Comic Browser: #1 - I Slay By The Stars! #2 - The Search For The Silver Surfer! #3 - Four Against The Gods #4 - The New Defender! #5 - World Without End? #6 - The Dreams Of Death #7 - War Beneath The Waves! #8 - ... If Atlantis Should Fall! #9 - Divide And Conquer #10 - Breakthrough: The Incredible Hulk vs. the Mighty Thor #11 - A Dark And Stormy Knight #12 - The Titan Strikes Back! #13 - For Sale: One Planet... Slightly Used! #14 - And Who Shall Inherit The Earth? #15 - Panic Beneath The Earth? #16 - Alpha The Ultimate Mutant! #17 - Power Play! #18 - Rampage! #19 - Doomball! #20 - The Woman She Was...! #21 - Enter: The Headmen! #22 - Fangs Of Fire And Blood! #23 - ... The Snakes Shall Inherit The Earth! #24 - In The Jaws Of The Serpent! #25 - The Serpent Sheds Its Skin! #26 - Savage Time! #27 - Three Worlds To Conquer! #28 - My Mother, The Badoon! #29 - Let My Planet Go! #30 - Gold Diggers Of Fear! #31 - Nighthawk's Brain! #32 - Musical Minds! #33 - Webbed Hands, Warm Heart! #34 - I Think We're All Bozos In This Book! #35 - Bring Back My Body To Me, To Me...! #36 - A Garden Of Earthly Demise! #37 - Evil In Bloom! #38 - Exile To Oblivion! #39 - Riot In Cellblock 12! #40 - Love, Anarchy And, Oh Yes... The Assassin! #41 - Intruder In The Sand! #42 - And In This Corner: The New Emissaries Of Evil! #43 - This World Is Mine! #44 - Rage Of The Rajah! #45 - We Must Free The Defenders! #46 - Who Remembers Scorpio? (Prelude) #47 - Night Moves! #48 - Who Remembers Scorpio? Part 1: Sinister Savior! #49 - Rampage: Who Remembers Scorpio? Part Two #50 - Scorpio Must Die! Who Remembers Scorpio? Part Three #51 - A Round With The Ringer! #52 - Defender Of The Realm #53 - The Power Principle, Part 1: The Prince And The Presence! #54 - A Study in Survival! The Power Principle Part Two #55 - Emotion, Ego... and Empty Expectations #56 - Val's New York Adventure #57 - And Along Came... Ms. Marvel! #58 - Xenogenesis Day of the Demons Part 1 Agents of Fortune #59 - Xenogenesis Day of the Demons Part 2 Tyranny and Mutation #60 - The Revenge of Vera Gemini! Xenogenesis Day of the Demons Part 3 #61 - Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Lunatik #62 - Membership Madness! Dollar Bill’s Documentary Disaster Part 1! #63 - Deadlier by the Dozen! #64 - D-Day! #65 - Of Ambitions and Giant Amoebas #66 - War of the Dead! Val in Valhalla Part One #67 - We, The Unliving... #68 - Valhalla Can Wait! Val in Valhalla Part Three #69 - The Anything Man #70 - Catch a Falling Lunatik! #71 - Stranger and Stranger in a Strange Land #72 - Up From The Sky #73 - Of Wizards, Shadows and Kings #74 - Fools Rush In #75 - Poetic Justice #76 - Little Triggers! #77 - Waiting For The End Of The World! #78 - The Return of the Original Defenders! #79 - Chains of Love! #80 - Once A Defender #81 - War in Ogeon #82 - Wizard-Death! #83 - End Of The Tunnel #84 - Battle Royal! #85 - Like a Proud Black Panther… #86 - The Left Hand of Silence! #87 - Inquest #88 - Lord of the Whales #89 - A Death in the Family! #90 - Mind Over Mandrill! #91 - Defiance #92 - Eternity... Humanity... Oblivion! #93 - The Woman Behind the Man! #94 - Beware... The Six-Fingered Hand! #95 - The Vampire Strikes Back! #96 - The Rock and Roll Conspiracy! #97 - Slouching Toward Bethlehem #98 - The Hand Closes! #99 - The Final Conflict? #100 - Hell on Earth! #101 - Renewal #102 - Mind Games #103 - The Haunting of Christianboro #104 - Yesterday Never Dies! #105 - ... Rising... #106 - The War to End All Wars #107 - On Death and Dying... #108 - The Wasteland! #109 - Vengeance! Cries the Valkyrie #110 - ... Hunger... #111 - Fathers and Daughters #112 - Strange Visitor From Another Planet! #113 - Moon Madness! #114 - Dance of Darkness, Dance of Light #115 - A Very Wrong Turn #116 - Two By Two #117 - The Gift #118 - The Double! #119 - Ashes, Ashes... We All Fall Down #120 - Sanctuary #121 - Savior #122 - Things To Come #123 - Of Elves And Androids #124 - Darkness On The Edge Of Time
Stephen Strange and Kyle Richmond arrive at the “Dune People” commune in the Nevada desert, summoned by the group leader to find Trish Starr. Kyle’s ex had come to the commune and impressed everyone with her ability to organize and solve problems. After a while she sank into depression, started studying mysticism and meditation then withdrew from everyone. Then something happened that left her acting like she was drugged, walking off into the desert and not returning; they found Kyle's number in her address book and sent for him. Strange and Kyle drive out into the desert where they literally crash into a mystic barrier. They suit up as Doctor Strange and Nighthawk and Strange has his astral form penetrate the barrier where he discovers Trish in a catatonic state. The magician fights off some guardian demons and brings Trish back through. She seems okay but when Strange looks into her mind he sees the face of his old enemy Shazanna who has tricked him into opening a gateway for her and her soldiers to come through to our world to conquer it. The heroes are captured and imprisoned in a magic cube made from their own life energies so to try to escape would be literal suicide. But Strange reaches through Trish’s mind to enter Shazanna’s and broadcast a message to Clea back in New York….
As Shazanna is about to have Trish executed, Hulk, Valkyrie, Red Guardian, and Clea come to the rescue, freeing Strange and Nighthawk from their prison, and defeating Shazanna and her army. Strange forces them back to their own dimension, erecting a barrier to prevent their return.
Review: Woo! Throwback time! A nice evocation of Dr. Strange as he appeared in the mid-1960s with art that occasionally recalls that of Steve Ditko. The story is just as simple as one would have found back in the olden days as well: bad guy breaks through into our world, Dr. Strange finds a way to overcome them and send them back. Sadly, the whole thing lacks Ditko’s sparkle and the other dimension just looks like outer space. And I have no idea why Kyle is acting like such a jerk here, constantly rude to the commune leader as though he resents Trish talking to anyone but him. And Kyle “gets" the girl in the end though this is the last time in the comics we see them together so it looks like she’s smart enough to push his clingy manners away like she did the last time. I’m sure he gets over her eventually.
Comments: Shazan(n)a’s only previous appearance was in STRANGE TALES #133; her name was spelled with one N there and with two Ns in the present issue. Trish Starr, last seen in GIANT-SIZE AVENGERS #4 returns in INCREDIBLE HULK #233 and following. Gaspar Saladino did the lettering for page 1.
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