#droom

The splash page lets us know that the Guardians and the Defenders have been spotted immediately after popping into existence in the future. The Badoon flunky lets his superior know and this tells us the ranking office is named Droom.

This is an interesting choice and I'll go off on a tangent as I contemplate if it's coincidence or tribute. Dr. Droom was a sort of forerunner to Doc with five stories published in the Amazing Adventures anthology book back in 1961. About a year after this issue was published, the character would be retconned into Dr. Druid. Droom's first story would be reprinted in Weird Wonder Tales #19 with some dialog and art edits mainly removing the racism of the original tale.

Back to the tale! The viewscreen also shows us that Doc has apparently repaired the screwed up engine on the Guardians ship. That was handy. Thanks Doc!

Droom orders his flunky not to destroy the ship. He want's it intact. Droom also has sinister plans for when the occupants of the Guardian's ship teleport.

Teleport is what the Defenders and Guardians are about to do. Specifically Valkyrie, Hulk, Astro and Yondu plan to "beam down" to future New York City. Hulk is dubious, but the muscled Charlie-27 manages to talk him into it. Now we see what Droom's sinister plan is! He deflects the teleport beams into space landing our heroes gosh knows where. Jack Norris pops out of the woodwork immediately accusing the Guardian Martinex of murder. As nobody knew he was aboard, this is a surprise to everyone.

Switching to the surface of another planet, we find that Valkyrie and Astro have not been deep frozen in deep space. They are on the surface of an unknow planet in what looks like a pool of blood.

Before they can figure out what's going on, they're attacked by green lizard people. Vance doesn't last too long, but Val manages to hold out a bit longer. She seems to be doing well at first, but starts feeling queasy. (It's not mentioned here, but these are the Badoon ladies and Val has an enchantment on here that makes it rather difficult to fight females.) Astro uses his telekinesis to fight the scaly ones off. Val is in bad shape, but a glowing man bids them to follow him.

Back on the spaceship, Martinex tries to figure out what went wrong but only discovers that the instruments are working fine. Mr. Norris is still having a fit. I guess you can't blame him. He just saw what might be his "wife" getting atomized. Doc's like "this won't do" and casts a spell to immobilize him until he thinks he can act more sensibly.

I think we have an example of Doc doing this too long and losing the normal human perspective. Personally, I don't think Mr. Norris reaction is unreasonable. Doc apologizing for him as if he's an unruly child is uncalled for.

Now we check up on Hulk and Yondu. They are also not dead, but seems to have landed on a planet of space beatniks in the middle of a party to make Woodstock look tame.

The revelers talk what sounds like nonsense to the heroes. They then hear a woman scream and Hulk is glad to have an excuse to punch things.

Yondu uses his Yaka Arrow (later referred to as a weird shaft and I'll skip the Peyronie's joke) to take out the assaulters. The victim is less than pleased at her rescue, but before the pair can ponder this, they are attacked by robots. They don't provide much of a workout for Hulk.

However, the giant mama robot shows up, has a fit about them killing her babies and hypnotizes the pair. Seems like this would have been a better course of action to start with. Hulk and Yondu are walked off somewhere and we return to the Guardians ship.

Doc has been wired into the ship's computer and is using the enhanced capacity to search for the missing teammates. Apparently this has made him super-efficient. Oh, and one with the universe.

Doc's new capacities manage to burn out the Badoon's instruments and Droom frets that the humans may have found a resource that lets them topple the empire.

Back on the planet of the pools of blood like substance and scaly ladies, the glowing man has healed Val and coalesced into a more humanoid form. This is our first view of the yet-to-be-named Starhawk, who is very cagey about telling about himself. (Oof, that's awkward!) Before we look in on Hulk and Yondu, Starhawk proclaims the heroes in his debt.

The mesmerized pair of Hulk and Yondu are marched into what looks like a throne room where a rather robust looking king figure sits in a set of dollar store robes. At least they're purple which is the color of royalty. We are also told in a caption that the writer is tired of writing the nonsense language and all will be presented in modern English from now on.

We learn the King's name is Goozot, which was said by one of the high-as-a-kite revelers when the pair first arrived and that the mama robot is named Zinnia. How darling. Goozot believes that Hulk and Yondu are gifts from the Badoon. The pair are led off, but Goozot isn't all that pleased with Hulks signature purple pants and asks for "more suitable clothing for the emerald one. He also slips that the Badoon are their allies. Uh oh!

Finally, back on the ship, Doc is still searching when an alarm goes off. The Badoon have invaded!

Unlike last issue, where we got to see Doc being all nice with Vance Astro's younger self making sure he gets home safe and doesn't remember paradox generating history lesson, Doc returns to being more of a plot device. He's arrogant, but in a more subtle way. It's on full display with his treatment of Jack Norris. A normal dude who thinks his wife has gone crazy and may have witnessed her being blown into little tiny atoms, may not act all that rationally. Doc chooses to freeze him and chide him to calm down. Maybe some talking with would help!

Besides Doc's issues, there are some interesting things going on here. I would really like to know if Droom is a coincidence or an homage, but Mr. Gerber is long deceased and we'll probably never know. Val falling ill during that battle is a nice, subtle way of letting us know these are the Badoon women even if she isn't cognizant of it yet. It's good when writers remember continuity!

Zinnia resembles an early form of Ultron.

Doc's one with the universe bit after getting tied into the ship's computer reminds me of Reginald Barclay in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Nth Degree." In that episode Lt. Barclay is tied into the Enterprise computer and becomes super intelligent. I wonder if writer Joe Memosky read this issue of the Defenders first.