New Defenders, The (1983 series) #141

At the Defenders Mansion in the Rocky Mountains, Chris Larmouth, hired to service Warren Worthington’s planes, dreams of being bigger and stronger. He reads bodybuilding magazines, drinks special protein smoothies, and eats alfalfa sandwiches and then he suddenly bulks up in seconds, tearing through his shirt—and then tentacles sprout from his skin and out of his mouth….

In the Aerie, Beast and Iceman are bickering over what to watch on television when the security camera shows them what is happening to Chris. They sound the alarm and dash down to the hangar where Hank tells Bobby to freeze Chris while telling the newly-arrived Gargoyle to ready the science labs….

Down in the valley, the Shirer family hears their horses stampeding and goes out to investigate and sees them being ridden by green men with tentacles for limbs, stuck to the horses like ivy….

Beast and Iceman fly the isolation van containing Chris up to the lab and see green hands and other body parts sprouting from the ground. A giant hand seizes the van and Isaac blasts it. They enter the labs and Hank orders the others to stay out and put the mansion on lockdown and contact the other New Defenders to warn them….

Meanwhile, the others are on their way back from Abbottsford when they receive a garbled message from the Aerie but Moondragon makes mental contact with their colleagues in the Aerie, sizes up the situation, and assures them they are on their way as Angel puts on the speed in their plane….

At the Mansion, Bobby and Isaac note the eerie green fog surrounding the Aerie but Sassafras starts barking and they see ghostly rabbits outside the window—that are all appendages to one large tentacle. Isaac can bio-blast through the window, chasing the monster away but Bobby notes that they only made it madder at them. The two Defenders bond over shared danger and grow closer….

Meanwhile in the bio-lab, Beast is studying the monster’s make-up, learning it is a colony-type organism with independent individual cells. Problems with photography reveal there is radioactive material in each cell causing the mutations….

The plane is coming in for a landing when Moondragon orders Warren to pull up. He does and they narrowly miss being seized by the plant monster covering the runway. They land in nearby Elijah and the Sheriff meets them to tell them about the panic across the area. Moondragon sends out calming waves to the locals and then they head toward the Aerie. Angel flies toward the green fog but Moondragon warns him not to enter it. They watch as an owl flies into the fog and emerges with green spores growing all over it before it falls from the sky. So the Defenders wait in the hills for the dawn to dissipate the fog. But sunrise exposes the gigantic monster filling the valley and shocking the heroes….

At the Mansion, giant green fists are banging at the windows while Bobby asks Hank if there is any progress. Beast knows what the creatures are but he is drooping from exhaustion; Moondragon contacts him and asks permission to enter his mind. He gives it and she wipes all of the tiredness from his brain and he perks up to continue his research. As the Defenders in the valley watch with horror, the creature gathers itself together into one giant sluglike monster moving up the valley and onto the Mansion. Moondragon realizes it is like a myxomycete, like a slime mold, and it is seeking an anchor so it can send out spores which would doom the entire Earth. So she enters the creature and learns how its mind works; she calls on Gargoyle to join her so he opens the Aerie window and enters the creature while Iceman seals up the window after him. As they join their minds, the monster attacks them with acid so Moondragon calls on the others to attack the monster’s outside to draw its attention away from them. Moondragon and Gargoyle kiss to merge their powers, Isaac’s severed hand regrowing instantly. They concentrate and the giant slime monster rises into the sky where it dissolves. The Defenders make fun of their two kissing colleagues. Moondragon apologizes to Isaac for the non-consensual intimacy but he tells her he appreciated it….