Boom Boom Whoosh

We begin our tale in Doc's Sanctum Sanctorum where he and his lady friend Clea are watching our favorite jolly green giant play with dolls. One of them is a Dormammu doll so this is absolutely adorable. Suddenly Doc gets one of his feelings and mystically opens the door, much to Nighthawk's surprise.

Fortunately, Don's rendition of Doc and Clea has improved a bit since the splash page. His chin no longer looks like it'll knock down people several feet in front of him. Kyle moans on about how his own lady friend, Mindy, made him feel shallow and useless. Doc counters this with telling Kyle all the good he's done when something weird happens. J.M. saves Don from having to draw a panel.

At the bottom of the page it happens again.

Sadly, this little trick doesn't reoccur even though the reason for it doesn't get resolved until the very end of the story. Don must have been disappointed he didn't get to draw more blank panels. Certainly not like when John Byrne gave himself a vacation on Alpha Flight #6 by making half the book empty white pages. Anyway, Doc himself suddenly goes wrong.

Now, that's a cool image! Where has Doc gone? We'll ghost Doc has gone to visit Eternity. No willingly, mind you. He was summoned!

Wow! Eternity is being deferential to a speck! My how times have changed! Eternity goes on to explain that he decided to actually check out his creation by creating lots of little pseudo-eternities and sending them out to learn about things and stuff. Once he felt he learned whatever it was he sought, he issued the great recall. But like all recalls, not everyone came back. Three of the Eternity juniors decided to stay put. Oddly, they're all located on Earth. Well, that's convenient. Doc returns and tells the gang what's up and that they need to glue these little cosmic beings back onto the main body or everything goes kaput. Doc then sends for rest of the team members. Silver Surfer is depressed as usual and declines, but the rest happily join. Even ever-grumpy Namor.

I included a couple of extra panels because Son of Satan, with the ever-exposed-abs joins full-time as well. Doc explains where they need to go and that he and Clea won't be joining in since they belong to the Magician's United union and will work on keeping Eternity together instead. Doc sends the team on their ways.

First up is Son of Satan and Hellcat. This is their first meeting and it's going to lead to all sorts of fun and shenanigans in the many years to come. They land in a Hindu temple and are immediately attacked. Quick to anger Daimon fends them off somewhat brutally and then tries to get answers from on of the temple attendants. Hellcat tries a softer approach and gets the info they need.

As Daimon and Patsy head on, Daimon explains why he needs to constantly work out to make sure his ridiculous costume always looks good on him and also that it's his darksoul thing that makes him a constantly angry bitch. Suddenly the big fake purple monkey Hanuman appears and attacks them. They take him out and looking further in the distance they see another temple. This is really convenient.

In the meantime, Hulk and Bird-Nose have gone to the backward Russian village. Really, Doc? Backwards? Considering what your neighbors say behind your back all time, you think you'd be more tolerant! The super pair wind up in the middle of an attack by giant snowmen, which they handily dispatch..

The villagers gather and the pair find out that a young boy has disappeared recently. The parents beg our heroes to bring him back.

Well, Hulk manages to break out of his ice prison and does Bird-Nose a solid by getting him out as well. Lo and behold, they've landing by some sort of ice temple. Man, that's convenient!

Valkyrie and Namor wind up in Greece and are immediately attacked on arrival. Seems like a bit of a pattern here. Greek soldiers aren't much of a match for a goddess and a super powerful mutant. The soldiers are called off by woman who is juxtaposed against a cloud in such a way that it looks like she has powers.

The woman identifies herself as Mrs. Elizabeth Carvopolis who is married to the Marvel Universe's answer to Aristotle Onassis. These little Eternities certain chose an interesting variety of occupations. Mrs. Shipping Magnate wants Namor and Val to get her husband back. Namor has the same realization as Bird-Nose did, but is more blunt about the reality of the situation.

Once they get going again, the pair are attacked (shocking!) by an ersatz Glaucus (a male mermaid and minor sea god from Greek mythology and a Harpy. The pair go under the ocean and after a while resurface, seemingly victorious over their odd attackers. Fortunately there's land nearby with a cave that has mysterious chanting coming from it. Funny that.

Once inside things get all weird. Okay, weirder.

So there you have it. These three mini-eternities liked their individuality and decided to move out from home permanently. Son of Satan realizes that all the battles were to keep them from reaching these junior cosmic beings until it was too late. And it nearly is. Our heroes immediately attack them, except for Kyle who is still unconscious. They're taken out pretty easily and ghost Doc has arrived attempting to prod Nighthawk awake as a last resort. Kyle wakes up and realizes the fighting is useless. He does what he does best. He talks to them.

His appeal to their humanity and their love of their fellow human beings works. They finally return home. Existence is saved! Yay!

The heroes return to the Sanctum and Doc applauds Kyle's actions which saved the day with logic, passion and love instead of brutality. Showing us that this one-dimension playboy is really the heart and soul of the team.

This was very early into my experience with the Defenders. In fact, my only previous encounter was in the book that introduced me to Doc, Hulk #207. It was also my introduction to Son of Satan, Hellcat and Eternity. All their earlier appearances would have to wait until I managed to collect those back issues. Good thing Doc was on the cover or I might not have bought this. Mr. DeMatteis is also secretly beginning his "Six Fingered Hand" arc here which will take us to the wild, double sized conclusion in Defenders #100.

There are parts of this story that are a bit formulaic and repetitive, but I really like it. In addition to the novel plot and a bunch of wacky characters that were new to me, you've got some great action that isn't extended over many boring pages. And I learned who Glaucus was! It was very helpful when I read Circe by Madeline Miller. (It's a really good book and if you like reimagined Greek myths it's a must have.)