Story
continues from DEFENDERS #124.
The
Elf with a Gun (one of them anyway) returns as our narrator. The original
Defenders (Doctor Strange, Hulk, Sub-Mariner, Silver Surfer) stand before the
Tribunal, accused of actions that will lead to the destruction of Earth in the
24th century. They accuse the Tribunal of falsifying the evidence.
The Tribunal suggests Dr. Strange use the Eye of Agamotto to verify matters.
Strange uses the Eye and undergoes some mental suffering before informing his
colleagues that the Tribunal is everything they claim to be. Continuing the
account: After burying the dead aliens, the Defenders saw their ship
self-destruct. On the planet Mikkaz, Ch’Kri, the ruler of the Kamado, a race of
near immortal warriors, received word that his son Ch’Kra has been located
after 90 years, in Earth….
Beast,
Gargoyle , and Iceman return from their visit to Scarlet Witch and Vision, Isaac
pushing some cars out of the way to make a parking space for the Quinjet. The
drunken Hank enters the Defenders HQ only to encounter Moondragon, who he
remembers as a villain. He attacks her but she just steps aside and he hits the
wall. She uses a brain blast to disable Iceman, and Isaac zaps her when
Valkyrie rushes in to break up the fight. The commotion has also woken Dolly
Donahue, the housekeeper. Val explains that Moondragon is her guest: She had
used her mental powers to force peace on an alien race, so after her battle
with the Avengers, Moondragon was judged by Odin who noted that her motives
were pure even if her methods were not and so sentenced her to live on Earth
with Val, to learn how to balance humanity and godhood—but the headband she
wears to dampen her powers is painful. The guys don’t like this but as they
drag themselves to bed, there is another surprise: Warren Worthington, their
old pal the Angel, has also stopped by. The three former X-Men are delighted
but Dolly has something even more important to tell them: Patsy and Daimon are
getting married on Saturday, which excites more rejoicing even from Bobby and
Warren who have no idea who Patsy and Daimon are….
But
there is a baddie listening in at the window, the ferocious Mad-Dog, who races
back to contact his masters in the Secret Empire with news of the wedding in
Greentown, Ohio. The masters tell him he will need assistance and they will
dispatch operatives—though Mad-Dog insists on going alone, he is overruled by
the big shots….
Back
to the story of King Ch’Kri of the Kamado: he raised his son Ch’Kra to succeed
him but the son rejected the warlike proclivities of his race and his father,
instead becoming a preacher of peace, who attracted followers. The father tried
slaughtering those followers but Ch’Kra and his surviving disciples stole a
ship and fled to Earth where they all died, as seen last issue. When word of
his son’s death came to Ch;Kri, he chose a new heir and as prescribed by
ancient ritual, he set out to erase all mention of his son from history—which
included exterminating the entire population of Earth where he died; since the
Kamado live such long lives, this came four centuries after the time of the
Defenders. Hulk (with Bruce Banner’s brain) and Namor insist there must be
something that can be done to avert this future but Dr. Strange knows it isn’t
that simple: their collective karma insures that disaster will come—unless the
four original Defenders disband and never again join together. The Tribunal has
had its say, the rest is up to the Defenders. They are then transported back to
the Sanctum Sanctorum….
The
three former X-Men go on a thrill ride through town while Warren fills the
others in on his recent crazy encounter with Callisto and his recovery. They
return to HQ where Beast announces his intention to make the Defenders into a
real team, inviting the other to join him. Everyone will ponder this while they
fly in the Quinjet to Ohio for the wedding. Isaac is concerned that when he
called Dr. Strange to inform him about the wedding he couldn’t come to the
phone. And Beast doesn’t understand why Moondragon is coming along; MD reminds
them that she trained Patsy in the use of her mental powers—and then took them
away, as Val points out. They arrive, introductions are made, people are
unnerved at the sight of the visitors, then Patsy Walker makes her entrance in
wedding gown and she is stunning. Meanwhile, Mad-Dog is gnashing his teeth
outside, looking for the chance to take revenge against Patsy but his
teammates, the Mutant Force (Burner, Lifter, Slither, Shocker) call for some
restraint as they all have reason to hate Hellcat and Valkyrie. Mad-Dog grows
angry and threatens Shocker with a grim fate for crossing him….
In
the middle of the wedding ceremony, the villains crash through a wall; Mad-Dog
wants Patsy, dead or alive. The Defenders win into action, forcing the bad guys
outside. Mad-Dog attacks Patsy; Moondragon takes him on but the dampening of
her mental powers leaves her vulnerable and she is knocked out. The groom,
Daimon Hellstrom, tries but goes down even quicker. Then Patsy confronts her
attacker because she has recognized Mad-Dog as her ex-husband Buzz Baxter, who
still bears a grudge. Meanwhile, Lifter picks up Valkyrie and tosses her not
the distance; she returns with a tree and uses it like a baseball bat to knock
him out of the park. Shocker zap Iceman so Angel scoops up the baddie and drops
him from a great height and Iceman covers him with snow. Burner tries to fry
Gargoyle with his flames; Isaac responds with his bio-mystic bolts and blows up
the bad guy. As Patsy and Mad-Dog fight, he pours out sll of the bitterness in
his soul over their failed marriage. He overcomes her and prepares to rake her
fce with his claws when Moondragon is able to halt him with her low-level
mental projection, giving time for Daimon to punch the bad guy’s lights out….
The
he wedding resumes and is completed and Beast is very happy at having seen the
heroes working as a team so he repeats his invitation to join his team. And
they all agree, even Moondragon, taking seriously her sentence to remain with
Valkyrie. The cheer the formation of the new Defenders. And then the original
Defenders arrive; Dr. Strange officially passes the torch to them, giving them
a somewhat ambiguous bless and they depart….
The
narrator Elf starts to introduce the next issue when his colleague, sent by the
Tribunal, yanks him out of the comic and back to work….