Homeless
alcoholic Alvin Denton is sitting in the park when he is snatched up by
Valkyrie riding Aragorn and they vanish….
Doctor Strange and the Thing look into the Crystal of Agamotto in search of Valkyrie
but the device shows her in Cobbler’s Roost, Vermont, not Manhattan. Strange
explains to Ben how Val is a person without an identity, occupying the body of
a woman named Barbara. Strange sends Ben to Vermont to find her while he goes
in search of the old man from the subway (Alvin Denton)….
Ben
flies to Vermont but when he stops to ask directions at a gas station he is
attacked by the attendant who is revealed to be the Asgardian villain known as
the Executioner. Amora the Enchantress (usually not far from the Executioner)
blasts Ben with a hex and knocks him cold. She puts him with the captive
Denton, revealing that she was in disguise as Valkyrie to obtain the harmonica
last issue and kidnap Denton in this one. They must wait for destiny to work
itself out before they can use the harmonica to take over Asgard. She removes
her magic influence from the two men and they wake up in the middle of a wood.
Dr. Strange’s astral form finds them there and Strange wants them to return to New
York to face the Asgardian villains; instead, Ben, acting from intuition, takes
Denton to Cobbler’s Roost, Vermont. On the way, Alvin Denton recounts his sad
story: he was a successful lawyer until his wife died and his world fell apart;
his daughter helped him through it but then she and her husband Jack became
involved with a cult and disappeared. When they land, Denton spots his
daughter: Val, disguised as a mortal. She resumes her Valkyrie form, unsure who
this man is who claims he is her father. Enchantress and Executioner also show
up and Amora changes Val back into Barbara who was insane the last time she was
seen (DEFENDERS #3). Amora prepares to blow the harmonica but Denton snatches
it from her and plays it—and the world is destroyed. The combatants find
themselves floating in a storm of debris and fighting over the instrument.
Barbara becomes Valkyrie and she and Thing fight Amora and Skurge; the good
guys defeat the bad guys and Ben blows the harmonica and everything is set
right. But Alvin Denton is dead and Val despairs as he was the only person who
knew of her past….
Story
continues in THE DEFENDERS #20.