At
the brownstone purchased by Kyle Richmond as a headquarters for the Defenders,
a party is in progress. Present are (non-)team members Beast, Valkyrie, and
Gargoyle plus guests Vera Cantor (Beast’s girlfriend), Silver Surfer,
Scarlet Witch, and Vision, with Dolly Donahue doing all of the grunt work. Gargoyle
notices a difference in Val’s personality, the result of her regaining her own
body. Isaac toasts Beast and Kyle and is suddenly reminded that Dr. Strange
went off looking for Hulk, Namor, and Daimon and never returned. The Surfer
proposes they search for him though that might be a problem as he is likely in
a different dimension. Doctor Strange solves the problem by contacting them via
astral projection. He asks for their help and transports them (minus Vera and
Dolly) to the distant dimension where the trouble is. They find Bruce Banner operating
the machine which boosted Strange’s power. Val jumps to the conclusion that
Bruce has somehow been freed of his being Hulk but when he denies it, she casts
him aside (literally), leading him to note the change in her. Nighthawk enters,
claiming to be their Kyle returned from the dead. Strange ushers them into the
next room where Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner, and Daimon Hellstrom, Son of Satan,
are tending to a seriously injured Hyperion. Val jumps to the conclusion
this is the bad Hyperion from the Squadron Sinister but it is quickly explained
that they are on the homeworld of the Squadron Supreme. After a three-panel
recap of the Avengers’ meeting with the Squad, Hyperion passes out, leaving
Kyle to pop a recording made by Hyperion earlier into a machine….
Interlude:
A cloud floating in space over our Earth takes the form of Mindy Williams….
Interlude
2: August Masters is on the run from gunmen out to kill him….
Hyperion’s
story begins: after the adventure with the Avengers, a new President was
elected, Kyle Richmond and he was a popular choice. Then Over-Mind appeared on
Earth and Kyle welcomed him to America. Soon, President Richmond started
turning the United States into a totalitarian state, claiming a conspiracy of
foreign agents had infiltrated the country, rounding up “enemies of the state” and
quashing all dissent. The Squadron Supreme members gathered in their orbiting
HQ, Rocket Central and then Richmond and Over-Mind teleported in for a visit.
Richmond revealed that there was no foreign conspiracy, it was all a pretext
for Richmond allying with the Over-Mind and seizing power by mind-control. The
Squadron heroes took on the alien baddie, in twos and threes, and Over-Mind
defeated all of them easily, leaving only Hyperion standing. That hero prepared
for action but Kyle Richmond took out a piece of Argonite, the only substance
that can harm Hyperion. The weakened hero then dashed over to a teleporter and
beamed down to Earth to warn everyone but discovered that he had been branded a
foreign spy in the government-controlled media and the public had turned
against him. He sought his Tower of Isolation only to find it had been bombed
into rubble. He flew into space but encountered satellites flashing Argonite
rays. So he used the lead shielding of the HQ to seek a spot in New England where
he could dig an underground refuge and send an SOS to the Defenders’ world. He watched
his Squadron teammates be absorbed by Over-Mind and a plan of world conquest
begun. Nighthawk explains that a mystery force had brought him to this place
and then the same force brought Dr. Strange, Hulk, Hellstrom, and Namor. The
heroes agree to try to save the world but Hyperion has one more revelation: Over-Mind
is building a fleet of spaceships on the moon so he can conquer the universe….