Synopsis / Summary / Plot
The Defenders arrive on Hawaii where the Wild One has turned the paradise into an inferno of madness. Namor (in Rick Jones’ body) attacks Shanzar (in Namor’s ebonized body) while the other heroes take on the demonized humans serving the Wild One. Annoyed at the interruption, the Wild One takes a hand in the battle, using his flaming hot rod to run down and apparently kill the heroes. Turns out, at the last moment, Dr. Strange transported them astrally to another dimension, along with the physical forms of Shanzar and Lucien Aster; there they plot with the betrayed villains how best to take down the Wild One.
The Defenders return to Hawaii and go to work rescuing the people from the enemy’s apocalyptic chaos, then turn to face the Wild One. The sneering villain takes down the heroes magically, one by one, but there’s a surprise afoot: Dr. Strange is actually Aster in disguise and his body contains a portal to absorb the Wild One into another universe—Shanzar’s strange matter dimension, where the arcane forces overwhelm and imprison him. Shanzar then turns on the heroes, protected by Strange’s magic, and a brief battle ensues—until Shanzar realizes that their fight could possibly cause the Wild One to be set free.
The Defenders return to Hawaii, where the geological upheavals are subsiding and the demonized humans returning to normal. Rick Jones’ mind and body are reunited (and Namor is unaccounted for) and Strange reveals that Aster’s effort to hide the dimensional portal cost him his life. The Pantheon takes on the task of rounding up the remaining copies of Aster’s book and the Defenders go their separate ways.