The
Defenders join Nick Fury at SHIELD HQ to ensure that last issue’s villains,
Mad-Dog and the Mutant Force are securely locked up by the good guys. But when
Fury knows nothing of Harridan, Cloud, and Seraph (captured by the Defenders in
issue #123) he realizes the Secret Empire has infiltrated SHIELD and rescued
its agents. Beast and the others take their leave and head back to their base.
On the way, Beast feels that the optimism of their new commitment to the team
from Patsy’s wedding is beginning to cool off. Meanwhile, both Iceman and Angel
are attracted to Moondragon who holds them all in contempt. Bobby is distracted
by Warren’s moves on MD that he crashes and falls and must be rescued by
Valkyrie….
In
the Virginia Smokies, the leaders of the Secret Empire meet in their castle,
where Number One demands that Mad-Dog and the Mutant Force be rescued by
tomorrow night….
At
SHIELD HQ, an alarm goes off so Nick Fury leads the agents to the elevators but
the power is out. With flashlights, the personnel descend the stairs to Level L
where they keep the remains of a SHIELD science project gone fatally wrong.
They discover several agents lying on the floor; Fury looks around and reacts
in shock….
After
a chaotic dinner, the Defenders get down to business, Hank announcing plans to
draw up the team’s charter, discuss potential sites for a new headquarters, and
select the team leader. Valkyrie immediately proposes herself as leader, having
commanded the Valkryor. Hank nominates himself, which Val thinks is a joke
since he is the team’s jester, lacking skill, temperament, and experience to
lead. Bobby comes to his defense, angering Val by his tone and a fight
threatens to break out. Moondragon admires Val’s example of interacting with
humanity which she is intended to imitate. Angel is fed up and flies out the
window...
...where
he broods over his newly discovered sense of purpose and his hopes of making
something of his life in the Defenders. And then he notices that cars and
lampposts are being hurled through the air….
Meanwhile,
the rest of the team is pursuing him, hoping that if everyone apologizes,
things will go back to normal. But they see a fleet of police cars in action
and so follow to find a giant terrorizing the city, clutching Angel in one
hand. Footnotes explain that this is former SHIELD scientist Edward Cobert who
was head of Project Olympus, creating a new breed of superhero to destroy the
old but the result was Cobert volunteering to be the first test subject, becoming
a mindless giant called Leviathan who has recently been released from his
sedated imprisonment in SHIELD’s basement. The Defenders take on the giant
individually and are easily whupped. And then they realize they should be
acting as a team so Angel and Beast zoom around Leviathan’s head to make him
dizzy, Gargoyle and Iceman blast the baddie, followed by a mental attack by
Moondragon, weakening him so that Valkyrie delivers the final knockout punch.
As SHIELD agents shackle Leviathan with their own special devices, word comes
to Nick Fury that, while they were chasing Leviathan, Mad-Dog and the Mutant
Force escaped….
Excelsioring your collection