her henchmen and the Defenders, plus Typhoon, clobber them all. Miss Bannister tries to escape but trips over Hackstabber’s tennis racket. Cutlass and Typhoon depart, the Defenders go their way asking Daimon if the Lesser Grey God really exists and he doesn’t know—as we are told that the hood ornament on Hackstabber’s taxi resembles the ancient artifact….