In
the parallel world Null the Living Darkness has emerged from the corpse of
President Kyle Richmond to terrify the Defenders and the Squadron Supreme. Null
fills us in on its backstory: Created from the collective unconscious of the
S’Raphh, it fought the Defenders, then Ghost Rider, then discovered Over-Mind
would make a good pawn for its scheme to destroy the world, rescued him from
the microverse where the Stranger had banished him, and came to this world and
controlled all the world’s leaders starting with Kyle Richmond. Nighthawk
denounces Null who reads in his mind…something odd. Mindy Williams leading the
collective of minds of the telepaths, warns the heroes not to let Null grow too
powerful. Hyperion takes a poke at Null which then emits waves of pure evil,
sweeping all the heroes away before it. The four magic wielders, Doctor Strange,
Scarlet Witch, Arcanna, and Mindy cast an elaborate spell to create a
shield, protecting them from Null. Silver Surfer flies against the monster with
the Power Cosmic and is blasted out of the sky, Doctor Spectrum catching him
with a giant hand. Mindy et al reveals that the assassination of President
Richmond forced Null out before it had reached its final stage and now it is
draining the last of Over-Mind’s powers to accelerate that change. As the magic
shield weakens, Mindy et al suggests they all form a psycho-spiritual union to
defeat Null but several heroes dismiss the notion, preferring to take matters
into their own hands. So Sub-Mariner, Hulk, Power Princess, Tom Thumb, Golden
Archer, and Nuke attack Null but Mindy et al, unwilling to see them all die,
absorbs them into the unity, and then the rest agree and the two heroic teams
are merged into the collective of psychics and they fight Null, their multiple
goodnesses against its unified evil. There is an apocalyptic battle and as the
good guy collective grows weaker and weaker, it launches itself at its dark foe
in a final impact which breaks the collective, separating the heroes. But Null
slowly fades away. Over-Mind, now animated by the psychic collective (Mindy et
al) explains that they could not defeat Null because he was able to draw on the
scattered bits of evil in each person’s heart. But they were able to reach into
the goodness that lay at the center of Null, creation of the S’Raphhs, and use
it against Null, who is now destroyed. But Nighthawk is led to something
nagging at his mind via the collective. He goes over to investigate August
Masters and the body of the assassinated President Richmond—and discovers the
corpse is a fake, some sort of artificial construct. Then Kyle realizes he is
not the Defenders’ Nighthawk but Nighthawk of the Squadron Supreme….
Defenders
who did not appear in the synopsis because it was mostly united action: Son of Satan,
Valkyrie, Gargoyle, Beast, and Vision.